Halloween At the Crossroads
Calling the Ancestors
Tonight is Halloween, or by the old Celtic name, Samhain, (Sow-in), summer's end and the beginning of winter here in the northern hemisphere. To the ancients, this was a time when the veil is thin between the living world and the realms of spirit, when our beloved dead come close and visit us, when we can call on the ancestors for guidance and help. With candles and offerings of food we light the way, and we give offerings of food to the children, who are the ancestors returning..
Hecate, the Crone, guide to the realm of the dead and <istress of the Crossroads is the Goddess we call this night. For we stand at a crossroads here in the United States of America, a time of great decision where we go down the seductive path of hatred, repression, and lies, or where we take a rockier road lit by the beacon of justice and truth.
If ever we could use some help and guidance from the ancestors, or from any beneficent spirits that happened to be circling around, now is that time. So here are some of the ancestors I'm calling on tonight:
n My father and all my uncles who enlisted in the Armed Services to fight the Nazis in World War Two. They were radicals on my father’s side, communists in the ‘30s, although they became disillusioned with Stalin later. The imperfect democracy of depression-era America was not the world of greater equality and freedome they hoped for. But they understood the need to unite with all those of whatever political persuasion who were willing to stand against the threat of Hitler and the rise of fascism. My father died when I was only five, so I never really got to talk politics or strategy with him. I knew that he hated the army and everything about it. Nonetheless he and his brothers and my mother's brothers all served, and she and my aunts also served in their own ways. I call upon them all now: Be with us, guide us, help us now.
n The Witches, mostly women but also men, the ancient midwives and healers who, down through the centuries. preserved the ancient knowledge of healing herbs, spirit powers, remnants of the old, pre-Christian, indigenous, nature-based religions of Europe and the Middle East, and around the world. Persecuted, imprisoned, tortured, burned alive, nonetheless they resisted. Be with us, guide us, help us now.
n The allies who stood up for the accused: from the fishermen of St. Jean de Luz in the Basque Country, who cut short their fseason on the Grand Banks when they received word that their wives and daughters were targets of a Witch hunt, and returned to drive the inquisitors out. The family of Rebecca Nurse, falsely accused and hanged in the Salem Witch trials, who never accepted her condemnation and did not rest until she was exonerated. The Righteous Among Nations who hid Jews from the Nazis, the conductors and householders on the Underground Railroad who hid escaped enslaved people, all those down through the ages who stood up against injustice and risked themselves to help others: Be with us, guide us, help us now.
n The indigenous healers, grandmothers, elders, medicine people and leaders who resisted the theft of their lands and their children, who preserved the culture, the the ceremonies, the songs and stories and healing ways to renew and safeguard the spirit of their people. The enslaved who rose up, who found a thousand hidden ways to resist, who survived on the hope of a better life for their children and grandchildren: Be with us, guide us, help us now.
Who will you call tonight? Whoever you are, whatever your heritage, whatever land your people come from, somewhere in your lineage you have those who fought for justice, for liberation, for a better world, who met their times with compassion and courage, who looked ahead to a better future even if it were one they would never see. Call their names if you know them, but even if they are long forgotten, as most of them are forgotten, call them anyway. Be with us, guide us. help us now!
And what will you call forth within yourself this Samhain night? You are an ancestor of the future, whether of blood or of spirit. How will you be remembered? What will you stand for? How will you carry forward thia heritage of courage and compassion, and take your own unique place in the long those who stand for justice?
I call you, and me, and all of us into this circle. Be with us, guide us, help us now
(I apologize if you got this twice, once as a Note and once as a post, but Substack is confusing the hell out of me!)