It's cats of Halloween Time and a recent ritual

 The Earth is preparing for hibernation and so must we. The days of Samhain are the final stages of autumn, and we are moving into the darkest and coldest phase of the year. Lifeforce and sap is returning to the root and into our physical form. Around us we see the barren landscape. All the leaves have fallen, and the weather is cold.

The festival of Samhain falls on the wheel of the year halfway between Mabon and Yule, the Winter Solstice. The calendared date for the festival falls at the end of October and beginning of November. Many associate Samhain with calendared Halloween but the two are in fact different festivals. At this festival there is a recognition of – and the visible connectivity with – death, but it is framed within the trust and faith that through giving death to the old we transform and regenerate and give birth to something new. Samhain is a time for exploration of the MYSTIC and WITCH, internal self-discovery, facing our shadow and challenging body sensations and emotions, which we may have resisted or even feared looking directly at, whilst honouring and trusting our gut instinct.

It is in the dark that we connect to the cauldron of alchemy and metamorphosis. There is a need to descend deep into the underworld, our unconscious mind, and the belly of the earth to retrieve exiled parts and to integrate shadow aspects of self. During Samhain, the veils between the physical and spiritual are very thin. We can access the wisdom of our ancestors and genetic memory. In allowing the renewal of our cells and the releasing of stagnated emotions and energy, the liberation of our ancestral lines can take place. Surrendering into the cyclical nature of life-death-life, trusting and following it whilst allowing the darkness, supports the potency of shamanic journeying, meditation, lucid dreaming, astral travelling, and intuitive knowing.

We explore the landscape of our unconscious and cut the cords with the patriarchal narrative that darkness is evil or terrifying – liberating it and our powerful feelings, where we can discover such wisdom. The rational and logical are not part of this festival. This is the heroine’s journey of descent and at the end of it, at Spring Equinox, following the ascent, balance is restored.

At Samhain we receive Awen and discern. We listen and scry, engage in divination work, and connect to the inspired dreams and visions to be birthed during the light half of the following year. At this festival we release and compost, receive and incubate. It is also a great time of year to assess, review and fill the gaps – to learn, find teachers who inspire you. You are PREPARING.”

- Kay Louise Aldred, ‘Mentorship with Goddess: Growing Sacred Womanhood’ - Girl God Books

Painting by Jackie Morris

Inanna's Daughters (at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Swannanoa Valley) met outside on a nice warm Sunday afternoon yesterday.

We came together in circle to honor our ancestors and others who've died recently, to hold in our keening sorrows all those suffering and dying on our earth today, and to recognize that death is not final, but a transition as autumn is to our earth's seasons.

And then there have been all these posts of Halloween Cats!

Ropes Mansion, Salem MA built 1720

Today's quote:

The day I acquired the habit of consciously pronouncing the words “thank you”, I felt I had gained possession of a magic wand capable of transforming everything.

OMRAAM MIKHAËL AÏVANHOV

Andrew Wyeth