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Welcome to the October Blog Comment Content Contest for Pangaia Metaphysical Store. As many of you know from past experience, we do a monthly Blog Comment Content Contest. What that means is that Sarah or I will be make a blog post on a particular topic and you get to comment on it. By commenting with REAL content you get entered into a drawing to win a gift from Pangaia Metaphysical Store. This month you can win a bottle of Protection Oil.
On Samhain, Death and Dying
October has arrived. Here we are five days into the month and already (in Nebraska) you know that fall is definitely here and that Old Man Winter is not too far behind. Here at Pangaia we decided that a blog about Samhain EARLY in the month would be a good way to start helping people get prepared for the winter months and what this season often meant to our ancestors (as well as to us today).
Samhain is the Celtic new year and is often celebrated by Wiccans and Pagans around the world as a time for remembering the dead and celebrating the final harvest. To many, the final harvest is the harvest of self. That is, it is a time to reflect back on the previous year and review your accomplishments and your failures. It is at Samhain that we begin to into the winter months and that time of inner contemplation that will help us to grow and become better people in the next year.
Though the Celts and many modern Pagans may view this as the New Year, I personally look at it as a time to start planning for the new year. I review what I have done and plan for what I want to do in the next year. This year will be especially interesting for me to review and the new year will be VERY exciting for me to plan. I will post more about that as the calendar date for Samhain gets closer.
This is also a time of remembrance. A time to reflect on those who have gone to the Summer Lands. This year, my Great-Aunt Hilda passed away. She was a spit-fire of a little lady. Never taller than 5′, she was one to be reckoned with! She died peacefully at home after an infection that caused massive scar tissue in her throat, resulting in the doctors doing a tracheotomy and inserting a feeding tube. She was 78 years old and passed on July 4th, finally winning her independence from a life and body that were no longer what she dreamed.
If you browse around on the internet you will find examples of listings of the Mighty Dead. The Mighty Dead rolls are a way for many Pagans (modern and Tribal) to remember the most influential or important people in their lives. M Macha NightMare has such a listing on her page and it has inspired me to want to do the same here.
Henry Christian Kessler, Jr. My father and the most important many to ever be in my life. May the Gods favor you in the Summerlands and grant you a happy return to life on this Earth when your time comes.
Harold Adolf Stulp. My grandfather. Your kindness and charity shall always be remembered and may the Gods return such favors to as your journey through your next existence.
Irene Dorthea Fisher Kessler. My grandmother. Your strength and independence throughout your later life are an inspiration to your entire family. May the Gods continue to grant you strength in your lives to come.
Hilda Clarice Stulp Ridpath. My great-aunt and surrogate grandmother. You love and honesty have always sheltered me during a storm and I know that you watch over me even now. May the Gods lift you up to where you belong!
Derek Field. My friend and confidant. You are sorely missed by those who’s lives you touched. May the Gods bless you with the love and compassion that showed to everyone you met.
Many cultures will recite a litany of the dead around the time of their Celebration of the Dead. Samhain, or Hallowe’en as it is called in the modern Western world, is such a time. Such litanies are usually of those who have passed in the last year. I would like to ask the readers of this blog to reflect on this concept and perhaps to add to the litany of the dead in their own hearts and minds. You are welcome to post your litany so that all may join you in remembering those people who have had influence on your life and have passed beyond the Veil.
The next posting will be Mike Nichols essay on Samhain. Please read his essays on all the Sabbats. They are very informative and well worth adding to your Book of Shadows or whatever place you keep such important writings.
Welcome to the October Blog Comment Content Contest for Pangaia Metaphysical Store. As many of you know from past experience, we do a monthly Blog Comment Content Contest. What that means is that Sarah or I will be make a blog post on a particular topic and you get to comment on it. By commenting with REAL content you get entered into a drawing to win a gift from Pangaia Metaphysical Store. This month you can win a bottle of Protection Oil.
The winner of the September Drawing was Angela (QueenAgapeSqueakers).
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October 6th, 2009 - 12:25 am
I appreciate your posting your litany. It was very moving. Most people in my life that I have lost, have been by means other than death. Though, there was one death, that did greatly affect my life.
Anonymous Woman- You died on the day before Mother’s Day, 2005. I was gathered with the females in my family, as we did every year. The Race for the Cure and a fun filled girl day. I was 14. We were beside the road at a street vendor, who was selling jewelry and homemade oils. There was a loud crash and 3 cars had plummeted into each other in the intersection. You were in the middle car. It was beige and looked like it was almost folded in half. The right front tire almost touching the right rear. You were in the passenger seat. Your daughter was driving. You were going to lunch for Mother’s Day. Her treat. You weren’t wearing a seat-belt and were flung into the back seat and stuffed under the front seat. I watched, frozen, while you were extracted. While they attempted to bring you back to this life. While they zipped you up in a big black bag. You were my first real contact with death. My great-grandfather died when I was 8. I barely knew him. I remember him trying to get my nose, and how his skin felt of leather. It didn’t register, the sudden transition between life and death, until the moment I realized that you were alive, and happy 5 minutes ago. Then, you weren’t anymore. You blinked out. You enabled me to come to reality with my mortality. Nobody is safe. Everyone will end. Holidays don’t excuse you, or make you impenetrable. Any moment we can stop breathing and our existence as we know it will be over. I need to live now. I can’t put life on hold, because tomorrow might not be there. You gave me will. The will to seek, to understand, to want to know. You gave me the ability to see that I have this moment. Answers, experiences, Life…wont wait for me to be ready. I just have to get there. Your life mattered. To the daughter who survived. To the friends and family you left behind. To me. I hope mine matters as much.
October 6th, 2009 - 1:08 am
What’s this, Kabob? Trying to get us all to cry into our keyboards?
Really, great post!
October 8th, 2009 - 9:54 pm
That was a very interesting blog you wrote this time Phil. The dedications you made to your dearly departed at the end made me think about those in my own life. That have also passed and that I should think of more often. Especially in my current times I find myself wrapped up in my own trials and tribulations and have forgotten (unintentionally) my ancestors and my own dearly departed. I also notice that so where along the way I have some how managed to become vain, demanding, and marginally selfish. So now I need to work on returning to a more selfless and generous path. So I suppose I’d like to say thank you and apologize for my behavior.
October 18th, 2009 - 5:56 pm
No, lol. I wasn’t trying to make you cry. I was sharing a very personal experience of mine. Somebody who’s death greatly impacted my life.