The autumn season brings in a time of introspection and reflection on our lives. We are no longer distracted by the summer with its outdoor activities, parties, and bright sun. This is the time of the dark mysteries; the time for staring into the light of warm fires and watching the shapes of the flames as they dance on the walls. As a society today, we celebrate Halloween as a children’s holiday. We bring out the dead or creatures from a different world in the form of witches, zombies, vampires, ghosts and werewolves. We dress up in costumes and bob for apples and give out candy all the while making sure that we are having fun and not going too much into that “other world”. I believe that we are searching for magick and miracles. We are searching for that connection with the Divine and the things that we believe exist in another realm.
At Samhain, the 31st of October, it is believed that the veil between the physical world and the spiritual (or “other”) world is at its thinnest. This means spirits (the Aos Si, also called fairies) can easily cross between realms and enter our world. The ancient Celts felt the need to please the spirits in order to ensure that their population and livestock did not die during the harsh winter. Food and drink were often left for the fairies, and occasionally an animal was sacrificed to appease the spirits.
Souls of the departed were believed to revisit their homes seeking hospitality. In some cases, a place setting of food or drink was put on the dining table in anticipation of the visit. Mumming, or wearing disguises were part of the festival and involved people going door to door in costume or disguise, reciting verse in exchange for food. Trick-or-treating, anyone? It is true that the veil between the worlds is thin at this time of year and that it is a good time to get started but communion with the other side is not as difficult as you think. It is just getting past the blocks that you have to doing it and re-awakening and remembering the natural ability you have to connect. Once you re-awaken your natural ability-the ability you had as a child-you will be connected all the time.
It doesn’t need to be Halloween for you to read, study and learn or to go into nature and feel the energies that are around you. Take a class on channeling, psychic development or contacting a loved one who has crossed over. Find that part of yourself that you have lost; the part that yearns for contact with Spirit. Once you find it, you will never feel lost again. Today Samhain is a time to remember what has gone before us. n today’s world there is much fear about our children being allowed out to go guising, and people are afraid to open their doors to strangers in fear of being attacked. Our feared based society today has taken away the joy of Samhain, it is up to each and every one of us to relight and rekindle our beautiful ceremonies, by celebrating and rejoicing our ancient traditions of our ancestors without fear.
Samhain is a transition: a doorway between the season of life and the season of death. Beneath this realm of constant change, there is a wide open space of eternity. A place of stillness in which the appearance of change arises. A serene openness to which we will always return, and with which we are one, even at this very moment.
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