CONNECTING WITH LATE FALL
& CELEBRATING SAMHAIN (HALLOWEEN, Oct. 31st)
In old agrarian calendars the first of November, All Saint's Day, was the beginning of the new year. Today [Nov. 1st] is gray and cold. The air is charged with the coming frost.
Could we take that leap of faith that now is when gardening begins, with an approaching end? Soon the ground will be frozen solid, the grass covered with early snow. Everything will grow quiet in the cold's embrace. What is wrong with feeling joy in this clout of cold? When something is over, it's over- no doubt, no turning back, no illusion. Winter's big hit is a kind of liberation. It's a chance to stop, to turn our backs on effort. We can let ourselves rest. We can turn within. - Gunilla Norris A Mystic Garden: Working with Soil, Attending to Soul
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Crimson leaves spilling
on faded perennials crickets sing farewell. - Mary Ann Rasmussen |
Gently falling snow
rests on squirrel's bushy tail hickory nuts stored. - Mary Ann Rasmussen |
Celebrating Samhain (October 31st)
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The Samhain Ancestors' Altar:
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Honoring Ancestors and Loved Ones Who Have Passed On Before UsBecause Samhain is about the mysteries of death, it follows that this is the time of year when we remember loved ones who have passed on, and honor the ancestors who came before us. It is believed that the veil between this world and the next is thin on the night of Samhain, allowing the spirits to walk among us. We might receive their messages, if we are listening.
During Samhain time, we build an ancestors' altar (left). We remember loved ones whom we've lost by placing their photos or beloved objects on the altar. We also place photos of those ancestors we never knew, but whom we honor as the forebears who gave our family life. I include a small urn with some of my mother's ashes, and some small things (a leather coin purse, a pocketknife), that I inherited when my dad died. I don't know who they belonged to, but they are really all I have of that side of my family. There are photos of my grandparents, whom I barely remember, because my parents were the youngest in large families and their parents died when I was very young. I seem to have inherited a lot of their rings, including the ones that both of my grandmothers wore daily, and my father's wedding band and my mother's high school ring, and I place them all on the altar, because they still feel infused with their wearer's energy and I am proud to be their caretaker. We also include beloved animal companions on the altar, putting photos, whiskers, and old toys in their memory. I find that building the altar is a very powerful experience. Life continues, but none of us want to forget those we've lost. It's good to have one time of the year to remember all our loved ones, and to light candles and incense in their honor. It's good to know that someone might do the same for me some day. |
Departures
They seemed to all take off
at once: Aunt Grace
whose kidneys closed shop;
Cousin Rose who fed sugar
to diabetes;
my grandmother's friend
who postponed going so long
we thought she'd stay.
It was like the summer years ago
when they all set out on trains
and ships, wearing hats with veils
and the proper gloves,
because everybody was going
someplace that year,
and they didn't want
to be left behind.
- Linda Pastens
In Good Poems, selected by Garrison Keillor
They seemed to all take off
at once: Aunt Grace
whose kidneys closed shop;
Cousin Rose who fed sugar
to diabetes;
my grandmother's friend
who postponed going so long
we thought she'd stay.
It was like the summer years ago
when they all set out on trains
and ships, wearing hats with veils
and the proper gloves,
because everybody was going
someplace that year,
and they didn't want
to be left behind.
- Linda Pastens
In Good Poems, selected by Garrison Keillor
Halloween FunI think holidays should always have their fun side, so we might also spend time carving pumpkins on Samhain, or starting a new tradition, like making Pan de Meurtos (Bread of the Dead, which we quickly shortened to Dead Bread, no insult intended). Dead Bread is shaped like a skull and cross bones and is a traditional part of the Days of the Dead, a Mexican holiday celebrated at the end of October. It reminds me of Samhain- Mexican families create elaborate and beautiful altars for the dead and engage in other activities that honor departed loved ones, including parades of skeletons and coffins. Pan de Meurtos is eaten as part of the celebration, including during visits to the graves of loved ones.
I saw a picture of Pan de Meurtos in a book I have on the "Real Halloween" (see below), and talked Bear and my nephew Jeremy into making some. Traditionally they are a sweet bread, but since this was a spur of the moment addition to our celebrations, we just used the bread dough I had on hand in the refrigerator. Each of us shaped the dough into our own skull and cross bones. Bear's Shelf Chef side came out and he really got into making the bread, far surpassing Jeremy and I in making an elaborate skull. Then he took it even further and decided to make an entire skeleton out of bread while he sat in our front room watching for Trick-or-Treaters to scare. In the future he is thinking of making a whole skeleton family.... |
The Dumb SupperAfter the Trick-or-Treaters have gone, we have our Samhain feast. This includes leaving an empty chair at the table for the ancestors, at which we set a plate and chalice filled with the best of our foods and drinks. Before we eat, we say a feast blessing, and invite friendly spirits to take the empty place and join our meal.
It is traditional for this "Dumb Supper" (dumb as in mute, excuse the political incorrectness) to be eaten in silence, and for some people, a silent meal can be a powerful experience. But I like to spend the meal asking everyone to share happy memories of the loved ones whom we miss. Laughter often ensues. Note from Bear: Remembering ones we lost is respecting them... Hi mom. Making Colcannon Bear usually grills a large bit of meat for our feast, and I make colcannon, an Irish potato dish traditionally eaten at Samhain. Colcannon is basically buttery mashed potatoes with cooked kale and onions added. (If you don't know how to cook kale, see instructions on the Side Salads page.) Although it's not traditional, it can also be tasty to make a base of garlic mashed potatoes before stirring in the kale and onions. Crush some garlic and add it to a small pot of milk (maybe a 1/4- 1/2 cup). Slowly heat the milk on a low setting (you don't want it to boil). Sample the milk periodically, and when you can taste the garlic in the liquid, use the garlic infused milk to mash your potatoes. Butter is optional, so this can be a tasty low fat way to eat your potatoes. |
An Offering
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Saying Goodnight to the Sun
Samhain is the symbolic time for the death of the Sun, because the days are getting shorter and colder. The Sun rests during the Winter, just like everything else in Nature. We have a solar image hanging above our altar, which we ceremoniously cover with black cloth every Samhain. We tell the Sun good night and wish Him sweet dreams. He will sleep under the warmth of His velvety blanket in the womb of the Goddess until He is reborn at the Winter Solstice (Dec. 21st), when we remove the covering and welcome Him back.
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The statue above is the Weeper, common in French grave yards.
It is Raining on the House of Anne Frank
It is raining on the house of Anne Frank and on the tourists herded together under the shadow of their umbrellas, on the perfectly silent tourists who would rather be somewhere else but who wait here on stairs so steep they must rise to some occasion high in the empty loft, in the quaint toilet, in the skeleton of a kitchen or on the map- each of its arrows a barb of wire- with all the dates, the expulsions, the forbidding shapes of continents. And across Amsterdam it is raining on the Van Gogh Museum where we will hurry next to see how someone else could find the pure center of light within the dark circle of his demons. - Linda Pastan In Good Poems for Hard Times, selected by Garrison Keillor |
Meditating on SadnessNext, we spend time in individual meditations. If I've lost someone close to me in the past year, my meditation will usually focus on connecting with them. In my mind, I tell them I miss them and say anything left unsaid. I open myself to receiving any messages they want to send to me and I often feel a very healing sense of love.
I miss my mother particularly, and have a memory box of letters that she wrote to me and old photos that I often go through at the beginning of my meditation. This gets a little less sad every year, and focuses more on the pleasure of remembering her. Later that night, she often visits my dreams. This is also the time I give myself over to sadness. Although I am generally optimistic and hopeful, I also have a strong side that is naturally inclined to depression, that thinks that life can be really hard sometimes. This is when I purposely connect with that part of myself, on the theory that feeling your emotions is always better than trying to suppress them. I play a soundtrack of sad music (see below) and let myself cry as much as I need to. When One Has Lived a Long Time Alone
When one has lived a long time alone, and the hermit thrush calls and there is an answer, and the bullfrog head half out of waters utters the cantillations he sang in his first spring, and the snake lowers himself over the threshold and creeps away among the stones, one sees they all live to mate with their kind, and one knows, after a long time of solitude, after the many steps taken away from one's kin, toward other kingdoms, the hard prayer inside one's own singing is to come back, if one can, to one's own, a world almost lost, in the exile that deepens, when one has lived a long time alone. - Galway Kinnell In Good Poems, selected by Garrison Keillor |
A New Year's DivinationEndings and beginnings go hand in hand. Samhain is the final harvest, the end of the productive agricultural year, and as such, it is also the beginning of a New Year. After connecting with the sadness of endings, we look toward the happiness of beginnings. After Samhain, we get to rest from our labors in the garden, and hopefully catch up on our sleep during the long Winter nights, so that we can be ready to start again come Spring.
As we look forward to the New Year, this can be a good time to ask for guidance, for divine messages that might be helpful to prepare for the coming seasons, or to see what might be happening in the coming year. There are many tools of divination (tarot, runes, I-Ching) that help connect you to your subconscious and to the Divine. Use the tools that are meaningful to you. I have a couple tarot decks, and I usually choose a deck from which to pull one card, looking into the picture to see what meaning it holds for the coming year. And when we sleep on the nights surrounding Samhain, we pay attention to our dreams. This may be the easiest way for messages to reach us from the other side. |
Bear's New Year:
Note from Theresa: Bear's Samhain celebrations focus more on the fact that Samhain is the New Year, rather than a time of sadness. He sees Samhain as a time of new beginnings, and focuses on what he would like to change in his life, writing about it in his journal, and doing his Samhain divination for guidance. To facilitate the changes he wants, he may fast on the days leading up to Samhain, and he often cuts his hair.
From Bear:
Yep... The seasons do change, and cycle back. Around here the trees lose their leaves and the ground freezes hard. Those are changes that are easy to see. For me, this is the time for an external change in how I look. Over the years my hair has gotten shorter and/or the beard gets a new style. As you can see below, the hair can't get any shorter than this year and I am not going to lose the beard, so maybe next year I can try a mohawk or color my hair for the first time ever... (Theresa just saw this and said oh... hell no... Actually I'm paraphrasing, she said something like "No way should you put nasty chemicals that close to your brain.") Stay tuned for results next year...
External is easy, internal change takes desire and the will to do the work to facilitate real change. I have apple fasted before for three days (eating nothing but apples or apple juice) and it sucked. Usually on day two I say "forget about that" and binge. This year my fast was so easy that I went for five days and it wasn't until the last day that I didn't want to eat apples anymore. Theresa was getting nervous about me by then, so we broke the fast when I got home from work. What have I learned? I control my habits. I can change the bad habits if I really want to. Change is a journey, figure out where you want to go then set things up so you can get there. Enough said... er typed...
From Bear:
Yep... The seasons do change, and cycle back. Around here the trees lose their leaves and the ground freezes hard. Those are changes that are easy to see. For me, this is the time for an external change in how I look. Over the years my hair has gotten shorter and/or the beard gets a new style. As you can see below, the hair can't get any shorter than this year and I am not going to lose the beard, so maybe next year I can try a mohawk or color my hair for the first time ever... (Theresa just saw this and said oh... hell no... Actually I'm paraphrasing, she said something like "No way should you put nasty chemicals that close to your brain.") Stay tuned for results next year...
External is easy, internal change takes desire and the will to do the work to facilitate real change. I have apple fasted before for three days (eating nothing but apples or apple juice) and it sucked. Usually on day two I say "forget about that" and binge. This year my fast was so easy that I went for five days and it wasn't until the last day that I didn't want to eat apples anymore. Theresa was getting nervous about me by then, so we broke the fast when I got home from work. What have I learned? I control my habits. I can change the bad habits if I really want to. Change is a journey, figure out where you want to go then set things up so you can get there. Enough said... er typed...
(Yes, Bear knows it's a cold time of the year to shave his head.)
Seasonal Music:
Lay down
Your sweet and weary head Night is falling You have come to Journey's end Sleep now Dream- of the ones who came before They are calling From across a distant shore...
Seasonal Reading:
See Also:
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