October Vibes... Skeletons, Shadows, and the Descent to Samhain

October begins with the air turning sharper, the nights stretching longer, and the veil whispering thinner by the day. This is not a season of beginnings. It is a season of release. The harvest has been gathered, the fields are bare, and what remains are the bones of the year. The skeletons are rattling now, not only in the trees and shadows but in our own closets. October energy demands that we face them.

This is the descent into the Underworld, whether you call it Persephone’s path, the Dark Goddess’ embrace, or simply the natural cycle of fall. Each day leading to Samhain pulls us deeper into reflection. The illusions we’ve carried through summer cannot survive this season. The brittle branches, the curling leaves, the emptying skies...all mirror the inner stripping away. You cannot hide from yourself now.

Astrologically, the skies mirror this turning. The early part of the month is still heavy with Libra’s scales, weighing our choices, our relationships, our values. Balance is not about pleasing others; it is about truth. And truth is uncomfortable. Mercury’s shift into Scorpio turns conversations into confessions. You will feel the pull to name what has been festering, to spit out the secrets, to stop holding the silence that has been corroding your spirit. Scorpio season begins late in the month, but its shadow creeps in long before the Sun makes the crossing.

This is the work of October: to exhume. To lift the floorboards and see what you’ve buried there. The lies you told yourself to get through the summer. The obligations you carried long past their usefulness. The grief you refused to name because it was too inconvenient. These are the skeletons. And they are not here to haunt you—they are here to be claimed, acknowledged, and finally laid to rest.

By the time the Sun moves into Scorpio and the dark moon ushers us into the final days before Samhain, the air is ripe with endings. The ancestors stir. Dreams grow heavier. Signs from the other side grow harder to ignore. The veil does not simply thin—it opens. You are invited to listen, to remember, to sit with the bones of what once was. Samhain is not just a celebration of the dead—it is a ritual of release. It is the moment we stand at the threshold and say, I will not carry this carcass into the new year.

So light your candles not just for the ancestors, but for the parts of yourself that need to be burned away. Write down the truths you’ve avoided and feed them to the fire. Clean your altar. Sweep your floors. Make space for the new year that begins not in January, but on the witch’s turning wheel at Samhain.

October is not gentle. It is not cozy. It is the sound of bones clattering in the dark, the knowing that everything you’ve hidden will eventually surface. And if you dare, this is the month to bring those skeletons out yourself, to look them in the eye, and to say: I see you. I honor you. And I release you.

Because the only way to walk into the next turn of the wheel is lighter than you were before.