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Samhain At The Nomadic Chantry
of The Gramarye
by Rosemary Kooiman
The feast of Samhain is really a
continuation of the festivals of our ancestors. What was it our
forebears celebrated this night so long ago? Do we pick up their
threads to continue the warp and woof of their weaving, or have we
chosen another fabric in this modern age?
There are layers of meaning to the
celebration of Samhain as our forebears understood it. It was
the new year. And it was the time to cull the flocks.
Life and death. At the ending/death of the old year, and the
beginning/birth of the new, the veil between the worlds was at its
thinnest. The living could communicate with the beloved dead
either for solace or knowledge, and Faerie could cross over.
This was a night of communion with the dead, of divination.
This was the time of remembrance,
of the Dumb Supper, the Feast of the Dead. The dead were drawn
to a meal set by the living, through ties of love and magic.
This night also, would Celts lie on graves seeking communication with
the resident thereof.
Samhain is still the eve of the
parting of the curtain. We still seek from those who have gone
before, as ever we did, wisdom and knowledge. We are all a bit fey
this eve, touched perhaps by the spirit of Faerie.
At the same time, Samhain was a
defiant affirmation of life and fertility in the face of the coming
winter, an uninhibited feast of the living. To understand the
light/life, one must know the dark/death. At this, the
beginning of the winter, the new year, one learned of darkness and death.
It is at Samhain the labyrinth of
the Underworld leads to the barren descent into winter. The
Goddess readies herself for her long sleep, and the God takes the
reins for the Hunter's Ride, seeking those souls who have lost their
way or are in need of release.
What can that mean to us now, we
who need not hope the harvest was plentiful to store food for the
winter's lack? We have supermarkets and central heat; our only
fear is cabin fever. Yet the end of October is still the onset
of Winter. And the cold and the dark do come and they
still frighten us. So we throw our living lights into the teeth
of the gale. We shine with the sheer vibrancy of life. We
paint masks and create colorful garb and thumb our noses to mock
their presence. This is a night in which to celebrate life and
communicate with the dead. Divination may be in order. This
night, Samhain, is the ending of the year. Tomorrow's light is
the beginning of the new year.
The intent of this gathering is to
celebrate Samhain in all its meanings.We honor our dead. We
honor our lives. We honor the Wheel of Life in its
progression. We joyously invite our beloved dead to join us in
the Dumb Supper, our remembrance of their lives.
The Chantry has a requirement for
all students in their Second Year to present their own ritual for one
of the eight Sabats. At Samhain we have been presented a Dumb
Supper, a Feast of the Dead, a calling for One gone before; rituals
with both Honor and Humor. It is amazing what a talented
student can come up with. As much as anything else, Samhain now
means to us at the Chantry a validation of the principles we have
tried to instill in our students and amazement in what they have done
with it. |
