Oct 31Celtic Feast of Samhain (from dark silence new beginning)

[texpatriot2004]

Patrick Fitzgerald is Irish, the Irish (actually it's a Celtic tradition) celebrate the feast of Samhain 10/31; it's about honoring ancestors for one.

Some believe that Samhain was the more important festival, marking the beginning of a whole new cycle, just as the Celtic day began at night. For it was understood that in dark silence comes whisperings of new beginnings, the stirring of the seed below the ground.

http://www.celticspirit.org/samhain.htm

[Withywindle]

1. I hear ya...

Some people misunderstand this holiday as sinister or evil because it's connected with the dead and the underworld (and when did we start fearing the dead, anyway? I think in spirit it's closer to Dia de los Muertos than anything else, and that's a celebration too).

It does have its dark side. In addition to honoring the beloved dead, it also has to do with clearing away that which is oppressive and corrupted and twisted to make way for new beginnings. Sound familiar? :D

[ninkasi]

2. It was also the day (or night)

when souls could walk between the worlds of living and dead. It is a shame that new religions...some of them...feel the need to demonize the old. Knowledge can be added, enriching us all. There are many paths to follow, but they all lead to the same place.

[texpatriot2004]

5. Yes. When did we dismiss the dead? Instead of acknowleging

that souls live on. I mean we may acknowledge that but we are now so disconnected from the dead. I wonder why?

[ninkasi]

12. Because modern Christianity wants to control

the lives of the living and the dead, at least in my own opinion. Years ago, more than 30 years ago, my then husband's deceased aunt came to me in a dream. She spoke to me in Spanish, which I spoke, but not as well as I wished, and showed me an oblong box, yellow and brown, with what looked to be a collection of what I could only describe as squiggles inside.

She told me to give the box to her niece (my husband's cousin). She told me that the box was in my garage, and had been left there by my mother-in-law, who was her sister. Now, my mother-in-law had left several large boxes of her things in our garage, but I would not have dreamed of going through them. I took no action.

A week later, the same aunt appeared in a dream...she was dressed in white, bathed in a golden light, but was quite stern...she told me, in no uncertain terms, that her wishes were for me to deliver the box to her niece, that it had been hers, given by her to her niece, but that my mother-in-law had taken it without her permission.

I went to the garage, and found a box like she described. I opened it, and found...metal squiggles, as in my dream. I called the niece. She knew right away what it was...her aunt's wood burning kit, which the aunt had promised to her before she died.

I had not ever seen the box, or the kit, or known what it meant. I believe, to this day, that the aunt came to me because I was the only person with access to the box, who would fulfill her wishes. Believe, or not, as you wish. Oct. 31 is more than a day on a calendar to some of us,still.

[texpatriot2004]

13. I believe your box story. I guess I am a different kind of Christian.

I am not sure what you mean about them trying to control the living and the dead. I am sure you have your reasons. I tend to be a more open minded Christian. I do believe your dream.

[texpatriot2004]

3. Yeah, I thought it was relevant to that clearing away part. Do you

celebrate it at all? In recent years I have made attempts to honor my ancestors who have passed and also tried some of the traditional foods - they escape me at the moment.

I recall reading that the Celtic people used to leave the door to the homes unlocked on this night and left food out too in case ancestors should come visit they would not be left out.

Why is it misunderstood do you think? I do see your point about the day of the dead.

[Withywindle]

7. I do, yes.

I make a shrine with pictures and objects associated with people who have passed. Both people who were personally close to me and those I didn't know but admired who've passed in the last year. I don't do a big production, I just light candles and take a little time out to meditate and thank all these people for what they've given me (even the relatives I didn't get along with in life--part of it is trying hard to find something to appreciate!) and wish them well wherever they are even though I don't understand it yet. Sometimes I definitely do feel them respond, I believe.

I think we pathologize death too much. Up until a hundred years or so ago, most people died in their homes with their families present, and their loved ones did the work of washing and dressing and burying the bodies. Now most people die in hospitals, and there's much wondering if children should be allowed at funerals, etc. I certainly don't want to go back on all our medical advances, but I wish we could reclaim some of the understanding our ancestors had about death as a natural part of the life cycle that was seen as something families should participate in.

[texpatriot2004]

8. Thanks for sharing your personal experience with me. It helps me

to expand my knowledge of this tradition.

I agree with you 100% about needing a balance between our medical advances and our human traditions/rituals.

So how do you clean out the corrupt, etc?

[Withywindle]

11. You're welcome!

It's pretty simple really, for me. It's just a matter of acknowledging those who are gone and their gifts--whether it's my right-wing grandfather who left me the gift of stubbornness and taught me how to argue, or a friend who left suddenly and too young, or someone who laid down a path for me to walk further in progressive movements, or someone who just made music or books that moved me, I think it's important to make time for them.

I think that what happened to Terri Schiavo, for example, should never happen to any human being. I do have spiritual beliefs, obviously, and the idea of that poor woman's soul trapped in that useless body all those years and not allowed to move on, while those scumbags made political theater out of it...I don't even have words for the shudder.

As to the clearing away part...man, I wish I knew! I just know a LOT of good people have been working SO hard on it for SO many years, but nothing is more tenacious than someone who doesn't deserve power but has it anyway trying to hang on to it at any cost.

[Withywindle]

9. Also, I have to say...

...I had rather hoped that clearing away part would happen around LAST Samhain. But I'll take what I can get.

[texpatriot2004]

10. LOL Me too. nm

[nofurylike]

4. thank you for that post and knowledge and vision, texpatriot2004! eom

[KitchenWitch]

6. Blessed Samhain

and Fitzmas to all!