Saturday, October 29, 2011
PONDER UPON HALLOWEEN
Saturday 29th it cheeses me off that folk hold Halloween parties and think they therefore celebrate it, as if it were like the anticipation of Christ's birth before Xmas. Halloween is a set piece, not a movable feast like Easter or to be changed for ephemeral reasons like its close neighbour Guy Fawke's. Only Monday is the night of Saint Walburga, All Hallow's Eve. At the point where October is replaced by November we have the homecoming of those souls who have gone before. This moment when the veil is asunder all kinds of being can cross the threshold into the everyday.
Just as certainly people bury things within themselves and have pushed others to the edges of their lives. Often there were good reasons for this. Or at least they seemed good at the time. It is easy for a temporary state of affairs to gain unwonted permanence. What once was beyond our capabilties to control could now be well within our means to resolve. This is the time to take new stock of ourselves, to peer within and also beyond ourselves. If our lives appear to be on hold or have taken a wrong turn it might be because of a discarded or neglected piece of ourselves. Look to see whether this part needs incorporating once more, whether it might be the cornerstone of a whole new edifice of soul.
In Orkney where no-one is more than seven miles from the sea we are lucky that ancient sites and other places for solitary thought or spiritual communion are even closer. For instance there are old kirkyard sites where only burials now take place and there are high places with miles of views. On Halloween you might visit the old ones at the Wideford Hill cairn, be dogged by the souls up on Cuween Hill, go to the Tomb of The Eagles with their forms flying up above. This is the time to go to Dingieshowe where the thresholds are many, climb Duncan's Height into the bowl of the broch's excavation. Cocooned inside with your thoughts, on the day the trolls meet at Dingieshowe, the world is your oyster. The golden hour before sunset usually the best of the weather.
Saturday 29th it cheeses me off that folk hold Halloween parties and think they therefore celebrate it, as if it were like the anticipation of Christ's birth before Xmas. Halloween is a set piece, not a movable feast like Easter or to be changed for ephemeral reasons like its close neighbour Guy Fawke's. Only Monday is the night of Saint Walburga, All Hallow's Eve. At the point where October is replaced by November we have the homecoming of those souls who have gone before. This moment when the veil is asunder all kinds of being can cross the threshold into the everyday.
Just as certainly people bury things within themselves and have pushed others to the edges of their lives. Often there were good reasons for this. Or at least they seemed good at the time. It is easy for a temporary state of affairs to gain unwonted permanence. What once was beyond our capabilties to control could now be well within our means to resolve. This is the time to take new stock of ourselves, to peer within and also beyond ourselves. If our lives appear to be on hold or have taken a wrong turn it might be because of a discarded or neglected piece of ourselves. Look to see whether this part needs incorporating once more, whether it might be the cornerstone of a whole new edifice of soul.
In Orkney where no-one is more than seven miles from the sea we are lucky that ancient sites and other places for solitary thought or spiritual communion are even closer. For instance there are old kirkyard sites where only burials now take place and there are high places with miles of views. On Halloween you might visit the old ones at the Wideford Hill cairn, be dogged by the souls up on Cuween Hill, go to the Tomb of The Eagles with their forms flying up above. This is the time to go to Dingieshowe where the thresholds are many, climb Duncan's Height into the bowl of the broch's excavation. Cocooned inside with your thoughts, on the day the trolls meet at Dingieshowe, the world is your oyster. The golden hour before sunset usually the best of the weather.
Labels: All Hallow's Eve, Halloween, St Walburgia
