2021 - Ancestors - Global Spiritual Wheel
There was no local group gathering for Samhain 2021. No one felt a draw to host a general celebration and thus it was felt that we needed to connect to our own unique set of Ancestors, wherever we were.
The Global Spiritual Wheel opened at sunset on 31st October and closed on 1st November so that we could connect to the web of life and know there were like-minded people joining in the process.
Martin points out that the astronomical date for the cross quarter day is 8th November 2021 and that might appeal to some as the day to celebrate.
Symbols of Samhain.
The bubbles represent the soul, the sunrise lights up the Mound of the Hostages at Tara and natural and celebration cobwebs symbolise the season.
Nora M shares her ghostly Samhain, with organic pumpkins and apples
In Marta's Samhain fire...
people saw a dove in front of a phoenix, shakti and shiva dancing in perfect union, fish, an Easter Island head, a spirit on the left rising up with a glowing heart and flaming crown chakra, a dragon, also a fox and angels....
She says: it was such a good fire. Often it takes a while to get it going but this time it just sprang to life.
Bernadette's home fire...
warmed body and soul. In her New Moon Celebration for the 4th November she said:
As I sat in the evening, with an open fire and lighting a candle for All Souls Night. I got a very uplifting feeling. Yes the simple things in life are so important, watching the flames of the fire with good food. I felt a certain kinda peace and contentment in that very moment and being in the now I felt it okay not to post on the day of the new moon. MOON Celebrations
Bernadette shares her Samhain experience
My experience of Samhain was one of quiet and solitude at home by the fire with my cat Merlin, but I did notice, over the past 6 weeks or so even up to last night, my dreams at night.
The dreams, without getting too much into it, were all about visits from my mam, dad and mother in law. I felt it with the two-way communication messages from them to let us know of their journey is peaceful and healing. I always feel they go back to pure love and light and to let us know they are aware of our journey we are on on and they are l guiding lights to show us the way.
My dad telling me he was breaking down a wall to make more space in my home. mmmm... I thought breaking of old ways and being more open. The message for me was to break down the wall I have built around me. Maybe there is a message in it for us all, as I feel, like many do, the ancestors are telling us messages all the time, in the dream state or in the waking hours, also by a song, a smell of flowers, or rainbows and things that would remind us of them. I feel and do believe they are with us all the time, we just need to knock down that wall and listen to our heart. My mother use to say to me, when she was alive, when I was training for cross country running in the winter time as I loved it, not to train on All Souls Night. I used to run in a field behind our home and would not train on that night, but never understood until now how much in tune she was....
and also a cat lover and would have many cats who all loved her.
I feel now that the message was not to run and listen and be in the quiet and be still on All Souls Night and be by the fire. I understand now what she was saying. I guess she knew when I got older I would get it and I do, when I listen and be still and listen to my body.
She was dressed in bright colors in my dream... felt it very healing... my mother in law was in the distance in one dream, up ahead of me, holding what looked like the sacred heart of Jesus' light in her hands. Wow I thought when I awoke, what a message and symbol, holding the light very close to her heart. Maybe it was a message all is good with them and to us to listen to the heart more often or open our hearts with love and compassion to all who need it.
I felt on this Samhain the dreams were very important and healing as I spoke to some friends on the phone who were also having the same experience of dreaming of loved ones who passed over. I also had a lady who used to live up the road who passed over almost a year now. She came dressed in silver and looked so radiant and I said it to her. She stood at the foot of the sea with me. The sea was calm and it was night time. The moon was full and we stood in silence but there was a feeling of peace and a knowing all is as it should be and when i awoke I felt love and peace in myself.
Last night she came again and restyled my hair and told me to put more blond in it which is is another symbol of transformation, spiritual enlightenment and change for the better. Maybe some of you are getting messages in the dream state also and are not aware of it. Of course each one is different as we all walk on this spiritual path, all going to the same place. So again my experience for Samhain was very much in my dreams and I noticed I have been sleeping a lot this winter, not only am I getting a good rest. But spending time with loved ones was so beautiful, healing on all levels for all of us, my loved ones and myself.
Merlin my cat did sleep at the foot of my bed over the past few weeks. I guess this cat knew, as animals do, I'll mind her as she minds me, as not only the energy of Samhain but the 11 11 date of the gates open a portal.
Some would say we never really know what's going on around us but when we are still and just be we feel it... we feel the energy of it with our bodies, in our heart, mind, and soul.
I wish you all Samhain blessings. Healing love and light. Bernadette And Merlin |
Martin - Samhain 2021 - Moving through the darkness
Personally speaking I felt the seasonal energies better suited to the astronomical date of the Samhain cross quarter day as the 8th November when the rising sun is mid way between Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice. The 8th didn't suit me so my next best shot was the 9th and it turned out to be a calm and dry evening.
With all the stress in my life I decided that the narrative that had the strongest resonance for me was using the transformative element of fire to burn away all fears, stress, blocks and negativity in every aspect of life. To name the very things that most frighten me about life and to symbolically dis-integrate them in the fire.
On the spur of the moment I decided to build a stone circle of 8 large stones that had come to light during gardening activities during the year. 1 stone for each festival. This I felt helped contain space as no one was joining me physically and the stones somehow felt like a crowd of people.
I smudged myself and the circle with incense and lit the candle to cleanse the space and connect with spirit. I called in the local directions and also Tara and Newgrange which were to my east.
In the dark I read aloud and felt in my body the long list of dark fears and negatives I had generated. With each fear I ran a piece of firewood down my body to absorb and embody that negative, breathing each one out with a guttural hiss. I lit the fire and blessed it's light, warmth and transformative power, praying that as I released the fears for transformation I did it on a personal level, a community level and a global level. Here I included the meditation group and prayed that we would all move through our own darkness, however it manifested in our own lives.
At this point I reflected that things in the dark SEEM to be more sinister and scary. But nothing extra is there in the dark. In fact there is less, as there is no light. So in a way naming the fear and bringing it into the firelight or daylight is a way of depowering the terror it holds. False Evidence Appearing Real FEAR.
This I suppose is one of the wisdoms of Halloween/Samhain , naming, taming and claiming your power. Only then can you move through it and start growing because of it. Samhain starts the year in darkness, this pregnant pause before spring that gives the world time to declutter and start with a clean slate, and not to be bringing old broken ways with us into new beginnings.
Then I had a friendly chat with my departed family members and friends and put out a spirit plate of food containing, locally produced honey for sweetness in life, salt for spice in life, an apple from our tree to represent harvest and hidden mysticism ( slice an apple across its equator and hidden pentagrams and seeds are revealed) water for vibrancy and bread for energy.
I then read out 2 pieces of poetry "Samhain 2005" and "we saw a
vision".I moved around the fire to the music of the "Dance Macabre" (The
only dance was in the title of the song..... thank god it was pitch
dark at this time).
At that point I lit a candle from the fire and put it in a lantern to bring inside and light the fire in the hearth of the house with a suitable incantation. I turned to each of the directions and thanked the energy of that direction for being in my life and in the ceremony. I carried the light into the house and ate the vegetarian (supporting compassion in farming as we had been discussing in the group) evening meal.
By the following morning the spirit plate left in the circle was licked clean.!
Louise shares these photos of the Peak District, Derbyshire
Danielle shares her fire, pumpkin and thoughts on progress
Anne's Turnip
Nora J was in the North Yorkshire Moors
It was calm, peaceful, spacious and wet. The sheep and landscape beyond got me thinking that they also have ancestors. Charles Darwin and today's scientists propose that the last common ancestor of all currently living organisms is the last Universal Ancestor, aka Lua, who lived about 3.9 billion years ago. We are all related.