SAMHAIN
Sunday - 6 November 2011 - Embracing the Turquoise Self
A Chairde, Óiche Shamhna sásta diobh! – Friends, Happy Samhain!
Our Samhain 2011 gathering will be at Fourknocks, near The Naul, on 6th November starting 2pm. Some of us are planning to meet beforehand in the Cottage Cafe at the Seamus Ennis centre at 12.30 for lunch, so join us there if you fancy a bite to eat.
At the start of the 2010-11 annual cycle, Samhain on Tara, we journeyed to our Sovereign Self. The celebration at the start of this new cycle has the theme 'Embracing the Turquoise Self'. Turquoise is an attribute of the 'heart within the heart', is about walking your talk, living your dream, honoured by the native Americans and Egyptians, it brings (ancestral)wisdom and connects with all that is. Long ago humanity decided to experience duality and now we are on the return path to unity. Turquoise helps to integrate male and female, dark and light, body and spirit. Every situation you experience is designed to bring you back to wholeness and turquoise facilitates that. Returning to wholeness is the mission of the turquoise self. During our ceremony in the symbolic cave-womb of Fourknocks, we will honour ancestral energies, recognise our own deep well of resources and draw on earth's gentle support to protect and enliven us as we clear the way into our next spiral of experience engaging this turquoise energy.
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Waiting for the door to open at Fourknocks
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Inside looking out
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dreamcatching with turquoise
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_Overview of the Ceremony _
At the doorway we stood two sticks one red (base chakra) & the other white (higher chakra). As our eyes slowly adjusted to the dim light Bernie related, with sound effects, her story entitled The Werewolf. Were we scared? a little bit..... Then, in the centre we set the turquoise cloth with the web-like dreamcatcher, and sticks representing yin and yang, male and female ancestral lines with which we created our own private mandalas, symbolically bringing together the wisdom of ourselves and ancestors. We then recognised we are all united. Imagining that we are each an instrument in the great orchestra of life, with the aid of a conductor, everyone expressed a movement, symbolic of one aspect of their higher self, which carried the wisdom of their ancestors. Bringing up the resources of our own family lineage, recognising and embodying that in order to prepare for the new beginnings, we concentrated and gathered all sustaining and nurturing flows in the universe using tai chi movements to raise energy from mother earth and our ancestral lineage. We integrated and magnified it in our hearts and shared with the world. Then using fallen leaves, to represent non–serving ancestral patterns and issues we carry within ourselves, we cleared those so that we may walk our wishes unburdened into the future. People took leaves from a basket and spread a small pile in front of them. Then symbolically sweeping from left to right we finished by linking hands and walking forwards, our path clear, walking into our turquoise selves and our wishes. Happy New Year!
| the flight of light into winter | at the end the turquoise cloth and brush remain |
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| the moon rises | and sun sets as we depart into darkness |
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_Open Heart _
Before closing the ceremony open heart contributions provide an opportunity to share any poem, prose, song or piece that inspires you. If you cannot attend but would like one of us to share on your behalf please reply to this email. Food and drink will bring strength to our physical bodies and give thanks to all beings and ancestors before we disperse into the new cycle.
If you are unable to join us in person you can intentionally join in by lighting a candle or just 'holding space' for a moment. We are all linked together in loving unity wherever we are in time and space, connected by the rhythm and flow of the creative life force.
All Turquoise blessings to you as your amazing life unfolds in the coming year, le grá, The Tara Celebrations Samhain 2011 Team.
Greetings to Dana and Marta! Thank you for this lovely Samhain drawing.
Thanks to Ela for photos of the 2011 Virginia Pumpkin Festival
Journey to the Sovereign Self - Hill of Tara - 7 November 2010
A chairde,Fáilte go dtí tús an bliain nua
and we are looking forward to journeying with you through the coming cycle. Samhain may seem like an odd place to start a calendar but, the Celtic and pre-Celtic people believed that the night preceded the day, the day was birthed out of darkness just as we were all birthed out of the dark womb.
To honour this time of new beginnings we will be holding a celebration rich in myth, symbolism and ritual to help us connect with and be part of the rhythm of Nature.
The theme of the celebration is new beginnings on the path, the journey towards the sovereign self. That means taking the next (first) step to becoming your divine ideal, the next grandest version of who you are, your divine sovereign self.
This year we will be celebrating in the Banqueting Hall which in effect is the birth canal on Tara. Four people will come from the four quarters to light the sacred fire (archaeologists, this will be up off the ground!) and we will be making affirmative statements to encourage people on their Journey. The journey then begins with passing through a magical doorway that only one person will ever pass through. When you have done this the doorway is ritually destroyed, a powerful statement that you have embarked on your chosen journey, no one else can walk this path as it is your path, your life.
As the weather at Samhain was a tad inclement we simply broke the sticks inside and burnt them later in a stone circle at home.
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Part of the ritual of Kingship at Tara was the king taking a cloak that would magically fit him. We will honour your sovereignty, your divine essence by placing a cloak of sovereignty on your shoulders and recognising the bigger version of self. Pictured below is the Cloak of sovereignty with added bling for the new year.
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Becoming a sovereign self affords us an opportunity to try a new way of life, to emulate traits you find desirable in someone inspirational, become someone new, become the next grander version of your self and it need not be a gravitas task, so make sure to bring your sense of humour!
There will as usual be an open heart contribution section where we invite you to share with us a prayer, a song, an inspirational quotation, a poem or verse or a blessing.
We will finish with some food and warm drink.
If you intend coming bring strong shoes, warm coat, gloves, torch candle in a jar, drums or other musical instrument and although a sense of humour is optional it is highly recommended you bring one and if you haven’t got one beg, borrow or steal one!
Also included will be a simple medieval stick dance and an energetic “higher self” dance.
Brightest blessings, love, light, laughter, joy, peace, fortunate blessings, friendship, strength, auspicious days, music, passion, inspiration, luck, fortune, abundance, wealth, happiness, stability, sovereignty, healing, excitement, music, majestic splendour, peace, gentleness, strength, guidance, wisdom, brilliance.
Le meas agus le grá the Tara Celebrations Team
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2009
above: A lone figure watches a Samhain sunrise on the mound of the neolithic hostages on Tara
A Chairde, Óiche Shamhna sásta diobh.
In 2009 for Samhain we held our ritual in the field at Dowth.
Dowth (Dubthach/dark house) is the place of death where the weakening winter sun shines into the megalithic chamber of Dowth South at solstice every year.
It is a Neolithic master piece that complements the dawn sunrise in Newgrange 8 hours previously on the winter solstice.
Above and Below,The Great mound of Dowth, entrance to the dark underworld
As it happens Sunday 8th November 2009 is the actual Stone Age date of Samhain, the date when the rising sun illuminates the Mound of the Hostages on Tara.
Above: Samhain sunrise illuminates the interior of the Mound of the Hostages, Tara
The theme emerging for the celebration was one of revealing the skeleton and stripping away all that no longer serves the light, whilst at winter solstice we will be incorporating the rebirth aspect of Samhain. But, for now, we will be considering death and sitting quietly facing our inner demons. Just as in nature, the trees lose their leaves and become skeletal, to give them the ability to resist the biting winter winds.
Samhain was considered the time of year when the veil between this world and the next were very thin and that the spirits of the dead were allowed wander on Samhain eve. It was tradition to placate the spirits by leaving out some food or drink (for the púca). We too shall be remembering our ancestors and offering them token food and drink.
Today, when we look at the shops we see masks of zombies, ugly witches, mummies and monsters etc. However, this is but a faint echo of the powerful underlying symbols that we will be re-membering this Samhain. Part of that will be making a mask of our own demons and dealing with them as appropriate.
The diety associated with this time of the year is the old Cailleach which is the old wisdom face of the goddess Brigid. To represent the change over period from maiden to crone we will be dressing Brigid in a dark cloak.
The bon fire is another tradition. The sacred Samhain fire was started on the Hill of Ward and its flames brought across the country. Bon(e) fires were used for bringing heat and light into the cold and dark, for burning up the dead matter that we carry around.
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Above: the cobweb theme was used throughout the ceremony to convey the unity of all in the web of life. Traditional Haloween fayre of seasonal nuts, apples and murdered apples sliced and baked between hot sheets of pastery, other wise known as an apple tart. yum! And bright leaves herald their demise and fall.
What to expect
We will be placing ourselves in the web of life in relation to; our ancestors,
our place of ceremony and our inner demons thus giving us a sense of time and place.
Brigid will don her black winter mantle and become the Cailleach of winter. We will be keening her death.
We will be creating masks to represent our metaphorical mask to the world which people can bring home or burn to represent the death and transformation of the inner dead. (we will be burning on a brasier off the ground to protect this sacred and sensitive spot.)
Then we will be drawing the web of life with each strand representing our departed relatives and friends as well as the unknown dead and blessing them all with love and light. To emphasise the web we will be tying a rope together into a circle to represent the unbrokeness of the circle of life and using it in a simple dance to send healing energies into the ethers.
Following that we will have open heart contributions whereby if you have a song, poem or profound thought you’d like to share, then please do. We will also be offering food to the ancestors as well as feeding ourselves.
Our Samhain center. The lantern representing life the cailleach representing death, a selection of food and drink for the ancestors, memoriam cards of departed relatives, the hoop representing the cycle of the year and eternity and the dark center representing the void which we all orbit.
The chalk board was used to draw the 8 divisions of the year, then participants drew strands for departed ancestors creating a web of life. We silently prayed for their highest good and wiped the board clean to start the new year with a clean slate.
The colouring pens were used to create a mask representing the damaged ego holding us back which we then ripped apart and burned in the cauldron, transforming that which no longer serves..........boy did that feel good.
connecting the strands, Weaving the web of life
(Thanks to BJ for the pictures)
Below the sun set at Samhain clips the back of Newgrange when viewed from Dowth
Some of the group bathed in Samhain sunset light at the end of the ceremony
Dancing Ancestors in the hedgerow
A Glow in the dark Crystal Skull called Merdrin was with us for the ceremony at Dowth
Contribute to the Samhain discussions on www.Cailleach.ning.com the social networking arm of TaraCelebrations.org
Samhain moon transits the Banqueting Hall at its Zenith
above: Some of the group up to mischief
2008
Samhain
The wheel has turned again this year
And now we face the winter fear
Of darkened days and lengthened nights
And sudden shadows that give us frights
From highest hill to lowest vale
We look to winter and can not fail
To turn and face what we most dread-
Those darkened monsters of the head
And when we face our inner dead
We cleanse those monsters from our head
The wheel has turned, we face the dark
Behold the center, the winters spark.
Martin Dier
The black crows circled as we circled... and summer turned to winter in the season of samhain...
We ate from the harvest of nuts...
and shared our apples with the land... cherishing the lone apple of red and green from a displaced tree...
The sheep grazed as we announced ourselves to each other... as we danced around the handbags to the beating of the drums...
We danced inwardly to a close circle then outwardly to face the far horizons...
We smoothed our auras with Grail essence... and we received our messages from the angels...
and while the black crows circled as we circled...
the white death skull sat silently upon the ground.
Time dissolves, souls gather, in unity mysterious ancestors draw near.
Blessed or beloved, reviled or forgotten, generations amass, no harm, no fear.
Ancient memories stir in our hearts, distant dreams we've sought, held dear,
Slither silently within darkening shadows, whispering quietly to those who hear.
Plucked by wise invisible hands, echoing, vibrating chords appear.
Weaving through the Land of the Living to the Land of the Dead
Seeking creation's love, eternal, we reach out to the strangeness of a deathly bier.
Time dissolves, souls gather, celebrating sacred samhain of the wheel of the year.
Scarecrow Festival at Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada, 2009
Many thanks to Kate for these photographs....
Samhain is the death of the old
Nature begins her hibernation and withdraws life force from the trees so that they can survive through the tough conditions of winter. We brace for winter with the security of Lughnasadh harvests and release our baggage to the Cailleach and the bone fires. We remember at this time our ancestral dead and honour their presence in our lives.
See the Sacred Art of Tara revealed at Samhain 2007 here
A lovely seasonal verse from Liz Kirkham in Derbsyhire England
Orchards at this time of year
are to birds a great attraction
picking at fruit in the trees
brings them real satisfaction
and try her rose hip syrup recipe for winter comfort -
'A recipe i used, was 3lb's of hips, put into a saucepan, cover with water and let them boil until they are almost soft.Then to each pint of juice, allow a pound of sugar, and boil together for about 15mins, the liquid turns to syrup,it's best left to mature after bottling, for a short while.' Remove the hairy fruits before boiling and use stainless steel pans.
And Liz also sent this lovely picture of bright autumn flowers:
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Notice the 5 (the number of change) formed by the shadows on the right hand tree - taken in the churchyard on Tara just after our Samhain ceremony last year... this is not an enhanced photo!
! HAPPY NEW YEAR !
The tree dies to the red berry
The red berry dies to the black seed
The black seed dies to the dark earth
and what at first seems like a schism, a spliting asunder, a wrenching apart
is the start of a new life.
md. samhain 2008
We had a fantastic Samhain trip to Edinburgh and meditated with the Mitchell Hedges crystal Skull.
We also took in Rosslyn and lots of other power points in the landscape.
Page last updated: 22nd Jan 2012
