The intersections of older spiritual practices and modern life are interesting and complex.
Halloween season is a bubbling brew of history, belief, contemporary attitudes and goofy good times. Within paganism, the world of Earth-centered spirituality, October is the season of the ancestors and contains our New Year on the 31st. Our cycle ends, and then begins, at the death of the growing season. Samhain (pronounced SOW-ehn) is the old Celtic name for this holiday and is the one we continue to use today.
The goofy, spooky fun of Halloween, with all its costumes and skeletons, rests atop a more somber and reflective holiday. As a whole, pagans believe the soul continues after death. We also honor the cycles of nature. The natural world is beginning its shift into the season of death and increasing darkness. We believe that as death appears around us, the veil between the living and the dead grows thin. Continue reading…
