BellaOnline Forums Religion and Spirituality New Age Halloween

Hi!

I was just wondering if any of you out there celebrate Halloween? Is it a part of your spiritual practice, or just someone fun to do with your family or community? If you don't celebrate, do you have an alternative that you use?

I've just written a fun article:

Halloween Divination Party Games

Have you ever experimented with divination party games? What was your experience?

Another article of interest:

Divination And The Bible

With Halloween around the corner, divination and divinatory party games are of great interest to celebrants. Sometimes, a question arises about Divination, and whether or not it is "evil". Here is my response from a Biblical slant.

Thoughts? Comments? I'd love to hear them! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Great article Janet!!! It's amazing how looking at things from a different angle can make things seem clearer. I've never thought about the urim and thummin in that light, or the other examples you gave. I love awakening to new truths that were clouded over by religion!!!

Hugs,
Sheri

I do not celebrate Halloween or All Hallows Eve. As a Christian, however, it does not upset or bother me or inflame me to rabid expressions. I know its spiritual basis is Pagan. Paganism honors the spirit of the Creator in all the elements, as I understand it. Of course, Samhain, or Halloween, was co-opted by the Christian Church as a way of trying to make the Pagans join the Church. LOL, the Christian Church co-opted virtually every Pagan celebration there was, from Saturnalia (which was turned into Christmas) through celebrations of the fertility goddess Eostara (which was turned into Easter).

One thing I will do one year is host an elaborate costume party. I think it will be fun.

You know that the concept of dressing up was to be able to go outside unseen by the spirits who were believed to be walking the earth that night because that is when the veil is thinnest between this world and the next?......

I cannot get into the name-calling, labeling and abusive slurs that some Christians like to slam upon those who celebrate Samhain/Halloween. Such behavior speaks LOUDLY of fear - and where there is fear there is no love. And no candy corn!

We celebrate the season of autumn more than Halloween itself, although a few witches, ghosts and jack-o-lanterns help to make the season bright!

We'll have a party on October 30 and dressing up or not will be optional. I think it's kind of fun to wear things you wouldn't usually wear at any other time - like real, huge peacock earrings, loads of other jewelery and makeup. Just to be a little extravagant for that one evening is fun.

I believe that the pagan rituals themselves are not inherently evil. Recognizing earth related events, whether they be lunar, season related or whatever has never had any demonic undertones for me.

I love autumn because for me, it is renewal - the real 'new year' after surviving another very hellish summer in the desert. I used to revel in the autumn leaves when I lived in the eastern U.S.

I consider myself a Christian (one who strives to follow in Christ's footsteps) and am surprised at how even something as innocent as Fall Harvest has bad connotations for some of the narrow-minded Christians in our community. They don't have any problem mixing politics with religion though which methinks is not a good idea.

Anyway, Happy Autumn, (my youngest daughter's name also)!!

Hugs,
Val

Halloween's always been my favorite holiday! I dress up every year for work or wherever, we go trick-or-treating and to any parties there might be. I love costume parties! We had one last year in February for my daughter's birthday. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> We decorate the apartment and carve pumpkins and put luminarias in the windows, watch monster movies. Lots of fun stuff.

It's also part of my spiritual practice, Samhain. I really love the Dia de los Muertos celebrations even though my roots are Celtic and Slavic. It is so different than my family's trip to the cemetary on Memorial Day - Halloween seems like such a better time to me to celebrate the dead. So I celebrate and honor, in my own way, things that have died in my past, whether people or relationships or whatever, things I have unwillingly lost or have chosen to release. Oct. 31 just happened to be when my divorce a few years ago was final too. Interesting synchronicity there. It's a special time of year for many personal reasons. Anyway for a few days I grieve and celebrate all these special things and people that I loved, and then I let them all go again and make room for the living in my heart. I really think if these things are acknowledged once in a while they won't haunt us the rest of the time. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Hi all!

Sheri, thank so much for your feedback on my article! I love blowing other people's minds (LOL) and frankly, love having my own blown, too! <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> It's such a treat to see things in a new light, eh?

Barrett, I don't celebrate Halloween either. I guess, for me, it just holds no personal meaning. I love seeing cute Halloween decorations, and love the concept of dressing up (invite me to your costume party! <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> )--but the holiday itself is "just another day". My son asked for a pumpkin, and then asked my artist husband to draw a face on it, so we have this huge pumpkin on our dining room table. LOL

When I was in Bible college and when I was a Pentecostal/Charismatic minister though...hoo boy. I'd look down on any person that dare even have a pumpkin. :rolleyes:

Hi Val! I'm a November baby, and Oct and Nov have always been my favorite months! It's such a cozy time of year, and we get such brilliant foliage up here in PA. I love seeing hay bales and decorations, too. I consider myself a Christian, too, (as you defined) but because I'm so far out of mainstream--and am more a "New Ager"--I usually don't used that label to describe myself. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Fear perpetuates more fear, and to focus on "the devil" and "evil", IMO, stirs up fear and other [censored] that's the opposite of Christ and ChristLight. It's odd how some people seem more "against" things than for anything. Very fear-based.

Mtnmermaid, what a beautiful way to celebrate Halloween, Samhain, and Dia de los Muertos. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I can't speak for other cultures, but it seems to me that, by and large, we Americans don't know how to "die" well. We're very uncomfortable with things like talking about death, illness, pain, etc. It's as if there's an unspoken superstition that to "talk about is to bring it upon myself" or something.

I'm a Scorpio, so death and generation are appealing themes for me. I very much identify with the Phoenix, as well as the Death card. (Although my all time fave is The Hermit!) However, I don't think I could get into Dia de los Muertos-like celebrations, but I very much love the concept of re-birth from the ashes! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

No, we don't die well. We prolong life as long as we possibly can instead of letting it go when it's time, and we forget that death is necessary to life - like you said, rebirth from the ashes.

Agreed. *nodding*

My family celebrates Samhain to remember and honor our friends and family members who have passed on. We make their favorite foods, pull out old photo albums and sit around telling stories about them. My favorite part of this is listening to my mother read my grandmothers poetry and hearing about my great-grandparents who came here from Germany. I never knew my great-grandparents but after all these years of hearing the stories about them I feel like I do. We celebrate the times we had with them and give the younger generation a glimpse of their ancestors and where they came from.

With autumn here and winter fast approaching it is also a time of introspection, to take stock in our lives. We talk about what we have or have not accomplished, what do we wish to accomplish and how do we plan on doing it. My mother loves to journal and sends us journal prompts all the time. Whenever we get together she usually pulls them out and we discuss what she�s sent us. Below are the one�s I�m sure we�ll talk about on Samhain.

What will you say farewell to this autumn? What feelings, ideas, people, places will you say farewell to? Why? What did you learn from what you hope to say farewell to? What will you move on to? Is farewell a closure for you?
List five things you are ready to let go of.
List five things you have brought to fruition and are ready to release.
List five things you hope to sow for next year's harvest.
List five things you added to this year's harvest for others.
List five things from your harvest you can share.

As far as divination I do a year spread of 13 tarot cards, one for each month and the last one is my card for the year � I pull this one from the majors only. I look at how each monthly card fits with the year card and make notes in my tarot journal. To keep track of what I�ve pulled, I write down the name of the card on the 1st of each month on my calendar. As the year progresses I�ll make notes on the days when the card interpretation fits. Last year my year card was the Hanged Man and does fit the overall view of the last 12 months of my life.

I hope everyone has a blessed autumn.

Shannon

Thanks for sharing Shannon, great ideas! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Heather