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| Author: Posted: Sep. 8, 2002 | This Page Viewed: 6,999,453 |
Question of the Week: 82 - 10/20/2002 Your Samhain/Beltaine Musings What have you been musing about at this time of the changing seasons? What lessons have you learned? What hopes do you hold for the future? How will you honor/mark/celebrate the Holiday? If you have rituals, poems, stories or links to seasonal lore and/or activities, feel free to share them here. |
| Reponses: There are 50 responses posted to this question. | Reverse Sort |
| Happy New Year! | Oct 22nd. at 3:03:25 pm EDT |
| Ciarrai (New Jersey) | Age: 35 - Email |
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Definitely a day of the new (or night rather....) Blessed Samhain to all of you. Best wishes for a great year to come. In spite of what we all have been through, I am grateful for the good, and I hope to give more, and hopefully get some back in return. Peace, Ciarrai |
| Everyone Coming Together | Oct 22nd. at 3:04:46 pm EDT |
| Timoto (PA) | Age: 17 - Email |
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I have several other Pagan friends, and on the two main Sabbats we all come together to give thanks to the Goddess and God. Not like "Oh God, thank you so much, oh yes." But we do incantations together for about three hours (I'd like to see anyone beat that.) And at midnight we purify the sacred space, cast the circle on a white table cloth and invoke any Dieties and Ancestors we want to attend. We then feast on a small dinner with some juice (We can't drink yet) and basically focus upon the new year. |
| Thoughts On The End Of Summer | Oct 22nd. at 11:31:56 pm EDT |
| DolphinSmile (Austin, TX) | Age: 21 - Email |
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I have always liked holidays, and now that I have found my religion they're even more meaningful to me. I like Samhain's mixture of solmemn introspection and honoring the dead, along with the partying and staring your fears in the face. I think it's rather therepudic. I think it's interesting that Samhain and Beltaine are opposite each other on the neo-pagan calendar, and one is sex-themed while the other is death-themed. Those are also opposites. I just bought a book at Half-Price Books called Sex and the Origins of Death by William R. Clark. Haven't gotten around to read it yet, but the author is a molecular biologist, and he argues in this book that not only do we have sex because we die, but we die because we have sex (in fact he thinks sex came first!). The two are dependent on each other and without one the other would not exist. Interesting idea. I break from most Wiccans in that I don't think of Samhain as New Year's. Maybe I'm still stuck on my old secular custom of celebrating New Year's later on, but I think of Samhain as the end of the old year, and Yule as the beginning of the new one. It just makes more sense to me since Yule is an actual natural event, the shortest day, and from then on the days bounce back and start getting longer again. Samhain then is a day of endings, and Yule is a day of beginnings. So what is going on between those two? I haven't figured that part out yet (hey, I've only been doing this for three years). Thanksgiving and Christmas shopping I guess. I'm actually not sure if I am going to do much to celebrate Samhain this year. I'm currently living in a dorm on UT and my roommate doesn't really like me, so I don't want to do anything that might freak her out even worse. I might have to do something really subtle, but I'll see. Maybe I'll find some kind of event to go to this year. Fortunately I haven't had anyone I know die this year, so I am probably going to spend the day thinking of the past year and sort of taking an inventory and making sure everything is in order. If the Celts culled the herd during Samhain, I guess I should slaughter any old baggage I have from this year so I can start fresh next spring. |
| Witches Wheel | Oct 23rd. at 1:35:46 am EDT |
| ravin (bc, canada) | Age: 28 - Email |
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Samhain brings pumpkins and candles aglow Yule comes with pine trees and blankets of snow Imbolc will show us if winters end nears Ostara will bring colored eggs and good cheer Beltane brings planting and maypoles for dancing Litha, the solstice, the suns light is waning Lammas we harvest the first of our grain Mabon were finished the harvest again One last turn of the wheel and winters begun Back to samhain and pumpkins and ancestral fun |
| My Samhain Musings... | Oct 23rd. at 1:44:59 am EDT |
| Raven Skyfire (Two Harbors, Mn.) | Age: 29 - Email |
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I've always thought of Samhain as a bittersweet time of year. Both of my parents are no longer living, so anything that involves retrospect on departed loved ones is still very painful, but I feel that the pain we feel from the loss of a loved one is not for them but for ourselves because they are free from this world and have gone on to better things but we are still here and we miss them. However, I also feel that the loss of a loved one is only temporary and we will see them again in another life, if never again in this one. "And may we meet, and know, and remember, and love again" truely are comforting words during this season and help to take the pain away. Samhain really is a exciting time of year that is best experienced with joy and happiness without feeling sorry for ourselves for things that we cannot change. My birthday is the day after and that is something that I always look forward to as I wonder what the Goddess has in store for me this year. Anyway, may you all have a happy and safe Halloween and Blessed Be. |
| Life And Death And Lessons Learned | Oct 23rd. at 7:17:46 am EDT |
| clio (York PA) | Age: 29 - Email |
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This Samhain will be the first I will truly celebrate with ritual (as I am still studying and learning), and this Samhain will be truly poignant for me. My beloved maternal grandmother passed away in July, at the age of 94. She will be remembered, as will my uncle and my cousin who passed away in 1985 and 1995 respectively. So too will I remember my paternal grandmother who passed in 1993. The loss of my beloved family members over the years has taught me a very very valuable lesson: Life is precious and should not be taken for granted. I make it a habit to tell my loved ones as much as possible how much they mean to me. My Samhain ritual is still taking form in my mind. I will be interested to see how I feel when it is complete. |
| New To Samhain | Oct 23rd. at 10:50:21 am EDT |
| Nicholas Wagner (Live Oak, Florida) | Age: 18 - Email |
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I have just recently begun taking an interest in paganism/wicca. I am still trying to get used to all the new ways of celebrating. I love holidays, and paganism sure has plenty. I am really enjoying this Samhain season. As a matter of fact I just recently performed my first ritual. It was a harvest ritual thanking deity and spirit for its bounties. Although it was a little rough around the edges, I think the God and Goddess understood. I asked them to bear with me as I stumbled through. This time of year has always been my favorite...even before being interested in paganism. I love the changing of the leaves, the crisp fall air, that wonderful pure feeling that engulfs me during these months. Plus it's a nice break from this Florida heat. I think besides rituals I will be honoring my deceased grandfather, whom i was very close to, and other people that have passed away that i was close to. I have been talking to my grandfather, lighting candles for him and saying numerous prayers to him. I think about him all the time, and the Samhain season has made me think about him even more. I will also be attending my first public ritual this year, which I am very excited about. I am not sure what all will go on, but I will find out. This is also a great time of year to party, and I will do just that. |
| Celebration | Oct 23rd. at 11:24:59 am EDT |
| Laura (England) | Age: 19 - Email |
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I am looking forward to the coming year and letting go of past experiences and troubles in my life. Samhain is a time when I feel I can concentrate most on what I want to have learnt from my experiences. I want to be able to give thanks to the god and goddess for everything that I have and for the ability to heal myself and other people. I think I will be doing a small ritual with my sister, a nice feast and a good chant should go down well. Blessed be and good luck |
| Be Yourself | Oct 23rd. at 11:57:55 am EDT |
| Ravenwolfe Dreamwalker (Wyoming) | Age: 45 - Email |
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I still carve a pumpkin, spice hot cider, and dress in costume(I go as myself), and go trick or treating! Well, not actually door to door,but in spirit! The rest is too solumn to share, but we all face the season in our collective individualism! Blessed be! |
| The Darkness Gathers | Oct 23rd. at 12:55:36 pm EDT |
| Michael Humble (North Louisiana) | Age: 45 - Email |
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People in ancient times, feared the coming of winter. Life was hard, Even in the "greenwood", subsistance was pretty much hand to mouth. and the sunset of the year could only promise a thining of the margin of life. meany of the young ones, and old, would fall to the shadows of winter. The samhain rituals of the time, were not just for fun, they were a real attempt, to fight back the monsters of their world, and times, born from the human spirit, the will to servive and to protect loved ones, these workings were infused with the power of the spirit, and thus became truely majickal. There is much death and destruction in our world of today, I fear this time it is more than just a change of season, but a turning of a greater wheel, I will spend the morning of oct. 31st, visiting the graves of my mother, and my cat Opheala, both of whom left me this past spring, and cme the night I will slip off into the wood, set quitely by a small fire, and listen for the angel's voices on the wind. I hope they bring good news. Happy samhain everyone...and Blessed Be |
| Endings And Beginnings... | Oct 23rd. at 5:08:20 pm EDT |
| Seeker of the Owl (Michigan) | Age: 39 - Email |
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The summer has ended and winter soon begins. I will spend time honoring those who have gone to the summerland, dreaming and setting goals for the new year, getting rid of useless baggage I picked up in the previous year, communing with the Lord and Lady, eating harvest soup and bread. The pooches and kitties get their own little pumpkins. All that after the children are done trick or treating. Then the next morning, my two malamutes and I will be hiking the trails. Fall and Winter are very lively and busy seasons in our house. So even though summer has ended, with all it's colors, warmth, brightness and abundance, the winter gives us just as much only in a different way. |
| Ancestors Remembered | Oct 23rd. at 7:36:28 pm EDT |
| Jennifer (Vermont) | Age: 35 - Email |
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On Samhain I will be sharing my children's genealogy with them once again, and regale them with tales of "those that came before." We plan to have a meal which incorporates foods from the different nationalities that make us, and of course, set a place for any spirits that wish to join us. My children will trick-or-treat, and will leave an offering of candy on our doorstep before they go to bed. After, my husband and I will light the small Samhain bonfire, reflect on the past year, and ask the spirits to honor us with their presence - to guide us with their wisdom. Happy Samhain and Bright Blessings to one and all! |
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