A Druid’s Web Log – Samhain (Halloween) blessings and honoring the Moon

Painting by Alan Dellascio From Art to Zombies, LLC. Halloween/Holiday art and customized house paintings. Email: art2zombies@gmail.com

Most neo-Pagans celebrate the “eightfold wheel of the year” that was invented by Druid Ross Nichols and Witch Gerald Gardner in the 1940’s. Both men were fast friends and nudist buddies who probably had the greatest part in creating modern Paganism, Wicca, British Druidry, and European style Nature Spirituality.

They divided the ritual year into eight neat segments; Solstice and Equinoxes, which came from Bronze Age cultures and Scandinavia, and the points in between which derived from Celtic tradition; Samhain (Halloween), Imbolc (or Brighid), Beltaine (or May Day) and Lughnasadh (or Lammas).

They used the Gregorian calendar for the timing of the festivals, assigning October 31- November 1 to Samhain, February first to Imbolc, May first to Beltaine, and August first to Lughnasadh. The Gregorian calendar is named after Pope Gregory XIII, who introduced it in October 1582, and it has little or nothing to do with the way the ancient Celts tracked time.

Solstices and Equinoxes are, of course, celestial phenomena and are timed to those events, but the “cross-quarter” days, which were far more important observances, had a completely different timing and function. These were the great Earth festivals, celebrating events happening on the ground.

Samhain marked the time when the cattle came down from the summer pastures and all the produce of the fields had to be taken in (because anything left after that date belonged to the Fairies). Animals were culled and the meat processed, in preparation for winter. It was the time to honor the dying animals, the plants harvested for food, or dropping their leaves in the forest, and the beloved departed ancestors of the tribe. The predominant deity of this festival was the Mórrigan, the great triple Goddess of ravens and of battle magic.

Imbolc was the celebration of the return of the milk; the first lactation of the ewes. Female sheep start to give milk again about three days before giving birth, and lambs are generally born in early to mid-February. It was also the time to honor the Goddess Brighid (Bride), patroness of smithcraft, healing, poetry, and motherhood, who was the daughter of the Mórrigan and of the Daghda. It was also a festival of girls, who carried “Bride dolls” from door to door, blessing the village.

Beltaine (May Day) was the time when the blooming of the Hawthorn trees signaled that it was finally summer, and warm enough to send the cows back up to their summer pastures. Cows were purified by driving them between two fires on their way up to their grazing. The main deity of this festival was the Daghda, the father of Brighid and the consort of the Mórrigan.

Finally, there was the festival of Lughnasadh (or Lammas from the English “Loaf Mass”) which was a celebration of the first fruits of the harvest and the new grain. Fairs and competitions were held in honor of the Goddess Tailtiu who is said to have died of exhaustion after clearing the plains of Ireland for agriculture. She was the foster mother of the God Lugh who established a harvest festival and funeral games, the Áenach Tailteann, in her honor.

I recently had the pleasure of hearing an Irish Druidess, Emer Clougherty, speak about the way the ancient Irish chose the dates for the all-important cross quarters. She said it was done by the Moon.

Following the changes of the Moon cycle is a little harder than arbitrarily assigning the first day of a month from the Gregorian calendar. The Moon waxes and wanes, and the date of a festival will vary from year to year. But there is value in tracking the Moon’s course for planting, weeding, harvesting, and planning rituals. When we base our sacred observances of the phases of the Moon, we are placing ourselves in harmony with what is actually happening in nature. We stop imposing our mind and our will onto a holy day, and instead let the universe guide us. This is a lesson we humans need desperately to absorb – we have forgotten how to be led by nature, who is always wiser than we are. Our survival as a species depends on re-learning this way of being.

As a Druid, I have always waited for the blooming of the Hawthorn trees to tell me it was truly Beltaine (mid to late May on the mountain where I live), the lactation of the ewes (around here that happens mid-February) to tell me that it is Imbolc, and so on. It is interesting to me that the old date for Samhain was November 12 and the old date for Beltaine was May 12, because those dates correspond more closely to what I have seen happening with the vegetation and animals.

Here is how Emer told us that the ancient Irish Celts timed the most important festivals to the Moon. When we use the Moon’s phases as our guide, we are humbling ourselves to the rhythms of Great Nature. We are not imposing a fixed calendar date, derived from the machinations of a Pope. All you need to do is go out and buy a paper calendar making sure that the Moon phases are shown on it. Pencil in the appropriate dates for the festivals and plan your rites for the year.

She said Samhain (Halloween) was celebrated at the dark of the Moon in the 13^th month (or Moonth). This year that’s November 15. This makes perfect sense because Samhain is the ancient Celtic New year and all life begins in the dark; a baby in the womb, a seed in the ground, etc.

That Imbolc was observed during the first quarter of the 4th Moonth, perfect timing for a mid-winter observance marked by the first milking, the return of bird songs, and the first green sprouts of spring.

That Beltaine was celebrated at the Full Moon of the 7^th Moonth, a good setting for a wild party.

And that Lughnasadh was observed at the last quarter Moon of the 10^th Moonth, fitting for a festival that marks the start of the slide into the dark half of the year.

The Solstices and Equinoxes are solar, sky-oriented festivals and were not as important as the Fire Festivals which were Goddess oriented and more important (so she said). But it is worth remembering that the Sun was also female in Celtic thinking.

She added that the best way to honor the Goddess on her own terms is to 1) move to a Lunar calendar and 2) honor Her in all phases of the Moon. To honor her life and being in each phase.

A Scottish teacher named Stuart McHardy also spoke and reminded us that the ancients did not have a rigid calendar like we do. That the holidays were regarded as a season more than a specific date or precise time of day. He said the ancient archeological sites confirm that.

Newgrange, for example, marks a five-day interval when the Sun seems to stand still at the Winter Solstice. Another example is Lughnasadh, which is still observed as a three-week festival in many Celtic areas with music and dance competitions, fairs, etc. from end of July to the second week of August.

I also learned that Ireland is in shut down again due to Covid. This time they are to stay within a three-mile radius of home for six weeks. I told them I wished we in the USA were in shut down. Covid cases are soaring nationwide and the death count here is higher than in any other developed nation. Even third world countries are doing better than we are, largely because people recognize the value of face masks and other protective measures.

Our government seems to think that just ignoring the problem will magically make it go away. Or else they are relying on the discredited concept of “herd immunity”, wanting to infect as many of us as they can (witness any mask-less Trump rally) and having no qualms about hundreds of thousands more deaths. True “herd immunity”, of course, can only happen when there is a safe and reliable vaccine and the majority of humans on the planet have been vaccinated.

All we can do now (and what we MUST do) is accept what is, and find peace within ourselves. Take whatever actions we can to protect ourselves and those we love, until we have a rational government that supports individuals and businesses properly through a once in a century pandemic. If they do that, businesses won’t have to fail and people won’t have to lose everything, just to survive. We will be ready to spring back to life and be well prepared for the future.

Image of a black kitten sitting inside a jack o'lantern

Meanwhile, it’s not too late to celebrate Samhain in the old way. Light a bonfire and invite your friends. Sit at a socially prescribed distance and tell tales of your ancestors. Remember the Goddess of the occasion; the dark haired, fearless Mórrigan, and share a meal in her honor. And don’t forget to do reverence to the Moon!

By the time you read this it will be far too late to mail in your ballot for the upcoming US election. Please drop off your ballot at your town clerk’s office, or into an official ballot box, or vote in person if you can on November 3.

Below you will find the usual book news, upcoming workshops, archaeology, herbs, health, nature, climate, Celtic, Fairy, religion, politics and ethics news. And you can always order a book from me here.

Enjoy the read!

BOOK NEWS

Women’s Radio – an interview about the origins of Samhain (Halloween) and herbs for the festival

Book Review: The Druid Isle by Ellen Evert Hopman, Woodbury, MI: Llewellyn Publications, 2010.

I was led to read and review The Druid Isle after reading Hopman’s first impressive novel, Priestess of the Forest. The Druid Isle, the second book of a trilogy,is equally impressive. Ellen Evert Hopman, a teacher of Druidism, is the former co-chief of the Druidic Order of White Oak and current Archdruid of Tribe of the Oak. She is also a teacher of Celtic herbal lore and a master herbalist.

Imbedding the Druid beliefs in the excitement of the journeys of two characters of this book, Aife and Lucius, to the Druid Isle (Iona) is a very effective way of making the Druid beliefs easy to remember as it was in the storytelling of the ancient Druids. The exciting journey of Aife in her pursuit of learning the ways of the Druids takes her first to the central home of Druidism in Eriu (Ireland) that is being overrun by the Roman Church, before she continues on to the Druid Isle. Lucius’s more round about journey to the Druid Isle begins with his escape from a Catholic monastery where he was raised from infancy, bringing him into the loving world of the Celts before he is pulled into the oppressive world of Roman slavery. With the conflict between the invading Roman Church and the Celtic Druids, the freedom and beauty of the Celts and their Druidic beliefs is most uplifting and full of color. The destructive, restrictive, and colorless Roman Church is very discomforting.

Aife and Lucius’s separate journeys eventually take them to the remote Druid Isle in the North Atlantic between Eriu and Scotland. They travel there in small skin covered wooden framed boats. On this leg of the journey, Aife is without an oar because her teacher from the Forest School knew that the ocean current would reliably carry her to the isle. The Druid Isle, Innis nan Druidneach, is a home and center for teaching the ways of the Druids where new initiates are taught the nine tenets central in the lives of these Druids, the central theme of this book.

Over the last two millennia we of the 21^st century have lost our way. A sought after and off-planet god has led us on a colorless journey of the destruction of our Earth. The journey into the unknown without an oar, but trusting the current that our Great Mother Earth has provided, shows us the better way, as it does for Aife and Lucius. This journey takes great trust and courage, but it brings us back to the real world of living in oneness with our Great Earth Mother.

The first serpent wisdom tenet, Ecnae Nathairech, is of the courage and determination that begins Aife’s journey of learning, as it does for Lucius when he arrives on the Isle, and for us as we seek to become one with our Great Mother. Aife’s journey to the Druid Isle will take her beyond the ways of the sacred poet and diviner that she learned at the Forest School, to learn “the inner content of the poems and the eternal spiritual truth that the poems are designed to capture.” This serpent wisdom journey takes Aife to the nine serpent-activated-energy-centers of the body, as it twines upward along her spine. On each step, at each body center, a magical stone is added to Aife’s crane bag, the crane being special because it exists in the three world, the sea, land and sky. In my own work I call such a bag a person’s medicine bundle while leading them on their personal journey to their higher self.

The second task, Mian, is to recognize the dangers of desire and addiction and “to transform the desire for material objects and substances into a desire for a harmonious life filled with beauty.” This serpent energy is centered three finger widths below the navel, the dantian from tai chi or the spot that in my work I call the center of harmony. As the journey continues up the spine to the stomach, Commus, Aife and Lucius learn to not “charge ahead without thinking” but take responsibility for making their own best decisions. The fourth stop is the heart, Cride, the inner sanctuary of peace and beauty that comforts and heals, a place to which we can retreat. This place of love and compassion breaks down barriers between self and other, destroying duality.

The fifth task, Fuaimm, is centered at the throat from where we can learn to project our voice “to achieve power in diplomacy, political persuasion, and ambassadorship. The voice can communicate truth and promote justice, loyalty and kindness.” As we continue our journey upward to our third eye we find our inner vision, Suil Inmedonach, vision that can be called upon “whenever emotions threaten to overwhelm us or when we need to gain the altitude to contemplate a problem dispassionately.” The seventh task, Saidecht, is to quiet our mind to bring us the gift of self-mastery, showing us that all is an illusion. “You can step away from cold, heat, happiness, sorrow, desire at any time. … You can choose to feel them or not. You don’t have to identify with them, unless you choose to. This is the gift of self-mastery.”

Reaching the crown of her head, Corann, the place of divine love, Aife feels great love for everything. She can see the plants, animals, invisible nature spirits, the wind and stones, the divine vision of love that connects the higher self to all creatures with no sense of separation, the divine union with all forms of life. Finally she and Lucius go above themselves, Solus, dissolving into the universe, being one with everything in the divine light of the abode of the Mother Goddess.

With their druidic training on the Druid Isle complete, Aife and Lucius are free to return to the deeply conflicted Druid capitol of Eriu with a new sense of strength. They have passed the nine tenets offered at Innis nan Druidneach of the nine spinal energy centers of the serpent, energy centers that many may call the chakra, a concept found in the ancient Sanskrit beliefs of India. This chakra connection may seem out of place in the lore of the Druids, but in an appendix of this book Hopman describes the historic connections between these two ancient cultures. One archeological connection seen in ancient art is the Cernnunos figure found on the Gundestrup Cauldron of Denmark. A similar figure is found in an image of Shiva, Pashupati, the Lord of Animals that likewise wears a headdress of horns though his hands rest on his crossed legs. The Cernnunos figure is important in my practice and teaching of ecstatic trance, an ecstatic posture of metamorphosis or shape-shifting as researched by Felicitas Goodman. We frequently use the Cernnunos posture, wearing a headdress of horns and holding a snake in one hand and a torque in the other. Both images are surrounded by animals. The ancient spiritual lore of these two cultures has become important and central in current spiritual practices that connect us to a higher self and bring us to oneness with the spirits of the Earth and our Great Earth Mother. This goal of uniting with all life on Earth is also the goal of the use of ecstatic trance as we prepare to enter the New Age of peace and harmony.
Nicholas E. Brink, PhD
Facebook Site: Nick Brink’s Books
Author of
- Ecstatic Soul Retrieval (publisher – Inner Traditions / Bear & Co.)
- Power of Ecstatic Trance
- Baldr’s Magic
- Beowulf’s Ecstatic Trance Magic
- Trance Journeys of the Hunter-Gatherers
- Grendel and His Mother (publisher – Routledge)
- Applying the Constructivist Approach to Cognitive Therapy: Resoving the Unconscious Past (Routledge)
- Available from Postmark Books in Rosendale, NY or your preferred bookseller

The Sacred Herbs of Samhain – a video review

The Sacred Herbs of Samhain gets a wee mention in a British blog

SOME UPCOMING WORKSHOPS AND APPEARANCES

Madame Zee’s Witches Gathering
A virtual event
November 6-8, 2020
Workshops, entertainment, vendors
Ellen Evert Hopman will speak on The Sacred Herbs of Samhain – plants to communicate with the spirits of the dead
What I will be presenting – an interview (YouTube video)
Changing Times Changing Worlds 2020
An on-line Metaphysical Conference
Coming November 9 – 15, 2020
Ellen Evert Hopman will be speaking on the history of Witch persecutions
WHERE: Anywhere you want! This year the conference is completely on line!
Changing Times-Changing Worlds will be taking place M-F November 9-13 in the evenings, as well as the usual full days on Saturday and Sunday November 14&15. The links to join workshops, panels and chat rooms will be posted on the website.
I presented three virtual classes at HexFest which was supposed to be live in New Orleans but was done as a virtual conference instead. It went very well and since all the classes are archived, you can still watch the whole thing!

POETRY CORNER

An Entreaty to Myself in the Time of the Virus

~ a pandemic poem by my friend Patricia Lee Lewis

If you remember how to pray, please pray for the earth. Please do not stop praying as you do the small things, as you gather the plastic from the ocean, as you reuse aluminum foil, as you refuse plastic bags and straws and plates and spoons, as you seal your spent batteries from decay, as you limit the miles you drive alone in your car, the gas, the oil, the rubber from the tires, signaling plantation owners in Brazil to spare the forests, the laborers’ long lives. Please do not fail to don your mask against the virus and turn before you must, to a life of small work, small meals, small consumption of what cannot be replaced, repaired, restored. Choose if you can a life of long walks, candle-lit talks, communal work. Bend each day to the earth in thanksgiving. Hasten your praise to trees that give oxygen and mosses that live with them, to plants that flower, and plants in seed, bees and butterflies and the pollen that sustains us; to scavengers, beetles and buzzards, to microbes in soil and fungi in root systems, to catfish and earthworms, to glaciers and winds. To all beings and systems of beings along the chain of death and rebirth. We who are at war with our own home, fouling our nests, killing our kin, burning our forests, we may not be strong enough to stop ourselves. But we can pray to the earth for courage, to need less, to care more. We can act as if what we do will save what is left; as if our species will not be extinguished. Pray, at least, for that.