This is the thirty-second issue of my free newsletter. Your feedback is most welcome!
Halloween (All Hallows Eve) is the cross-quarter holiday celebrated by our Celtic and Wiccan ancestors as “Samhain,” or “Summer’s End.” It is the time of harvest in the fields, and also a time of harvest for the soul. Looking back, we can make amends for our past mistakes, and celebrate our souls’ progress. Thus the new year (which began on November 1st in some traditions) could be started with a clean slate. As the leaves fall and the vegetation begins to die back, death is present in our thoughts. This was the time to honor the dead and the ancestors; the veil between the physical world and the spirit world was believed to be the thinnest, so that communication with any beings in the spirit realm—ancestors, fairies, animal spirits—was possible, and encouraged. The dead were invited to return and feast with their loved ones. Advice could be sought and received from the spirit realms; witches were the skillful intermediaries who knew this territory. All the household fires were extinguished. Great bonfires were lit, from which the home hearth fires were rekindled, marking the new year. November 1st was called “All Souls’ Day,” by the Catholic Church.
Of course there is always fear of the unknown spirit world. Diverse cultures have coped with that fear in a variety of ways. American children dress up as witches, ghosts, skeletons, vampires, and other scary beings and used to carry out pranks designed to scare adults into giving them treats. Perhaps by acting out the scary appearance and deeds of the feared beings, children can become less afraid of the spirit world. With our commercialized holidays, children today are more likely to dress up as TV characters, pranks are rarely played, and there is less emphasis on the scary aspects of Halloween. There is no mention of honoring the dead. In Mexico, however, on the Day of the Dead (November 1st) children play with skeleton dolls and eat sugar skulls, while adults build elaborate altars to deceased loved ones, adorned with hundreds of marigold blossoms and tissue paper cut-outs.
For many adults, Halloween can be a chance to slip out of our everyday personas and into the role of our disowned, shadow selves. The shy, conservative young woman becomes a stripper or a prostitute; the tough guy puts on a woman’s dress, and people have a socially sanctioned opportunity to act out these roles as flamboyantly as they dare—another way of facing fears. What if we were to try on the roles of the highest selves we could imagine? Maybe that would be the scariest of all! What role would YOU like to slip into, to become more closely connected with your own spirit?
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It’s interesting that, at this time of the thinning of the veil, our presidential election is being held. The scariest thing I am contemplating on these final days before November 2nd is that the election might be again stolen by the Republicans, using intimidation of voters, disqualifying people of color from voting for bogus reasons, and tampering with the voting machines.
However, I am also aware of the power of my mental images to shape reality. So I am choosing to focus instead upon the image of a Democratic landslide fueled by hundreds of thousands of brand-new or returned voters, the return of the youth, the black and Latino and poor to the polls, and the mighty wave of citizens working, working tirelessly to unseat one of the worst presidents in history and replace him with a man who will be more responsive to the will of the people. I’m imagining the American people rousing themselves from their fear-induced trance, and refusing to let themselves be had. I am visualizing Kerry taking the oath of office, followed by an outbreak of world peace! Please take a moment and hold these images in your mind with me. If the spirit world is listening, please hear our prayers!
Cathy Holt
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