How To Think Like A Mystic About Halloween
Halloween, as you may or may not know is one of the only popular pagan holidays that didn’t get thoroughly Christianized. Why? I don’t know, maybe it’s DNA, with spirits and the spirit world, is just a little too wonky to fit comfortably into Christianity. At any rate, I for one, am glad at how it has maintained SOME degree of its’ pagan roots.
Halloween (or all Hallow’s Eve) marks harvest time. The part of the season when crops are hauled in and everyone buckles down for the nights to get longer and colder. It also marks the night of the year that the veil between the real world and the spirit world was thought to be thinnest.
So the village Druids would get together and start a bonfire to keep the spirits away (scare of fire, I guess). Villagers were encouraged to extinguish the hearth fires in their homes. This is important. This is your first opportunity, as far as this article is concerned, to think mystically about Halloween.
With a home fire out, chances were, homes were cold and dark. So, for the sake of comfort and safety, people would hang out with the Druids. For some of the elderly or young, being there, with the other villagers, at that bonfire, could be the difference between life and death — so, what can you take from this mystically? Well, I took the idea that going to a Halloween party can save your life! And for sure, it save mine. I met my wife at a Halloween party (dressed as Supergirl… oy…) and she has demonstrably saved my life many times. I also met my best friend at a Halloween party — you could likewise lay a bit of my survival at his feet.
Truth is, it doesn’t matter if it’s a Halloween party. I realize some of you probably have no desire to go to a Halloween party — that’s fine, but the lesson is, don’t forsake others. This time of year (as well as just about any other), you should take advantage of your friends, families, and neighbors. Share warmth together. Share food together. Share wine together. The nights will soon be long and cold.
Another bit about those bonfires? They were kept high by the act of villagers throwing failed crops and dead livestock on them. Whatever didn’t survive the summer, whatever didn’t contribute to your family’s prosperity? Was burned up. Here’s another chance to think mystically. What didn’t work this year? What failed? What did you lose? Throw it on the fire. Get rid of it. If failed at a thing you want to try again at, that’s fine. Keep trying. But get rid of your identification with your failure. Get rid of the stories you tell yourself about being the cause of the loss.
There you go. Two ways to think mystically about Halloween. Admittedly, Halloween may be the holiday where you don’t really need help thinking mystically. Don’t worry. I’ve got ideas about Thanksgiving and Halloween too.
