Oct 28 – ALL SORROWS DAY
Build a crummy little house. You could use wood or paper of any kind. There’s no right way to build it, but it shouldn’t be too perfect. Spend the evening decorating it with signs and symbols that have significance to those participating, spiritually and otherwise. The House should have doors and windows, and the door should open well enough to slide paper in. Now, using your wand, trace the symbol for WORMWOOD on each side of the house.
On All Sorrows Night, celebrants should gather together and write down, or draw symbolically, their fears and sorrows and worries and anxieties on slips of tree bark (Birch, Aspen, Alder, and Madrone work well for this) or paper, and slide each slip through the door. When the house is as full as seems right to all present, seal the door with a binding symbol. We recommend using the Wormwood symbol that rules this day because this symbol represents a resetting of the landscape: digging up the garden at the end of the season; destruction, but in order to restore.
However, if you have one that you prefer, any binding symbol will do.
Finally, as soon as possible, take your House of Sorrows and Banish It Into the Outer Darkness! The best way to do it is to cast the whole thing into a fire. Your sorrows and fears and anxieties for the year will burn away. As they dissipate into smoke, you’ll feel a certain kind of weight lift, like these things you’re sad or worried about aren’t themselves gone, but your attitude towards them has changed, and they have less power over you. Now that you’ve banished these forces and invited in beneficial guides, you have prepared a space to get answers.
No access to a fireplace? No problem. Smash it with a sledgehammer! Back over it with your car! Bury it in an undisclosed location! Whatever works best for you.
We hope you’ll share your House of Sorrows before and after pics or vids with us! If you do, use the tag #13LiminalNights.
Click here to read more about the House of Sorrows ritual.
You can read more about the 13 Liminal Nights here.
