And so, we end off the month of harvesting and gratitude and move into the month of Samhain. Samhain is an ancient Gaelic time of feasting and festivals. For tonight and through until the 1 of November, there will be bonfires and mummeries and feasting. We watch winter start to move in.
The Druids honor the thinning of the veil for All Saints Day on October 31. During this month, preparations are made for the last day of this month. They understood death to be part of our earthly journey and there was no morbidity or gruesomeness to their way of celebrating Samhain.
While our environment withers and begins its dying off for the next few months, and the universe is darkening, leaves decaying, animals brought in from furthest fields, and the harvest gathered, we see the cycle of life in its natural form. So are we learning, again, that death is as important as birth. Our way of dealing with the Natural has changed. We now whisper or do not talk about death easily. We tuck our dying away from view. We see death as such a tragedy when, if we followed our religious beliefs, we would see death as a birth elsewhere. When we were born, it meant a death elsewhere.
We till remember and honor the dead, but we have moved Samhain into All Hallows’ Eve. Then All Saints Day and now, Halloween, where death is memorialized as some kind of ghoulish celebration, forgetting the way it was celebrated in times past. It used to be seen as a cycle; when one passed on, another came to replace that soul/spirit/energy.
Samhain used to be the New Year. This time of year when light and dark switch places, was a time when they remembered the warm times and people of the past year, showing gratitude for the harvests, remembering things we have accepted and surrendered and hope for a new coming is in place. It would be wonderful to bring back traditions such as All Hallows Eve.
It is the time for feasting. It is time to honor those who have moved on. On Samhain, we should light a candle, or candles, representing the going of those who continued on into a new journey. Now is the time to put our plants to rest and discard the leavings of our harvest. Now is the time to connect to a new energy that comes. Make a list of things you need, or should, let go of and make a new list of things you would like to do, have, and aspire to.
We still see our school children dancing through the woods, gathering leaves. How about you finding a forest to dance and prance and gather in? Have a bonfire. In our little sleepy town, on Halloween night, the older boys would start a bonfire on the intersection smack dab middle of town. For those not wary of the older kids taking our treats, it was a quadrant point to warm up at in between taking our forays out into the dark to go to houses with lights on and treats ready.
Take time to enjoy the magical change of our environment. Prepare yourself well for the coming cold months as well. Develop a new hobby. Paint in a new way. Start a new project. Find ways to be quieter and rested and finding time to consider how your year has gone, and what this new year might bring. Remember to plan ahead and to have lots of candles and fairy lights, or glowing things that remind us of the glowing of our soul amidst darkness’ impending depth.
Set your day planer in front of you and write down as many activities as you can think of to plan for Samhain. I am moving back into painting and art journaling for October. We really had no summer with all the fires and smoke and evacuations and alerts. I have been quietly making cards, have absconded our dining room table as a card-making area. I will begin to paint at my office desk and I have longed to bring in my things from the art gazebo and set up for cold winter days.
What do you have planned for Samhain, or for this new season, or this new year?
©Carol Desjarlais 9.30.21
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