From Jack-o'-Lantern Spells to Silent Suppers: A Cozy Guide to Samhain and Halloween Blends

Candles in the window, laughter on the sidewalk, and a pumpkin that doubles as a spell—this Halloween week carries a strange, hopeful spark. We lean into that feeling and treat Samhain as both a doorway and a homecoming: a time to honor ancestors, tell the truth about what we’re releasing, and invite the Page of Wands’ fresh energy without making our practice heavy or performative.

You’ll hear how to blend playful Halloween traditions with meaningful Samhain rituals—carving runes and sigils into jack-o’-lanterns, setting lights to guide beloved dead, and creating a Silent Supper that fits your life whether you choose mindful quiet or heartfelt conversation. We talk about grief as sacred work, the beauty of small, repeatable rituals, and why the simplest acts—lighting a single candle, writing one page of release, cooking a favorite dish in someone’s memory—often open the deepest connection. Along the way, we unpack the Page of Wands as a sign of study, optimism, and creative beginnings, and explore the many “new years” on the wheel, from Samhain to the calendar turn to the spring’s astrological reset.

If you’re craving witchcraft that’s warm, accessible, and real, this conversation offers gentle structure and plenty of choose-your-own-adventure ideas: window lights, cinnamon broom besoms, ancestor candles, and a handful of journal prompts to meet the thin veils with courage and care. Join us, make it yours, and step into the season with a clear heart and a bright spark. If this resonated, subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review to help our cozy circle grow.

20% off Our Coven annual and semi-annual membership with code SAMHAIN

Chapters

• 0:00 Halloween Joys & Cozy Traditions
• 2:31 Comfort Movies Over Scares
• 3:31 Samhain Timing & Intent
• 3:46 Tarot Pull: Page of Wands
• 4:56 Blending Halloween with Samhain
• 6:16 Welcoming Ancestors with Light
• 7:16 Besom Crafting & Cinnamon Brooms
• 7:46 The Silent Supper Tradition
• 9:36 Embracing Death, Cycles, Release
• 11:26 Keep Rituals Simple and Yours
• 13:31 Many New Years, Many Fresh Starts
• 15:31 Journaling Prompts: Shadow & Ancestors

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:12

Hey witches. Welcome to another Cozy Cup and Chats. I'm your host, Jenny C. Bell, and this is for the week of Halloween in Zowen, right? So we are looking at the week of October 25th. Um, I always get really kind of giddy and excited as we get closer to Halloween. Our town does like a giant Halloween parade that everybody just attends, and I have had the joy of a couple years trick-or-treating for crystals. There is a man in the town over where my kids would trick-or-treat with their friends who owns a rock gem place, and he just puts out crystals, and everyone can take one or two. I have my favorite labrador piece from him. Just a lovely, lovely man. Um, and I wish I remember what house he had, because I wish I could just bring my book and be like, hey, just want to give this to you. Because I just think, gosh, what a generous, kind spirit. And may I just have a plethora of crystals to give out one day. We used to live in the place to go. Um, we're in our old uh in the Mojave Desert, we lived in this place, Spring Valley Lake, and it was an HOA sidewalks and very planned out, and it was like the Halloween destination, and I loved it. Like I loved one year we had like 200 trigger treaters, and I loved getting creatives. Like one year I gave out Play-Doh, another year I gave out glow bracelets, plus candy, and I would do like completely decorated up. Um, my sister attended beauty school, and when they would shave the heads of their mannequins, they often would just throw them away because there's nothing they can do with them. And so I collected them and I had them, I had like these hidden stakes in a bush, and I painted the mannequin heads. I had like a bloody clown and a zombie and a mummy. But the thing that always got the teenagers were these little giggle buddies that one of my students' moms gave me, and they were just like these like look like little toddlers in costume, and they would like as you came close, like giggle and move around, and teenagers would actually run away. Like I had some not come to the door. So um, love Halloween, always have love a good Halloween movie. Been watching like all the my favorites. It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Always watch that one every year. I've been enjoying Casper, always watch Hocus Pocus one and two, watch Halloween Town, um, yeah, like all the cutesy ones. I'm not talking scary ones. Like, I watch those too, but I'm talking about the comfort movies, Practical Magic, already watched that one, like just love. Love this time of year. And I think that as witches, it's like the one time of year we can really like let our witchy faces show, let our hair down, let our pointy hats come out, and people are like just thinking we're seasonal. So take advantage of that for sure. Um, so yeah, this week the energy we are and going into Sawin, um, which is officially some people like go back and forth. So some people will say it's Friday, this Friday, which be October 31st. Some people will say it is November 1st. Um I personally celebrate at November 1st. And I always have because I like to celebrate Halloween and like do the fun Halloween stuff, and then I like to do Salwin as a spiritual day. So we're gonna talk about how to blend those things today. But first, let's pull our card. We have Page of Wands. Interesting because last week we had Three of Wands. I've been keeping notes. Um and so Three of Wands was like about standing in your power and you know, climbing to the mountain, getting to the mountain. Page of Wands is more fresh energy, which I really actually kind of love for Sawin. So it's new ideas, it's new studies, it's taking classes, it's the optimism of youth, of all is possible. You know, the wands are associated with like career and passion and hobbies. And so I love it. I feel like it's inviting us to do something new. And as I shared, I will be um celebrating sowin, partly by learning crochet in the morning. Uh so yeah, it seems like perfect for that. But yeah, it's it's fresh start energy. And what's sowen? But the new year, right for witches. So how perfect is that? And so, yeah, let's talk about how to celebrate Sawin. So I'm not reading from a book, I'm gonna share just my own ideas this time. So, first, I want to say that probably one of the easiest things to do is to blend Halloween and Sowen together, especially if you have children, because they're gonna want to do all the Halloween things, and so you can make all of those things witchy. The jack-o' lantern can become a spell, right? You put intention on the candles that you put in those jack-o' lanterns, spell candles, and you can use the jack-o'-lantern. A lot of times it can be great for representing abundance is depending on what you carve. You can carve runes in there and sigils or sigils, however you prefer to say it. You can carve symbols of whatever magic you're doing, and so you can be there carving your jack-o'-lantern with your kids, but yours is a spell, which is really fun. Um, another tradition that I like is I get the I bought a while ago, like on a Christmas clearance, the LED candles and the battery ones, and I like to leave those in the window all night on Sawin to welcome all the souls back. And so I usually do it on Halloween and November 1st all the way to November 2nd, because we also have like Day of the Dead. And so I just like to take those three days or four days, depending on how you want to do it, and have a light that guides the souls and the ancestors and the spirits. I really love that. So it's another thing that's super easy ritual to do involving kids around, right? If you are buying the cinnamon brooms everyone's been buying, you can make that your besum by just adding some intention and decorating them. We decorate them every year. I have like a whole thing about how we decorate them in our coven, but you can make them a little more witchy with herbs and symbols and things. Another thing I talked about with Granddaughter Crow on her show was the Silent Supper, the Silent Feast. And this is a very old tradition. And basically, it is the tradition of making a food, a feast, and setting extra place settings and inviting loved ones who have passed, but you can also invite ascended masters, you can invite ancestors you don't know, you can invite deities, you invite whoever to your feast, and you invite them, you set the plate for them, and you feed their spirit. And traditionally, people are quiet because they're paying homage to the spirits, but also listening because you know it's kind of like a meditative, mindful eating practice, and you're listening and letting yourself really become absorbed in feeling, and it's you can a lot of people will have the sensation of people with them, they'll get a sense of a grandmother or a loved one pass and just know that they're with them. And so it's a really lovely practice. And alternative to alternatively, it doesn't have to be silent. Like if you want to invite someone who passed away and you want to talk to that person, you can do that too. And it doesn't have to be a supper, it can be a snack if you want to do it alone and you don't want to like you eat dinner with your family or whatever, it could be a breakfast, you know, whatever. And we're doing it in our coven as just kind of virtual. We I put a place for people to share about loved ones who have passed away that they'll be honoring this Sowin season. So that's another thing. Uh basically, Salwin is embracing death, and that sounds maybe scary for some, but if you're listening to this podcast, it probably isn't scary to you. Witches embrace death, we're liminal, we go through the veil, we embrace it all, right? We live by the seasons and the earth and the moon, and all of those things are cycles, and so we know that in every death is a life, and every destruction is a creation. And so at this time, Sawin, one of the most simple things you can do is because it's a new year, on Halloween night, you could write some things you want to let go of for the year, and then on November 1st, you can write some things that you want to bring in for the year, like such a simple journal activity. So, you know, it doesn't have to be, I think, you know, I talked about this uh with Granddaughter Crow too, but people really like overcomplicate things for themselves, and then their witchcraft practice becomes so big, it becomes too hard to maintain. And so part of you know, the point of this podcast is living a simple life. And so our rituals are not having to be showy, they are for you and you're alone, you alone. So your ritual does not have to go on Instagram, it does not have to be worthy of Instagram, it is completely for you and your practice. And so if that means that it's journaling, it's a candle lighting, it's a meal, it doesn't have to be all the things. And you know, if you're on this path, like this is let's see, I've been celebrating my first Salin, I think I was 13. So this would be my 30th Salin. And I've done different things, you know, like from talking, trying to talk to dead people to having no energy because I talked about being sick, which meant that I just lit a candle and was like, here we are, um, to, you know, really just focusing on trick-or-treating and just going out to the moon and saying a little prayer. It's doesn't have to be complicated. It doesn't have to be big, it doesn't have to be showy. You know, your practice is your own. And the simpler it is, the more likely you are to stay on the path. And the more likely you are to enjoy it and get things out of it and evolve and find meaning from it. You know, when we do these big elaborate things that we think we have to do, it feels phony sometimes, you know. Like it can feel like, ah, you know, I don't feel like this is me. So I personally have a little sowing candle I got from Sea Witch Botanicals that I will be using in just a simple ritual. Really simple. Just going to keep it very simple. I love the idea of just releasing what doesn't serve me from this year and welcoming in fresh energy, especially now that I see we got the page of wands. It's like, okay, we do, this is a good time to welcome in the fresh energy. With us as witches, we have lots of opportunities of new year, right? So we have Salwin as a new year, we have the actual Gregorian January 1st New Year, and then we have the astrological energetic new year, which is the spring equinox. And I also celebrate Lunar New Year, even though we're not Asian. Um, during the pandemic, I just was looking for things to do, and we were we started borrowing and trying out traditions and holidays. Um, and so I got books from the library about lunar new year, and then we learned about making noodles for longevity, and so my kids are like, are we celebrating? They look forward to like the the feast every lunar new year. So, you know, it's just simple stuff. Simple. Keep it simple. Um, some journal questions to talk about. Gave a lot of good ones on the last episode. So if you didn't listen to that one, go back. Um, I read from a book that I really love, and I would love for you to go back and read that or listen to that. So, what fears are rising, so you can definitely take Sawin time, this energy of this week, to take a real deep dive into shadow work. So, what fears are rising, what shadows are rising, what anxieties are on loop in your head, what worries are you feeling, like really letting yourself feel what's rising. And then alternatively, you can also start to look at this week because it's a very the veils are very thin. We're really looking at connecting with our ancestors. So you can also start going, you know, I gave a little thing last time about creating an ancestor candle. So, what ancestors are coming in? What would I like my ancestors to know? How do I honor my ancestors? And you know, something I think about a lot of times is you doing the spiritual work and healing is honoring your bloodline. Like it's that simple. Um, what magic wants to be made? So that's another thing to think about. You know, Xiaoin is very powerful, very powerful magic. What do you want to do? Do you want to do like a spell that you've been holding on to or ritual that you've been holding on to, waiting for the right time? This could be the right time. Um, and then we also can think about at this time letting go and death and release. And so what are you mourning? Or who are you mourning? Right? I talked about the Silent Supper, you know, you can honor people who have passed away, but you can also honor parts of yourself that have passed away at this time, you know, like crossing a threshold. I recently I liked, um, I saw, you know, we have the maiden mother crone archetype, which I don't really like drive with, but then there's also the maiden mother wise woman crone archetypes that I definitely connect with. And so the wise woman is in her 40s, paramenopausal, like myself. She's not quite post-menopausal like the crone or the elder, but she's in between. So that's an archetype I definitely connect with. And so it's not like, you know, I'm I definitely not mourning being fertile anymore, but I'm mourning being a young woman. Like that part is behind me, and I've crossed this threshold into an older woman. And that's something we can talk about. That's something you can mourn. You know, it's very hard to age in our society as a woman. We all know. And so that could be something that's been on your mind. It could be a job change that you don't love. It could be, you know, we can this is the time of year to literally let yourself grieve. I think a lot of us just having to live our life, stuff some things down and don't deal with them. So Sawin is a great time to lay it all out and let it all out. And so this is another simple ritual. So giving you, I think, a lot of options. Please don't do them all. It's the opposite of what we're doing on the show, right? But pick something that feels right for you. There's so many aspects. These holidays are multifaceted, and there's so many different directions you can go in depending on what kind of witch you are. You know, are you an herbal witch or a kitchen witch and whatever? And so it's really choose your own adventure, make it your own. I think that's the gift of this practice, of this craft. Um, I do want to say that I have a deal going on in our coven. If you use the code promo code SOWIN, S-A-M-H-A-I-N, you will get 20% off the annual and semi-annual membership. So it's the cheapest it's been all year because we really want people in there. And SAWEN's such a great time to enter something new. It's a new beginning, it's a fresh start, and so love to have more people join us and go into this like new year with us, and we'll start to look at picking books for reading and you know, always put out a survey at the end of the year, kind of getting input. And so if you've been thinking about joining us, 20% off with the code SAWIN, and you can find all about that at jencybell.com. And feel free to ask me questions about it too. But our coven is a beautiful place, people in there are wonderful. I feel like the right people have entered, and it's a really good energy, and it's a real good connection. So consider joining us. And on that note, I think you hope you have a wonderful Salwin and Halloween, Day of the Dead, whatever you celebrate. And I hope that there is new energy coming in for you. I hope this page of wands is really in all of our lives, and we feel a little freshness in the fall. And it's funny because that's been coming up a lot in readings for myself, others, our coven, of just this kind of spring energy in this fall. So I I don't know exactly what that's about, but I love it. And so may we all have a little fresh energy on this one. Bless it be.