Spiritual meaning of a pumpkin

My honest take on pumpkins is that I have not even thought about them much, but they are so spiritual. All I can remember as a child just carving out the eyes, and that slime. The slime I always think about. Goodness that slime! I remember it was a little bit nerve racking. I remember I always use to make pumpkin soup but now I just can’t be bothered. In terms of what you can use for spiritual understanding the pumpkin is that time of the year (31st of October) that the worlds between ours and the astral world become thinner.

If you’re struggling (with bills, with hope, with the sense that life is shitty) try to carve a small pumpkin and put it somewhere visible. Each time you pass it, whisper: There is more coming. The pumpkin teaches you that believing in abundance when the fields look bad (dark etc) is the oldest form of magic.

What is the spiritual meaning of a pumpkin?

You are probably here wondering about the spiritual meaning of this pumpkin. Spiritually, the pumpkin is the heart of the harvest: happiness, prosperity, nourishment. It’s the part of you that keeps giving even when you think you’re empty, the pumpkin becomes a focus of trust: There will be more. There will be enough. I think that is why we decorate with them, why we can’t resist that bright orange. 

If you’ve been through loss, burnout, or fear, pumpkins can feel that bright, round bodies insisting on joy in the middle of decay. Sometimes I think the pumpkin teaches us to keep deserving and it grows vines, wild and messy, ignoring boundaries. It shows us where stuff is not planted. It heals soil. Maybe that’s what you’re trying to do: grow again after being harvested by life. To stand in your own glow and say, I am still fruitful.

The reason they put jack-o-laterns out is to protect the home from evil. Which is why you see two of them either side of the home. Falling in love and focusing on yourself should be fun, joyful and you can plug in any emotion in there. I also seen many pumpkin scented candles in the shops, around October / November. But, they don’t really have pumpkin inside. This is probably more about oils and focus. It is kind of spicy. This year I don’t think I will bother putting any out but this is about being drawn to something. 

What about the pumpkin seeds?

Pumpkin seeds for me, is a sign that power and even resilience don’t have to taste bad. Strength can come through sweetness, through nourishment, through what you feed yourself rather than what you deny yourself. If life has made you tired  (spiritually, emotionally, physically), the act of eating or planting pumpkin seeds can become a prayer in itself. 

Pumpkin superstitions

Old English welsh-folk believed that if you carved your initials into a pumpkin and placed a candle inside, the glow would reveal your true intentions. If the flame burned bright, your spirit is saying yes. If it flicks or smokes, you are hiding from yourself. Witches are thought to have carried small pumpkins or gourds as portable cauldrons for autumn rituals. They would fill them with herbs and oil, light them briefly, then bury the cooled remains to “seal” a spell for abundance. As I have said before, a candle lit in a pumpkin is seen as a safe way to burn intentions without letting the fire escape into the world.

In some American folktales, the Pumpkin King was the spirit who ruled the harvest after the fields were cleared. He was both trickster and guardian, testing who respected the land and who didn’t. Farmers who knocked the harvest or failed to share food would wake to find their pumpkins smashed up or their fields empty next year.

It’s the old stuff (or person) dressed in orange skin: gratitude keeps the magic alive; greed kills it. Every smashed pumpkin on a street corner after Halloween still carries this sort of folklore  “Don’t forget to thank what fed you.”