Samhain: The Celtic New Year And Ancestor Celebration

Samhain whispers to us through autumn’s crisp air, carrying the voices of our ancestors and the ancient wisdom of Celtic tradition.

As the veil between worlds grows thin and darkness reclaims the earth, this sacred celebration invites us to honor those who walked before us and embrace the mysterious beauty of death and rebirth.

The haunting call of Samhain reaches across centuries, drawing modern seekers into the same profound mysteries that captivated our ancestors.

If you’ve ever felt the pull of October’s magic or wondered about the deeper meaning behind Halloween’s ghostly traditions, Samhain offers a doorway into authentic spiritual practice rooted in ancient Celtic wisdom.

What is Samhain?

Samhain (pronounced “SOW-in”) stands as the most sacred and powerful celebration in the Celtic calendar, marking both the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the Celtic New Year. This profound festival typically spans from sunset on October 31st through November 1st, creating a liminal time when the boundaries between our world and the spirit realm dissolve.

You might recognize Samhain as the true ancestor of modern Halloween, but this ancient celebration goes far deeper than costumes and candy. Samhain represents “a pagan religious festival originating from an ancient Celtic spiritual tradition” where “the world of the gods was believed to be made visible to humankind.”

The name itself means “summer’s end” in Old Irish, marking the definitive transition from the light half of the year to the dark half. This wasn’t just a seasonal shift for the Celts – it represented a cosmic transformation when the natural order reversed and supernatural forces gained strength.

As one of the four major fire festivals on the Celtic Wheel of the Year, Samhain balances opposite Beltane on the calendar. Where Beltane celebrates life bursting forth, Samhain honors death as a gateway to wisdom and renewal.

Historical Roots and Ancient Celtic Origins

The Sacred Division of Time

In Celtic Ireland about 2,000 years ago, Samhain marked “the division of the year between the lighter half (summer) and the darker half (winter).” This wasn’t merely a calendar date – it represented a fundamental shift in the cosmic order when different laws governed both the natural and supernatural worlds.

Celtic society organized itself around this pivotal moment. Cattle were brought in from summer pastures, final harvests were completed, and communities gathered to ensure everyone would survive the harsh winter months ahead. But beyond these practical concerns, Samhain held profound spiritual significance that shaped Celtic understanding of life, death, and the mysteries beyond.

The Celts recognized that Samhain created a threshold time when normal rules didn’t apply. Magic grew stronger, spirits walked freely among the living, and divination revealed truths hidden throughout the rest of the year.

Ancient Ritual Practices

Archaeological evidence reveals that Celtic communities marked Samhain with elaborate ceremonies designed to honor the dead and ensure protection during winter’s dangerous months. Massive bonfires blazed on hilltops across Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, their flames visible for miles as beacons guiding spirits home.

These weren’t ordinary fires – they were sacred flames kindled from specific woods using ancient techniques passed down through generations. Families would extinguish their home fires and relight them from the communal bonfire, symbolically connecting their households to the larger community and the spiritual power of the season.

Cattle and other livestock were driven between two fires for purification and protection. The smoke and sacred ash were believed to shield both animals and humans from harm during the vulnerable winter months when evil spirits gained strength.

The Thin Veil Tradition

Central to Samhain’s power was the Celtic belief that “the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead” became especially thin during this time. This wasn’t metaphorical – the Celts understood it as a literal thinning of the barriers that normally separated different realms of existence.

Deceased family members could return to visit their living relatives, offering guidance, warnings, or simply the comfort of continued connection. But this opening also allowed less benevolent spirits to cross over, making protective rituals essential for safety.

The concept of the thin veil gave Samhain its unique character as both a celebration and a time of caution. Families welcomed beloved ancestors while taking precautions against malevolent entities that might exploit the weakened boundaries.

Druids and Sacred Wisdom

Druid priests held special responsibility during Samhain, conducting the most important rituals and divinations of the year. They understood how to navigate the dangerous spiritual currents that flowed during this liminal time and protect their communities from supernatural threats.

Druids performed elaborate ceremonies involving sacrifice, prophecy, and communication with otherworldly beings. They taught that Samhain represented a crack in time itself – a moment when the future could be glimpsed and the wisdom of ages accessed by those brave enough to seek it.

The knowledge preserved by Druids during Samhain included healing practices, agricultural wisdom, tribal histories, and spiritual teachings that would sustain communities through winter’s hardships and beyond.

The Spiritual Significance of Death and Rebirth

Embracing the Dark Goddess

Samhain introduces us to the Crone aspect of the Triple Goddess – the wise elder who governs death, transformation, and the hidden mysteries. Unlike the Maiden’s innocence or the Mother’s nurturing abundance, the Crone teaches us that endings are sacred and necessary for new beginnings.

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This dark feminine energy doesn’t represent evil or destruction for its own sake. Instead, She embodies the natural wisdom that recognizes death as transformation rather than termination. The Crone shows us how to release what no longer serves and trust in the cycles that govern all existence.

Working with Crone energy during Samhain helps us develop comfort with life’s darker aspects – grief, loss, aging, and mortality. We learn to find beauty in autumn’s decay and strength in accepting rather than fighting natural processes.

The Sacred Hunt and Wild Hunt

Celtic mythology speaks of supernatural hunts that ride across the sky during Samhain, led by gods and spirits gathering souls for the otherworld journey. These aren’t fearsome events but natural processes – the cosmic equivalent of farmers gathering their final harvest.

The Wild Hunt represents the universe’s way of maintaining balance between life and death, ensuring that nothing becomes too attached to physical existence. Witnessing or hearing the Hunt was considered both dangerous and blessed, offering glimpses into the profound mysteries governing existence.

Modern practitioners often meditate on Wild Hunt imagery during Samhain, using it to release attachments and surrender to larger forces moving through their lives.

Ancestor Veneration and Wisdom

During Samhain, “the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead becomes incredibly thin,” allowing for “easier communication with ancestors and spirits.” This creates unique opportunities to receive guidance from those who’ve completed their earthly journeys.

Ancestor work during Samhain goes beyond simple remembrance. It involves actively inviting the wisdom of our lineage into our present circumstances, asking for help with challenges our forebears faced, and honoring the sacrifices that made our current lives possible.

This practice doesn’t require elaborate rituals or psychic abilities. Simple acts like setting a place at dinner for deceased loved ones, sharing stories about family history, or quietly asking for guidance while looking at old photographs can open powerful connections.

Samhain Symbols and Sacred Correspondences

Colors of the Otherworld

Deep black represents the fertile void from which all life emerges and to which it returns. This isn’t empty darkness but pregnant potential – the cosmic womb that gestates new possibilities during winter’s contemplative months.

Rich orange captures autumn’s harvest energy and the sacred flames that burn throughout Samhain night. Purple connects us to magic and mystery, while deep red honors the blood of life and the courage required to face death without fear.

Silver reflects moonlight and the ethereal quality of spirits crossing between worlds, while gold maintains connection to divine wisdom that transcends physical existence.

Sacred Plants and Herbs

Apples hold special significance during Samhain, representing knowledge, immortality, and the otherworld’s hidden wisdom. Celtic tradition teaches that apples from the sacred groves could grant access to supernatural realms when consumed during this powerful season.

Rosemary offers remembrance and connection to those who’ve passed, while mugwort enhances psychic abilities and dream work. Wormwood provides protection against malevolent spirits, and sage purifies spaces where ancestors are welcomed.

Pomegranates symbolize the underworld journey and transformation through darkness, while hazelnuts represent wisdom gained through challenging experiences.

Magical Tools and Objects

Carved jack-o’-lanterns originated from Celtic turnip lanterns designed to guide benevolent spirits home while frightening away harmful entities. The flickering flames within represent the soul’s eternal light persisting beyond physical death.

Scrying mirrors, crystal balls, and bowls of water become especially powerful during Samhain’s heightened psychic atmosphere. Many practitioners find their divination abilities significantly enhanced during this liminal time.

Altar items might include photographs of deceased loved ones, heirloom objects that carry family energy, and natural materials like bones, dried leaves, or stones that represent death’s transformative power.

Modern Samhain Celebrations and Rituals

Creating Ancestor Altars

Modern Samhain practice often centers around ancestor altars – sacred spaces dedicated to honoring those who’ve crossed over. These don’t require expensive supplies or complex arrangements, just sincere intention to connect with your lineage’s wisdom.

Start with photographs of deceased family members, adding items that belonged to them or represent their interests and personalities. Include their favorite foods, flowers they loved, or objects that remind you of shared experiences and cherished memories.

Light white or purple candles while sharing stories about your ancestors, either aloud or silently. Many people report feeling their presence more strongly during these simple acknowledgments, especially when performed during Samhain’s powerful energy.

Dumb Supper Traditions

The dumb supper represents one of Samhain’s most profound rituals – a meal shared with the dead in complete silence. Participants prepare their ancestors’ favorite foods and set places for them at the table, eating in reverent quiet that allows spiritual communication to flow freely.

This practice doesn’t require belief in literal spirit visitation. Many find that the silence and intention create space for memories, insights, and emotional healing related to their relationships with deceased loved ones.

Some families hold annual dumb suppers as ways to maintain connection across generations, teaching children about their heritage while honoring those who came before.

Divination and Scrying Practices

Samhain’s thin veil makes it an ideal time for divination work, when the future becomes more accessible and hidden truths reveal themselves more easily. Traditional methods include apple peeling (the peel’s shape reveals a future spouse’s initial), mirror scrying, and tarot readings focused on the year ahead.

Water scrying works especially well during Samhain – fill a dark bowl with water, light candles around it, and gaze softly into the surface while asking questions about your path. Many people receive clear images or sudden insights using this simple technique.

Dream work also intensifies during Samhain. Keep a journal beside your bed and record any dreams, no matter how strange or fragmentary. The veil’s thinness often allows prophetic dreams and visits from deceased loved ones during sleep.

Release and Transformation Ceremonies

Samhain’s death energy supports powerful release work – letting go of habits, relationships, beliefs, or situations that no longer serve your highest good. Write what you want to release on paper and burn it in your cauldron or fireplace, visualizing these patterns dissolving completely.

Some people bury objects representing what they’re releasing, allowing the earth to compost these energies into fertile ground for new growth. Others prefer water ceremonies, dissolving salt or biodegradable items in running streams while stating their intention to release.

The key is matching your ceremony to the energy you’re working with. Heavy, persistent patterns might need burial’s slow transformation, while lighter issues might dissolve quickly in flame’s immediate transmutation.

Connecting with the Otherworld

Spirit Communication Ethics

When working with spirits during Samhain, approach with respect and clear boundaries rather than casual curiosity. Begin by protecting your space through methods that resonate with you – casting circles, burning sage, calling on protective deities, or simply stating your intention to welcome only benevolent presences.

Remember that not all spirits have your best interests at heart. Trust your intuition about any presences you encounter, and don’t hesitate to end communications that feel uncomfortable or demanding.

Always thank any spirits you work with and clearly dismiss them when your session ends. This maintains healthy boundaries and prevents unwanted spiritual attachments from forming.

Developing Psychic Abilities

Samhain’s heightened spiritual energy offers excellent opportunities to develop dormant psychic abilities or strengthen existing ones. Regular meditation during this season often yields surprising results, as the thin veil makes subtle perceptions more accessible.

Practice simple exercises like sensing the energy around plants, trying to feel the emotions of people around you, or attempting to predict which songs will play next on random playlists. These mundane practices build the sensitivity needed for deeper spiritual work.

Trust your first impressions rather than analyzing everything logically. Psychic information often comes through feelings, sudden knowings, or physical sensations rather than clear mental messages.

Working with Spirit Guides

Many people first encounter their spirit guides during Samhain when the otherworld becomes more accessible. These aren’t necessarily deceased humans – they might be nature spirits, angels, animal totems, or other benevolent beings dedicated to supporting spiritual growth.

Create quiet time for meditation and specifically invite any guides working for your highest good to make themselves known. Pay attention to recurring symbols, animals you notice frequently, or sudden insights that seem to come from beyond your conscious mind.

Building relationships with spirit guides requires patience and consistency rather than dramatic supernatural experiences. Most communication happens through subtle impressions, synchronicities, and gradual development of inner knowing.

Traditional Foods and Feasting

Harvest Abundance and Sacred Meals

Samhain tables traditionally overflowed with the season’s final harvest – apples, squash, root vegetables, nuts, and preserved meats that would sustain families through winter’s lean months. These weren’t just practical foods but sacred offerings that honored the earth’s generosity before its winter rest.

Preparing traditional Samhain foods connects us to centuries of ancestors who gathered around similar meals, sharing stories and strengthening community bonds before winter’s isolation. Each dish carries cultural memory and seasonal wisdom passed down through generations.

Modern practitioners often prepare soul food – comfort dishes that nourish both body and spirit during autumn’s emotional intensity. These might be family recipes passed down from grandmothers or foods that evoke happy memories with deceased loved ones.

Apple Magic and Wassailing

Apples held sacred significance throughout Celtic culture, representing wisdom, healing, and access to otherworld knowledge. Samhain traditions included wassailing apple trees – singing to them and offering cider to ensure good harvests in coming years.

Apple dishes like tarts, cakes, and cider punch appear on most Samhain tables, often prepared with cinnamon and other warming spices that comfort during autumn’s chill. Some people bake whole apples stuffed with nuts and honey as offerings for ancestors.

Apple divination games remain popular – peeling apples in single strips and throwing the peel over your shoulder to see what letter it forms, or floating apple slices in water basins while making wishes under candlelight.

Protective Foods and Blessing Meals

Celtic tradition emphasized foods that provided protection during Samhain’s dangerous spiritual activity. Garlic, onions, and other strong-flavored ingredients were believed to repel malevolent spirits while providing physical warmth and immune support for winter.

Soul cakes – small sweet breads marked with crosses – were baked to honor the dead and provide protection for the living. Children would go door to door asking for soul cakes in exchange for prayers for deceased family members, creating community bonds while serving spiritual purposes.

Modern Samhain meals often include protective herbs like rosemary, sage, and thyme, both for their magical properties and their ability to support physical health during the season of increasing darkness and cold.

Samhain Crafts and Seasonal Activities

Jack-o’-Lantern Origins and Carving

The tradition of carving jack-o’-lanterns comes directly from Celtic Samhain practices, when people carved turnips and other root vegetables to create lanterns that would guide benevolent spirits home while frightening away harmful entities.

Modern pumpkin carving maintains this protective purpose while allowing creative expression. Choose designs that feel personally meaningful rather than following commercial patterns – spirals for life cycles, trees for connection to nature, or simple faces that represent your ancestors.

Light your jack-o’-lanterns with candles rather than electric bulbs when possible, as flame carries spiritual significance that artificial light lacks. The flickering candlelight creates the liminal atmosphere that makes Samhain magic more accessible.

Seasonal Decorating and Sacred Spaces

Transform your home into a Samhain sanctuary using natural materials that capture the season’s energy. Dried corn husks, wheat bundles, and autumn leaves create beautiful displays while connecting you to harvest traditions and earth’s cycles.

Ravens, bats, spiders, and other creatures associated with death and transformation make appropriate Samhain decorations when chosen with understanding of their symbolic significance rather than mere spookiness.

Create a seasonal altar or shrine where you can focus your Samhain intentions. Change it throughout the season, adding new elements as your understanding deepens or removing items that no longer resonate with your spiritual journey.

Divination Tool Creation

Samhain’s powerful energy makes it an excellent time to create or consecrate divination tools. Make simple rune sets from stones gathered during autumn walks, create scrying mirrors from dark glass or obsidian, or craft tarot bags from fabric that feels magically significant.

Blessing and charging new tools during Samhain imbues them with the season’s heightened spiritual energy, often making them more responsive and accurate throughout the year.

Even if you don’t regularly practice divination, having tools blessed during Samhain creates connections to the season’s wisdom that you can access whenever guidance is needed.

Deities and Mythological Beings

The Morrigan and Celtic Death Goddesses

The Morrigan, Ireland’s great phantom queen, rules over Samhain with fierce wisdom about war, fate, and death’s transformative power. She appears as crow, hag, or beautiful woman depending on the lessons she brings, teaching that destruction and creation are inseparable forces.

Working with the Morrigan during Samhain requires courage to face uncomfortable truths about yourself and your life path. She offers profound wisdom but demands honesty about your shadows and willingness to release what no longer serves.

Other Celtic death goddesses like Badb, Macha, and Nemain also become more accessible during Samhain, each offering different aspects of wisdom about endings, transformation, and the courage required to navigate life’s darker passages.

Cernunnos and the Horned God

Cernunnos, the antlered god of the wild hunt and liminal spaces, guides souls between worlds during Samhain’s supernatural activity. He represents the masculine aspect of death – not as destroyer but as psychopomp leading spirits safely through transformation.

This horned deity teaches us that death is natural rather than evil, showing how to embrace change without losing our essential selves. His antlers represent regeneration – they fall and regrow each year, symbolizing death and rebirth as natural cycles.

Working with Cernunnos during Samhain helps develop comfort with life’s wild, untamed aspects and trust in natural processes that seem frightening from human perspectives.

Persephone and Underworld Wisdom

Though originally Greek, Persephone’s myth resonates powerfully with Samhain themes as she descends to rule the underworld during winter’s dark months. Her story teaches that apparent death often masks necessary transformation and hidden growth.

Persephone’s journey shows how spending time in darkness can lead to profound wisdom and spiritual strength. Her willing descent into the underworld represents choosing growth through difficult experiences rather than avoiding challenges.

Modern practitioners often work with Persephone energy during Samhain to navigate their own underworld journeys – periods of depression, loss, or major life changes that require descent into darkness before rebirth becomes possible.

Samhain Around the World

Irish and Scottish Traditions

Ireland and Scotland preserve the most authentic Samhain traditions, maintaining practices that connect directly to ancient Celtic customs. Rural communities still light bonfires on hilltops, tell traditional stories about supernatural encounters, and leave offerings for spirits crossing between worlds.

Scottish Highland traditions include guising – wearing costumes to disguise oneself from malevolent spirits – and neep lanterns carved from turnips rather than pumpkins. These practices maintained their spiritual significance even as they evolved into children’s Halloween activities.

Irish families often prepare colcannon (mashed potatoes with cabbage) and barmbrack (fruit bread with hidden objects that predict the future) as traditional Samhain foods that connect them to ancestral customs and seasonal wisdom.

Welsh and Breton Customs

Wales preserves unique Samhain traditions like Nos Galan Gaeaf (Winter’s Eve), when spirits were believed to walk freely and protective rituals became essential for safety. Welsh communities would light bonfires and tell stories about encounters with the otherworld.

Breton traditions in northwestern France maintain Celtic connections through customs like honoring ancestors at family graves and preparing special meals for the dead. These practices blend ancient Celtic wisdom with later Christian influences while preserving essential spiritual elements.

Modern Global Adaptations

Contemporary pagans worldwide adapt Samhain traditions to their local climates and cultural contexts. Southern Hemisphere practitioners celebrate during their autumn season in April/May, while maintaining the essential focus on death, ancestors, and seasonal transition.

Urban practitioners create apartment-friendly versions of traditional practices – indoor altars instead of hilltop bonfires, cemetery visits instead of rural grave tending, and community gatherings in parks rather than private family celebrations.

The internet has helped spread authentic Samhain knowledge globally, allowing people without Celtic heritage to learn respectful ways to honor this ancient tradition while adapting it to their personal spiritual paths.

Planning Your Samhain Celebration

Preparation and Sacred Timing

Begin preparing for Samhain several weeks early by researching your family history and gathering photographs or objects that belonged to deceased relatives. This preparation time allows you to process emotions and plan meaningful ways to honor your ancestors.

Clean and organize spaces where you’ll be celebrating, removing clutter that might interfere with spiritual energy flow. Many practitioners fast or eat lightly on Samhain day to heighten their sensitivity to otherworldly presences.

Set clear intentions for what you hope to experience during Samhain – whether that’s communication with specific ancestors, release of old patterns, divination about the future, or simply deeper connection to seasonal wisdom.

Solo Practice Suggestions

Celebrating Samhain alone allows for deep personal work without external distractions. Begin with morning meditation focused on your ancestors, followed by visiting their graves if possible or creating an ancestor altar in your home.

Spend time in nature observing autumn’s beauty and decay, reflecting on life’s natural cycles and your own relationship with mortality. Many solo practitioners find that walking in cemeteries or wild places brings profound insights about death’s role in existence.

End your day with divination work or dream preparation, asking your ancestors for guidance about challenges you’re facing or directions you should take in coming months.

Family and Community Celebrations

Family Samhain celebrations can honor multiple generations while teaching children about their heritage and natural cycles. Share family stories, prepare traditional foods together, and create activities that help everyone feel connected to ancestral wisdom.

Community celebrations often focus on group rituals, potluck feasts featuring harvest foods, and shared divination activities. These gatherings strengthen bonds between practitioners while creating supportive environments for spiritual growth.

Consider organizing neighborhood events that introduce others to authentic Samhain traditions beyond commercial Halloween activities, helping preserve and spread ancient wisdom in modern contexts.

Common Questions About Samhain

How is Samhain Different from Halloween?

While Halloween evolved from Samhain traditions, modern Halloween focuses primarily on entertainment, costumes, and candy rather than spiritual practice and ancestor veneration. Samhain maintains its sacred character as a religious observance focused on death, transformation, and otherworld connection.

Halloween’s commercial aspects can overshadow Samhain’s deeper meanings, but many practitioners find ways to blend both approaches – enjoying Halloween’s playful elements while maintaining focus on ancestral wisdom and seasonal spirituality.

The timing remains similar, but Samhain extends beyond October 31st to encompass the entire period of seasonal transition from harvest to winter’s beginning.

Do You Need Celtic Heritage to Celebrate Samhain?

Samhain welcomes anyone who approaches with respect and sincere desire to connect with ancestral wisdom and seasonal cycles. While Celtic traditions provide the foundation, the universal themes of honoring the dead and embracing natural cycles resonate across all cultures.

Many non-Celtic practitioners adapt Samhain principles to honor their own ancestral traditions, using the season’s energy to connect with whatever lineages they come from rather than appropriating specifically Celtic practices.

The key is approaching Samhain with understanding of its sacred significance rather than treating it as generic Halloween alternative or exotic spiritual practice.

When Should You Celebrate Samhain?

Traditional Samhain begins at sunset on October 31st and continues through November 1st, but many practitioners extend their celebrations throughout the period from mid-October to mid-November when autumn’s transformative energy peaks.

Southern Hemisphere practitioners typically celebrate during their autumn season (April/May), maintaining the connection to seasonal death and rebirth cycles rather than calendar dates.

Some people prefer celebrating on the astronomical cross-quarter day (the midpoint between autumn equinox and winter solstice) rather than the traditional dates, focusing on cosmic timing over cultural convention.

Respectful Ancestor Work

Approach ancestor veneration with appropriate respect and understanding that not all deceased relatives may be available for or interested in communication. Some souls may be resting, reincarnated, or involved in their own spiritual development.

Avoid demanding contact or specific responses from ancestral spirits. Instead, offer respectful invitations and remain open to whatever forms of connection feel authentic and comfortable.

Remember that ancestor work can bring up difficult emotions about family relationships, trauma, or losses. Be prepared to seek professional support if spiritual practice triggers emotional issues that feel overwhelming.

Cultural Sensitivity Guidelines

While Samhain traditions welcome respectful participation from people of various backgrounds, approach Celtic spiritual practices with awareness that you’re working with another culture’s sacred traditions rather than generic “pagan” activities.

Learn about historical context and authentic practices rather than relying on commercialized or heavily adapted versions that may misrepresent traditional meanings.

Consider supporting Celtic cultural preservation efforts, learning about modern Irish and Scottish communities, or studying Celtic languages as ways to honor the traditions you’re drawing from.

Conclusion

Samhain calls us home to our deepest spiritual roots, inviting us to dance with death as our ancestor and embrace the profound wisdom hidden in autumn’s fading light. This ancient celebration offers modern souls a pathway back to authentic relationship with life’s natural cycles and the ancestral wisdom that guides us still.

Whether you’re drawn to elaborate rituals or simple acts of remembrance, Samhain provides sacred space for the spiritual work our busy lives often neglect. In honoring the dead, we discover how to live more fully. In embracing darkness, we learn to appreciate light. In accepting death’s reality, we find the courage to transform whatever no longer serves our highest good.

The thin veil that makes Samhain so powerful reminds us that we’re never truly alone – we carry the wisdom of countless generations within us, and their love continues guiding our steps even when we can’t consciously perceive their presence. As you plan your own Samhain celebration, trust the ancient rhythms calling through your bones and allow this sacred season to teach you its timeless mysteries.

May your Samhain be blessed with ancestral wisdom, transformative magic, and the profound peace that comes from embracing death as life’s most sacred teacher. The Crone’s lantern lights your way through winter’s darkness toward the rebirth that always follows letting go.