Samhain Reflections

 

 

As we in the northern hemisphere cross the threshold of autumn into winter, I am reminded what a powerful time of year it is. As the ancient Celts referred to it, Samhain.The word is Irish Gaelic for "summer's end".It is usually pronounced "sow-in" with the "ow" following the same sound as "cow".There are some regional dialects of it though which include "sow-een", "sowin" (with the "ow" similar to "glow").Now called Halloween, it was a time of honouring the dead. Not just the ancestors who've crossed over, but the parts of our lives that are readying to die. Samhain was both a community and a spiritual event, when bonfires were lit and food offered to the spirits who had crossed over from the Otherworld for the night. 

This year’s Samhain has a few unusual characteristics. For one, this year’s Samhain features a full moon that is visible in all time zones on Earth, something that hasn’t happened since 1944 and won’t happen again until 2039. (The moon is also a Blue Moon this weekend, following on the Harvest Moon earlier in October.) With NASA’s recent announcement that it has found water molecules in the sunlit surface of the moon, this has proven to be an exciting week for lunar news.

And in the midst of the global coronavirus pandemic, where people are suffering and dying because of the deadly virus, as of October 29, nearly 1.2 million have died of the coronavirus, and nearly 45.5 million cases have been reported worldwide, https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html  and despite of  social distancing and other measures as part of coronavirus prevention strategies,  Samhain  still has much relevance, and  it's precisely because of the current situation that it's essential to hold on to customs like this, that can bring us all together, despite our isolation from one another.

Under the guise of Halloween, Samhain  has since morphed into a nonsensical circus of skeletons, witches in pointy hats, masks, trick or treat, gouged turnips and the like, frivolous and commercialised aspects that are the products of American secular capitalism, but let's not let this take away from its original importance.The appreciation of each other, and, above all, a layer of spiritual awareness that keeps us connected to our dearly departed, and despite many celebrations being cancelled this year, the spirit of Samhein must certainly live on. 

The Celts, who lived around 2000 years ago, celebrated their new year on November 1^st. They believed this day marked the beginning of the dark, cold winter, and Samhein was understood as a liminal time, when spirits and ancestors from the Otherworld could more easily enter this one. The ancients would hold great gatherings to mark the end of the harvest season, and the entrance into the darker, leaner half of the year. The souls of the dead were said to seek hospitality in their old homes, so the living would set places at the feasting table for them with offerings of their dead kin's favourite meals and drinks.Huge sacred bonfires would then be lit for releasing and cleansing rituals. People would gather to burn crops and animal sacrifices.They would also wear costumes, often consisting of animal heads and skins. The Samhain bonfires were also symbolic of the transmutation process of nature's seasons. Traditionally certain kind of wood were burned in a sympathetic magic with the season, symbolising the necessary sacrifice of those things in our lives that inhibit the power of growth

In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III made November 1 a day to honour saints and martyrs.To keep the peace with the pagans, he made sure All Saints’ Day incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain. The name Halloween is a contraction of All Hallows’ Evening which is also referred to as Allhalloween or All Hallows’ Eve or All Saints’ Eve – the eve of the Christian feast of All Hallows’ Day, which is better known as All Saints’ Day.Christian feast of All Hallows’ Day, which is better known as All Saints’ Day.

For those of us who follow the wheel of life and as the spirits awaken, beyond the destructiveness of Capitalism, there is also a profound connection between honouring our ancestors and following the call for change. If you think of your life as the fruit of a long surviving tree, you are an expression of a dream once seeded by your ancestors. The privilege and responsibility now falls to keep that expression alive, even if it means releasing inherited fears. Despite the limitations and difficulties now placed upon us all we can still enjoy safe celebrations at home. Let's remember the spirits of nature, of land, of place and our departed watching over us, keep sowing seeds of change and transformation. Remember the dead, keep on fighting for the living and may the new year be brighter than the one that has come before. There is still much magic all around us.

 

 Bright Blessings (A Poem for Samhain )

 

Though darkness treads this day of ours
today is one of celebrating light,
time to remember the paths of ancestors
forever casting their eternal beams,
goddesses returning, resurrecting feeling
whispering enchantment, releasing power,
as the veil of  life gets thinner and dimmer
time to welcome old spirits that walk among us,
that enable us to dance and sing again
beyond this realm allows us to be blessed,
as leaves turn golden, and fall to nourish the land
under trees branches we can all nobly stand,
mother earth reaching out offering protection
absorbing our longings, accepting our wrongs,
in the vortex of time, keeps on shining bright
guiding us as we follow ancient paths of wisdom,
slipping through time, surrounded by love
allowing truth and justice to be the natural law.

( when the barrier between the worlds is whisper-thin and when magic, old magic, sings its heady and sweet song to anyone who cares to hear it.
~Carolyn MacCullough, Once a Witch)