Allhallowtide: reclaim sacred feminine wisdom
Make magnolia oil in reverence and celebration.
Allhallowtide is that whispered moment between seasons—when we’re invited to pause, honor the spirits and ancestors who shaped us, and open our hearts to the unseen. More than a commemoration of the dead, this season celebrates the life that blossoms in death’s shadow, holding space for mystery, reverence, and remembrance. I discover and rebelliously reclaim threads of feminine earth-based wisdom when celebrating Allhallowtide. Here’s your invitation to explore the shadows and learn how to make marigold oil—to celebrate your connection to what’s beyond the veil.
What I love about this time of year
You know those shirts that say something about fall being sweet because of pumpkin lattes and caramel apples—they always seemed like such a sterile interpretation of this time of year to me. While I really don’t like scary movies (they haunt me forever) or giant grim reapers popping out of people’s bushes (true story in my neighborhood), I absolutely adore so much about this time of year:
How my dreams become more potent and vibrant
Communing with spirits and guides flows more easily
I am reminded of my fascination with the journey of Persephone
A resurgence of shadow work
Long walks, just listening to my footsteps and the wind as it whips through the trees, the leaves falling almost silently
The way animals change their behavior, squirrels acting erratically, and the magpies that land en masse in our yard
The quiet stillness that signals the pending permission to go within
Snuggling with my lovely kid
The smell of the earth and fallen leaves
The changing angle of the sun as it moves across the sky
How the cold morning air tickles me like a feather, whispering of cold nights to come
The smells of burning fires in people’s hearths
A curiosity about what grows in the dark
Harvesting flowers, crops, and the golden threads of my experiences in empowering narratives
Knowing the season of tending the garden within is coming
The color palette of leaves, pumpkins, trees, and people
The way the first frost on the grass and plants shimmers
Watching classics like Practical Magic, The Craft, Hocus Pocus, and The Love Witch
Yes, I also like cozy sweaters
What is Allhallowtide?
Over three sacred days, Allhallowtide includes
All Hallows’ Eve, Halloween, or Hallowe’en on October 31
All Saints’ Day, Allhallows’ Day, or Hallowmas on November 1
All Souls’ Day on November 2
Allhallowtide is a triddum, a Latin word that means “three days” and describes three days of prayer or observance. The word comprises “hallows," meaning holy or sacred, and “tide,” meaning time or season.
Christianity oppressed and appropriated Allowhallotide’s pagan roots
As Christianity spread through Europe, the Church absorbed, adapted, and appropriated pagan practices to fit its doctrine, demonizing and patriarchy-washing earth-based and women-led spiritual practices.
The Church now turned Allhallowtide into days to honor saints and pray for souls in purgatory rather than commune with ancestors—instilling fear of punishment into what was previously celebratory.
During this shift, the role of women as priestesses, herbalists, and spiritual guides began to erode. Women who held influence within spiritual, medicinal, and healing practices were often either minimized or branded as “witches” and “heretics,” redirecting the feminine power once respected in pre-Christian communities toward fear and condemnation. Pagan practices were recast as heathen, subversive acts in need of “saving” by the Church.
Oppression and appropriation of paganism are fine fettle (aka, still rampant).
This statement in The Season of the Dead: The Origins and Practice of Allhallowtide from The Catholic World Report, published in 2018, is disturbing (but also not shocking):
“[The American experience of Halloween] is a product of the 20th century media-saturated consumer-oriented appropriation of Catholic feasts for mass consumption, which strips things of their true meaning… Halloween is a Christian holiday. Some Celtic neo-pagans and fundamentalist Christians claim the Church simply took over the date for a pagan festival of the dead and all its trappings. False.”
In another slightly more historical but still reference-free article from a ministry website, the author incorrectly states, “We know surprisingly little about how Samhain was celebrated.”
And then this part in particular made me LOL:
“Reinterpreting the practices and symbols of pre-Christian cultures is not necessarily a bad thing. While it could lead to syncretism or a paganization of Christianity, historically it has generally led to a Christianization of paganism. It is no different in principle from the approach taken by modern missionaries who look for ways to contextualize the Gospel, that is, to identify those elements in the culture that God has providentially left as His witnesses and using those as an entry point for the Gospel.”
Ick.
Reclaim sacred feminine wisdom
You can reclaim Allhallowtide as a sacred feminist ritual and act of rebellion. Consider rituals that uplift marginalized spiritual practices and honor the wisdom of women and Black and Brown healers and guides. Explore practices from your lineage, and respect the practices of spiritual lineages in marginalized communities.
The veil is always thin
One liberating take on this time of year is Perdita Finn’s reminder that the veil is always thin.
Communing with spirits in other realms or with our ancestors crossed over is available beyond Allhallowtide. Your connection beyond the veil is your birthright.
This liminal space, the communication with your well ancestors, and the support and guidance you sense from beyond the veil are always available to you. If you don’t have time to do any special rituals or don’t want to right now, you did not miss the Allhallowtide boat—your connection is not linear or time-dependent. You don’t need fancy courses or a medium. Just curiosity, intention, and openness.
Allhallowtide self-reflection
If you’d like to substitute “Halloween” for “Allhallowtide” below, that works, too.
Are you familiar with Allhallowtide or just Halloween?
What do you feel in your body when you think about this time of year?
How did your family of origin celebrate Allhallowtide?
Describe what you sense during the season of Allhallowtide
How do you celebrate this transitional time now?
What are your beliefs today around Halloween and Allhallowtide?
What spirits, ancestors, and energies show up for you now?
What rituals and experiences do you want to celebrate on Allhallowtide?
Do you have any past life memories of Allhallowtide—what it meant, how you celebrated, and whether you were punished or harmed for your practices?
Write down a list of everything you like about this time of year.
Ways to celebrate Allhallowtide
Consider these ideas for celebrating and reclaiming this liminal space. Most importantly, use your intuition and practice what feels right for you.
Add a setting at your dinner table or dedicate a seat in your living room to your ancestors or specific people who have crossed over
Celebrate your familiars that have passed—set out a bowl of milk for your cat or your dog’s favorite treat
Create an ancestor altar
Harvest something you’ve grown—seeds from your perennials or poems from your experiences
Are there ancestors who are championing and guiding you? Invite them to let you know how to honor them
Create a three-day ritual for yourself and your family. Consider marking the eve of a day of veneration of the dead, the day itself, then a day for more ephemeral guides, goddesses, archetypes, or just the unknown in general
Speak the names of your well or settled ancestors in prayer
Make a harvest garland or create a bouquet of leaves
Hold an Allhallowtide ceremony—light a ceremonial fire with friends or use your intuition to craft your ceremony
Work with a plant—make mugwort bundles, pot an outdoor rosemary plant and bring it in for the winter, or commune with an apple tree. Whisper your well wishes and ask for guidance for the winter ahead
Leave treats, preferably treats that withstand the elements and do not contribute waste, in random places outside—maybe little crystals in the trunk of a tree in a park
Create an earth-based or female-centric ritual of your own to practice for the next moon cycle
Research and read about the history of witches or another ancestral practice in your lineage
Start a course in ancestral medicine or ancestral communication
Spellcast: make marigold oil for Allhallowtide
I remember sitting in my backyard, among the marigolds blooming in fall, with my dear friend Raven Rose, an herbalist, healer, and mystic. I was deadheading the marigolds, breaking them open, and storing the seeds for next year. The smell of marigolds was intoxicating. I said, “I just love the smell of marigolds.”
Raven said, “You know, marigolds are the most inviting flower to the dead,” which she’d learned from Doña Maria Galindo Ruiz.
The ancient practice of creating sacred oils is one way to honor Allhallowtide. I make marigold oil to anoint candles, altars, and thresholds like doorways throughout the winter—especially when I want to:
Remember, revere, or connect with my settled ancestors
Honor the thresholds and cycles of life and death
I work with marigolds, or Tagetes erecta L. specifically. It is commonly mistaken for calendula, but they are different plants with unique scientific names, properties, and medicinal uses. I am not a trained herbalist, but I have a little bit of a green thumb and love making potions and connecting with plant guides (since I was a little girl).
*If marigold oil does not resonate with you, adapt this ritual with another plant. You can work with calendula, rosemary, or yarrow. Or, create an earth-based ritual of your own.
Ingredients
Marigold flowers
Carrier oil, like olive or almond oil
Jar
Cheesecloth
How to make marigold oil
Connect With Your Plant Guide
I am working with marigold, but you're welcome to tune in and find the plant guide that wishes to collaborate—consider rosemary and yarrow. Ask your plant guide permission before harvesting and express gratitude.
Gather and prepare materials
You’ll need dried marigold flowers, carrier oil, and a glass jar. If you picked fresh marigolds, open them, remove and keep the seeds out, and dry them over several days. You may also buy dried marigold flowers.
Create with intention
Begin by holding the marigold flowers in your hands and setting intentions for your ritual. Visualize these intentions infusing the flowers as you add them to the jar. Consider singing or saying an incantation while you create your oil.
Infuse the oil
Pour the oil over the flowers. Submerge them fully. Keep singing or saying your intention. Seal the jar and place it in a sunny spot for 4-6 weeks, shaking it gently each day. Some practitioners put the jar in a dark spot or pantry, but I prefer a sunny windowsill.
Using the oil
When ready, strain the oil with a fine sieve or cheesecloth and store it, blessing it as you work. Use it for anointing—on yourself, doorways, candles, thresholds, and altars. Let this oil remind you of your connection to what is beyond the veil and symbolize your spiritual autonomy and feminine earth-based wisdom (or whatever floats your Allhallowtide boat).
Allhallowtide resources, if you’re curious about the dead or working with your ancestors
Belonging to Place by Ro Marlen
Ancestral Medicine courses by Daniel Foor
Ancestral Medicine: Rituals For Personal and Family Healing by Daniel Foor
Take Back the Magic: Conversations with the Unseen World by Perdita Finn
Divinations with Mbali Creazzo
Signs: The Secret Language of the Universe by Laura Lynne Jackson
If you’ve read this far, you must know I have a special connection with Allhallowtide. I was born on November 1 and began my entrance on a Halloween full moon. 👻💐🕸️
I learned so much from this article! Thank you. I'm going to do a ritual with my daughter today. ❤️
Ya know I have so many marigolds. Never did I once consider claiming the seeds. Thanks for expanding the ways of ritual and magick.