SamhainNight
Samhain is a time to remember our ancestors, to connect with them, to feed their spirits and ours as well. It is a time for making new pledges, and seeking spiritual guidance, it is a time of magick and superstition. It is a night of deep reflection which should never be forgotten.
My dear sisters come gather with me,
Sing the moon into the sky,
Draw it's power down deep inside,
Welcome the spirits who flit and fly,
Howl to the moon in keening tune,
Dance and swirl with energy whirls,
Move in between the veils that shimmer and swirl,
Offer a song of enchantment,
Gaze with me into the pools of magick,
Feed the ancestors tonight,
For now is the period between dark and light,
Suspended in time the borders of the supernatural,
Dissolve and thin the spirits come within,
Touch our lives as they are driftin,
Hallow ground welcomes the celebration,
To our sacred spaces we leave ritual sacrifices,
For time is now of honoring,
Our deities can communicate and we live on,
Through the veils we step into a new year,
born all over again.
| Darkened moon,
Samhain rising Signifying the cycles end As things progress in life They are born and then die Situations both short and long. As we travel the paths unknown Facing life and what it knows Do we only see the joy and pain Or also the lessons there to gain. By Rebecca Key
The voices of the woods unfold as sweet scents of decaying leaves harbor the secrets of the season and leaves blow with the blustery winds, listen to the branches sway and discover the magick of autumn all around you for winter soon approaches with its chill frost and snowy thoughts of dormancy and rest, the spirit world opens its gates to a new year and the haunts rush their words before the veil closes with the fallen leaves. By Autumn
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In this time, where wind blows through the chimes,
whispers the leaves rattling from barren branches, and the sweeping of
brooms to clear away the old attics, comes the howl of the wolf echoing
through the night, to call the ancestors on Samhain night, place a plate
on your steps, feed them all the love and breath we have lived,
tell the
stories around the fire and call them forth near
the pyre, dancing and chanting merry
be, blessed are those who celebrate with me,
come now and open the gate to understanding love
and not hate. Love you all and blessed be on this the time of Samhain. Be safe.
In this time, where wind blows through memories strong, whispers songs long stilled in silent slumber and the sweeping embrace that calls us home, barren comes the keening wail echoing through times veil to call them, first and last on Samhain, bright place the chalice before the threshold drink deeply all that has come and comes again, legends slip easily through wetted lips near the flames, spiraling in spiraling out we join, blessed are those holding memory, come now compassion light the way to love- not hate. In this time, standing strong we unite
our folded hands, blue moon of fullest swoon shimmers on the land, call
me again into the circle, horn tips spilling over the chalice born of
the raven hair, the goddess and the god honor our blessings and protect us tonight, as we seek to close the gap of
hatred, spread together we emerge from our lives pain shed, and stands
before us the guardians old, from the oak leaves of the grove, we can
dance and we can drum, the spirit of renewal in the circle above,
dancing hearts in the merry air, blessed are those hearts heralding the
air, come now compassion come now my love, seek a place not to hate and
fill the world with the light sent from above.
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| How to let live and let fly, Be away you my spirit, And love the sky, So that I may turn again, Like the gentle crisp leaf, Now tender and dry, Fragile wings spreading, Into a whirling wind, Dancing on the cool air, Sweeping from the north, Colors of bright green, Gone pale with time, Now as the sun withdraws, Slow on the horizon, My colors of harvest shine, But to renew, I must let go too, And fly in the wind, With love born of long months, Close to the mother's heartbeat, Longing for the seed, That sparked life within me, To grow and change, Free floating on the fall breeze, I drift and slide, Tumbling for you, Your eyes hold my dance, And just as you think you have me, The wind blows us apart again, An infinite chance, That one day the wind will calm, And my soul will fall into your hands, The leaves of fall, My return to the ground, Is predestined to the wind, Burning bright my song within, For love has made itself known, In the care of the mother tree, Though I now go to the earth, My dance is merry with you, The sky partner in my dance, The voice of breath calling my rhapsody, Cool rustling shaking me free, To begin again, Falling over and over, Mixed with my sisters and brothers, We all become one in the dance, Caught in the creator's eye, Part of an art, Living and changing, Till we can return again, To our sweet bed of sleep, To rise up with warm nudges, Towards the bright sky, And the cycles turn again, Under moon and sun, Wheeling in the stars constellations, Letting the rain beat, Steady on my small shelter, Housed in the sphere of nature, Drinking in air and life, Till my first stiff breeze comes, Loosing me from my hold, To allow the dance, Not to shake and prance, Clinging to the stem, Now when the wind comes chill, I let go not afraid, For home I go in freedom, To your hands that love me still, I let the wind dance me as will. Love's Leaf |
Soft blows the wind through the rustling leaves The color of rust simmering in a pool of rain The reflections grow in the dim light of day Soft grows the sound of the falling rain Drumming quietly a peaceful play And echoes on the roofs of the sleepy hay The old trees bend and sway a calm of the wind and rain Low bends the reeds as they touch the ground Whispering along with the rains song and the distant whistles And cackles of red birds hiding the cool breeze Swirls the leaves and the musty scent of autumn gathers in the air Soft is its hue and its memory thick upon the ground Under the cover of rain the mist that rises And shrouds the rising moon as the clouds pass Under her belly of white moon beams The sleep of the animals bed in the hills Where the mist now lays antlered deer feed In the corn creeping lower and lower As the night shrouds deepen And the soft mist lands on the earth Like a blanket so soft and subtle Comes the slumber of the leaves that whisper And the coyote that howls. By Autumn |
Otherworldly Samhain Links:
Samhain: Turning the wheel of the year
Myth of Samhain: God of the Dead
Samain, Samhain, Samhuinn (ScG), Sauin (Manx)[cf. OIr. sam, summer; fuin, end]. Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx names for the seasonal feast of pre-Christian origin fixed at 1 November on the Gregorian calendar. The most important of the four great calendar feast of Celtic tradition, including, by their old Irish names, *Beltaine (1 May), *Imbolc (1 February), and Lughnasad (ModIr. Lunasa/*Lughnasa, 1 August); its counterparts are in Wales *Hollantide, in Cornwall *Allantide, and in Brittany Kala-Goanv. The antiquity of Samain is attested to by the Coligny Calendar (1st cent. BC) which cities the feast of Samonios. The same source explains that to the ancient Guals the period of dark precedes the light, supporting the commonly held belife that Samain is the equivalent of New Year's day. Julius Ceasar (1st cent. BC) reported that the Gaulish *Dis Pater, god of death and winter's cold, was especially worshipped at this time of year. Other classical commentators observed that *Teutates might be worshipped at this time by having sacrificial victims drowned in vats, whereas sacrifices to *Taranis were burned in wooden vessels. Samain's equivalents on the Christian calendar are All Saint's Day (introduced by Pope Boniface IV in the 7th cent. to supplant the pagan festival of the dead) and Halloween.
By abundant testimony, Samain was the principle calendar feast fo early Ireland. Each of the fire provinces sent assmblies to *Tara for a *feis held every third year. At *Tlachtga the lighting of the winter fires was a key part of the Samain ceremony. In part Samain ceremonies commemorated the *Dagada's ritual intercourse wirth three divinities, the *Morrigan, *Boand, and *Indech's unnamed daughter. Just how much of this remembrance is included *fertility rites, or what their nature might be, is not known; but in Irish and Scottish Gaelic oral tradition , Samain time was thought most favorable for woman to become pregnant. At *Mag Slecht in Co. Cavan, human sacrifices might be offered to *Crom Cruaich, called the 'chief idol of Ireland' by early Christian scribes. Although the full nature of Croam Cruaich is not known, popular writers on early Ireland have taken to calling him Samain, implying that he gave his name to the seasonal feast; although at least one American Encyclopedia repeats this conjecture, it is unsupported by early Irish texts.
Authors of early texts are careful to point out when important action takes place Samain. At this time the predatory *Formarians would exact their tribut of grain, milk, and live children. Each year on this date *Aillen mac Midgna came to burn *Tara until *Fionn mac Cumhaill dispatched him. From *Cruachain in Co. Roscommon came the triple-headed monster *Aillen Trechenn who wreaked havoc on all of Ireland, especially *Emain Macha and Tara, until he was eliminated by *Amairgin (1). *Chuchulainn encounterd *otherworldy damsels at Samain time, and this was also the time *Caer and *Angus Og flew off in swan form.
The different celebrations of Samain over the centuries explain some of the traditions still popularly attached to Halloween. Standing between the two halves of the Celtic year, Samain seemed suspended in time, when the borders between the natural and the supernatural dissolve and the spirits from the *Otherworld might move freely into the realm of mortals. Concurrently, humans might perceive more of the realm of the dead at this time, and looked for portents of the future in games. People might choose from small cakes called barmbracks [Ir. Bairin Breac, speckled loaf, i.e. with currants or raisins] containing a ring or a nut to determine who would be married and who would live singly. Bonfires wer build in parts of Ireland and Gaelic Scotland. It was also a time to relax after the most demanding farm work was done. In counties Waterford and Cork, country lads visited farmers' houses on the night before Samain, oiche shamhna (Samain eve), collecting pence and provisions for the celebrations. In Cork the procession of young men blowing horns and making other noises was led by someone calling himself the White Mare, wearing white robes and the configuration of a horse's head. On the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, though the inhabitants were Protestant, people gathered *ale and other provisions for a mock ceremony, calling Shoney of the sea to enrich their grounds in the coming year. Turnips were hollowed out with candles put inside.
See Francoise Le Roux, 'Etudes sur le festiaire celtique: Samain', Ogam, 13 (1961), 485-506; Alwyn and Brinley Rees, Celtic Heritage (London, 1961); F. Marian McNeill, Hallowe'en: Its Origin, Rites and Ceremonies in the Scottish Tradition (Edinbugh, 1970); Kevin Danaher, The Year in Ireland (Cork, 1972).
From the Oxford Dictionary of Celtic Mythology by James Mackillop, 1998
