Sabbath for Souls and Third Quarter Moon

Today is my Sabbath, and it's also the doorway to the dark half of the Celtic year, the opening of a new cycle. Blótmónað is the word for November in Old English; it means Sacrifice Month, but the sacrifice is joyful, as Persephone goes peacefully down to the underworld every year. Peace is the fruit of total acceptance. 

In November I finally see the circle of life in all its full roundness - as it blossomed in spring and as it dies in fall. November is colder and wetter, drawing me deeper towards winter. This is a month when I celebrate the final fruits of summer’s work, and remember to express my gratitude.

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 and decimation of so many other living beings. 

It has become my custom at this time of year to open my heart to healing the soul connection between me and my ancestors.

Tonight is also the waning Third Quarter. Today's moon energy is yang, a time for reciprocity, generosity, collaboration and connection; a final time of action before the next moon cycle.

Agenda: 

1. Generosity practice

2. Rattle my bones

3. Make Soul Cakes

1. Generosity practice:

On the first day of the waning third quarter moon, I make a practical plan for generosity with time and attention. In earlier phases of the moon I've been pretty self-focused, but as the moon wanes, it's time to consider how I will give back.

I start with ideas for being generous with myself, then my family, my neighborhood, community, and the earth. Consider what it is I have an abundance of at this time: I might decide to give money, a note or a gift, a visit, or simple acts of helping and sharing my time, or I might decide it's time to volunteer in a new way in our community.

This week's generosity plan:

1. Self: Settle in to reading novels - my favorite winter activity.
2. Family: Go full throttle with Christmas crafting!
3. Clerking: Learn names! and plan a clerk retreat.
4. EC: Generous brainstorming; open to the group for new theme
5. Writing: Abundant offers of my written wisdom.

When I'm motivated by the desire to give, just the intention to offer my help, and my willingness to listen, will begin to lessen suffering in the world.

2. Rattle my bones:

While searching one year for how to go about healing my connection to the souls of my ancestors, I came across an article on ancestor offerings, from Lion's Roar: Buddhist Wisdom for Our Times:

"Ancestors are everyone and everything that existed on the planet before your birth. Ancestors can include the earth, moon, sun, and stars. They can include the people in your blood lineage (loved or unloved). Included are those we want to disown because we feel they did not walk with integrity or were harmful to others. Their “wrongful actions” have something to do with how we personally and collectively live, and they too are ancestors. Ancestors are also people in the lineage of your spiritual practice, and beings in the lineage of life itself. ...

 

When we bring in the ancestors at the beginning of a ritual or ceremony, we are starting with the bones. The bones, in this writing, are symbolic of wisdom. In some indigenous cultures, bones are said to hold memory. It is not our brains that hold the remembrance of human life before our births. The memories in the bone can be stirred or rattled, as they say, through ritual and ceremony. Through our bones, we can access wisdom that has been passed from ancestors to the present". 

Today I renew this intention:

My intention today is to invite the souls of my ancestors to gather with me, so that I can honor them, and thank them for my life; I intend to use my creative fire to rattle the bones of my memory, heal the rift in my heart, and forge a stronger connection between us. I'll do this with study, meditative baking, craft-making, and ceremony.

3. Make Soul Cakes:

It was a custom in many parts of the world to go ‘a-souling’ on Halloween - go door to door, singing and saying prayers for the dead; this is the origin of trick-or-treating! In Britain, these people were called Soulers, and folks gave them Soul Cakes. Each cake eaten represented a soul freed from suffering.

 

Today I will make a batch of soul cakes, while channeling all my female British ancestors who may have made a similar recipe at this time of year. The recipe is here.