On Shadows

top graphic of 2 pumpkins and the pagan wheel of the year

Samhain – A November Eve table blessing

The word hallow means to sanctify, to make holy. Halloween (Samhain, pronounced sow-en, for pagan folk) in America is a caricature of something that might be, perhaps once was, much more meaningful: a night to honor the dead in recognition of their significance to the living, to celebrate their contribution to immortality.

Everything has a shadow. Night is the shadow of day. Winter is the shadow of summer. Sickness is the shadow of health. Old age is the shadow of youth. Last year is a shadow of this year, and death is the shadow of life. A world without shadows would seem flat and stagnant, one-dimensional. Indeed, if it were not for the shadows we might not much appreciate the light at all−it is the contrast that illuminates. Our world grows deep with shadows now; another cycle is completing its course. The days are shortening and the nights are filling with whispers. It is the shadow of death which offers us the insight to comprehend the continuum of life; it is what empowers us to understand our own place in the eternal procession of the ages. The living and the dead are linked together in one unbroken chain−we feast our dead tonight to honor that connection and keep it intact. Samhain exposes a crease in time; it is a fissure between summer and winter, between the old year and the new, between this world and the next. We bid the God farewell until Solstice and wish Him well on his sojourn to the Other Side. Our sorrow at His passing is balanced by the sustenance and comfort the Goddess provides. We join Her in joyful anticipation of His return. As it wanes, now is the time to take the years' lessons to heart and to face our inner world alone. The coming winter season brings a turn inward. We descend to the underworld to confront our fears and to hallow our wisdom. The Goddess feeds our intuition and, waning, deepens our secrecy. Let us give in to our true passions, develop our instinctive natures, and explore the mysteries that call to us. Pray honor your complexity and your value. Trust your heart. Let us feast, then, on the fruits of the harvest to support our bodies and deepen our connection to the Goddess. We do so in joyful gratitude for the abundance of love and kinship around this table tonight, understanding that contemplation of death is neither morbid nor scary. Tonight we celebrate the blessing and liberation in the lesson that the greatest gift of the shadow of death is the challenge to live with full consciousness and conscience. To those who have traveled this way before, we toast our thanks. Merry Meet And Merry Part, Until We Meet Again.

moonlit press logo, crescent moon with a star below

MoonLit sends you heartfelt Samhain greetings at this October Full Moon. The sun descends into dark during the coming turn and pulls all of us along with it. It is a time for introspection, and a time to remember and honor the dead. It’s also time to dress up and have fun. Happy Halloween to one and all.

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Graphic design by AJ Brown https://mastodon.sdf.org/@mral
Photography by Terryl Warnock https://mastodon.sdf.org/@wordsbyterryl

Some images are through Creative Commons License and we would thank all of those creators if we could find their names.

On Shadows was previously published in The Miracle du jour and is reposted here with the permission of MoonLit Press.

On Shadows was inspired by, and is dedicated to, Kari Ann Allrich, Goddess of the Hearth.

Terryl is grateful to the people who gifted her with this beautiful lifetime: her parents, and their parents, and their parents, and so on and so forth, back into the dimness of time immemorial. Samhain celebrates the kinship of human connection so ancient it transcends both human ken and human memory. It is the natural way of things for a community of the beloved on the other side to grow with the years as a human being ages. Halloween offers an opportunity to tell them we miss them and love them still.

Terryl is also grateful to be the batty old witch of her family at last. It took three generations to earn the title, The Bat, and it’s one Terryl wears with pride.

Al is grateful to his little brother Lloyd, he was a good example to us all. He lived a life of service to others and was dedicated to his wife, family, and community. He died way too young.

Terryl and Al are both deeply thankful to the people who read our work. There would be little point in any of this without you. You make it worth doing. We love hearing back from you, and are ever so grateful to you for sharing our efforts with your friends and family.

Terryl Warnock is an eccentric with a happy heart who lives on the outskirts of town with her cat. She is known as an essayist, proof reader, editor, maker of soap, and proud pagan. A lifetime student, she has pursued science, religion, and sustainable communities. This, plus life experience from the local community service to ski instructor, from forest service worker to DMV supervisor, from hospitality to business owner gives her a broad view on the world.

Terryl is the author of:
The Miracle du jour, ISBN-10: 0989469859, ISBN-13 ‏: ‎ 978-0-9894698-5-2

AJ Brown, in a past life, was an embedded systems engineer (digital design engineer). He worked on new product designs from hard disk controllers, communication protocols, and link encryptors to battery monitors for electric cars.

A few years ago he surrendered his spot on the freeway to someone else. Now he is more interested in sailing, building out his live-in bus for travel, and supporting the idea of full-circle food: the propagation, growth, harvest, storage, preparation, and preservation of healthy sustenance. He is a strong supporter of Free/Libre Open Source Software[F/LOSS] and is willing to help most anyone in their quest to use it.

Together, we are MoonLit Press where words and images matter.