owl & crow

stephanie anderson ladd

The Veil Between

Samhain bonfire

On Saturday night I took part in an ancient tradition, the autumn bonfire, which we Americans associate with fall, hot apple cider, and possibly football games. But it is a tradition that goes back to ancient times and the Celtic celebration of Samhain (pronounced Sow-wen), the end of summer on earth and the beginning of it in the Underworld.

Samhain is the Celtic New Year, time when the veil between the world of the living and dead is thinnest and it is said we can see across the maw, a time to honor our ancestors and get rid of that which no longer serves us, by throwing it into the fire. It is celebrated on the eve of October 31 and the day of November 1, the same day the Catholic church calls All Saints Day. They appropriated the day from the traditional pagan worship and made it a grab-bag Christian holiday. (Clever Catholics.)

I’ve always loved Halloween and as I’ve gotten older it seems I have found fewer and fewer opportunities to dress up and change my persona. This year with hubby and daughter out of town, I decided to dress up in goddess garb and commune with other women who celebrate the divine feminine.

This night, we chose to celebrate Hecate, my favorite triple goddess, known as the Old One, the Wise One, the one we can turn to when we are at the crossroads, seeking counsel, wondering which way to turn. This is her season. She leads us into the darkness that is now beginning, with her lantern lighting the way. She can see into past, present, and future, the crossroads in which we all find ourselves, at all times.

In the circle, we each let go of something that we no longer wanted in our life. Mine was fear of completing my creative project. We brought in the qualities we wished to bring in or hold onto. Mine was play. We also gave a gift to our ancestors (mine was healing the feminine wound in our family), and we named the ones we wished to remember. On that night, I honored my father, Cliff, and my grandparents, Mamie Marie and Walter Valentine Reichard, Lillian and Charlie Anderson, and my Auntie Drue. Their gifts to me are laughter, speaking from the heart, divining the soul, appreciating the beauty of nature, treasuring the gift of life, and intelligence. I felt the ancestors were with us that night of honoring and healing beneath the full Hunter’s moon.

What do you want to let go of?

Crone Child Sharing the Gift by Chas Frizzell

What qualities do you want to bring in to your life?

What is your gift to your ancestors?

What is their gift to you?

Thank you, Goddess sisters, for gathering to honor ourselves and those who have gone before us.

It is the feminine spirit that is needed to bring balance and healing to this planet and to all creatures who suffer.

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This entry was posted by Stephanie on Tuesday, October 26th, 2010 at 10:33 am and is filed under Myth, goddess, personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

About The Author

Stephanie
I am in a stage of new beginnings, of starting over on the other side of the continent from California, where I spent 38 years of my life. Moving to North Carolina was a bit of a shock to my system. Not so much culture shock but the shock of transplanting myself and starting over as a therapist, artist, and wild woman. I had to figure out how I was going to do it differently than I had been doing it. Because I knew I needed to change the way I worked outwardly to match the way I was feeling and moving inwardly and make it more playful, and at the same time, deep and meaningful. I knew I wanted to work with women primarily, to help them find their way on the heroine's journey to wholeness. I knew I wanted to bring more creative expression to my work because that was what was working for me--a way to bypass all the analytical thinking, perfectionism, and psychological paradigms largely created by men, and find more more intuitive ways of Being, Creating and Flowing with Life, in keeping with the Divine Feminine. I like working with the triple goddess: maiden, mother and crone, which describes the three stages of life as well as inner states of being--the innocent/adventurer; the nurturer and active doer; and the wise being who has the advantage of overview and doesn't care as much what others think of her as long as she is being true to herself. The triple goddess is found in most all cultures and traditions and helps us move out of dualistic thinking patterns and find our way to a more integrated and balanced way of life. As I forge a new path, I want to connect with women all over the world, to help women own their power, and to both explore and offer tools for self-discovery and self-care. Creating my interactive e-book, "In the Lap of the Goddess: Connecting With the Divine Feminine," and my Goddess Temple e-courses based on the workbook are my offerings, a way to share with women the knowledge and wisdom we all hold within us, reflected in the goddess throughout history, across time, and in every corner of the world.

Comments

2 Responses to “The Veil Between”

  1. pixie says:
    October 27, 2010 at 3:21 pm

    I love this. Do you have fear of completing your project or of not completing it? I am letting go of feeling self-conscious.
    I want to bring in more structure to my days.
    My gift to my ancestors is healing our generations, being the keeper of ceremony. Their gift to me is strength and determination.
    What a wonderful fire you created! Goddess Girl Scouts!

  2. Stephanie says:
    October 27, 2010 at 9:34 pm

    I have fear of not completing it and completing it! I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t by that logic. I get stuck in doubt and fear, but want to push myself through to completion on this. I’m finding a way to flow more into it and live and breathe the goddess I’m working with as I go. (I need to give myself a full day each week to play.)

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