...its 5:56 am and i have been up for 20 mnutes. i don't have to teach today, so what the hell am i doing...? i have been waking up really early lately; there is too much going on and my brain is in permanent overdrive, stressing, worrying.... not sleeping.
Last night my partner and i had a lovely Dumb Supper in honor of Samhein. A Dumb Supper is a silent meal eaten backwards, dessert first, main course, appetizers. it is a tradition that is practiced in some way in many places around the world, to honor one's ancestors. You set places at the table for ancestors you want to invite and one chair at the head of the table that is the spirit chair, for all the un-named spirits or forgotten ancestors.
In the past my partner, whose spirituality is similiar to Efi, practiced by the Yoruban people, has hosted a larger dumb supper, where we invite friends, and they invite their spirits, and rent a hall at the local Unitarian Universalist church. This year we did it at home, just for us. Our kitchen is small and we only own 4 chairs, but we made do; it was lovely and intimate - eating by the light of candles, homecooked food, a sense of being surrounded by loved ones and ancestral lines.
As there is no talking, we often play music, but this year we played the radio drama "The Halloween Tree" by Ray Bradbury. it is a favorite Halloween treat for us, though i do like his TV cartoon movie adaptation better. The langauge it is written in is exquisite; if you are into Halloween, more than just for the gore, you should check it out. The story is a kind of coming of age story, set on Halloween night in the American midwest of the 1950's or 60's - but you meet Death himself and travel through time, the boys of the story (there are no girls in the original) learning about all the cultures' of the worlds' traditions of death and dying and how they affected modern Halloween traditions in America.
It was a lovely evening and I enjoyed cooking for my ancestors. i felt ljust like cooking a meal for my live loved ones.
Someday my partner and i would love to travel to Mexico for Dia de Los Muertos - which, I beleive, has a similiar feel to a dumb supper, though not silent. I would love to experience this day in an area that really still believes in the tradition; it is sad that in America, for the most part, Halloween is just a time to watch awful, horrific movies full of torture and gore, dress sluttily and binge drink, and eat candy. Please don't get me wrong, I also enjoy some horror films, but mostly older ones, such as Bradbury, or the original Halloween series, just not the modern crap like SAW or House of 1000 Corpses; those kinds of horror movies are just about special effects and gore. No thankyou.
i also enjoy, of course, beautiful women scantily clad, but I am unsure how slutty nurse, slutty pirate wench, slutty enchantress,....really, slutty anything you can think of became the culturally accepted costume choices for women. No one expects men to dress up that way, or really at all.
Of course, as pagans we celebrate Samhein. not SAM- Hain - like from the Halloween movies,; there is no celtic God of the dead named Sam-Hain. It is Sow - en - a day marking the thinning of the veils between worlds - when it may be easier for most people to feel, or even see, what may be called a ghost or spirit. I see the larger spiritual universe as many worlds layered on top of one another, like tissue paper. Each is individual, with its own rules and physics, but you can punch holes through or travel between; it is just not easy. Many pagans believe that at this time of year those veils thin and it is easier to pass though- thusly all of the folklore, around the world, crossculturally, about spirits and ghosts and faeires and golbins etc... at Halloween.
The pagan community that I am part of in my area had its Samhein ritual saturday night. IT SNOWED!! We got several inches of snow and it was lovely to be out in the woods in it, but not so lovely to drive through the storm back into town. The ritual was not my thing, Wiccan and themed like a child's Halloween party, with lots of plastic crap from the dallar store, but we take turns facilatating in the community, and the woman who called Samhein this year oould do whatever she wished. When my partner and i facilatate Samhein there are people who say it is too dark and solomn. Pagans relate to death just as differently as non pagans do.
For me this time of year is a time to consider our past, our choices, the choices of our families and ancestors. In today's world we, humanity, has many choices to make and i hope we find the stength the make the right ones, the hard ones. When the veils are thin and the days grow shorter and darker is also a time to reflect and have gratitude. 500 years ago this time of year would have been frightening for people - the harvest was over, soon snows woudl come and we would have to survive a long, dark, cold winter with only the provisions that we had provided for ourselves. it was a time of isolation and a time of hunkering down with one's family to endure.
Samhein is not about disgusting torture scenes but about remembering........
...alright.. almost 7am... a slightly more respectable time... time for coffee.....
crystos
Last night my partner and i had a lovely Dumb Supper in honor of Samhein. A Dumb Supper is a silent meal eaten backwards, dessert first, main course, appetizers. it is a tradition that is practiced in some way in many places around the world, to honor one's ancestors. You set places at the table for ancestors you want to invite and one chair at the head of the table that is the spirit chair, for all the un-named spirits or forgotten ancestors.
In the past my partner, whose spirituality is similiar to Efi, practiced by the Yoruban people, has hosted a larger dumb supper, where we invite friends, and they invite their spirits, and rent a hall at the local Unitarian Universalist church. This year we did it at home, just for us. Our kitchen is small and we only own 4 chairs, but we made do; it was lovely and intimate - eating by the light of candles, homecooked food, a sense of being surrounded by loved ones and ancestral lines.
As there is no talking, we often play music, but this year we played the radio drama "The Halloween Tree" by Ray Bradbury. it is a favorite Halloween treat for us, though i do like his TV cartoon movie adaptation better. The langauge it is written in is exquisite; if you are into Halloween, more than just for the gore, you should check it out. The story is a kind of coming of age story, set on Halloween night in the American midwest of the 1950's or 60's - but you meet Death himself and travel through time, the boys of the story (there are no girls in the original) learning about all the cultures' of the worlds' traditions of death and dying and how they affected modern Halloween traditions in America.
It was a lovely evening and I enjoyed cooking for my ancestors. i felt ljust like cooking a meal for my live loved ones.
Someday my partner and i would love to travel to Mexico for Dia de Los Muertos - which, I beleive, has a similiar feel to a dumb supper, though not silent. I would love to experience this day in an area that really still believes in the tradition; it is sad that in America, for the most part, Halloween is just a time to watch awful, horrific movies full of torture and gore, dress sluttily and binge drink, and eat candy. Please don't get me wrong, I also enjoy some horror films, but mostly older ones, such as Bradbury, or the original Halloween series, just not the modern crap like SAW or House of 1000 Corpses; those kinds of horror movies are just about special effects and gore. No thankyou.
i also enjoy, of course, beautiful women scantily clad, but I am unsure how slutty nurse, slutty pirate wench, slutty enchantress,....really, slutty anything you can think of became the culturally accepted costume choices for women. No one expects men to dress up that way, or really at all.
Of course, as pagans we celebrate Samhein. not SAM- Hain - like from the Halloween movies,; there is no celtic God of the dead named Sam-Hain. It is Sow - en - a day marking the thinning of the veils between worlds - when it may be easier for most people to feel, or even see, what may be called a ghost or spirit. I see the larger spiritual universe as many worlds layered on top of one another, like tissue paper. Each is individual, with its own rules and physics, but you can punch holes through or travel between; it is just not easy. Many pagans believe that at this time of year those veils thin and it is easier to pass though- thusly all of the folklore, around the world, crossculturally, about spirits and ghosts and faeires and golbins etc... at Halloween.
The pagan community that I am part of in my area had its Samhein ritual saturday night. IT SNOWED!! We got several inches of snow and it was lovely to be out in the woods in it, but not so lovely to drive through the storm back into town. The ritual was not my thing, Wiccan and themed like a child's Halloween party, with lots of plastic crap from the dallar store, but we take turns facilatating in the community, and the woman who called Samhein this year oould do whatever she wished. When my partner and i facilatate Samhein there are people who say it is too dark and solomn. Pagans relate to death just as differently as non pagans do.
For me this time of year is a time to consider our past, our choices, the choices of our families and ancestors. In today's world we, humanity, has many choices to make and i hope we find the stength the make the right ones, the hard ones. When the veils are thin and the days grow shorter and darker is also a time to reflect and have gratitude. 500 years ago this time of year would have been frightening for people - the harvest was over, soon snows woudl come and we would have to survive a long, dark, cold winter with only the provisions that we had provided for ourselves. it was a time of isolation and a time of hunkering down with one's family to endure.
Samhein is not about disgusting torture scenes but about remembering........
...alright.. almost 7am... a slightly more respectable time... time for coffee.....
crystos
i will ask my Master if he will allow me to try and book some paying gigs..
and i will be taking a nice hot bath in a moment, and will request a good flogging before bed haha.
i couldnt even feel the clothespins earlier. there are still marks, but i couldnt feel them