Samhain and Hallowmas:

The Holy Week:

Death and Rebirth in the cycle becomes complete

Part 1: The Spiritual Aspects and implications

I write this as Samhain and Hallowmas come to a close.  The festivals of the dead and the transition from the lords of the land to the lords of the underworld completes the transition.  I figured that as part of my job to help seekers on their search for questions I should provide some insight as to exactly what this sabbat is about and why people celebrate the sabbat in the ways that they do.  Like everything else there are many ways to explain and experience the mysteries of these sabbats and not every ones view will agree with yours or even make sense to you.  All I can do is provide my own insight based on my personal experiences and sources.

As I have started to develop my own personal theology this sabbat has come have a different meaning to me than other people might have.  That is why in my own practice I call the holiday I celebrate Mortedon.  However since most people are familiar with the names Samhain, Halloween, All Hallows Eve, and All Saints Day that is what I will use here.

According to many sources this time of year could easily be considered the witches new year.  The God is officially dead and in the underworld.  He wont be born again until the Winter solstice and as such he is dead and in the underworld.  This is the time to transit between one working season and the other.  It is a time of completion and reflection that may bring about the planning ad start of the new planting season for the next harvest.

In many ways the major difference between those who call themselves Traditional witches and those who consider themselves Wiccan is that the majority of the rituals in traditional witchcraft deal with ancestral veneration and ancestors as divine while the rituals found within Wicca focus on the God and Goddess or Lord and Lady rather than the ancestors.  This is alright.  Not every one is meant to worship and venerate the ancestors.  Anthropologically it has been said that ancestral worship was the first form of worship, which is why for me it has become a source of my foundation.

I actually appreciate these different theological styles.  There is one holiday in which they both meet and they both share the same view.  It is viewed by both paradigms (Wicca and Traditional Witchcraft) as a day to honor both the dead and the ancestors as well as the God and Goddess.  It is also an acknowledgement by both sides that the season of reflection is upon us.  It is now that we must spend our time upon reflection and preparation for the new year and seasons.

Samhain, All souls Day, All Saints Day, Ancestor Night…all of these are names for essentially the same festival.  This festival is an acknowledgment of every one who has gone before us.  It is also an acknowledgement that there is life after death.  It is here we can really see how even though the people we love and cherish may have passed on from this life, they really are still near by and watching us.

In many ways this is the time of year where the festivals a person honors and celebrates explains at least in part what their view of the afterlife is.  For some people who believe in reincarnation this is also a time to connect with any of their past lives so that lessons they have to impart may be gives.  This is the second festival where the veil between the worlds of the living and dead as well as spirit worlds is lowest.  That is why contact with spiritual allies at this time of year.

Part Two: The Theology and Mythology of the Sabbat

Folkore and myth united

This is according to many sources the last sabbat of the year.  For many witches the year starts at Yule and ends at Samhain and begins at Yule.  In reality there is no real start or finish to a cycle.  Cycles are circles and will always come back to a point and start again.  This is how the world and the universe exist.  Everything in the universe will be used again in the universe at some point in time.  Every thing physical you see on this planet is made of of a star that existed eons before we were born:

Theologically, spiritually, and mentally it makes sense that the world as we know it would work in cycles.  The physics at work in the universe simply provide a non-disputed example of how reincarnation exists.  Here at Hallowmass and Samhaintide we are really able to see and understand how death and destruction/decay are essential to the growth and development of future lives and crops.

According to the Cycle of the Year and the 8 sabbats within Wicca and Eclectic witchcraft Samhain is when the God is dead.  He was sacrificed at Mabon to ensure the fertile grounds of the next harvest.   At one point in history it was believed that the king was sacrificed to bring life to the land for the next year.  This was symbolic of the God’s death for the fertility of the land.  Latter corn dollies were sacrificed instead of a human.

Blood was and still is the essential life force.  If a creature is alive it bleeds.  By the God sacrificing himself his blood (his life force) goes into the land giving life to the land.  He knows that he will be reborn in his son in the end of winter and he will from the underworld guide and symbolize his son’s birth and his return by the return of the sun’s light starting at the Winter solstice (Yule).

It was believed that once a person died their body became the land.  The blood of the sacrificed victim nourished the spirits of the land for the winter and would gain their favor for the spring.At Samhain the ancestors and other spirits from the land of the dead returned to give their blessings for the following year to their descendants.

The God at this time was in the Underworld understanding and being reborn.  At Beltaine he had impregnated the Lady, his lover and wife, who would bear the child of promise who would carry and light the way for the Lord to be reborn at Yule (the light returning slowly) with his actual birth at Imbolc.  The rest of the sabbats continue along this line.   So in some ways Samhain is both the start and the finish.

The knowledge that there is life after death and life in death is symbolized no better than with ever greens (one of the reasons why those trees are decorated at Christmas).  It’s also one of the reasons I feel that the hope to get through the winter for the spring exists.  To see something that is alive and producing chlorophyll in the winter while the rest of the trees are inherently dead proves that there is life in death.   It is one of the reasons I can see that death allows for the continuation of life.

With these thoughts in mind it is time to get to:

Part 3: A sample ritual

Ways that honoring the ancestors can be done

Now that it has been established why honoring the ancestors is so important I can start to give you some ideas as to how you as a seeker or as an active Pagan could honor your ancestors and the Gods and celebrate this sabbat and simply begin or further expand your understanding of this sabbat.  For myself I gained even deeper insight into the mysteries this Samhain.  As I post this the gates start to begin closing and the path seems to close, yet the creepy and spooky nature that is Samhaintide and Hallowsmass remains, the time to honor the ancestors comes to a close.

I have had a week to reflect on what I wanted to write for this entry and I have finally come to the last part of the entry where I can really start to explain how one can go about celebrating this sabbat.  For many years as a seeker I was honestly unsure of what to do with my offerings for any sabbat.  Samhain was another one that left me confused, so now I feel it it is time to give some sort of explanation as to how you can give your offerings to the Gods and the ancestors.

So here is a very simple ritual:

Ancestral Ritual For Samhain:

Materials:

Apple or Pomegranete Juice/alcohol

Red Apples or Pomegranete fruit & Seeds

Two cups

1 tree

Ritual:”

As you pour your drink concentrate and think of your ancestors and the Gods and the land.  Focus intently and place this light into the food and drink blessing it in the names of the spirits, the ancestors, and the Gods.  You then pour two drinks one for the Spirits, ancestors and Gods and one for your self.

As you take your drink say a prayer for what you are thankful and towards any ancestors you wish to contact and communicate with.  Take a moment and think of them.  Then get into your trance position.  For this it may be best of you lie facing down with your hands working as a head rest head in a comfortable position.  After you get into position think and state to your self:

“I Vibrate in harmony with the Underworld and the Gods of the Underworld”.

Repeat this statement over and over until you reach a state where you see and become one with the God or Goddess of the Underworld.  Continue the trance until you have gained all the insight you will receive.  Slowly reduce your vibration into yourself.  Once you are back into yourself take another drink in honor of the Gods and the lesson you learned.

Eat the red apple or the pomegranate seeds.  If you eat the apple place the seeds aside till the morning.  If you eat the pomegranate seeds place a few aside till the morning.

Go to bed expecting dreams based on the rite you performed.  The following morning write down any dreams you may have had.  When done and dressed for the day take the seeds and the same drink you had the night before and place them in a whole at the trees base.

Reasoning behind the ritual:

By taking in that blessed drink you understand that the drink is the fruits of the Gods who you worship as well as the ancestors who literally are the land.  This drink is their blood after the sacrificial blood of the god had been spilled, this is their response.  When you eat the fruits of the land or drink of the liquids you are taking in the essence of the land and your ancestors.

When you let a drink in a cup evaporate overnight that drink is consumed by the air and the essence of life.  The ancestors who have returned to visit partake of this liquid.  In the morning the seeds and the remaining liquid are returned to the ground.  This nourishes the ancestors and the spirits as well as the gods.  This is how we can honor and nourish them.

Part four: My conclusion:

For me this really explains a lot.  Through the ritual expressed above I was able to understand the roles of the Gods and the Goddesses that I worship.  I was also able to understand exactly what the underworld does to work with rebirth and reincarnation.  Finally When I look at astrophysics and how the creation of new universes begin and what black-holes really are I can see how my theology and philosophy line up with science.

I really recommended that any seeker of the wisdom of the cycle of destruction, reformation, creation, growth, and development take a basic physics course.  This course will explain how the various galaxies came into being, how stars and suns are born, and how new universes are created.  In some ways it may also lead a seeker to see how magic could be seen to be the force that keeps all of these things working in balance.  That is what Samhaintide and Hallowmas is all about.