This is a time of year for magic, a magic that brings us a deeper, stronger connection to all that dies, yet endures, somehow changed, but the same.  In our modern American culture, Halloween is full of "ghosts" and everything nightmares are made of.  I can't help but wonder how many of the displays we adults love so much give little, little ones nightmares!

What I love about Halloween, All Hallow's Eve, is that it celebrates a sacred duty to honor and thank our ancestors who came before us, preparing the way, best they could. This is the ancient Thanksgiving; a time to honor the land for the harvest and our ancestors for their efforts.  Gratitude is awareness that your particular ego shares the stage with others, some like you, some very different. Gratitude is acknowledging the benefit others have afforded us and also realizing the responsibility we have now as future ancestors to our children and their children.  Gratitude makes me stronger and more expansive; self-pity makes me feel weak and vulnerable.  I feel gratitude this time of the year, so full of ancient lore and ceremonies to honor the dying time of year,  the end of the harvest, the beginning of winter, and all who came before us.

Twenty first century medical research into NDEs, the phenomena that the great and lovely Dr. Raymond Moody first introduced in his 1975 best seller, Life After Life, has reached a tipping point for science and for medicine.  In the Netherlands, Dr. Pim van Lommel, a cardiologist now famous for his extensive research and ground-breaking book, Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near Death Experience,  sums it up in a patient's words; "it turns out dead isn't dead, after all."  This is the time of year to take such knowledge to heart and maybe expand the way we view and celebrate this lovely season.

Dreams are the bridge to that which isn't material and to the places where we can meet our beloved dead, now whole and on their own new path.  In one visitation dream, my shy, reclusive mom was young, dark hair flowing, riding a beautiful black stallion, like a free wild woman.  What a gift to see her that way after all her suffering at the end.  

This is the time to strenghten the bonds we have with those we love on both sides of the veil.  As in dreams, time, past, present and future, is all the same. We can gather our best dreams of those we love as a way to honor both them and the dreaming that keeps them so close to us.

All That Dies Shall Be Reborn

This is an important time of year for me; I chose to marry my dear man on October 31st.  It's a sacred day to the earth religions, the pagans of the planet.  It's the day of transition between life and death, autumn and winter, into the dark, the still, the cold, the lifeless. It's also a time to give thanks for the bounty of the summer's harvest.

In pagan thought, all that dies will be reborn: Spring follows Winter; Life follows Death.  Spirit doesn't die; it transforms and transitions from matter to energy, and back again - from here to there, and back again.

Today, a friend spoke to me of her reservations about Halloween and all its hype.  Someone very dear to her died on this date and the practice of dressing as scary ghosts and ghouls repulses her. Me, too. The dead are not ghosts and ghouls; among them, are our beloved.

I shared with her the pagan understanding of Samhain, the Celtic holy day we now call Halloween, as the time in the circle of the year when the veil between the living and the dead is the thinnest, when we're even closer to those we love who've died to the physical, where we still reside.  I celebrate my beloved dead at this time of year.  I forgive them their trespasses and ask them to forgive mine.  I know I'll see them, in dreams and most probably, after my crossing, so I strive to keep in touch.  My relationship to both my departed parents has grown immensely through our continued interactions in the dreaming.

All Hollow's Eve is a wonderful time to tune into the energy vibe of wishing those we love who've transitioned from the physical continued blessings on their spiritual paths and the assurance of our heartfelt love.  It's also a time to let go of attachments to the dead that may cause us unnecessary grief.  The veil is the thinnest for the benefit of both sides.  I wish you healing dreams to help you connect to those you love across the divide we call death.

Halloween: Dreaming with the Dead

For a pagan, this is a very sacred time of year.  Honoring our dead is not a superstition or a means to ward off hostile ghosts; honoring our dead is about building a bridge between their reality and our own, in the dream worlds, especially.  Across that connection, we can continue to grow our relationships, smooth out misunderstandings and express mutual support.  We stay in touch, all year long, but at this time, we acknowledge that the veil is extra thin between the living and the dead, so take the opportunity to give and get forgiveness or cut ties, altogether.  Whatever unfinished business or desire for renewed communication you may have with someone who has crossed over, now is a good time to ask your dream guides to open those gates for you.

You can be as specific in the request as you'd like, the point is, now is the time on the wheel of the solar year that we go underground with the Maiden Goddess and we dream deep, renewing dreams of the world to come.

Pagans see time as cyclical rather than linear; this lifetime is one on a great wonderful wheel of existence that continues, despite transformations from physical to spirit, from matter to energy. Death is included in an understanding of life; birth is the other side of a particular life journey into the physical that transforms us back to the spiritual at death.

It's sad to me that Halloween is turned into something all about ghouls, zombies and hatchet murderers when it's really about honoring the dead, our family, friends and ancestors who were here before us, helped us, loved us and then transitioned back to the spiritual realities before us.  Honoring the dead is an ancient practice among indigenous peoples around the world, not because we're scared of them, but because we love them still and respect what they did for us.  The well known Day of the Dead, Dia de Muertos, is one such tradition from the indigenous peoples of Mexico.

A highly esteemed Mexican holiday, Dia de Muertos is characterized by symbols of death like the skull and the skeleton, but they're colorful and celebratory, often humorous. Altars to the dead at grave sites or in the home are decorated with marigolds and all the departed's favorite things.  The three day holiday dedicates specific attention to children, little angels, on the first night.

It's easy to see how these ancient traditions of honoring our departed have devolved into yet another commercialized opportunity for we consumers to consume.  I don't mean to spoil the legitimate fun of dressing up and trick or treating, for children and adults alike.  I do think it would be better for everyone if the connection to our beloved departed were more emphasized than our ridiculous fears of death.

We associate fear and fright with Halloween; we unleash our worst fantasies of what death might be and the hideous ways it can come.  If we take a more holistic view of death, we might unleash our imaginations on what we'd like to do in non-physical realities, when we're no longer limited by corporeal restraints.  We can dwell in the world of possibility we call magic, we can live in our dreams, as well as our waking realities.

I'll be setting up my altar to mom, dad and other beloved beings and asking my dreams to make it easier for them to get through.  If you listened to my conversation with Robert Moss on his radio show earlier this month, you heard me share my death journey dream and his wonderful psychic slip about my setting up a business to help people, like a travel agent might, design their own death journey.  Why not?  It's a great idea; let me know if you need my services.

If you'd like to hear our whole lively conversation, click here.

A Time to Honor our Dead

Today is my favorite day of the year; Samhain, commonly called, Halloween.  This is our pagan new year; the wheel of the year turns again and we are in winter.  On this day, all over the world and for time immemorial, persons, tribes and cultures have stopped to honor their dead and their ancestors.  This day not as in October 31st necessarily, our ancient ancestors didn't keep"time" as we do with calendars and watches, but this day, when the earth is at this seasonal transition point, autumn to winter, they believed the veil between the living and the dead thins and our beloved dead can more easily come back to us.

I believe our beloved dead are always accessible to us in the dreaming, but yes, this day is special.  It offers a holy day set aside to remember and honor our dead.  This is the etymology of Halloween, "hallowed eve" of the dead, though it's devolved into our "trick or treat" and ghoulish fixation of modern day.  At one time, lit gourd lanterns in the windows and sweet honey cake offerings to the spirits, was a sacred practice ritually honoring the dead. Though, I like the idea of sweet kids dressed up in the imaginal character of their heart's content, goddess only knows it's fun for them, trick or treating at Halloween is somewhat like presents at Christmas, it's not the point.

One thing I love about paying attention to my dreams is that dream gifts often come around special holidays or anniversaries.  Sure enough, both my deceased parents showed up in a dream this week; pondering this dream has led me to a very happy resolution of some issues we can heal together.  I'm busy assembling an altar to honor them and my dream revelations, in thanksgiving for it all.

In Active Dreaming "honoring" the dream is a standard practice derived from the teachings of many indigenous and ancient cultures. It means bringing the energy of the dream into the waking by embodying this dream somehow in the physical through creative efforts unique to the dreamer. If I take action to bring the dream story into the waking in some way, it's likely my dream will release it's energetic charge in me, allowing me to better understand the gift it offers.  Understanding a dream is not necessarily Left Brain analysis; it's more like a dialogue of heart, head and soul.

For example, the day after my dream, without trying to interpret it, I dug out my high school prom dress, which I was wearing in the dream and which my so talented seamstress mother made for me, and hung it where I'll pass it several times a day.  I also found a wonderful picture of my parents dancing I'd forgotten I had; in the dream, we were all at a dance, so I'll use it on the altar.

Our dead come to us in dreams in many different guises and with different errands.  That's nothing to be afraid of.  I'm always puzzled by the ghoulish aspect of Halloween.  My husband, Jim, and I were married on Halloween.  We asked our guests to a masquerade ball, but to think whimsical, please not ghoulish.  Our guests had amazing outfits, from a bonafide Beefeater man to Mother Earth and Father Time.  Nobody came in dripping in blood or zombied out.

Perhaps the ghoulishness is an unconscious attempt of the modern psyche to laugh at it's own fear of death and what lays beyond death.  Yes, there can be some scary characters and situations in dreams (not talking about PTSD dreams here), but as the Senoi tribes revealed to mid-twentieth century anthropologists, if you turn around and face your fear in a dream, ask what it wants and be ready to negotiate, it will transform into an ally, 99% of the time.  And at any rate, you have better odds dealing with anything outside the physical than in the waking world. I like what my dad once said when my brother and I made spooky noises as we passed a cemetery, it's not the dead ones you have to worry about.  We have all sorts of capacities while in our dream body that we don't have as easily in our physical ones, one of them is to connect to the dead.

Our dead are in other dimensions; it's not necessarily "heaven" as depicted in religious tomes, but  parallel realities, other consensus realities. Hopefully, they're all growing and developing their soul's purpose and reaching their own connection to ultimate Source.  It's a soul by soul process, though we all pass through it.  That's what I think from what I've experienced. What I believe with all my heart is that my soul will survive death safely, as did the souls of my mom and dad.  I know this from my own dream visits to these dimensions, from their visits to me here in this one and from the scores of people who've borne the same witness in their own stories or writings.

When I have a dream visit, I pay attention and carry the dream in my heart until it unfolds its gift to me.  Never fails to happen, that aha moment when I understand the dream gift and can start using it in my waking life. But it's not always an immediate revelation.  Often the dream is one I really want to turn away from, one that evokes painful or bad memories, though, sometimes it's plain wonderful, right from the get go.  Whatever its residual feelings, I pay attention.  I write it down and let it sit with me until I get it.

So on this day of Death, a day not to fear but to celebrate, may all those you love that have crossed be well and be near to your heart.  One of the quintessential gifts of dreaming is that we have nothing to fear in death; we never truly lose anyone; death is as common as the changing of the seasons, and just as impermanent. Depending on how near we are to the physical separation, death can bring us great sorrow.  But meeting our departed again in our dreams can help us know for sure that we are forever, in one form or another, not ghost, but holy, holy spirit, each one of us.

A blessed Hallow's Eve to all.

Death and the Devil?

Once, Jim and I were invited to a wonderful couple's Halloween party, a theme party.  As they both happened to be Episcopal priests, we were asked to reflect some aspect of church or religion in our costumes.  It was Jim's great idea to go as death and the devil, after all he said: "They'd be out of business without us."  I opted for death and Jim made a dashing devil, as you can see.

On the great metaphorical wheel of the year, this is the time we pagans pause to reflect on death, the end of the harvest, the beginning of the still, chill quiet times of winter, knowing all things must pass.  Nature based spiritualities, (pagan comes from the Latin word meaning, someone of the earth), from ancient and contemporary indigenous cultures, view death as no more than a turn on that wheel, an opening into the spirit world.  Nature based practices use this time to recall ancestors and departed loved ones. The  transitions that cycle through Nature, from life blooming to withering and decaying, is an obvious inspiration for this inward reflection.  

When death isn't demonized or denied, it becomes an ally; it teaches us to be thankful, to live in conscious awareness of our physical and spiritual existence and to weigh our values carefully, considering what survives death?  Will money work in other dimensions, or is there something more valuable to be gained from living in physical form, something you can take with you?

For Celtic cultures, this time marks the New Year, Samhain.   Jim and I got married on Samhain, Halloween to most, for this reason; it's a holy, magical time.  And since it's the time of year when the veil between the worlds is thinnest, our parents and beloved relatives in spirit could witness.  

That's death, what about the devil?  I've discussed in previous posts Carl Jung's view of how we project our own evil on to others and ultimately, through the figure of the devil, create an Absolute Evil we can point to and divorce ourselves from all responsibility.  It's an archetype, a universal human psychic energy, Jung called the Shadow.  One of the wonderful avenues dreams offer is an opportunity to meet, face and own our own weaknesses and evil, our own Shadows. It's something like when Jesus said before you point out the speck in your neighbor's eye, remove the plank in your own.  Projecting evil is at the root of things like the Inquisition and all the holy warring that is humanity's great evil. (for more on the Shadow: http://litadreaming.blogspot.com/2011/09/strange-case-of-me-and-not-me.html ). 

So, Death and the Devil really are the big ticket items for patriarchal religions, their cash cows and psychological secret weapons. Patriarchal religions bank on fear of death and the devil to exact allegiance from believers.  Just check out this guy, a Wisconsin RC Bishop who brazenly emails  his "flock" with instructions on who to vote for on penalty of soul loss or eternal damnation.  http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/10/26/another-catholic-bishop-threatens-damnation-if-congregation-votes-for-obama/  

My favorite part of this edict is the exquisite Freudian slip of personifying America with the feminine pronoun, which as we all know, patriarchal religions use sparingly.

Let us pray for the electorate and let’s take action, that we may vote for good and moral leaders for this great country which will only remain great, if she continues to be and to do the good.

"If she continues to be and do the good?"  As defined by, let me guess... a bunch of old white males who are hell bent on keeping women out of their priesthood and exercising complete control over women's reproductive powers?  And if I don't listen to you, what?  I go to hell when I die?  Jesus won't like me anymore?  It was Jesus who acknowledged women's equality by letting them listen to him teach and accepting them among his followers as equals. What else you got?

By who's authority might I claim that religion is unnecessary at best and dangerous at worse?  Let me share with you a favorite bible passage from Luke, where Jesus is confronted for teaching and healing by the local "authorities."  In addition, I'll treat you to a brilliant work of translation by social justice advocate and Southern Baptist theologian, Clarence Jordan.  This verse is taken from, "The Cotton Patch Version of Luke and Acts," published in 1969.

Luke 20:1  It so happened on one of the days while he was teaching and explaining the God Movement to the people in the church, that the bishops and professors, along with the church officials, laid into him and said, "Tell us where you got the authority to do such things.  Who gave you this permission?

Jesus, of course, used his best Socratic method to turn the tables on the authorities and went on doing what he was doing.  

If I already have a connection to my soul and to the eternal, why do I need religion?  And especially, speaking as a woman, a religion that has particular enthusiasm for restricting my freedoms, even over my own sexuality.  In some countries, these religions makes women dress to look like shadows,  indistinguishable from another, so as not to distract men, (who are apparently in their estimation, quite easily distracted), from their important and holy work.  Are you kidding me!?!!  ( a rule of thumb for recognizing anything patriarchal is when you look and see a preponderence of men running the show with a binder full of women at their disposal).

As Jesus taught me, I look within for my spiritual authority.  For some it's meditation and spiritual practice, for me its my relationship to dreaming and the dream worlds.  I'm a dream teacher because there's no greater thrill than helping anyone, of any age, open that inner path of wonder, that path to soul.

I like to call dreaming "organic spirituality."  It's the most natural thing in the world, universally and throughout time; it opens windows between the worlds for anyone. When you rely on dreams, intuition and personal spiritual guidance on a daily, nightly basis, religious authority is insubstantial.  And when you consider the role religion is playing in this election... well, I hope you do consider it before you vote.

Dreaming ultimately gives each and every dreamer independent authority and an avenue to seek answers to the big questions for ourselves, without relying on controlling external authority.  If ever any truth can set us free, it's this one.