This time of year, according to the often-shared lore of the Pagans and magical traditions, the veil between the worlds grows thin. On the night of Samhain, also called Halloween, this veil is said to be at its thinnest point all year.
I’m not a religious character, meaning I don’t care for dogma or blindly accept mystical traditions as the truth. I have, through personal experience, study, and experimentation, found it easy to believe this idea of the thinning veil.
What is the Veil Between the Worlds?
This term makes a twofold reference.
First, and less commonly acknowledged, the veil refers to the general idea of boundaries between the multiple planes of the magical universe. For example the threshold where the physical and etheric planes meet, or the Black Gate to the lower astral represented by the 32nd Path on the Tree of Life. Such boundaries are often conceptualized as walls, mountains, rivers, and energetic liminal zones, depending on the cultural, spiritual, or magical context.
Second, and honestly just a different way of handling the same idea, the Veil is the metaphor for our limitations of consciousness and perception, which are the practical boundaries that separate us, as physical human beings in the material world beholden to mundane consciousness or beta brainwaves.
Dialing into the Metaphorical-Practical Boundary
The River Styx cannot be survived by mortals the few exceptions being epic heroes like Hercules and Orpheus but must be crossed by the dead to enter the underworld. Boundaries of this nature, or simple axioms like “no man may see the father’s face and live” represent the veil between life and death.
The practical boundary here is our inability to perceive the departed in their world, while it is (generally) believed they can (at least sometimes) see into our world from their vantage point. A shift or alteration of consciousness constitutes the penetrating of the veil, and such is the work of mediums and necromancers.
Understanding the practical limitation gave rise to the metaphor or myth of the veil, you have the potential to understand the passing of the veil. Note the veil applies not only to the living-dead dichotomy, but also to the mundane-magical duality, or the perception of gross energy vs the channeling of subtle energy.
Applying this Understanding to Samhain, the Dark Moon, or other Liminal Work
In the twilight hours or astrological times associated with crossing the veil, like Halloween, you don’t need an elaborate ceremony or religious procedure. If indeed these times represent periods of access to the other side, you need only to be observant and mindful.
Set aside time to meditate and relax, and then get to the work of playing with the energy of the period when the veil is thin, the gate available, or however the access is defined by the relevant lore. This is a time to call out to dear ones who have gone beyond, to practice astral vision or projection, or cast a circle and sit within it taking notes.
I guess what I really want to say is don’t waste these opportunities simply because you have no ritual planned or aren’t attending a festival. A good work ethic and a journal are better than half an hour of shouting through incense smoke anyway, in my opinion.
Make the effort to EXPERIENCE the thinning veil, then make the effort to recall how this felt. This is what you will take with you for future operations and explorations and the foundation you will build upon for ongoing penetration of the veil.
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