Archive for Halloween
Last of the Three Harvest Points in the Wheel of the Year: Samhain
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Window: October 30- November 1
Celebrated: October 31
The four cross-quarter days of the wheel of the year, such as Samhain, were considered very important by the ancient people who worked with the wheel. Many cultures have a sacred time during this cross-quarter point of Samhain (Sah-win, Sah-ween). It is also known as Halloween, All Souls Night, All Hallows Eve, with the Day of the Dead, or All Souls Day on Nov 1 or 2.
The medieval Irish word Samhain, means summer’s end. It is the last of three harvest festivals, as the growing season in North America comes to a close. This cross-quarter day begins the turn toward winter. The cross-quarter days fall between the solstices and equinoxes and signal the turn toward the next season. To understand the cross-quarter days more fully, go to www.naturalrhythms.org and download your free copy of Chapter 2 of Natural Rhythms™ by Lisa Michaels.
Lifting the Veil of Samhain
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- Illustrator Prescott Hill http://hillustrate.com
People who honored the cycles of the Earth and Nature were once serious targets of the religious powers of their time. There was so much horrific brutality enacted during that religious take-over that it caste a veil of fear that still exists in the minds of some today.
Interestingly enough, it was often very simple things that were pushed into the “fear this” category.
Lumped into this collective shadow were ideas and actions such as:
~ working with the cycles of the moon
~ gathering herbs
~ the darkness of night
~ dancing under the full moon
~ cats — especially black ones in the US
~ intuition
~ emotions
~ the Divine Feminine/the Goddess
~ honoring the cycles of nature through the Wheel of the Year (including Samhain also known as Halloween)
~ dancing as a way of connecting to the Divine
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