October Rituals

October 12, 2014 — #ancestors #archetypes # insight #history, British history, culture

October brings ancient celebrations and rituals to life. Samhain, Halloween, Guy Fawkes Day,as well as Divali, fall at the end of October and beginning of November. They have in common ritual use of fire as part of the celebrations. As we enter the darkest part of the year in the northern hemisphere we honor the dead and invite them to partake in their former earthly pleasures. Day of the Dead is only one of the cultural holidays designed around remembering. The season is the right time to let go, to clean, clear, and remember. This is possible without any formal outward practice. You don’t have to dress up or build an altar to honor this change of season.

We all go through dark times in life. Lighting up the sky with fires and fireworks reminds us of energy shared, passed on, and finally no longer needed. You don’t need to be religious to understand the sacred nature of the inheritance of our human life. To be able to walk on the earth is not a small gift. Without the generations that survived before us we would not exist. We may notice a feeling of guidance from the ancestors, or simply a reverence for those who created our existence out of their own. I sometimes feel a deep sense of regret when I consider the lives of my ancestors. Who knows if that comes from me or from them. What can be known is that our connection to our ancestors is permanent. What we can learn from knowing about them and from imagining the way they lived gives us some insight into our own strengths and weaknesses. The ancestors know about those strengths and follies because they had them before we did, under different circumstances. I believe they would like for us to learn from their experiences.