Tracy Cochran

Halloween is typically linked to the Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-an or sow-in), which celebrated the harvest and the end of the lighter half of the year and the beginning of the darker half.  Time was marked according to the turning of the seasons–not a linear numerical march forward but a spiral. Cycles, seasons, repeating but experienced in different ways, potentially on a different level.

The ancient Celts thought that at this time of year the veil between this earthly realm and other realms was thinner, allowing spirits to pass from one world into another. In ancient Scotland, it is said, people patrolled village borders at this time of year. Spirits of ancestors were recognized and invited home while harmful spirits were warded off. Young men put on fearsome costumes and masks, seeking to frighten what they feared away.

Such customs may seem fanciful and remote but most of us have our own versions. We guard our borders and assume various defensive postures to protect ourselves against the ghosts that come wafting up from the depths at vulnerable time–times when the veil that usually separates our thinking world from the feelings and sensations that dwell beneath.

Sometimes constellations of feeling and memory come back to us from long ago come back to us. This is where the spiral comes in. When our ghosts appear bearing old familiar difficult emotions we can practice meeting them with an attention that is completely loving and accepting. Think of walking down a dark street with a strong, calm friend who is holding up a light.

A beautiful rite of Samhain in ancient Scotland was, according to some accounts, the dowsing of household fires, and the lighting them from a common bonfire.  Imagine that warm blaze and a whole community of people dipping torches in to carry a shared light back to their dark homes. Imagine if we sit down together like those long-ago people, reconnecting with our common human warmth, our wish to belong, to love and be loved. Imagine taking that light home to meet our darkest fears and hidden hurts and shame. Notice how it feels to recognize you are that friend who walks with you–to see that there is a light inside you that can meet the darkness with love.