Samhain late afternoon

things have odd beginnings and odd endings.
    First sun of this cold day, this day that begins winter, there will be no more t-shirt days until next year.
It is cold, and cold for the duration.
More time inside than outside.

smoke in our eyes and the fire wildly in control. made with lots of paper after all the sticks laid out got cold and wet. Finally flame and layers of wood slowly burning strong. Set up previously and yet not ready as planned. Plans rarely are stuck to, plans always change, it is the prep and the flexibility that remains constant.
Leaves illuminated with the setting light with background grey.

3 airplanes, or maybe 5, low and loud and hidden in the cloud cover, coming from the North, while calling in the North, the place of winter, of what we don’t yet know.       So many deaths and strange sadness.
So much weirdness and wyrrdness and tears.
letting in the pernicious evil, the zombies,
the internet, taking over our spirits our souls.
I choose love and kindness.

Samhain means summer’s end, and we think about this past summer and how wonderful it was and what we no longer have from this summer but what we are so grateful for.

this world is the same world as all our ancestors, all people have ever known, even the dinosaurs knew this earth and called her home.

the ease of simplicity of small groups of feeling here on this earth, of not caring for performance but only of participating.

wrapped in cloaks and blankets and coats watching. smoke filled eyes always transport me not here but in between.

                     

Bunches of lemon balm for our Kindred, up in flames and embers blown in the wind like us dancing.

Our honored dead, those people who experienced what it is like to be imperfect, who have lived and died, who were our relatives or teachers or friends or just other humans, may this time of your travels be safe and may you feel welcome and fed here.

The spirits of Nature and Place, spirits of these rocks and our pets and the leaves and the branches and the plants and the garden and the wind and the clouds and all the animals and trees and the sun and the moon.

And all the Gods and Goddesses, shining ones of all kinds, so many names mixed with the smoke.

Children offering gratitude for time and weather with their words and pink candy and laughter, prayers for the recently deceased-our family of those no longer here, prayers for their families, prayers for the sorrow, prayers for the passing and the safe passage of these spirits back, prayers for our health and well being.
 
sculptural mullein Delta-T antenna structure placed over the fire in its own space somehow beyond the flame. All our final sacrifice offered.
  
me reading cards for omens,
hallowing them in the smoke,
cutting the deck for each card,
more complex explanations than runes,
no less directed in their meaning.

(note- for ease of definition here, out of the moment, I have referred to The Tarot Handbook by the incredibly wise and gifted human Angeles Arrien ) 
from the Ancestors: Prince of Wands- Mastery of Inspired Creativity: trust in letting the creative process flow. focus, concentration & attention to manifest

from the Spirits of Nature & Place: 8 of disks, sun in Virgo, Prudence or wisdom or the harvest tree that manifests as a result of using prudence or wisdom. Attend to details, organization, systematization. Harvest follows order it does not follow chaos, harvest follows trust, it does not follow control. Prudence is not pushing or holding back but is that state of consciousness that is centered and integrated.

from the Gods & Goddesses: 7 of Wands, Mars in Leo, Valor- the courage to stand by what you value and not to compromise or settle for less. Trust your experience. With this courage to believe in yourself, things will unfold naturally and will renew or regenerate or allow you to move in new directions that you value.

for the season: Ace of Swords- mental clarity, inventiveness and originality. The mind that has no doubt, creative thinking- the inspired and innovative mind willing to express itself dynamically and is constantly renewing and regenerating itself. This is the symbol of expanded awareness, the “aha” experience.

Diamond Consciousness.

A good year to implement an original idea or an important dream or purpose that can be actualized.

Accepting the goodness of those omens through the hallowed waters of life gifted to us by the Earth Mother, the ever changing all-mother,
we drink heartily in large gulps.

Closing down quickly with thanks and pumpkin spirals, huddling closer, feeling the earth, grounding out.

then the girl throwing off coats and blankets and breaking into wild dance.

eating apple pie for dinner, ready to sleep early. Daylight savings time and double solar eclipse. Wind whipping at nothing and the stream, choked with leaves, roars anyway.

Sometimes its funny, I have been longing for this holiday, this ritual to put the season to bed, to start anew, to move on. However it feels like that took place perhaps over the last few days of realigning with vision, of doing art, of making dinner or doing laundry and dishes, of dreaming before sleep and before waking up.
And this ritual was just gently closing the door.

prepare for the unexpected

walking in the early setting sun to get the dumb supper left out and unreplenished from
the night before ritual almost 48 hours before
and nothing had been eaten.
We live in a rural area of all sorts of critters roaming around from deer and coyote to raccoon and bear (who should be asleep by now)not to mention domestic dogs and cats and NOTHING on the plate had been touched.
Except by the rain.
And I opened took out the fortune from the cookie opened with wet and freeze and it said:

season of peaches

  this season when the leaves color and fall
has been filled with peaches.
Now only a couple of late roses bloom
and the last of the black eyed Suzys fade.
There are a few flowers and fruits as spots of color, but mostly the plants hang their brown and dried seed heads as the trees slowly change and drop each leaf one by one .

Autumn envelopes us with her sharp angled light
of late afternoons and shorter days and coldness.

Now the sun shines directly from the west
into the cobwebs throughout the house.

Shorts and long sleeves and shawls and socks.
Finally some rain and today all is shrouded in a cloud.
A wistfulness bears hard on me and I dream of spring as I walk over wet leaves.
All the leaves have now dropped from the Ash trees. We are grateful for another year with them. Sweeping leaves and massive amounts of maple seeds from the deck is a daily chore.

And the wyrdness abounds.
I want to start putting out the dumb suppers now, the spirits seem restless and there is a heaviness to our actions, to this time, this season of dying off and letting go and ending.

Our ritual was seasonal and seemingly so long ago. Before the leaves were peak, when there were still peaches, when we we still striving for a new balance from summer vacation to back to school, from lazy and languid to never-ending, and from warm to cold.

We gathered as 2 families of 3 plus 1.
Each interconnected knowing and not knowing, nothing expected and perfectly together.

I balanced the egg, we had a fire for warmth, and snacks. And time mindfulness.

Moving past accomplishments, tragedies, and feelings of being lost and wandering aimlessly we refocused here. 

I remember little except everything.
Meditation together on the cool earth,
our directions distinct with sunrise & sunset and the North punctuated with a loud boom blast, and the up with the warm sun directly overhead.
Peaches rolling spirals down to the well, jumping in to help with sacrifice,
heartfelt and tearful prayers of gratitude, questions and understanding.
Birds and water sounds throughout at definitive points and times.
Nothing is random.
All captured in too many pictures by an iphone happy kid.

 

 

     
  

                        
our omens give one reason to pause, balance and think

from our Ancestors: Nathuz or the need
from the Spirits of Nature & Place:Thuriz or thorn
from the Gods & Goddesses: Isa or ice
for the season: Ehwaz or the horse