Spooky Season & Sacred Sisterhood
Honouring the cycles, the shadows, and the slowing
Earlier this month, I did something I don’t often do — I went on retreat for myself.
As a space holder and therapist, it felt deeply nourishing to be held for a change. To be guided. To soften.
My sister came with me — a rare treat in itself. I’d been drawn to one of my own Yoga Therapy teachers’ retreats: an elder and mentor whose wild garden has been lovingly transformed into a sanctuary for women. Think: goddess altar, Kirtan by candlelight, and a Yoga Nidra space so cosy it felt like a cosmic nap for the soul. ✨
The retreat centred around honouring cycles — something my sister and I both resonated with as we move through the thresholds of perimenopause and menopause together.
We spoke about Shakti, the creative and sensual life force that fuels our expression, and how easily it dims under the weight of responsibility, care, and doing.
Through Kirtan, we sang from our hearts, releasing emotion and story.
Through Nidra, we rested into stillness — dreaming, visioning, and making space for what wants to emerge next.
For me, it was a time to restore, refill, and quietly tend to the next chapter — a new home and creative seeds beginning to root.
I left feeling deeply grateful — to Uma Dismore Tuli and Sivani Manta for their goddess wisdom and rituals, and to every woman who gathered in circle.
Because when women gather, something alchemical happens.
A field of safety and remembering opens — and we find our way home to ourselves.
Samhain, Shadows & the Wise Woman
As we approach Halloween, or Samhain (pronounced “Sow-in”), we enter what the Celts called the thinning of the veil— a time when the boundary between worlds softens and we can more easily sense what lies beneath the surface.
Traditionally, Samhain marked the end of harvest and the beginning of the darker half of the year — a sacred pause between light and shadow, life and death, endings and beginnings.
It’s no coincidence that witches, rituals, and ancestor stories weave through this season. These archetypes speak to the wise woman within us all — the part that knows when to retreat, to release, to trust the unseen.
In Yoga philosophy, this aligns with the process of pratyahara — the drawing inward of the senses — and with the gentle art of shadow work: honouring what we’d usually turn away from, so we can integrate and grow whole.
This is the essence of both Samhain and Yoga Therapy: meeting ourselves in the dark with compassion and curiosity.
Rituals & Reflections for Spooky Season
You might like to carve out a small ritual or mini retreat of your own this week — solo, or with a sister or friend who gets it.
Here are a few gentle invitations:
Create an altar — Light a candle for your ancestors, or for a part of yourself you’re ready to honour or release.
Restorative ritual — Wrap up warm, lie back in legs-up-the-wall, and listen to a Nidra (try my Grounding for Autumn practice).
Journal reflection:
What am I ready to let go of?
What part of me needs rest and tending?
What wisdom is whispering beneath the surface right now?
Elemental connection — bring nature in: dried leaves (earth), a small bowl of water, candle flame, or a feather to represent air.
Sing or move — even quietly. Let vibration shift what words cannot.
These small rituals remind us that tending the unseen — the emotional, cyclical, intuitive — is part of our power.
A Season to Soften
As the nights draw in and festive busyness looms, remember this:
The dark is not something to fear. It’s a space of gestation, creativity, and deep rest.
You’re allowed to pull back, to feel your roots, to let something fall away.
Let yourself soften into the mystery a little.
With candlelight and sisterhood,
Eirian x