"Samhain"

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Rev. Suzelle Lynch
October 26, 2003

I. Calling the Directions

Spirit of the East, spirit of air
of morning and springtime:
be with us as the sun rises,
in times of planting,
and as the seeds stir in the earth.
Inspire us with your breeze of courage
as we enter into new adventures.

Spirit of the South, spirit of fire
of high noon and summer:
be with us in the heat of the day
and help us to be ever-growing.
Warm us with strength and energy
for the work which awaits us.

Spirit of the West, spirit of water
of evening and autumn:
be with us as the sun sets
and help enjoy a rich harvest.
Flow through us with a healing quietness
and bring us peace.

Spirit of the North, spirit of earth
of night and winter time:
Be with us in the darkness,
in the time of waiting, of gestation.
Ground us in the wisdom of the
changing seasons
as we celebrate the spiral journey of our lives.

II. When the Wheel of the Year Stops at Samhain

In our modern Western world, we tend to see life as linear, a series of beginnings, middles and endings - and to envision time as a straight line that starts, continues, and ends. Ancient human beings, whose lives were based on the rhythms of nature, saw time as a circle, in which the eternal cycle of life, death and regeneration goes on continuously.

To these ancient peoples, the Earth, Moon, and Sun appeared as gods, and humankind depended on them. If the Earth failed to complete its circular journey through the seasons, from autumn's dying and winter's death through spring's renewal and summer's fruitfulness, human beings could not survive. If the Sun failed to return bringing back light and warmth, human beings would die. The moon governed women's cycles of fertility, and the survival of the family or clan.

The cycles of the Earth, Moon, Sun were like wheels. Spokes radiated from each wheel's center to its rim, dividing the wheel at the places in the month or year that were critical turning points. Because it was essential for survival that these wheels keep revolving, at each place in the year where a spoke intersected the rim -- at each "turning point" -- the people held a festival and performed rituals to raise the energy that would keep the wheel in motion. Theirs was a partnership with the gods; human actions helped the cosmos operate as it should.

On the Solar wheel there are eight festivals called Sabbats. On the Lunar wheel, which follows the monthly cycle of the moon, the celebrations are called Esbatts and are held on the full and new moons.

Samhain, the festival we honor today, is a solar festival. It's the Celtic new year and beginning of winter. "Samhain" in Gaelic means "summer's end." It marks one of the two great doorways of the Celtic year, for the Celts divided the year into two seasons: the light and the dark. Beltane, on May 1st, initiated the light half of the year, and Samhain initiated the dark half. The Celts understood darkness as the time of new beginnings, and thus Samhain was their New Year.

Why would we, as Unitarian Universalists, honor this holiday?

In the Christian world, both ancient and more recent, the people who celebrated earth-centered holidays like Samhain were called pagans. The word pagan comes from the Latin "paganus," meaning "country dweller," and it was used to shame and persecute people. But earth centered religious practicioners are far from country bumpkins or worshippers of evil. Like many of us, they feel a deep spiritual connection with the Earth. That's why one of the sources we list as important to our religious tradition in the Unitarian Universalist Association's Principles and Purposes is the "spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature."

Margot Adler, a news correspondent with National Public Radio who also happens to be a Unitarian Universalist and a practicing pagan puts it this way: "…earth-centered traditions … involve ideas and practices that are part of everyone's heritage: most of our great-great-grandparents, and certainly most of our great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents practiced religions that (…) centered on practices that came from the bottom up, from the grass roots, as opposed to revelations from on high; they were traditions formed by the customs of people, as opposed to the teachings of prophets and sages…." (UU World Magazine, "Earth Centered Religions: Special Supplement)

Earth-centered religious teachings are, therefore, a way we can honor our ancestors, the Earth and all its creatures, the cycle of nature, and the Divine feminine principle.

Earth-centered practices also tend to be ritual-centered instead of sermon-centered, which gives us a more body-centered way to grow spiritually deeper. There is a significant minority among Unitarian Universalists nationwide who have adopted and adapted pagan customs as their primary spiritual practice. Again, from Margot Adler: "The great struggle of those of us involved with earth-centered spirituality is to combine the 'juice and the mystery' of traditions that emphasize ritual and celebration with modern ideas of skepticism and rationality. And that is why many of us are finding ourselves within Unitarian Universalism."

But let me come back to Samhain now. In the cycle of the year, Samhain is the final harvest, the time of preparation for the coming cold and darkness. It is also believed to be the time when the souls of those who have died in the previous year pass over into the "Summerlands" and the souls of those who will be born in the year to come pass into our world.

Samhain is a time of introspection; a time to remember those who have died, and to contemplate the new direction of the coming year. On this holiday, those two themes - honoring the dead and preparing for the future - are intertwined.

There are some obvious reasons why this place on the Wheel of the Year is associated with death. In ancient times, Samhain marked the day when herders led the cattle and sheep down from summer pasturage to the shelter of the stable, and those which could not be fed over the winter were slaughtered not long after.

But perhaps more obviously, we notice, as did the ancients, that the sun is approaching its nadir now bringing us longer, colder nights, and the leaves are falling from the trees. These things remind us of our own mortality. The ancients believed that the dead could, if they wished, return to the land of the living for this one night, to celebrate with their family, tribe, or clan. The great burial mounds of Ireland (sidh mounds) were opened up, with lighted torches lining the walls, so the dead could find their way. Extra places were set at the table and food set out for any who had died that year. For us, today's service will provide an opportunity to remember and honor friends, family members, ancestors and heroes who have died.

Samhain's other major theme is preparation, as the darker, colder half of the year is ushered in. Even as we celebrate the final harvest we must also ask ourselves the hard questions: Are we prepared for the winter? Have we enough food and other resources? Have we taken care of our dwelling places so that our family and our neighbors will be safe and warm? These were life and death matters for the ancient Celts; life and death not only for one's own family, but also for the entire village or clan.

In today's world we carry out modern versions of ancient preparations. My auto mechanic back in Washington used to send me a card every year reminding me to winterize my car. We've finally closed the storm windows at our house, pulled out our winter clothes and put away our summer garb. Most of us probably don't see Halloween as the time to focus on this, or on making sure we have enough food stored for the winter -- though our kids sometimes see it as a time of piling up so much candy that looks to us like it could last them forever. And sadly, most of us have lost touch with the communal aspects of this season. We may prepare ourselves for winter, but we rarely concern ourselves with how our neighbors will cope with the coming darkness. Modern ideas of individuality mean losing our larger, communal selves. Samhain helps remind us that we are not alone - we are part of the greater human family.

And now, as we move deeper into the spirit of that human family and the spirit of Samhain, let us sing together Hymn # 96, "I Cannot Think of Them as Dead"

III. Ritual of Remembrance: A Feast for Our Beloved Dead

Part of the genius of Christianity is its ability to adapt to different times and cultures. When Christianity was on the rise in Europe and the British Isles many centuries ago, the festivals of Samhain were adopted by the Church, and they morphed to Hallowmas, or All Saints' Day, which commemorates the souls of the blessed dead who had been canonized that year. November second became All Souls Day, when prayers were to be offered to the souls of all the departed and those who were waiting in Purgatory for entry into Heaven. Some say that our modern custom of trick-or-treating derives from an ancient British All Souls Day custom of going from house to house begging for soul-cakes, which were then given to the priest to buy masses for the souls of relatives in Purgatory.

But trick or treating actually comes from more ancient sources - the pagan belief that at this very important turning point on the wheel of the year, the balancing point when the old year ends and the new one begins, the veil separating the realm of the living and the realm of the dead was at its thinnest, and the spirits of the dead could return to the land of the living. It's also based in the understanding that children represent the cyclical movement of life through the generations just as the seasons represent the cyclical movement of the year.

In some parts of Europe, particularly Britain, children, representing the interests of the ancestor spirits, went out begging for offerings. Giving to the children meant settling the score with the ancestors. And if the ancestors were satisfied in this way, they would return safely back to their spirit realm.
In Italy, Spain and other areas of southern Europe, a different tradition prevailed. The dead were invited to feast with the living, as a way to honor them and perhaps even to seek their help. In either case, whether satisfied through offerings collected by the children or by a feast, the dead would return to their abodes underground, from where they would do useful things like help the crops in the forthcoming season. In present-day Mexico, and in some parts of New Orleans, people still commemorate their beloved dead by decorating their tombs and by bringing picnics to the cemeteries.

As you can see before you, in the spirit of Samhain, we have set a table here in the sanctuary for a feast of remembrance.

This feast for our beloved dead is an opportunity to remember someone you care about who has died not by offering them food, but by offering them your words of remembrance. But before we do that, let me say a bit more about what we are doing here today.

If we pay attention, we cannot help but notice that death is all around us. There have been significant deaths in our congregation this year, and in our wider community, and of course we cannot tune out the news of the deaths of those who serve in our military and across our wider world. Some of us, too, have lost family members or other loved ones to death this year. From time to time, it dawns on us that death walks beside all of us, that indeed, it comes into the world with each of us at the moment of our birth. And so we grieve.

Grieving my own losses, and grieving with many of you has led me to believe that we never really get over the loss when someone we love dies. Grief is a lifelong journey. As we travel its ups and downs, we grow accustomed to our losses, and our memories grow richer. And in all of this, we connect more deeply with some mystery at the center of life.

This came alive for me this year as I talked with Lilo Sewell about the decorations for our feast table here in the sanctuary. I tried to describe what I thought it should be like - festive, but also formal, both beautiful and bounteous enough to honor all of our loved ones who have died. I think Lilo captured the spirit of this very well.

What I have learned from the loss of beloved people in my life is that when someone dies, our relationship with them does not end. It simply changes form. The relationship goes from being something we have with another who is in front of us, whom we can see and talk with and perhaps even touch, to a relationship with someone who is inside of us. The love we once felt coming from outside of ourselves is gone, and that loss is painful. But I believe that eventually the loss can transform into a love that fills us from the inside.

Remembering, honoring, yes, even celebrating our dead friends, family, ancestors, and heroes are the ways we grow accustomed to our losses. They are the way loss of someone we love us eventually transforms into that rich, inner love. Samhain symbolizes this difficult, yet rewarding transformation.

I invite you now to join me in a Ritual of Remembrance.

Inside your order of service there is a slip of paper printed with foods, with fruit and vegetables and bread for today's feast of remembrance, and other foods as well. If you do not see the slip, the ushers have extras. You also should have found a small pencil on your chair, or on the chair next to yours…. Again, the ushers have extras. Feel free, also to use a pen, if you have one.
In a moment, you will hear the sound of the bell, and after you do, I'd like you to take a few moments in silence to think of someone in your life who has died. A friend or family member, perhaps, but it might also be someone you didn't know personally, but whom you admired. Or it could be someone who has died in the tragedies of our current time.

As you meditate on that person, think about a message or a blessing you might like them to hear. It could simply be "I miss you," or "thank you for being my friend," or just "thank you." You might think about what you loved about the person, or something they taught you that you're grateful for. These messages are not going to be read aloud here - no one will see your message except you.

When you have decided what you want to say, take your slip of "feast paper," and write the name of the person you are honoring and the message or the blessing on the back of it, and then wait in the silence for the second sounding of the bell.
Again, after you hear the bell, take a few moments in silence to think of someone dear to you who has died, and then write a blessing or a message to that person on the back of your paper…..

(bell - silence -- bell)

Around our table you may have noticed that there are place settings, and polished stones. Take your feast paper now, and fold it in thirds (demonstrate), and again, after you hear the sound of the bell, bring it to the center as silently as you can, and place it on one of the plates. As you do this, meditate on the person you have lost as though you were inviting them to a feast in their honor. If you would like to, you may also take one of the stones as a token of remembrance…. I know that as you do this, you will take your time, and give one another room as you move around the sanctuary…. And when you hear the bell a second time, you will know that our time of feasting is over.

(bell - movement -- bell)

IV. Meditation

Let us join our hearts and minds now in a meditative spirit, as we honor the Samhain theme of preparation and community:

Spirit of Life and Love,
Ancestor spirits, voices and faces of our beloved dead,
Gathered near to us this day in our memories and our minds' eyes,
Breathe with us as we inhale and exhale the same air you once breathed,
And know that our bodies are made from the same star stuff that your bodies once were …

As the days grow colder and the nights grow longer,
Even we modern people begin to think about the coming winter
And how we will prepare. . .

for days spent more indoors than outside,
The misery of colds passed from parent to child,
from partner to partner, spouse to spouse,
The soggy grey of winter's rains, the brilliant cold of ice and snow.

What must we do, oh spirit of life, to be ready to traverse the wintry season?

What does our community need to be ready?

What do our neighbors need to be ready?

How can we help one another be ready? Who are the people who most need us at this time?

In the silence, as we breathe together, individual hopes and longings gathered into community,

May an image emerge in our minds' eyes, may a voice whisper in the depths of our ears, showing us and telling us
How our hearts and hands may be of service
To our wider world.

Let us move now into that hopeful, observant, receptive silence….

(silence)

Spirit of Life and Love,
Ancestor spirits, voices and faces of our beloved dead,
Gathered near to us this day in our memories and our minds' eyes,
You have breathed with us as we joined our hearts and minds in meditation and silence,
As we release you, we thank you for your presence, and your guidance this day.
Amen, and blessed be.

V. Chalice Extinguishing - Releasing the Directions - Grounding the Circle

In earth-centered religions, there's an understanding that the Earth and the elements are alive, and that the energy drawn upon in ritual is alive as well. When a service comes to an end, therefore, it is respectful of that energy and aliveness to return it to the earth so that it can be used again for growth or healing or in other ways. One of the ways we can do this is by stomping our feet upon the earth.

After I extinguish the flame in our chalice, I will invite you to repeat a few lines after me, and then together we'll stomp our feet three times.

Spirits of the East, powers of air
Spirits of the South, powers of fire
Spirits of the West, powers of water
Spirits of the North, powers of earth
Spirits of the Center, powers of the ether,
We thank you for joining in our service
And we ask for your blessing as you depart.

And now please repeat after me:
This circle is at end
The elements have returned to their realms
Any energy that remains
Be released into the ground and the air
Our work here is done
This circle is open, but unbroken
Here we meet and here we part
And here we shall meet again
Amen and blessed be.
Stomp, stomp, stomp!