Help: Merry Samhain/Happy Halloween to you!

Subject: Lyr Add: HALLOW EVEN (Carrie Ward Lyon)
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 10:31 AM

Hallow Even
By Carrie Ward Lyon
From the book Halloween published 1933

The autumn wind awakes and calls aloud;
Piping a sweet, a long forgotten tune;
The night has bared her beauty to the moon;
Casting aside each softly clinging cloud,
She walks in majesty, pale, starry-browed,
With unshod feet upon the silver dune.
Through witchèd wood she draws the laughing loon,
And dolphins to the wave in leaping crowd.

In the green valley of lost yesterday,
Safe from the hunter, wild deer frolicking
With lambs and little children, dance and sing.
To the eternal Beauty caught away,
We too a vision of the truth are given,
Sans preacher and sans book, on Hallow Even.

Happy Samhain/Halloween!!

And, All Souls Day!

katlaughing

Subject: RE: Help: Merry Samhain/Happy Halloween to you!
From: Matt_R
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 10:33 AM

ARRG this isn't a happy day for me! But it is scaring me!

Subject: RE: Help: Merry Samhain/Happy Halloween to you!
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 10:45 AM

Sorry, I thought I'd clicked on the BS, not the "Help" oh well....let it flow, Matt, "tomorrow is another day."

Subject: RE: Help: Merry Samhain/Happy Halloween to you!
From: hesperis
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 10:46 AM

Merry Samhain!

I need to get apple juice for my feast.

Hey, let's have a virtual feast right here!
I'll bring the spiced apple cider...

Subject: RE: Help: Merry Samhain/Happy Halloween to you!
From: Fred/Forsh
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 10:47 AM

G'day/hello,Hi.... Samhane......31st oct..Dad's Birthday. Well, It would have been had he still been with us. He (dad/Alan/Forsh) once played with the Idea of calling himself Sam Hane, as a stage name, and I, for my part, copy write using the name "Samhanesson Music"....Nice touch, or what? Have a FRIGHTFULLY good evening!

Subject: RE: Help: Merry Samhain/Happy Halloween to you!
From: Troll
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 10:57 AM

Merry Samhain, happy All Hallows and a joyous All Saints. Oh yeah. Happy Birthday to Skeptic tomorrow. Thank the Gods he wasn't a Halloween baby. He's hard enough to deal with as it is. As he is fond of saying,"I try."

troll

Subject: RE: Help: Merry Samhain/Happy Halloween to you!
From: Robby
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 11:44 AM

Let's not forget that just last week, Oct. 26th I believe, Diwalli (New Year's) was celebrated in the Indian Subcontinent.

It is interesting to note that many celebrations of different cultures occur at or about the same time of year, e.g. Easter & Passover.

Subject: RE: Help: Merry Samhain/Happy Halloween to you!
From: jeffp
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 11:49 AM

Samhain chanted evening, you will treat a stranger....

Happy Hallow's Eve, all

jeffp

Subject: RE: Help: Merry Samhain/Happy Halloween to you!
From: Hollowfox
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 11:58 AM

Happy Holidays all around!! And for the literary crowd, if you count back nine months from July 31 (Harry Potter's birthday), you'll find that he was (literarily if not literally) conceived on Halloween. Mary (whose daughter's birthday is July 31)

Subject: RE: Help: Merry Samhain/Happy Halloween to you!
From: Peg
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 12:06 PM

merry meet;

I receive my first degree initiation from my coven this evening! (How very witchy to do it on Samhain).

I was initiated into the magical order last Yule, and now I do the Wicca side of things. Should be great; we have very Samhain weather in Boston this day..the kiddies will need rain ponchos over their costumes...

enjoy your day, all, bobbing for apples, honoring the ancestors, quaffing a whisky before the fire, munching candy, what have you...

blessed be,

Peg/Albion

Subject: RE: Help: Merry Samhain/Happy Halloween to you!
From: SINSULL
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 12:10 PM

Hot apple cider with a dollop of Jack Daniels and warm pumpkin bread. Ghoulies and ghosties and long leggedy beasties - I'm all set.
Happy Halloween!!!!

Subject: RE: Help: Merry Samhain/Happy Halloween to you!
From: mousethief
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 12:12 PM

Happy October 31 to everybody who celebrates October 31 on this day!

Alex
O..O
=o=

Subject: Lyr Add: AN INVOCATION (Terri Windling)
From: harpmolly
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 02:52 PM

Thought I'd post this amazing poem by Terri Windling. It's a bit long, but really worth it, and a great piece for Samhain.

Incidentally, her web page is also amazing. I don't have the URL at hand, but I think it's www.endicott.org or something of that type. It's called The Endicott Studio.

Molly

***

An Invocation

by Terri Windling

Go by coombe, by candlelight,
by moonlight, starlight, stepping stone,
and step o'er bracken, branches, briars,
and go tonight, and go alone,
go by water, go by willow,
go by ivy, oak and ash,
and rowan berries red as blood,
and bread crumbs, stones, to mark the path;
find the way by water's whisper,
water rising from a womb
of granite, peat, of summer heat,
to slake your thirst and fill the coombe
and tumble over moss and stone
and feed the roots of ancient trees
and call to you: go, now, tonight,
by water, earth, phyllomancy,
by candle flame, by spirit-name,
by spells, by portents, myth and song,
by drum beat, heart beat, earth pulsing
beneath your feet, calling you home,
calling you back, calling you through
the water, wood, the waste, the wild,
the hills where Dartmoor ponies pass,
and black-faced sheep, a spectral child,
a fox with pale unnatural eyes,
an owl, a badger, ghostly deer
with horns of star light, candle light
to guide the way, to lead you here,
to lead you to the one who waits,
who sits and waits upon the tor,
he waits and watches, wondering
if you're the one he's waiting for;
he waits by dawn, by dusk, by dark,
by sun, by rain, by day, by night,
his hair as black as ravens' wings,
his eyes of amber, skin milk white,
his skin tattooed with spiral lines
beneath a mask of wood and leaves
and polished stone and sun-bleached bone,
beneath a shirt of spiders' weave,
his wrists weighted with silver bands
and copper braids tarnished to green,
he waits for you, unknown and yet
familiar from forgotten dreams;
you dream and stir upon your bed
and toss and turn among the sheets,
the wind taps at the window glass
and water tumbles through the leat
and through the garden, through the wood,
and over moss and over stone
and tells you: go, by candle light,
and go tonight, and go alone;
he's sent you dreams, he's left you signs,
he's left you feathers, beads and runes,
so go, tonight, by candle light,
by ash and oak, by wood, by coombe.

***

Subject: RE: Help: Merry Samhain/Happy Halloween to you!
From: harpmolly
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 02:54 PM

Damn! That wasn't supposed to be prose. (Although, I admit, it actually reads really interestingly...) I won't try posting it again. You can find it in its original verse form on her web page, or I can email it to you if you're interested. :PPP

Moll

Subject: RE: Help: Merry Samhain/Happy Halloween to you!
From: JenEllen
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 03:09 PM

HappyWeen!!! Enjoying a great laugh over kat/Wyo's drunk pumpkin...you wimmen is WICKED!!!!*bg*

~Elle

Subject: RE: Help: Merry Samhain/Happy Halloween to you!
From: celticblues5
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 03:32 PM

Merry meet and merry part, and merry come again.

Subject: RE: Help: Merry Samhain/Happy Halloween to you!
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 03:32 PM

I thought it was pretty good, too, Jen.

SamHanesson Music, today is my SO's birthday, too!!

Mollificent, thanks for posting that. Very powerfully written.

Veddy, veddy clever, Jeffp!LOL!!

Peg! Congratulations! A wonderful evening for such a rite! There'll be dancing tonight, eh?

Whoo-Hoo, my favourite day of the year!!!

Subject: RE: Help: Merry Samhain/Happy Halloween to you!
From: GUEST,Matt_R
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 04:33 PM

I knew it! Today was pure Hell...all photos came out horrible, and I HATE PEOPLE! I want to be recluse, and never have to talk to anyone anymore! Favorite day? My family's always treated it as the stupidest day of the year.

Subject: RE: Help: Merry Samhain/Happy Halloween to you!
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 04:36 PM

It's all in the Attitude, Matt. If ya treat it that way, it's gonna be exactly what you expect. Maybe you should go over to the Need a Hug thread.

Subject: RE: Help: Merry Samhain/Happy Halloween to you!
From: Hollowfox
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 05:03 PM

Drunk pumpkin?

Subject: RE: Help: Merry Samhain/Happy Halloween to you!
From: Morticia
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 05:44 PM

Bright blessings to all of you. This is a night of sweet sorrow and reflection for me as I think upon those dear ones who have passed on....too many family and friends who have made me who I am and who ,I hope, are proud of my efforts on this plane.This is the time of year when I reflect on what I have done well and what I regret and what I hope to accomplish next year.

Subject: RE: Help: Merry Samhain/Happy Halloween to you!
From: Amergin
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 06:44 PM

Have a good year the lot of you....

Subject: RE: Help: Merry Samhain/Happy Halloween to you!
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 06:49 PM

Nice thoughts, Morticia, thanks for the *grounding*, I am sure I needed the reminding! *smile*

Hollowfox, it was a cartoon which WyoWoman sent me, which I forwarded on to those for whom I have email addies in my email addy book. It says, "What happens to pumpkins that drink too much" and has a picture of a jack-o-lantern, with a very big mouth in the shape of an "O" and all of the pumpkin innards are coming out of the mouth, as though it's been drunk and sicked up. Well, it's a lot funnier in pictures! If anyone wants a copy, PM your email and I'd be happy to send it.

kat

Subject: RE: Help: Merry Samhain/Happy Halloween to you!
From: Micca
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 07:19 PM

Morty, YES and so apropos.. "we know who we are
and where we come from
the march of our blood has brought us here
and to them respect and dues...
Peg... BBs and hugs.... the fire glows bright to welcome the weary traveller, home at last..
"who will unlock that which is open
who will still the sea?
who will gather the snow of summer?
who makes the Ocean free?"
sorry for the double post but the first version didnt post complete...

Subject: RE: Help: Merry Samhain/Happy Halloween to you!
From: hesperis
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 07:38 PM

MT, what other day is celebrated on Oct 31st, but Oct 31st? Huh?

Anyway. I'll get out of pedantic mode. (Some triumphant, smug minor key, probably.)

Little things have been going wierd today, and the hairs on the back of my neck are uneasy. Aside from that, I'm having a great day. I started to make some bean soup, and it completely burned. I guess the spirits were hungry.

Don't know if I want to do any sort of magick tonight, or just eat my supper and go to bed early.

BTW, I was introduced to Wicca at Samhain 4 years ago. (Or was it 5 years...?)

Peg, that is really cool! Yeah, dance!

Blessed Be at this Turning of the Wheel,
~*sirepseh*~

Subject: RE: Help: Merry Samhain/Happy Halloween to you!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 07:49 PM

Blessed be. It has been a rather odd day, all right. The fax machine died and the UPS shipper lost the waybill pouch for a big shipment that went out yesterday, so I coudn't fax them the details from home, but had to do so at a local computer store, and so on...

Nothing serious, though.

Another turning of Nature's great wheel...I wish you all well at this time of looking within.

Happy Samhain

LH

Subject: RE: Help: Merry Samhain/Happy Halloween to you!
From: GUEST,Guest still
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 09:46 PM

Congrats Peg! May you cast a spell on all of us Mudcatters, that we remain loving and polite to one another from Samhain to Samhain.
God bless.
Gs

Subject: RE: Help: Merry Samhain/Happy Halloween to you!
From: Bearheart
Date: 01 Nov 00 - 12:00 AM

Thanks all for boosting my Spirits! I have to wait for the Thursday Drum and Journey circle to honor the day. We'll be journeying to the Ancestors. Tonight I'm solitary (except for familiars). Witch is good too, in its way.

Blessings on the new year... and all those on both sides of the veil...

Subject: RE: Help: Merry Samhain/Happy Halloween to you!
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 Nov 00 - 12:56 AM

Bearheart, I have a button I always wear around this time of year. It says, "Spirits lifted...no charge!" I always get a smile or two when it sinks in.

Merry meet and Blessed Be to you all.

kat

Subject: RE: Help: Merry Samhain/Happy Halloween to you!
From: BigDaddy
Date: 01 Nov 00 - 02:50 AM

Mollificent, thanks for posting one of my favorite poems. Terri Windling and her website rule! I tried to leave a "blue clicky thing" for her site once upon a time. Just not high-tech enough yet. Ironically, it was her site that introduced me to Mudcat. Anyway, it's http://www.endicott-studio.com/ Happy Halloween/Samhain to all here

Subject: RE: Help: Merry Samhain/Happy Halloween to you!
From: P05139
Date: 01 Nov 00 - 08:47 AM

I know this is a bit late, but Good Samhain all the same!

Subject: RE: Help: Merry Samhain/Happy Halloween to you!
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 01 Nov 00 - 02:54 PM

While trying to learn more about Samhain, I ran across this interesting site belonging to the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. This information seems to be factual whereas a lot of stuff related to Samhain on the internet ranges from questionable to downright flaky, as this site itself explains.

Subject: RE: Help: Merry Samhain/Happy Halloween to you!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 01 Nov 00 - 06:44 PM

Happy New Year all you out there - and happy All Saints day too.

Tomorrow is all souls, a hard day for me as there are so many so close, so for all others sharing my thoughts,

Blessed be is the same in any religious language.

LTS

Blessed be, amen.