The quarter Moon rides high in the nighttime sky besides Jupiter these nights. The first strong, cold winds of autumn are finally shoving the long hot summer out of the Valley. The time has come for the Dark to enter the Cosmic Story. The Celtic celebration of Samhain, All Hallow's Eve is the doorway to Wintertime, to death and cold and darkness. For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, the darkness will grow quickly now, just as for those of you in the South, the Light will begin to come back for the year.
This festival of the Dead bids us to make peace with our dead as well as with those inner habits, beliefs and objectives that have outlived their purpose. We need to let go. That's the hard part. What comes next? It seems we need to go into the darkness to re-discover the Light.
Carl Jung said, "One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. This encounter with the Unconscious is our call to the Hero/ine's Journey. Each of us who answers the call brings back unique gifts " magical gifts to transform our lives and share with the world.
It is no mistake that the dark and cold of late autumn take shape during the Sun's journey through Scorpio. Each sign of the zodiac shows us a different way to grow, to change, to evolve. When the Sun reaches Scorpio, we are challenged to face the dark, which includes our death, and look for our truth. In the cycle of the seasons, it is the time of year when the veils between the worlds open and the Dead make their peace with Life and Life makes its peace with Death. It's a time to honor your dead, to remember their life and love. And a time to make peace with the idea that one day, you too will die. As don Juan told Carlos, "Take death as your advisor. It makes life passionate and intense, rather than boring and repetitive and full of fear.
I think our tradition of Hallow'een opens us to different views of death and dying. On Hallow'een, we give food and nurturing to the Dead. (So I guess they're still around?) We dress up and take on new personas. We allow for all sorts of beings " demons, angels, hobbits, dragons, knights, princesses, vampires, werewolves. We step into an alter-ego and allow ourselves to become someone or something else. The dark is alive with mystery and magic. That's a good way to see Death. Rather than something to be feared, we might see it as a mystery to be explored.
If you'd like to read a Samhain story, go to: All Hallow's Eve
Saturn Moves into Libra
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