“Psychopompery” (rescue mediumship) helps to heal earthbound spirits by guiding them into the Light that leads to a beautiful afterlife in the Land of the Ancestors, Summerlands or the Heavens. Through this healing practice, restless spirits – also called ghosts – can finally find peace. I wanted to share a few psychopomp practices you can do during the Samhain season (Halloween) when the veil is particularly thin.
Samhain is Gaelic and means “seed fall” or “summer’s end.” It marks the start of winter. This time of year is associated with the ancestors and also with the restless dead. A few beautiful psychopomp practices you can do this time of year (among many) are:
- Create an altar to the lost and forgotten dead (light candles for restless spirits, open the Light over it and invite earthbound spirits in your area to cross over throughout the season. Be sure to ward your space well if in your home.)
- Do a journey into your ancestral lines to help any ancestors who did not cross over. (Sometimes such ancestors become entrenched in the energy of the family line leading to lineage issues mirroring the struggles or perseverations of the earthbound ancestor.) If you are interested in one way of doing this work, please check out this prior blog post with a Samhain oak tree meditation for ancestral healing: https://vanessahanks.com/2020/10/31/healing-ancestral-karma-a-simple-powerful-oak-tree-meditation/
- Join the Wild Hunt – a boisterous band of spirits often led by a God or Goddess associated with the dead or the season. These spirits ride on horses and often have hounds with them. They travel over the countryside and gather the dead and sometimes those close to death. In my practice, this is a mass clearing event ahead of the new year where earthbound souls are transitioned in large numbers in preparation of new energies and spirits coming in during spring. (in Celtic Countries the Wild Hunt occurred at Samhain, while in Norse and Germanic tradition, it occurs during Yule time – I usually join the hunt at Yule with Odin but plan to join it through the time from Samhain to Yule with various deities if welcomed by them.)
I grew up sensing and experiencing the unquieted dead. I have been a practicing psychopomp for 10 years. Psychopompery it’s a beautiful, needed healing practice that has been mostly forgotten in the Modern age. I offer classes and mentorships in this soulful healing art.
I recently was interviewed by Amy Major, a world-renowned rescue medium who wrote the book “Towards the Light” and has a podcast on rescue mediumship called “Spirit Rescue Talk.”
The interview can be found at:
Spirit Spindle & Root 