Almanac Entry: All Hallows
Hallowing As Survival Strategy
The Almanac Entries Series follow the turning of the wheel of the year. For more information on the wheel of the year, I invite you to check out this link and this link (writing at these links not my own). These almanac entries are intended to be energetic snapshots and they begin as notes-to-self I capture at a particular moment in the year. If you’d like to get on my seasonal art commission list for NEXT YEAR 2026, the link is here. Scroll down to the bottom if you’re here for studio updates!
Happy All Hallows’ Day, Samhain, and Festa Dei Morti! Happy Remembering Death season. How are you, as the leaves fall? How are you, as the geese fly south? I hope and pray that you are well.
As you may know, the etymology of our word “Halloween” evolved over time and many tongues from “All Hallow’s Eve.” All Hallows (now known as All Saints Day) is the day in the liturgical calendar when all the fallen saints and martyrs are celebrated and given offerings.
“To Hallow” means to bless, consecrate, or make holy by means of prayers or ritual religious rights. The word is archaic now, but still lingers in our lexicon in phrases like “hallowed ground” and “hallowed be thy name”. It’s an important word to me because it reminds me of the sacred importance of mindful actions:
If I recite a mantra while I wash the dishes, I am hallowing the water and suds I work.
If I place a garlic bulb in a freshly dug hole and say a little prayer for it’s safe overwintering, I am hallowing that ground.
If I lay out offerings to my Beloved Dead, I am hallowing our relationship and their memory.
“Hallowing” as a concept and a practice is more important than ever to me now, in this time of mass panic, death, and sharpened weaponry. It helps me personally fight against the specters of grief, delusion and scarcity because it anchors me into the present moment and my own capacity to act, however small or tangentially to the forces at hand.
I may not be able to stop my student from being deported. But I can hallow her name in my daily remembrances. I may not be able to bring the lost birds and insects back, but I can draw pictures of them in my notebooks, and hallow them there. I maynot be able to stop the mine from being built, but I can hallow the ground when I share it’s story. I feel powerless only when I forget that with every breath, I can choose to hallow it with care, attention, and the strength of my own free will.
Our world needs as many small moments of hallowing as we can muster.
This season, as the dark deepens in the Northern Hemisphere of our world, I invite you to practice a little parallel hallowing with me. Maybe you stir your blessing into your morning hot drink. Maybe you leave out some coffee for your deceased grandpa. Maybe you play your favorite sad song on your commute, and let the tears fall as you live in that song for its duration. Ritual is just mindful attention, looking directly at the hands of time and stating with your focus that what you do now matters. Ritual is rooting yourself into the present moment and being there, really being there, as it happens. It’s as simple and as hard as remembering that you are here, living, right now, and that’s one hellava thing! Your attention is immensely powerful.
Some hallowing rituals I am practicing this season:
Stirring my morning coffee very slowly, clockwise
Eating and sharing apples and apple cider, to strengthen the vitality of community bonds
Carving pumpkins into fantastical shapes, to light the way as lanterns on the cold nights ahead
Teaching my students how to assemble and decorate paper skeletons, so that they know just a bit about their own bones
Dressing up in costume, to bewilder and bemuse the forces that seek to surveil.
Lighting a fire with the dried ghosts of all the flower bouquet’s I’ve made and been gifted this year, to remember and perpetuate beauty and connection as the days grow dark and cold.
May all of our little moments of recognition, attention, and intention braid together to form a more perfect union and a more brilliant future for ourselves and future generations.
An illustration for the season ahead, from my personal archive
Studio Updates this Season:
This is the season of rest and renewal at my studio, this year very literally, as I am in the midst of repairing and repainting my physical studio space. I’ll share “after” photos when I can! If you’d like to be among the first to here about new studio happenings and offerings, please subscribe to this newsletter. Thank you to those of you who already subscribe!! It’s a gift and a wonder to share with you here.
If you’d like to get on the early-bird art commissions list for delivery next year, 2026, please follow the link here. All prices sliding scale. Thank you SO much to folks who have commissioned works from me this year. It was an honor to make art with and for you!
References-all resource links embedded in text of article.
https://www.kissfromitaly.com/en/blog/the-festival-of-dead-festa-dei-morti
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Saints_Day
https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hallow