The winter quarter of Samhain brings the gifts of restoration and renewal. As the cold weather closes in, so the soul is led to more reflective depths. It is traditionally associated with the remembrance of the ancestors, with the coming of death and the conception of new life. In the human growth cycle, Samhain corresponds to the period of old age when wisdom, freedom of spirit and clarity are experienced. Samhain is a good time to celebrate the lives of all wise elders, all those whose actions and ideas have brought resolution and peace, all holy ones whose sacrifice have brought new life and opened spiritual thresholds to all.
Caitlin Matthews
A Celtic Devotional
As I sit here on All Hallow’s Eve, awaiting the little trick or treaters, I reflect on some of those who have gone before: my grandfather, whose sacrifice was to die in the trenches of World War I like millions of his generation, never having set eyes on his new-born son; that son, my father, who led a life full of love and duty; my mother, who put aside her own ambitions to raise a family of five, including my brother, who loved intensely and who died last year; my aunt, who kept to her faith despite enormous sadness, and who died of cancer bravely and matter-of-factly.
I remember also the 25,000 people, mostly children, who have died of hunger today. And all those unknown voices who scream to us from the memory of the Holocaust, the voices suddenly silenced on the 9th September 2001 and in other terrorist attacks, the Rwandan genocide, those who have died in Darfur, martyrs of many faiths, including victims of the inquisition and the crusades, and so many other victims of genocide, war and hatred.
Perhaps it’s not inappropriate today to remember especially all the women, and many men, tortured and killed as witches during the “burning times” – the witch-hunts that took place across Europe around the 15th and 16th centuries.
I’m thankful that today my pagan friends are free to practice as they wish, although this is far from the case everywhere.
The photograph above is of a memorial to those persecuted in the Salem Witch Trials in the 1690s. The words on the doll read:
Hatred and prejudice now banished
Let love reside
Across the veil of time our ancestors call
We are still wise ones through it all
Who do you honour today?
Image by bowtoo
Elsewhere:
Let’s listen to The Elders we have still with us, that formidable group of leaders brought together by Nelson Mandela. And tomorrow, on Dia de los Muertos, check in with the shrines that will be appearing on Susanna’s Dia de Bloglandia page.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Tess, thanks for providing this space of tribute to the dead, which I had not set aside time for today, I truly do appreciate it. There are many memorials in NYC, but there is one place dear to me that I always remember at this time, and is prompted too by Caitlin Matthews and by your own reflection.
Not far from the gutted out World Trade Center area in NYC, there is a place called the Irish Hunger Memorial Garden. It is a rooftop-type garden raised on huge pillars and you enter it through a dark subterranean tunnel made of stone. As you come up into the light, it is as if you were being raised from the dead, or from deep depression, or grief, but also, as if you were being empowered by some night-like state of clarity and open-mindedness. There is a path then that spirals upward, seeming into the sky, through gardens and heath and rocks, with names of each county in Ireland engraved on them. The Memorial not only honors all the dead of Ireland’s years of starvation during the famine, but millions of people in the world today who haven’t enough food to eat. (Have linked my user name to a photo I took a few years ago of the Hunger Garden’s glorious heath and sky!).
Hi Tess, I just returned from a family vacation on the sunny beaches of Mexico. And while Mexico certainly has a stunning glory all its own, I am glad that I am home to contemplate the beauty of this All Saints Day. The Alaskan climate and terrain draws me to that place of Samhain that Caitlan speaks about. It is dark here, a dusting of snow on the ground, and the ancestors surround me. I especially remember today, my sister. She was my elder but only by one year and she left us when I was only six. She didn’t live what we would call a “full” life, but I am very sure that she has left part of her light and her spirit with me, all of these years. I also remember children all around the world who have died far, far too young. May all of the ancestors speak deeply in our hearts today, that we might face this world with hope and great love. That we will also help it be a better place. Love….
@Sarah: the garden you describe sounds very moving and the photograph you link to is extraordinary in its detail and scope. Thank you.
@Rebecca: it must be incredibly difficult to lose a family member that young. The sense of potential unfulfilled, both in the person and in your relationship. May we indeed “face this world with hope and great love”.
Tess, today I remember all those who have given their lives for our country. I remember all those who were courageous enough to come here to start a new life, becoming our country’s settlers. I remember all those who have stood for right and truth in the face of darkness. I remember my own ancestors who sacrificed so that my children and I could have a better life. I remember the millions who have died under dictatorships. I remember the mothers of the missing who wear white scarves in Buenos Aires in front of the palace. I remember all the children who have been abducted and never seen again. I remember victims of all kinds of hideous crimes. I remember. And I honor them all.
diantha, thank you for your rememberings. It sometimes feels to me that, wherever we live, we’re borne up on a tide of sacrifice.