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31st October ... Samhain or Belthane |
 By Newbs
Samhain ... October 31st for the Northern Hemisphere
Samhain, or Halloween, the festival of death and the marking of the arrival of Winter.
The Lord of Life Greenwood Man will now adopt his position as Lord of the Underworld, the dread Lord of Shadows.All around leaves are changing colour and falling from branches , with life itself retracting back into roots and bulbs . Not destroyed , but moved to another plane for the Winter , to rest , to recouperate in order to be re born. This is a time to draw in our energy , and prepare for Winter.
The colours are not provided by flowers, and yet the Earth is surrounded in colour ... the colour are of harvest and reflect the colours of the harvest an animals too. As Samhain or Halloween arrives, so does JackFrost, making mysterious veil patterns on our windows, reminding us of his cleverness and intricate work.
Caileach, The Crone, the Wise One, The Oldest of the Phases of The Moon, has devoured the God so that she can rebirth him. Her womb is the Underworld.
Samhain is a time of transformation and of looking inside ourselves, a time for introspection. It is also a sombre time of remembrance, when we remember and honour those who have died. On this date the difference between the planes is at its lightest and we invite the dead to join us to feast. We can contact those who have died in all years gone by and we call upon ancient men and women to help us at this time.
Although it is regarded as others would regard New Year, It is a time of endings, but also a celebration of accepting the New Year. It is therefore a time of looking inward and facing our darker side, our shadows, to make resolutions, of banishing once and for all, of finishing things unfinished, of allowing the past to flow from us and to look introspectively and towards the future.It is the end of one cycle and the beginning of another.
At Samhain we look back and take stock of the past year and contemplate what we have learned. Samhain is also the time to face our shadow, the dark side of ourselves.
It is a time to admire the fabulous beauty of the changing Earth, to accept the year gone by with its trouble and tribulations and its help to move on into the year year ahead. Now as we stare into Winter we gather our harvest and think wisely about the future months. We prepare for a purity to follow .
To do.... collect fruits of the earth and decorate a small area in order to make an altar as worship to the Earth for her fruitfulness and the Harvest.
To reflect...On the year gone by, and the things you no longer want in the year ahead, either for yourself, those you know and love, or mankind in general.
Belthane ... October 31st for the Southern Hemisphere
The young woman of Spring and the Lord of the Waxing Year meet in fields and rejoice together under the warm Sun.
The Spiral Dance Beltaine is the beginning of the Celtic Summer, and like Samhain, it is a time to communicate with spirits, particularly those held in Nature. The word seems to originate from "Bel Fire", and Beltane is associated with the Celtic God Balor a God of Light.
Fires were traditionally built at Beltane, and people would jump over the fire. Young, unmarried people would leap the bonfire and wish for a husband or wife, young women would leap it to ensure their fertility and couples leap it to strengthen a bond.
The maypole, still used in Mayday festivities, comes from the cycle being in May, and represents both the phallus and the Goddess. It is also the World Tree connecting the three Worlds, its root in the Underworld, its branches in the Heavens. The phallus and the World Tree may be seen as two aspects of the God in His relationship to the Goddess in His cycle of birth, death and rebirth.
Of course, modern days have chosen to unify the earth with one calendar, rather than to each work with our cycle of seasons, and so southern hemisphere celebrate Beltane 1st Nov.
Celebrate Beltane by taking pleasure in life and enjoying the gifts of the Goddess, and the union with Green Man.
To do... Hawthorn is the tree of this month, drink Hawthorn wine if you can. Celebrate the exuberance of youth and love and of the energy that is created between those that love each other. Celebrate procreation and attraction.
To reflect... On how you can give birth to some new idea, or gift to yourself or others. Reflect on how both male and female are each required to enable the creation of something new. This can be adapted into male, female, as in Ying and Yang.
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