THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE COMMERCIALIZATION OF HALLOWEEN
The spiritual world has its seasons too - and as with the natural world, these seasons are tied to the movement of the heavenly bodies. Halloween and All Saints day - the Day of the Dead in other cultures - mark the mid-point between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice - and traditionally this is the beginning of winter.
As we've noted before, when the natural world begins to die, the spirit world comes alive.
And traditionally Halloween was more holy than horrifying.
The feasting traditionally associated with Halloween is to draw the dead to us, to make them nostalgic for the pleasures of the material world.
Think of the Day of the Dead and all the grisly fun in that imagery.
English mumming - from which we get mummers meaning actors - began when people would dress up like the dead to make them feel at home, to greet them in a playful sort of way. The word mummer comes from the mum-mum sound they made imitating the walking dead's attempts to speak.
Halloween was a time when you might commune with your ancestors, when prayers were more likely to be heard and when the spirit of prophecy was strong. Girls would bob for apples - traditionally the fruit of Venus because the 5 point pattern pips make in a slice of apple mimic the pattern Venus makes in the sky over a 40 year period - in search of love. If you were successful, you'd put the apple under your pillow and hope to dream of the man you'd marry.
So Halloween is like a great turning point in the year, like the opening of a great door in the cosmos - and the spirits come pouring through.
Goblins, ghosts and the spirits of the dead, these are the lowest of the denizens of the spirit wolrds. But at the beginning of winter we also begin to look forward to the deep mid-winter, when the greatest spirit involved in the destiny of the planet is reborn...
Nice description of Halloween. I have always liked this time of year, but then again I have a foot on both sides...it seems.
Posted by: String | October 14, 2007 at 11:07 AM
Nice description of Halloween. I have always liked this time of year, but then again I have a foot on both sides...it seems.
Posted by: String | October 14, 2007 at 11:09 AM
Really looking forward to read your book 'The Secret History of the World'.
In the meantime, hope many people read about your Halloween note, the world... well, we all need it to return to our natural cycles.
Would like to send you my electronic bulletin linked to natural cycles and the forgotten histories of ancient and alive people. If you are interested, contact me on my email.
Thanks for helping lift the veil.
Posted by: Ximena Eduarda | October 23, 2007 at 09:25 PM
Halloween has been taken over by the crass commercialism that has also co-opted Christmas and Easter at least here in the States. We need to remember why these holidays exist and have existed. It is sad I think that most people don't bother to scratch beneath the veneer of the everyday and see the eternal underneath. Thanks for reminding us.
Posted by: Michael Mojo | October 28, 2007 at 04:02 PM
I recently had a chance to talk to Lorna Byrne,mentioned in the Secret History, about Halloween. She confirmed that the spiritual beings are naturally closer to us, more active, more communicative at the this time of year. Also because at this time of year some people dabble in things they shouldn't.
Posted by: Mark Booth | November 03, 2007 at 03:06 PM
String, what do you meana, a foot on boths sides?
Posted by: jonathan black | November 05, 2007 at 08:21 PM
Ximena
I'd love to see your electronic bulletin...it would be great if we could construct a complete almanac, showing how the spirit world changes in relation to changes in the natural world.
Posted by: jonathan black | November 05, 2007 at 08:24 PM