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kistha'Tis Halloween or Samhain depending on your predilections:
Halloween
I love the way it gets dark and stormy here in the fall. I love the gray shrouded skies, the giant orange harvest moons, the wild wind and the pouring rain. I love Halloween. I love to dress up, to go out and be scary, or beautiful so how could I not but love Halloween? I love giving out candy to kids, and going to parties, quiet or loud. Carving pumpkins by the bushel, and decorating the house...all this I have missed this year. There will be no Halloween here this year. The apartment has no place to put pumpkins (not inside stupid cats - not outside, stupid neighbors) I doubt there will be any trick or treaters this year. The house is unfinished, and vacant, so no point decorating it, and everything is still in storage so there would be nothing to decorate with anyway. So no Halloween for us this season. We'll be giving a loved table to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
writersweekend &loloc and then having a nice Italian dinner so at least we'll be in good company - then home to the apartment.
Samhain
There is also my religious holiday which differers from Samhain and is another of those holidays where it is definitely difficult to observe alone. In fact I have never done the proper observances, ever...it's just impossible to do alone. I feel like at least writing it out as a soft bow to the Lady of the West since I can't even lose myself in Halloween or fellow pagan's rituals this year. If you are interested, follow me.........
Silence, Secrets and Death
The people would all gather before the Cave of West, before her priestesses all arrayed in their robes of purple and earthy brown just before the time of sunset. The people must come without disguise or mask, they may choose not to wear the items of lineage and family if they choose, but they may not deceive. The must come as themselves, and no one else.
Everyone holds secrets, everyone has something they wish to hide, for good or ill.
As the sun slides to the time of twilight they stand together waiting in silence. Waiting to see if they will give a secret willingly or if a priestess will give it up for them. Wondering what will be heard in the purpling evening. Together, separate, waiting in shared fear, anticipation, sorrow, joy and guilt.
At the start of twilight, the people may choose to give up a secret of their own, as bid by themselves or the inner urging of the Goddess. Once the people are done and the twilight deepens the Priestesses will share secrets. Other's secrets. The Priestesses do the Goddess' bidding and none knows why but She - while the people wait and hear. Imagine it, suddenly shouting out your deepest secret, feeling the release, but knowing that you may still pay the price of it. This is not a holiday of leniency. You may find forgiveness, but it is far from guaranteed. Or hearing your secret from another's mouth, as they tell the secret you have held deeply hidden to the darkening twilight of West's heart, and all of the people.
Once twilight if fully realized, as the sun finally slides into the dark the list of the dead is read. A Priestess chosen for this night will read out the litany of those who have passed into the cave of night during the year. All will wail and lament for the ones they knew that have now passed from the Cave of West to her sister's Ocean of birth. The reciting of the list ends as the last light of the sun is extinguished.
In the dark all may now go; in the dark to home, friends and family. There will be talk, and food and drink, and all manner of things as they safely finish their pass through the Heart of West.
And in the dark, those who's secrets have deadly repercussions, will gather or be gathered. The duels, and judgments will begin. Any duel, or punishment that is laid down for a secret told - belongs to West. So in her sacred precincts the judgments will be carried out by her priestesses, and the duels will be fought there, where the fallen will be gathered immediately to her, for on her night she will not be denied.
May you all have a good holiday, no matter the flavor.
Halloween
I love the way it gets dark and stormy here in the fall. I love the gray shrouded skies, the giant orange harvest moons, the wild wind and the pouring rain. I love Halloween. I love to dress up, to go out and be scary, or beautiful so how could I not but love Halloween? I love giving out candy to kids, and going to parties, quiet or loud. Carving pumpkins by the bushel, and decorating the house...all this I have missed this year. There will be no Halloween here this year. The apartment has no place to put pumpkins (not inside stupid cats - not outside, stupid neighbors) I doubt there will be any trick or treaters this year. The house is unfinished, and vacant, so no point decorating it, and everything is still in storage so there would be nothing to decorate with anyway. So no Halloween for us this season. We'll be giving a loved table to
writersweekend &loloc and then having a nice Italian dinner so at least we'll be in good company - then home to the apartment. Samhain
There is also my religious holiday which differers from Samhain and is another of those holidays where it is definitely difficult to observe alone. In fact I have never done the proper observances, ever...it's just impossible to do alone. I feel like at least writing it out as a soft bow to the Lady of the West since I can't even lose myself in Halloween or fellow pagan's rituals this year. If you are interested, follow me.........
The Heart of West
Silence, Secrets and Death
The people would all gather before the Cave of West, before her priestesses all arrayed in their robes of purple and earthy brown just before the time of sunset. The people must come without disguise or mask, they may choose not to wear the items of lineage and family if they choose, but they may not deceive. The must come as themselves, and no one else.
Everyone holds secrets, everyone has something they wish to hide, for good or ill.
As the sun slides to the time of twilight they stand together waiting in silence. Waiting to see if they will give a secret willingly or if a priestess will give it up for them. Wondering what will be heard in the purpling evening. Together, separate, waiting in shared fear, anticipation, sorrow, joy and guilt.
At the start of twilight, the people may choose to give up a secret of their own, as bid by themselves or the inner urging of the Goddess. Once the people are done and the twilight deepens the Priestesses will share secrets. Other's secrets. The Priestesses do the Goddess' bidding and none knows why but She - while the people wait and hear. Imagine it, suddenly shouting out your deepest secret, feeling the release, but knowing that you may still pay the price of it. This is not a holiday of leniency. You may find forgiveness, but it is far from guaranteed. Or hearing your secret from another's mouth, as they tell the secret you have held deeply hidden to the darkening twilight of West's heart, and all of the people.
Once twilight if fully realized, as the sun finally slides into the dark the list of the dead is read. A Priestess chosen for this night will read out the litany of those who have passed into the cave of night during the year. All will wail and lament for the ones they knew that have now passed from the Cave of West to her sister's Ocean of birth. The reciting of the list ends as the last light of the sun is extinguished.
In the dark all may now go; in the dark to home, friends and family. There will be talk, and food and drink, and all manner of things as they safely finish their pass through the Heart of West.
And in the dark, those who's secrets have deadly repercussions, will gather or be gathered. The duels, and judgments will begin. Any duel, or punishment that is laid down for a secret told - belongs to West. So in her sacred precincts the judgments will be carried out by her priestesses, and the duels will be fought there, where the fallen will be gathered immediately to her, for on her night she will not be denied.
May you all have a good holiday, no matter the flavor.
