Samhain: “summer’s end”

Unique opportunity to reflect on previous year, it’s gifts and tribulations, for we have much to be grateful for, it having been filled with experiences that enrich the spirit, however seemingly positive or negative. It allows us the unique opportunity to honour those experiences and integrate them into our development.

A time to take stock of what has come to fruition over the past year; of what has ended – what is good and bad about it – and learn from both.

A time to settle debts.

A time to make a final reckoning of what has been lost. To honour and give thanks for the time that has been shared. To make final goodbyes so that both the living and the dead can move on in their respective worlds.

The Earth Energies in the guise of the Crone move across the land, stripping it to it’s bare bones, harrowing the ground in readiness for what will come. For before birth must come death, before light must come darkness, before movement must come stillness.

This festival coincides with the end of the agricultural year; the last of the crops brought in (usually apples), and the slaughter of the animals before winter. Celtic legend has it that the crops must be harvested and brought in by this day since anything left out in the fields belongs to the cailleach. She is the Hag/Crone embodied in the last sheaf of grain that sickle-bearing reapers ritually severed from the earth and preserved inside the cottage until the next planting. (Therefore capturing the spirit until the time came to release it back out the following spring, rejuvenated and re-energised as the young vigorous Maiden.)

Although this time celebrates the end of the agricultural cycle, the end of the cycle is not death itself (that should be more the focus of the harvest at Lammas and the Autumn Equinox), it celebrates the state of being dead. Calan Gaeaf is not a celebration of death but about the dead.

The Wild Hunt with the Hounds of Annwn (hell/underworld) collect up the souls of those departed in the previous twelve months and take them through the gates into the Underworld – down into Cerridwen’s cauldron.

This is the time when the veils which separate the worlds grow thin; when the physical realm and other levels of existence draw closer and intermix.

This also includes elemental and fairy involvement as well as interference from astral levels which naturally leads to lots of chaos and mischief! At this time these spirits were able to approach humanity and ask for gifts. People dressed up as “spirits” to hid from the real wandering spirits and fool them into thinking they were not mortal/human, also knocking on doors and demanding favours. (One origin of trick or treating).

In Wales the tailless black sow Hwch Ddu Gwta rules at this time, connected with styles and other structures which define a boundary or crossing – and persues those who dare to be out of doors on this night.

Nos Calan Gaeaf is the “night between nights” – the perilous border between realities – and the

black sow occupies a similar state, never actually seen, only in shadows, guarding syles, bridges, stepping stones… those liminal places of magic and enchantment, neither on the ground, in water or in air. She is the guardian of the great cauldron that lies within the halls of the Goddess and the vehicle that provides the only means of getting there – death. She is now seen as synonymous with Cerridwen, but there is no real evidence for this – she is one of the dark goddesses in her right.

At Calan Gaeaf we have a magical death of time itself – the season of consulting the dead – and is among the most primitive ceremonies know to humanity.. Those who have passed over can return and we can ask for guidance, comfort and even prophesy.

Those in this world can look into the depths of timelessness itself.

In Brief:

1. A time of endings and settling up.

2. A time to give thanks and true appreciation for all that the previous year has brought you.

3. A time to honour the recent dead and let them go.

4. A time to remember and honour those long gone, especially your own ancestors or those of particular importance and significance to you.

5. A time to prepare for and begin your own personal regeneration.

Beltain is a celebration of the fertility and rampant potency of the life-force. All of nature is growing and manifesting now in a wild whirl of creative energy. This is the time to celebrate unions of all kinds, fertility and manifestation on many different levels, love, sexuality, and fruitfulness. It is a time to be in touch with the instinctive wild forces within and without, to be aware of the potency of the life-force and it’s power on the physical, spiritual, and mystical levels.

In the Celtic Pagan past, this was the night of the ‘greenwood marriage’ where the union between the Horned God and the fertile Goddess was re-enacted by the men and the women to ensure the fertility of the land. It was a night to spend in the woods, to make love under the trees, stay up all night and watch the sunrise, and bathe in the early morning dew. On this night, people walked the mazes and labyrinths and sat all night by sacred wells and healing springs who’s waters were said to be especially potent at this time. This was the ‘merry month’ when people dressed in green in honour of the earth’s new spring colours and the fairy folk, elemental and nature spirits, who are easier to meet at this time.

The Horned god, Herne the Hunter, untameable instinctive, wild man of the forest, becomes a white stag and chases the fertile goddess who becomes a white deer. The legend tells us he becomes the prey he hunts, and is magically transformed by his union with the Goddess. Since prehistoric times there have been many images of horned Gods; Actaeon the Stag, Pan the goat, Dionysus or Zeus the bull, Amen the Ram, Cernunos the horned god of the Celts. There is a connection between horns and male vitality through an ancient tantric belief that by the transformation of ejaculation, a mystic energy mounts up the spine, made visible by horns, and brings mystical power and wisdom. A composite of all these horned gods of the pagan religions became the Christian version of the Devil. His lustful nature gives rise to the modern slang word ‘horny’, but the word lust in old German meant ‘religious joy’ and holds a clue to the transformation which takes place in the horned God as he releases his seed and brings fertility to the land.

The Goddess is Grain, and Creiddylad, who rides her horse across the sky as Rhiannon, Epona, and Macha. A free and powerful Spirit of womanhood, she knows the power of love and the power of her own sexuality. She too is transformed by their union, becoming the Grain-Mother, carrying the fruit of their union. Together the God and Goddess represent the great circle of life and death through the seasons. Through their union at Beltain, their knowledge and power is shared. Through the blending of these opposite forces, they become the fertile force of manifest energy. Through their love and sacred union, they become transformed both physically and beyond the physical. Beltain is the celebration of this mystical and spiritual transformation inherent in sexual union.

May Day celebrations include dancing around the may pole, symbolising the interweaving and joining of the male and female energies. This creates a web of energy in a living matrix of power. It was common practice to bring a new pole into the village every year. Representing the year’s incarnation of the vegetation or nature spirit. Incorporated into the maypole dance is the Green Man who dances around the edge and represents the spirit of vegetation. All this is linked to a much older ceremony of fetching a living tree into the village every year. This living tree would still have its resident Dryad within the tree who would be central to the ceremony and danced around. It would have been asked for it’s help to ensure fertility of the land and a good harvest. The popular song ‘Here we go gathering nuts in may’ probably refers to the ‘Knots’ of May that were gathered for Beltain celebrations. It is entirely the wrong month for nuts! These ‘knots of may’ were used for decoration, but were and must never be taken inside the house.

Beltain is one of the four great Cross Quarter Fire Festivals. Beltân means Fire of the God Bel… A goodly fire! A special fire was kindled after all the other fires in the community had been put out. This was the need fire. People junped the fire to purify, cleanse, and to bring fertility. Couples jumped the fire together to pledge themselves to each other. Cattle and other animals were driven through the smoke as a protection from disease and to bring fertility. At the end of the evening, the villagers would take some of the need fire to start their fires at home anew.

The church changed the focus of Beltain eve from a night of revelry and sexual potency, to the May Day celebration who’s May Queen was a symbol of virginity, purity, and chastity, transforming the image of the wild sexually potent fertile Goddess into her opposite. Of all the things that the Church repressed, sexual expression and the sexuality of women was one of the greatest. Sexual pleasure and overt sexuality were serious offences while killing and Holy wars continued. With generations of deep disapproval influencing us, Beltain is one of the hardest ceremonies to connect to without causing embarrassment and offence.

At Beltain we can also direct our focus to the fertility of the Earth, especially now when there are large areas of land all over the land all over the world suffering and dying from man’s mismanagement, pollution, and intensive farming methods. Beltain energy is one of reverence for all of life, celebrating and honouring the fertility which grows from the union of opposites. It is about the sacredness and spirituality of love and sexual pleasure and deep connections of the heart. These life changing forces are not just the focus of sexual union, but unions of all kinds. Integrity of spirit and power brings the physical and spiritual into balance. This creates a strong life force energy which becomes the light and eternal love of spiritual ecstasy.

This is the beginning of the final and most actively potent of the waxing phase of the Sun’s cycle. All of life is bursting with fertility and the power of it’s own potential. Everything is in the process of becoming. This is the peak of the Spring Season and the beginning of Summer, the onset of the growing season when the Earth is clothed in green, the vibration of love and the heart chakra. Flowers are everywhere, birds and animals are having their young, the sounds of birdsong fill the air. It is a time of sunshine and rain, swelling and bursting, rising sap and fresh new growth. The Earth’s energies are at their most active.

Beltain, like it’s opposite in the wheel of the year, Samhain, marks a particularly potent transition in the yearly cycle. At dawn and dusk especially the boundaries between the worlds are thin, and we may find ourselves ‘spellbound’ by the power of the moment, touch the fairy realms or experience the paranormal. This will bring insights and understanding which will greatly expand our consciousness.

From here to the Summer Solstice is the peak of the sunlight and the conscious outward expression of ourselves. During this high energy time, we need to be aware of where we are and what we want and need. Create the most fertile and positive environment in which to grow the seeds of yourself. Reach out for what it is that you want and let the energy of growth whisk you along. It is a time to honour sex in it’s raw state, to see this as part of the cycle, to allow the extreme to exist which is part of nature and the expansive energy. Beltain brings the union of opposites; the rational and the intuitive, the active and the receptive, fire and water. Fertility comes from the blending of these two energies regardless of gender. Fertility is inherent in everything, everything is possible. Manifestation is reaching the height of it’s power. 

2) Although this is a time to celebrate the promise of spring, it is also a reminder that it is just that – a promise. Nothing is certain during the early steps on any journey. It is therefore also a time to be wary, a time to call on our reserves of strength. Our ancestors knew this only too well. By this stage of the year, they had survived the actual winter, but still had a very long way to go before the new spring crops would be ready to feed the people. Their own supplies from the previous summer would be getting low now, and the next crops could still be blighted by frost and flood.

3) Life in its early stages is always precarious,be it for the lamb, the human child, the seedling or the community. And so it is for the spirit. There comes that stage in the journey when our first reserves of enthusiasm for what is new have worn low and we see before us the real length of the journey. Just as many people feel that the winter will never end, so many on the spiritual path despair that they ever understand, that the goal they have set themselves can ever be won. But this is also a time for healing, reseeding of focus and resolution, intuition and of rededication to your own principles and goals.

4) At Lammas, opposite Gwyl Ffraid on the wheel of the year,consciousness began its descent into the inner realms and the dark, to find inner wisdom and regeneration. Here at Gwyl Ffraid the unconscious is re-emerging from the inner realms, revitalised, potent and fertile. The unconscious and the conscious join and unite to bring about growth, fertility and manifestation, on all levels. This is the time for initiation and healing, for reclaiming what has been forgotten. It is a time for invocation of the life-force and working with the dynamics of its potency. The intuitive flashes, the sparks of inspiration are needed more than ever to complement the active rational approach which dominates our western life-style. The returning active phase of the solar year brings with it an opportunity to use the Fire from within, to combine the dynamic inner power with the dynamic expansive energy of the year’s cycle.

5) Imbolc means “in the belly” …. ewes milk, referring to the lactation of the ewes as their young reach out from the womb to gambol innocently through the moist, pale green fields of our land. Here in Wales, Ffraid, the young maiden goddess in her infant form prances across the landscape, beckoning the summer greens that lie hidden beneath the earth. Ffraid is the Welsh name of the goddess Brigit, (pronounced in Irish as “Breed”). This is the time for honouring the Goddess, Woman and the Land who are all imbued with the responsibility of bringing forth new life. Ffraid / Breed, in common with many other Celtic deities, is triple- aspected, a goddess of healing and fertility, a goddess of smiths, a goddess of poetry… all of which are associated with fire and flame, with the hearth, with creativity. But she is also a goddess of water and patron of many healing wells. For Ffraid / Breed, fire and water go together. Fire is the potential of inspiration and new life in the waters of the womb.

6) Ffraid is a lady of principle. She is assertive in an elegant manner. She knows how to achieve her goals without alienating her associates and friends.

Above all, she is an idealist who will achieve through dedication and perseverence.
She is a winner.
And she is compassionate, caring, loyal, unselfish, and feminine.
She is strong in insight and intuition.
She is fun-loving and can show a tendency towards flirtatious and mischievous acts.