Halloween

Halloween is the modern name of the ancient Irish and Scottish holiday of Samhain (pronounced SOW-win), a Celtic-Gaelic word meaning “summers-end”. It begins at dusk on October 31, and marks the doorway to the dark half of the Celtic year, the opening of a new cycle.

In the 7th-century CE the Pope established All Saints’ Day, originally on May 13, and in the following century it was moved to November 1. The evening before All Saints’ Day became a holy, or hallowed, eve and thus Samhain became Halloween.

The Reformation put an end to the religious holiday among Protestants, although in Britain Halloween continued to be celebrated as a secular holiday. The celebration of Halloween was mostly forbidden among the early American colonists, until the 1800s.

Agenda:

1. Make a costume

2. Carve a pumpkin

3. Trick or Treats

Sabbath for Souls

Today is my Sabbath, and also the day before Halloween, which marks the doorway to the dark half of the Celtic year, the opening of a new cycle. The early Gaels believed that the border between this world and the otherworld became thin at this time of year, and so spirits of the dead could visit the living.

This is the time of year to welcome home the souls of your ancestors. But I definitely feel some angst regarding my relatives who moved here to the "New World" to take it away from the Native Peoples, and who bought into the false American Dream, built on the subjugation of so many other living beings. 

Today I plan to spend the day opening my heart and healing our soul connection.

Agenda:

1. Medicine Art for souls

2. Study genealogy and anti-racism

3. Make Pan de Muerto, Bread of the Dead

4. Have a soul ceremony

5. Offer ongoing support for my ancestors

Prepare for Halloween

Ms. Skeleton is waving.

This week we've been preparing for Halloween, with daily fun activities. Our grandson knows something is up - he doesn't know what Halloween is yet, but loves to point out all the pumpkins (he says "orange pumpkin" pretty clearly!) and he is learning to recognize all the iconic images of the season - ghosts, skeletons, spiders, and bats.

For me, the build up to Halloween is really about shifting to a darker phase of the year; darkness isn't bad, but it can be scary, and having fun with fear is part of the process, something even a two-year-old can appreciate. 

1. Make spiders

2. Decorate inside and out

3. Medicine Art for Pumpkins

4. Cook pumpkin curry

Diwali and New Kindly moon

Tonight is the night of the new moon. The Chinese call this tenth new moon the Kindly Moon. In China, this is the season for winter crop planting, and this month brings the first “little snow” which gently (and kindly) moistens the winter wheat seedlings. We don't have snow yet, but we've had some rain finally.

The new moon is the start of the lunar cycle, a time of high energy and clear thinking. Historically, the new moon is when women took time to be alone; it's a time to retreat, set intentions, and initiate something new.

This is also the start of the five day Hindu Festival of Diwali, which falls on the new moon of late October or early November. Diwali is the festival of good luck and prosperity- one of the most important festivals of the year for Hindus. On Diwali, people wear new clothes, clean and decorate their homes, go to fairs with music, dancing, fireworks, jugglers and snake charmers, and give gifts to each other.

1. Retreat Day

2. Choose a month theme

3. Set intentions

4. New moon altar and puja for prosperity

5. Start an Abundance Journal

6. Make almond katli

Medicine Art for Autumn Leaves

I'm designing a Medicine Art practice that I can teach and share, that will open the doors of creative healing to anyone, any age, any ability. The goal for my practice is to heal our connection to the earth and Creation.

We are all (de facto) connected because we are a part of nature, but we have built walls to keep nature separate, because our culture is human focused; we've been taught that we are more important than other parts of nature, and that's a hard lesson to unlearn. And when we begin to care more about nature it's easy to become overwhelmed, and then we need more walls to protect ourselves from feelings of anger and guilt.

Last week I shared some Medicine Art practices and projects for fall seeds that included the intentional steps of collecting, observing, preparing, creating, sharing and giving thanks. What I'm finding is that it's easy to find ways to connect to the earth, and  - with intention - any simple task (even a chore) becomes a path to healing.

Agenda:

1. Set leafy intentions

2. Collect leaves as a sacred activity

3. Observe leaves (with kids)

4. Observe leaves (with adults)

5. Create leaf mold to cultivate abundance

6. Leaf mold thanksgiving

Winternights

The Winternights, or Vetrnætr, is a twelve-day festival that begins on a night in mid-October, and marks the end of summer and the start of the winter. The name Vetrnætr (pronounced Vetter-natter) is Old Norse, composed of two words, vetr - meaning winter, and nætr - meaning nights. Vetrnætr is series of feasts and ceremonies (blóts, pronounced bloots) that celebrate the bounty of the harvest, and also honor the Disir, or female ancestor spirits.

Vetrnætr is celebrated by the Ásatrú; Ásatrú is an Icelandic name, taken by the modern-day Norse and Germanic people who worship the old northern gods (such as Thor, Odin, and Frey) and goddesses (such as Freya and Frigg). Though its practice was interrupted, Ásatrú has been reconstructed as closely as possible to the original religion of the Northern European people, based on the surviving historical records. Ásatrú intrigues me, because it would have been the religion of my ancestors.

2018 ofrenda

This month, Winternights festivals are held across Scandinavia, Germany, and New England and are marked by bonfires, tournaments, feasts, and arts and crafts vendors.

Agenda this week:

1. Set up my ancestor altar (ofrenda)
2. Disir meditation
3. Make more runes
4. Throw the runes
5. Feast and blót

October Third Quarter Moon

Today's waning third quarter moon energy is yin - quiet, internal, heart-driven, intentional Being-ness.  At this phase we can ease off a bit on actively pursuing goals, slow down, go within, and attend to inner work, renewal, and self-care.

Agenda today:
1. Renewal plan for next month

2. Evaluation House

3. Read "The Earth Path"

4. Monthly journal brainstorm

5. Surrender, rest, recuperate

Medicine Art for Fall Seeds

I'm designing a Medicine Art practice that I can teach and share, that will open the doors of creative healing to anyone, any age, any ability. The goal for my practice is to heal our connection to the earth and Creation. 

We are all (de facto) connected because we are a part of nature, but we have built walls to keep nature separate, because our culture is human focused; we've been taught that we are more important than other parts of nature, and that's a hard lesson to unlearn. And when we begin to care more about nature it's easy to become overwhelmed, and then we need more walls to protect ourselves from feelings of anger and guilt.

Each Medicine Art step is a normal action that we do all the time. For example, let's say today you plan to make vegetable soup: You run out to the store or your garden to collect veggies, you prepare them by washing and cutting, you create the soup, and you share it with your family, perhaps giving thanks. With a little extra effort, the soup-making can become an intentionally healing process. When we do each action as a meditation, a prayer, everything we do in life can be a way to heal.

Today I want to share some Medicine Art practices and projects with fall seeds.

Agenda:

1. Collect seeds as a sacred activity
2. Observe seeds (with kids)

3. Dry seeds with care

4. Make seed packets

5. Bird seed Thanksgiving

Indigenous People's Day

Happy Indigenous People's Day! Some people celebrate the second Monday in October as Columbus Day, but many of us prefer to honor instead the people who were here in the Americas for centuries before Columbus "discovered" it. 

Many cities are finally making the name change official, adopting Indigenous People's Day to celebrate the people and their culture, and also to reflect on their ongoing struggles in this land. The celebration today includes powwows, drumming, dancing, Native American foods and crafts.

Agenda:

1. Read "The Earth Path"

2. A Creation story

3. A note about appropriation

4. Land and people acknowledgement

5. Drumming

Full Squirrel Moon and Sukkot

Tonight is the full moon called the Squirrel Moon, because now the squirrels are busily gathering nuts for the winter. This moon is also called Atchalankuaik, the "start getting sagittair roots" moon, by the Kalapuya of our area (sagittair is a potato like tuber). 

We are now at the peak of the strong-energy yang phase of the waxing moon, and will soon begin the quiet-energy yin time of the waning moon.

Sukkot 2014

Tonight is also the start of Sukkot, a 7-day Jewish harvest festival that begins at the full moon in late September or early October.

The word Sukkot means “Booths”; Jews all over the world build outdoor booths for Sukkot, like the simple huts that farmers in ancient Israel lived in during harvest time. The roof is always made of leafy branches, open to the sky so that you see the stars through the leaves. Each family decorates their hut, makes it comfortable, and eats at least two meals there; they invite guests, light candles, and say prayers of thanksgiving for the harvest.

Agenda:

1. Take a vision walk
2. Celebrate balance

3. Autumn awareness walk

4. Fall cleaning
5. Build a sukkah and eat outside

My condition

I'm reading a Pendle Hill pamphlet called Marking the Quaker Path: Seven Key Words Plus One,by Robert Griswold. This speaks to the condition of many Friends in my Meeting, who are ready to go deeper on this journey, and a large group of us are studying this booklet together this year.

Griswold says, "The question I wish to consider here is: How do Friends become aware of this Quaker path and the need to keep growing?  ... Our meetings may be open and welcoming, but a large task still faces us. How do we let seekers know that they are at the start of a spiritual journey, and how do we guide them on that journey?"

It's true that we need to be better guides, and it sometimes feels like the blind leading the blind. I hope that this class and group reflection will help us to be clearer, even wiser.

Griswold uses seven key words that come to us from our Quaker history, that were developed to help us sense where we are on the Quaker path, and where we are going. He says these words will help us all to see how the Quaker path unfolds - but only if we "bring them into our experience so they are sealed in our hearts ... Friends from George Fox on have sought to avoid a faith that is notional, that is, just based on imagined or abstract thinking. So it is vital that we come to own these words through experiencing them in our lives".

We should consider these words more as growth markers than as concepts, as part of a sequence.

1. Word #1 - Condition

2. My path

3. Autumn plain living

4. Simple pleasures

Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur (pronounced Yome KEY-poor), also called the Day of Atonement, is the holiest day of the year in Judaism. It's observed with a 25-hour period of fasting, and prayer in the synagogue.

The focus during Yom Kippur is on sins between us and God, not sins against other people. To atone for sins against other people, you must seek reconciliation with those people, and right the wrongs you committed, if possible. And that needs to be done before Yom Kippur.

At the end of Yom Kippur, God's judgment is sealed. This day is your last chance to change the judgment, to demonstrate your repentance and make amends.

Agenda Today:
1. Reflection
2. Honor the fasting
3. Confession
4. Atonement

We Need A Paradigm Shift

The dictionary defines a paradigm shift as "an important change that happens when the usual way of thinking about or doing something is replaced by a new and different way."

Maybe we can all agree that our way of living with the earth is not working (as illustrated by the world-wide devastation, flooding, fires and drought). With all the bad events we've been having, our ancestors would have known that the earth was not happy, and would have devised some kind of charm or ritual to try to bring us back into balance, and prevent further catastrophe.

We have the advantage of science and the internet, but all but the best thinkers are confused about what to do. It's overwhelming. We can each only do what we can do. So, we each need to define for ourselves the change that needs to happen, and our specific calling to help create that shift.

Agenda:

1. Read "The Earth Path"

2. Set sacred intentions

3. Open to help

Navratri and October First Quarter Moon

Navratri continues for three more nights, with the arrival of Saraswati. 

2021 Navratri altar

The word navratri means nine nights; on each set of three nights we meditate on a different aspect of Shakti, the universal principle of energy and creativity, Mother Earth, and the feminine power in each of us. Each of the three goddesses signifies a stage of the spiritual journey we all go through: Durga’s strength and energy creates an opening, Lakshmi’s success and fortune nurtures growth, and Saraswati’s wisdom and knowledge leads to enlightenment, happiness, and peace. For these final three nights we honor and thank the Divine Mother as Saraswati, who is "the essence of self".

And this is the First Quarter Moon; we are one-quarter of the way through the moon cycle. The moon is waxing - getting larger - until it's full again. Now is the time to remain flexible, use my obstacles as fuel for growth, and show full effort for priorities.

Agenda Today:
1. Morning meditation and mantra

2. Journal queries

3. Make a full effort plan

4. Write a mission haiku

5. Fall cleaning

6. Add to my altar

Mehregan

Mehregan (pronounced ‘meh-re-gahn’), is an ancient Persian festival, older even than Zoroastrianism, that began as a feast for the sun god/dess, Mehr.

Mehr (also known as Mithra) is responsible for knowledge, love, friendship, promises, and the light. The word "mehr" in Farsi means kindness.

When Zoroastrianism took hold in Persia, in around 1400 BCE, Mehr was reduced from a God to an angel, but the festival of Mehregan remained. Now Iranians celebrate it usually on October 1st or 2nd, as a day of thanksgiving and the start of the second half of the year (Noruz, in March, is the start of the first half). People decorate their houses, put on new clothes, and visit their relatives and friends, wishing each other a good harvest, long life, and happiness.

October! We have launched into autumn now; the days are darker and the nights are longer, and I am preparing for winter with foresight, good sense, and an eye for balance. October is the mystical month, when the veil between my everyday world and the world of the dead is thin; when I can more easily see into places deeper in and further beyond. This makes October an ideal time to reawaken my intuition, work on my spiritual development, and restore a strong connection to my ancestors and other spirit guides. It’s also a good time to become reacquainted with my own mortality and to cultivate a playful and joyful relationship with death and the after-life.

It's time for quieter energy - steady and persistent, but gentle, allowing plenty of space and time for reflection and introspection. Autumn is the time to indulge in memory, open to my own shadows, and recognize my fears. I call on the wisdom and judgment of experience, and open my inner senses wide to feel my way confidently forward through the shadows.

Agenda Today:
1. Journal queries

2. Make Aash-e-jo (barley soup) with lamb
3. Set the table
4. Fire