The month of October is half gone and we are fast approaching Halloween, my absolute favorite holiday.  Fall is the season were the Earth give us the abundance of her gifts before sleeping during the long winter months.  It is only fitting therefore that spiritual traditions that pay attention to the Earth’s cycle would see the end of fall as the end of one year and the start of another.  In Wicca and many Pagan traditions, Halloween is seen as the New Year and as a night to honor the dead.  This is also the case in Haitian Vodou where the period between October 30^th and November 2 is known as Fete Ghede and is a time to remember and honor the dead and also is considered the start of a New Year.  As a practitioner of New Orleans Voodoo, I consider November 1^st to be the start of a spiritual new year and I observe the proper rituals to ensure the cleansing away of any negativity from the previous year and the inviting in of good luck and prosperity for the year to come.  In recent years, I have been giving a lot of thought to making New Year’s resolutions on Halloween instead of on the calendar New Year, January 1^st, and I can say from my own experience that the resolutions made on Halloween are easier to keep and manifest better than those I’ve made at the end of December which I’m certain is because of the intense magic that abounds on that night.  Today, I would like to discuss the topic of Halloween resolutions as well as a share a magical ritual that can greatly increase your probability of keeping them.

The main difference between resolutions made on January 1^st and those made at Halloween is that the ones made during Halloween tend to be kept and actually manifest during the coming year whereas all the ones I’ve made for the calendar New Year are broken no later than the 3^rd of January!  I attribute this to the fact that for me Halloween and Fete Ghede are the spiritual New Year and the energy on that night is so incredible that our goals and resolutions are charged with so much magic that it gives us a tremendous edge when it comes to doing the practical work to fulfill them.  Last year at my annual Halloween gathering, my group of friends and I wrote our goals for the coming year out on paper and then placed them in an envelope only to be opened on the 30^th of October of this year, the night before Halloween.  I don’t remember exactly what I wrote, but the parts that I do remember have been pretty much fulfilled and I am looking forward to making new goals for the coming year at this year’s Halloween gathering.  I have designed the following ritual to help spiritually charge our Halloween goals and I definitely recommend giving it a try this October 31^st.  If you prefer to make resolutions on January 1^st, this ritual could be used as well on that date, but I seriously recommend making them on Halloween since the energy that night is so superb and the veil between the worlds is so thin that it just makes sense to take advantage all the magic that abounds.

For those interested in making Halloween resolutions, I would recommend taking a few minutes to meditate on what you would like to accomplish in the coming year.  This can be done individually or in a group and it can even be done the night before Halloween on October 30^th which is when the spiritual veil starts to lift in the event that you have some fun plans for Halloween.  Write down your goals for the coming year and place them inside a sealed envelope marked with the date October 30^th of the following year.  Then light an orange or white candle over it and say, “May the powerful energies and benevolent spirits afoot on this night bring me success and help me achieve my goals.  So be it!”  Allow the candle to burn out and then tuck the envelope away in a discrete location until the day before Halloween of the follow year.  When you open it, you will be surprised by how much you have accomplished!

I hope you have enjoyed this post and that you are enjoying this most amazing of seasons.  If you decide to give the Halloween resolution ritual a try, please share your experience with me.  As always I thank you for taking the time to visit my blog and I wish you peace, happiness and abundant blessings!