Lifting
the Veil -- Reflections on Halloween Next Friday night, front porches all around America will be decorated with carved, candle-lit, pumpkins, plastic skeletons and comical witches. Children all over America -- maybe even your own -- will don outfits that hide their childishness and for one evening your sons and daughters will be magically transformed into goblins, jedi knights, fairies, ninjas, and other wonderous creatures of their imaginations. They will prowl the streets and sidewalks of your neighborhoods demanding candy in exchange for the withholding of impish pranks. Somewhere, a group of teenagers and young adults will plunk down $10 each to be granted admission into an old house filled for just a few weeks with gore and horror, vampires, bloody deaths, and torture. They will scream with fear. They will run in terror, chased by demons and devils. Then they will fall out the backdoor of this house laughing until tears stream down their cheeks, catching their breaths, and leaning on one another for mock support. Somewhere near here, that same night, a group of people will gather in a circle. They will gather reverently and willfully. They will gather happily and joyfully. They will gather to celebrate one of the holiest days of their faith. They will celebrate the passing of the seasons from life to death, and they will celebrate the memories of those who have died. They may even leave plates of food on their altars or outside of their doors to honor the spirits of those who have passed, and who, that night they believe will be with them. They will be taking part in the celebration of a festival that is older than written history. Next Friday night, for one brief night, children (and maybe even you) will be the objects of their fantasies they have waited a year to be, people will face their fears and the things of life that scare them, and a religious tradition that is rooted in the seasons and the earth will celebrate. For next Friday night -- October 31 -- is Halloween. Halloween. We all know what it is -- or do we really? We know about costumes, and pumpkins, and candy-corn, and of course, trick-or-treaters, but what do we really know about Halloween? Even deeper than that, what do we know about the people and the faith that still celebrate Halloween under its original name and with closer ties to its original meanings? How aware are we of the deep psychological and mythic influence this night holds? I have made no secret of my leanings toward a humanistic theology. Some of us have discussed what it means to be humanist versus what it means to be a theist. We can talk more about that later. What you may not know about me is that I also base a great deal of my theology on the myths, legends, and folklore of ancient people. Those myths and legends hold more truth and value to me than any holy writ or dogma. And since I get so much value out of those myths and legends, it should come as no surprise that this time of year, and this upcoming festival are my favorite of the year. I hope that by the time I have stepped down from here this morning you will have a little more understanding of the beauty and life affirming messages Halloween has to offer us, and maybe even better understand that part of our Unitarian Universalist covenant that states:
There are many versions of what the symbols of Halloween are and where they originated, but the basic truth of it is the same. Halloween is the Christianized name for So - win. Spelled S-A-M-H-A-I-N. It was the highest of holy days in the ancient Celtic calendar. It literally means, summer's end. Samhain marks the end of the year, the drawing to a close of the cycle of life. Samhain is the last harvest festival. The final crops have been brought in from the fields, and as Bill Ison noted, God has begun drawing a blanket over the world. It also marks the beginning of the year, and was marked with great bonfires in the fields and bogs of the ancient British Isles. It was the time to end and start again. The Celts also believed that on this night the veil between the world of the living and the dead was at its thinnest or raised altogether, and it was on this night that the spirits of the dead left the Abyss. The gates were unlocked and spirits from below flew free. Human souls that had been trapped in the bodies of animals were released by the lord of the dead and sent to their new incarnations. This is about all that is known for sure about Samhain, that and the fact that Samhain is NOT the name of any god or goddess in Celtic mythology. Samhain, on our calendar from October 31 to November 2, was a time of no-time. Celtic society, like all early societies, was highly structured and organized, everyone knew their place. But to allow that order to be psychologically comfortable, the Celts knew that there had to be a time when order and structure were abolished, when chaos could reign. And Samhain, was such a time. Time was abolished for the three days of this festival and people did crazy things, men dressed as women and women as men. Farmers' gates were unhinged and left in ditches, peoples' horses were moved to different fields, and children would knock on neighbors' doors for food and treats in a way that we still find today in the custom of trick-or-treating. But behind this apparent lunacy, lay a deeper meaning. The Celts knew that these three days had a special quality about them. The veil between this world and the World of the Ancestors was drawn aside on these nights, and for those who were prepared, journeys could be made in safety to the 'other side'. The Druid rites, therefore, were concerned with making contact with the spirits of the departed, who were hopefully seen as sources of guidance and inspiration rather than as sources of dread. This was the time of the lunar calendar, when months were measured by the phases of the moon, and Samhain was always at the time of the new moon -- the dark moon, the time when no moon can be seen in the sky. This was the phase of the moon which ruled this time, because it represents a time in which our weak human sight needs to be obscured in order for us to see into the other worlds. At Samhain the dead are honored and feasted, not as the dead, but as the living spirits of loved ones and of guardians who hold the root-wisdom of the tribe. With the coming of Christianity, this festival was turned into Halloween (October 31), All Hallows [All Saints Day] (November 2), and [All Souls Day] (November 2), a time where good Catholics everywhere were to honor the saints of God and those who have died and risen to heaven. Not the living saints and Christians, the dead ones. The church couldn't get the Celts to forget their heritage, so they changed it, and here we can see most clearly the way in which Christianity built on the pagan foundations it found rooted in the British Isles. Not only does the purpose of the festival match with the earlier one, but also even the unusual length of the festival is the same. From here on, the customs that we embrace as part of the fun diverge, and it is hard to tell what came from where. So here are some of my favorite origins of what we know of. Costumes -- why do we dress up? Well, since the spirits of the dead are all out and walking about there are bound to be some not so pleasant ghosts about. It is postulated that the ancient Celts dressed in the skins of animals and took on animal traits and habits so that they could fool the spirits that they may come across out in the woods and along the roads. Pumpkins -- what's with our gutting out a squash and putting a candle in it? Well it is certain that the Celts did not have pumpkins. They are a New World vegetable, truly American, but the Celts did have turnips, and they would carve a hollow into turnips and put a candle in it to act as lanterns, perhaps hanging them outside of their homes to show the spirits of their dead relatives that the family was home. But the pumpkin is ours -- as American as apple pie, which is best made with apples in season, and fall is the season of apples. Candy -- candy corn, sweet-tarts, and other goodies are what our kids like best! The possible origin of this custom could be from cakes and other goodies the Celtic peasants would have to give out to the priests who came by on Samhain night, or as offerings to the spirits of the dead. The rituals of the eve of Samhain have passed into modern mainstream custom as Halloween. Today, of course, there is rarely any religious feeling in the festivities (unless its someone telling you that it is an evil holiday that glorifies everything unholy), but a fascinating celebration of night and imagination remains. Children and adults reach into literature, television, comic books, or the depths of their own minds and bring out the faces of mythic characters to wear over their own. The creative energy at work in the streets on Halloween night is electrifying. An important factor in what makes this happen is the opening of the Abyss, the lifting of the veil between the worlds. Although Christianity has absorbed this concept into its Hell myth, the pagan underworld is not simply a pit for the torment of the unconverted. In virtually every other cosmologies and mythological structure in the world, paradise as well as torment can be found in the underworld. According to Homer, the underworld is a vague, shadowy place where the dead have only a dreamlike awareness. Heroes descend to the underworld and always return with some essential knowledge or prize (Odysseus, Aeneas, Hercules, and several more in Greco-Roman mythology alone, not to mention Jesus' descent into the underworld -- but that's a totally different sermon). This aspect of the veil is the most illuminating one for me far as the true spirit of Halloween is concerned. The dark, terrifying realm of night and death that hides the solutions to the dilemmas of legendary heroes is the same dark, terrifying realm into which artists delve for inspiration. The Delphic oracles delivered their prophecies after breathing a mist that rose from this mythic underground. Likewise, an artist weaves the phantoms of the Ideal, buried in the deep unconscious, that rise out of the Abyss into her work. The acknowledgement of the Abyss awakens hero and artist to greater awareness. Thus Samhain, past and present, is a symbol of imagination unbound. The veil of own psyches - of the separation of the rational and the irrational -- of the fantastic and the realistic -- of the created and the made -- dissolves in child-like glee. On Halloween we have permission to be foolish and reckless. We wink, nudge, and laugh at our costumed friends and children. Samhain allows us time to embrace what we like to leave closeted during the rest of the year, and here is where the academics and the facts of history end, and my message of Halloween begins. When I discovered the writings of Joseph Campbell, the late great mythologist, I knew I had found my personal prophet. Joseph Campbell introduced me to whole new worlds within the myths of other cultures. Within those myths I learned that the Abyss, the Underworld, was not a Hell to be feared and avoided as my Christian roots taught me, but more like an eternal waiting room where hero and commoner were equal. There was no eternal torment, other than perhaps boredom. The Celtic concept of a time when the veil between that world and ours was lifted would not have been a time full of fear and loathing, of caution for demons and devils. Instead it would be a time to rejoice in the return, however brief, of loved ones, of family and friends. Campbell gave me a new awareness of an appreciation for another prophet who taught me not to be afraid of the dark, psychologist Carl Jung. Jung introduced me to the concept of the Shadow, the dark part of our psyches that lurks deep within us. It is a part that we don't want to acknowledge exists, yet it insists on being seen. Halloween is the time of year that gives us permission to dance in the shadow side of our existence Shadows have gotten a bad rap. The Shadow is as
vital to our psychological health as a warm hug. The shadow is the dark part of our world
and of us. It is the part of our lives that scares us. During this time of Halloween we
actively court the Shadow. We seek out the things that scare us. We embrace fear and dare
to turn out the lights to challenge the monsters under our beds. We go to or create
haunted houses in order to bring our fears to life. We use this time of Samhian as an
opportunity to get into the face of fear and laugh When this service has ended, you will hopefully feel more knowledgeable about an ancient festival of harvest and death, but you will also stretch out a bit to wake your tired muscles and to encourage your blood to flow a little faster. You will have faced the light of life. But when you face your shadows, when you embrace that which frightens and scares you, and you beat it, you will already be wide awake and alive. You will celebrate every breath you take. The pounding of your heart in your chest will invigorate you. Facing your fears shouts YOU ARE ALIVE! We hallow our monsters because we know that we can beat them everytime. Dracula is easily defeated with a stake through the heart or a ray of sunlight. Freddie Krueger exists only in the between world of sleep and wakefulness and is much weaker once his secret is known. The boogie man is easily slain by a mom or dad with a magic word or talisman. Our fears are our best friends. They remind us of how great it is to be alive. Autumn brings about the death of all that is green and bearing fruit. The final harvest has been made. We make preparations to store all of our food for the harsh cold ahead of us. Among all of this death is the assurance that the cycle will continue, that the great wheel of life will turn, and from this death will come life again. Friday night you will be faced with monsters, goblins, fairies, Jedis, and few creatures of undetermined origin. They will threaten you with mischief, and you will cooperate in the game by handing over candy. But at about midnight I challenge you to stand outside and be still. Listen. Just listen. If you are lucky you will hear the veil lifting, and if you are luckier still maybe you'll get a visit from your great-great-great grandmother. |