Sacred Costuming: Self-Discovery Through the Magic of Halloween

I’m taking a little break from the cards today to explore how Halloween can become a catalyst for self-discovery.

Please enjoy my Halloween playlist!

For me, Halloween costumes have always been a source of joy. They are portals for imagination and play. As a kiddo, I broke my arm on the afternoon of October 31st. I remember going straight from the ER to put on my costume (conveniently a mummy!) and then trick-or-treating.

I'm offering a personal story (with pics!) of my costuming evolution, but you can also skip to the end to jump straight into the ritual if you're in a rush. For others, I know that choosing a Halloween costume can be a source of stress and anxiety. If that's you, I'd like to help. Halloween is an invitation to practice a little transformational magic — even if you never put on a costume.

Halloween is a Transformative Saturnalia

Halloween is the one night when the jester rules the castle — when the forbidden becomes fair game and nothing is taboo.

On Halloween, children become superheroes, hobos, princesses, and goblins. Adults become political figure spoofs, villains, and "sexy" versions of heroines, animals, and legends. Don an orange jumpsuit, knowing that by November 1st, you’ll be free. Or turn a cardboard box into armor and become an invincible knight.

Women can throw off the usual dress codes and reverse the power dynamics of desire — dressing as boldly or salaciously as they wish, safe from judgment, rumor, or expectation.

Though a woman wearing a "sexy" nurse costume may not have consciously articulated it, she is repossessing her full power. What could possibly be more radical than a woman unafraid of her own sexuality in the uniform of a healer?

Men can abandon the limitations of toxic masculinity to become teddy bears without embarrassment, or warriors without violence.

Halloween can provide a waking dream state. Our dreams are messages from the unconscious, giving form to what we can’t yet express in waking life. The purpose of our dreams is to help us process our feelings, hopes, and fears.

Today, I'm inviting you to play with those feelings. and dreams in the waking safety of a Halloween costume. Whether you don't normally enjoy costuming or you're like me and can't live without it, I hope my own story of past Halloweens can inspire you this year.

Transformative Costumes, A Retrospective:

My exploration of sacred costuming began years ago — with a college photography project.

For my final project, I did a series of self-portraits. In each photo, I chose one element of my life and then tried to imagine what that part of myself would express if it were in a superhero Imax fantasy proportion. Because I wasn't using actual costumes, I had to get creative with the seed of the inner feeling and blow it up to larger-than-life proportions.

Since those were the days of analog, I can only describe the finals. As an English major, I spent a lot of time writing papers, and so for my 'work' life, I portrayed myself as a corpse, black words written on my skin turned to white chalk words on a black floor and wall as if in a crime scene. In a 'romance' vision, I was completely suspended in ropes, carried away.

This project opened a door for me. I discovered that re-imagining parts of my inner life on an epic scale gave me a kind of long-distance introspection. This is the heart of sacred costuming.

I began applying this practice to Halloween in the way-back machine of 2006. The philosophy wasn’t fully formed yet, but the seeds had been planted. My selection was part deliberate, part subconscious, but the result was the same.

I was in a relationship, I loved my job, and I felt playful and glamorous. I wanted to expand those feelings of power and attraction, and I wanted attention without showing too much skin. I channeled Marie Antoinette.

The magic of Marie Antoinette manifested, and I married the man who came as my Louis the XV!

When 2007 came, I was newly married, and I wasn't sure I enjoyed the new identity. In an attention-grabbing and very impractical outfit, I was a Ziegfeld-Follies showgirl. Sadly, the photos from 2007 are nowhere to be found (in fact, I remember dropping my new 'camera phone' in the toilet)!

I was with my new 'wife' label and that led me into an uncomfortable costume. I was trying to have fun, but it wasn't a fit.

In 2008, my then-husband was determined to be a mascot-style Easter bunny, and so I became the Tooth Fairy. I wanted to be a part of a 'couple's costume', but as I reflect, I remember that wasn't a version of myself I was excited about. I was doing a lot of magical thinking in those days, and so in a way, it worked, but it was a squeeze.

Looking back on your own past costumes, was there a year that you picked something that didn't feel quite right? Is it possible you were working out something in your inner world that wasn't a fit?

It's been almost 15 years since that short-lived partnership mercifully dissolved. I'm grateful for all of my past experiences, but when we officially separated, it was a tough time for me. In fact, the official date of our separation was October 30th, 2009!

The best part about Halloween that year is that it was the day after one chapter in my story ended.

I was channeling transformation. I felt both powerful and angry. I wanted to be seen as sexy, but I didn't want anyone to even think about trying to touch me. I became Hedwig from Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

If you're not familiar with the musical, I highly recommend you watch the film. It is the story of a (somewhat) transgender person from East Berlin living in the US, experiencing a break-up and creating an identity through performance.

Inhabiting that space was magic for me that year and carried me into what would become a year of transformation.

As you can see, all I required was the wig and make-up to transform into the vessel of Hedwig. I've worn that wig since then, but I spent all of its magic that evening.

We can invoke very powerful spells and characters without a lot of actual materials. Is there a wig or a style of make-up that you can imagine your everyday self dissolving away into and becoming something unrecognizable in?

Fast-forward to 2010. I think I collected 30+ wigs between those Halloweens. I was figuring out who I was going to be, and that exploration required a lot of different looks.

When it came time to choose what I would be, I chose the mythic figure of the Phoenix. I had risen from the ashes, and I felt reborn.

My philosophy of sacred costuming was fully formed by this time, and I was ready to take full advantage of this time when the veil to the spirit world is the thinnest.

By inhabiting the symbol of eternal rebirth with mythic proportions, I did truly feel reborn. The Phoenix requires no mate to reproduce and understands that ashes can give rise to new life. That was me.

Have you experienced a major transformation in your life this year? Would it be possible for you to embrace this change more fully by animating yourself as a butterfly or an Olympic champion?

I really enjoyed the avian qualities of the Phoenix, and I wanted to continue exploring that feeling in 2011. I was also finally ready to start dating again! And so, I was a peacock.

I learned first-hand that year that peacocks are pretty ridiculous birds. I thought the costume would help me get back into the mood for mate-finding, but I actually discovered that peacock-ing just made me feel silly.

This is also a gift of sacred costuming. When we try on something and find out it's not what we want to invoke in real life, we gain greater clarity on what's not going to work. The make-up comes off, and we return to ourselves.

In 2012, I wanted to try being a bird once more. I had seen the Wes Anderson film Moonrise Kingdom and was inspired by the scene in which our two anti-heroes meet.

I recognized myself in that story — rebellious, searching, and yearning for authenticity.

The raven is, of course, a fantastic Halloween macabre trope from the Edgar Allen Poe poem. It is also a symbol of "Creation, transformation, knowledge, prestige as well as the complexity of nature and the subtlety of truth." -Spirits of the West Coast Art Gallery.

As the raven, I got to explore all those ideas that year.

Finally, complete with my avian fever, in 2013, I was hoping to leave my career in software sales for something more artistic and creatively fulfilling. I wanted to become an event planner, and so I invoked the Maenad.

I first learned about these ancient brides of Dionysus/Bacchus (the god of wine) from HBO's True Blood. Their name literally translates as "raving ones". I thought that this would be the perfect way to try on for size what creating bacchanal events would be like. As my then-roommate would certainly attest, I went a bit mad that year.

I created individual voodoo doll invitations with creepy poems and a date and time as the only instructions.

I transformed my loft into a haunted house that rivaled any professional event producer's ability.

I made horns and a dress that captured the ecstatic madness of revelry itself.

If it looks like it was all a bit much, it was. And more. And, I did not become an event planner. By going all in, I got to live the fantasy — without rewriting my résumé.

Is there an alternate career path you've considered, but the idea of tossing out your current resume makes that dream feel impossible? Why not blow up the photo-negative of that dream into epic proportions for one night and see how it feels?

In 2021, I'd finally created a job for myself that used all my talents - Sea Tarot! That year, I wanted to explore what it feels like to be a powerful healer could be at an extreme, and so I became a white witch.

The costuming, the make-up, it all came together, and I felt very much at home in this mythic version of what is now my everyday life

In 2022, I allowed the theme of the party, a Surrealist Mascarade, to inspire me. I chose to explore how surreal our reflections can be.

If you've been invited to a party that has a specific theme, there's still a lot of room to explore what your unique reflection of that theme will be.

Since 2022, Sea Tarot has kept me joyfully busy — too busy, sometimes, for sacred costuming of my own. But underneath my 'uniform' of a Halloween Tarot reader costume, I've taken to wearing a secret costume that's just for me.

While I do miss participating in Halloween as a guest, I'm very happy getting paid well to do what I love on Halloween.

If you aren't working as a Tarot reader yourself this October 31st, I hope my journey inspires you to explore sacred costuming for yourself — and to see what magic might unfold.

If your costume is already planned out, use this exercise to investigate if your wise unconscious mind had a hand in its choosing. You can always imbibe whatever you decide to dress as with intention and magic!

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Halloween's Sacred Costuming Ritual

A practice for transformation and self-discovery

1) Set the Scene

Settle into a comfortable space. Close your eyes and take a few meditative, deep breaths. Imagine yourself as a character in a movie.

Observe your life over the past two weeks as if it were playing out on an IMAX screen. What roles or titles would appear in the credits of this film?

For me, I’ve been a daughter, a friend, a dog mom, and a business owner. Every day I’m also a cook, a cleaner, a driver, a gardener, a diabetic, a writer, and an artist. Professionally, I’ve been a house cleaner, a restaurant hostess, a saleswoman, a comedian, and a tarot reader.

2) Name the Feelings

What emotions does your movie character experience? Love, romance, exhaustion, anger, joy, fear?

Now ask: what feelings does this character long to experience but can’t seem to access? Safety, acceptance, strength, adoration?

Observe without judgment or attachment.

3) Face the Fears

What is this character afraid of becoming? Destructive, destitute, ugly, alone, sick, blind, imprisoned, vulnerable, greedy, weak, objectified?

Naming the fears begins to disarm them.

4) Explore the Fantasies

What are your character’s fantasies? More time, creativity, money, sex, status, or freedom?

Let the imagination stretch here — this is where transformation begins to stir.

5) Find the Crossroads

Review what you’ve written. Choose one feeling your character longs for but can’t access. Does it align with a fear or a fantasy?

Notice where your desire and discomfort meet — that’s your threshold.

6) Exaggerate the Archetype

Blow up that fear or fantasy until it’s cinematic in scale. What’s the most exaggerated expression of it?

World fame, immortality, magic powers, superhuman skill, invisibility? Does an animal or mythic figure embody it?

Even the “ugly” or “unlovable” can be sacred teachers — Gollum, the Ghost of Christmas Past, Beetlejuice, a zombie. Nothing is off limits.

7) Dress the Part

Now, costume your everyday roles in those exaggerated forms.

If your “movie character” is a busy mother who longs for freedom but fears being greedy, imagine dressing as the most liberated or most indulgent version of yourself. Maybe she’s a feathered queen — part bird, part monarch.

If you’re professionally successful but fear vulnerability or sadness, perhaps your avatar is the Cowardly Lion, an emo musician, or Atlas holding up the sky.

The goal is to make the fear so exaggerated that it becomes playful — a caricature you see yourself can dance with, not run away from.

When we externalize our fantasies and fears, we can finally look at them with compassion and clarity.

8) Close the Ritual

Return to your breath. Drop back into your body.

Ask the Divine (or your higher self) how this exploration might be woven into your Halloween experience. How could this costume — literal or imagined — become an opportunity for growth?

Before you sleep, place your notes beneath your pillow. Ask your dreams to reveal more about what your subconscious wants you to face or embrace this season.

Be ready to write down what you remember when you wake.

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And there you have it! A Halloween Sacred Costuming ritual for your inner-exploration and outer-fascination!

I’m wishing you love and laughter, strength, and pumpkin-spiced everything. May your costume — whether outwardly visible or secretly worn — remind you that transformation is always just a layer away.

xoxo Meredyth