Tonight is the holiest night of the year for me, Samhain, or Hallowmas. The veil between the worlds grows thin, and the Ancestors draw near. Our Guides and Guardians, protective spirits, the elementals and fae are close and it is easier to connect with, listen to, and interact with them. We are in the dark, dreamtime of the year... saturated with darkness, inside of which we are cooked and seasoned, nourished and healed. Without the sacred dark there can be no experience of light. The descent myths are felt, embodied, enacted... Demeter and Persephone, Inanna... Many cultures honor death and darkness at this time of the year, and celebrate rebirth, a return of the light. Some of the celebrations center around darkness or light, or death and life: Diwali, Dia de los Muertos, Samhain...
The Sun in Scorpio right now, the sign associated with death, intensity, and transformation, encourages us to leave the surface level interactions behind and delve into our own depths and become aware of the deepest parts of ourselves. We also have Mercury, the planet that influences how we think and communicate, and Venus, the planet of love, relationships and value, in Scorpio. This adds to the saturation of transformational energies into our lives. The hidden places of our psyches and souls, the secrets in our hearts, are struck and resurrected, and cannot be ignored. They swim to the surface for our review and understanding, needing to be seen and felt and tended to. There is nothing unworthy lurking inside, nothing that must be stuffed down. Scorpio demands that the shadow side get some attention. Associated with the sign of Scorpio is the scorpion, representing the "sting" of the intensity and revolution, but also the firebird, which symbolizes the transformative qualities of this sign. The fires of radical change engulf each of us at some point in life, uncomfortable and painful and not pretty to look at, but the promise in the pain is that the fires polish us, burn away the excess, the unnecessary, the burdens and holding on... and we emerge from the flames, rising out of the ashes like the phoenix, with clarity and greater insight. An alchemical transformation in the highest sense takes place. Bright firebirds of transformation rise up and are reborn.
Let this night, this time of year, take you into the cauldron of your deepest self, let your prayers and invocations rise to the Ancestors and the Divine with the incense smoke. Adorn your altars with marigolds and pomegranates and photos of the beloveds that have passed from this plane. Align profoundly with the energies that pulse with magic and metamorphosis in this time of year, your heart open as the portals of consciousness expand momentarily. Listen deeply.
May we be blessed. May we remember. May we live fully. So mote it be...