When I was a child, I loved Halloween. Getting dressed up with my friends as a witch or a ghost and walking around to our neighbours houses where we would sing or dance in exchange for some sweets, nuts or fruit. It was so much fun, all the kids would get together and roam the countryside in one big gang. I don't ever remember there being any fights, we got swept up in the excitement of it all.
Then as I grew up and began to educate myself about the traditional celebrations of my homeland, I learnt about Samhain, The Festival of Rememberance, The Feast for the Dead. How this is the time to stop and honour our loved ones, that are no longer with us.
A time to celebrate them, to share our memories and our love for them. This is a tradition that I very much want to keep alive, so each year I light a candle in our home and choose some photos of our loved ones that have passed on, to put on our altar. Which is what you can see, in these pictures that I am sharing.
This year my youngest daughter chose the pictures and arranged them on our altar. Along with the heart stone from my sister and the cloth heart I made. Death is such a huge part of our lives, its important that we honour it and that our children grow up honouring it as well.
It's a time of reflection, a reflection on life, death and rebirth. As time to embrace the darkness, to connect with our root energy and internalise our creative life force. A time to let go of the old, so that we are ready to embrace the new. As the days get shorter, now is the time to travel within and find renewal through rest and meditation.
Now is the time to sit with our fears, to explore them. So that we can greater understand and thus transform them. Now is the time for incubation, of our visions and dreams. Of inner exploration, so that when the light returns, we are ready to fully step into our power in the more active phase of the year.
As always nature is my greatest guide. As the rain falls outside and the nights grow longer, I feel my body ache for the warm and comfort of my inner sanctum. It calls on me to rest more, so that I can listen more and connect with both my ancestors and my own inner wisdom.
Happy Samhain Everyone.
