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It is interesting that after Navrathri - the festival of nine nights that embodies protection and goodness - we have Halloween in the West.
It is celebrated each year on the 31st of October. Its roots are in the Celtic Festival of Samhain (pronounced SAH-win) where people gathered to pray for protection, connect to their deceased ancestors, wear costumes and light bonfires to ward off ghosts. In the 8th century, Pope Gregory II assigned November 1st as All Saints Day. The traditions of Samhain got integrated into the All Hallows Eve, the eve before All Saints Day, to become known as Halloween. All Hallows Day was derived from the middle English word Alholowmesse which meant all Saints day.
The interesting thing is that, like Navrathri, Samhain was also celebrated for a week where there was feasting, invocations and strengthening oneself to last the winter which ended with a big bonfire. In Durga puja, also in some parts of India, fires are used to symbolise burning away of the old darkness.
New Year Of The Celts
The new year of the Celtic people was celebrated on November 1st. They were spread across present day Ireland, Scotland, Britain, parts of France and Spain. So the eve of the new year was the big celebration of Samhain. People prayed for the relatives who had passed on. It was also believed to be a day where the veil between worlds had thinned and therefore they could communicate more easily with the dead. Since it also marked the harsh winter to come, they made their peace with the other world and this world to decrease winter deaths.
They left a space in the table for dead family members and left food outside for scary ghosts in order to appease them. Some felt that if they wore scary masks, the ghosts would think they were one of them and not bother them and hence masks were made and worn. It is interesting to see how the church took this and incorporated it into the All Saints or All Souls Day where we pray for the deceased.
Matchmaking Rituals
Traditionally in Ireland this was a time where women could do tricks to divine their future husband. You could call these tricks “superstition,” “soothsaying” or “white magick.” The druids, or the Celtic priests or wise men, were also thought to be better able to see the future because of this boundary between the physical and psychic worlds melting during this period. They were thought to take the help of good ghosts or spirits for this purpose of seeing.
As winter was a time of illness and death they also made potions to strengthen the system. I still have fond memories of reading Asterix and Obelix comic books, where the druids made all kinds of potions for health, longevity and victory. They were partly like the ayurvedic herbalists, and connected to the spirit of the plant and its essence. I still have a vivid visual of Getafix, the druid in the comic book with the long white beard and nonchalant eyes, who had tapped into the natural world and had the recipes for magic potions that gave superhuman strength.
That was my first introduction to the druids and Celts, in a very tangible form. In Gaul, the tiny village of Asterix and Obelix is safe because Getafix wields the wisdom and knowledge to make the potion that makes anyone one who drinks it very powerful. Thus they are protected from Julius Ceaser's invading army. Though just a comic book, I remember, as a child, being fascinated by Getafix more than Asterix or Obelix. He is like the Yoda of Star Wars.
Durga The Mother Of Druids
Ancient cultures were connected to nature and the divine feminine. The druids were earth lovers and life lovers. There are many stories of devotees invoking Durga Ma and Kali Ma where she offers them drinks or potions with the highest powers in them. During Navrathri, nine forms of Durga, or nav Durga, are also invoked during the nine nights. These nine nights are each dedicated to one healing aspect of the Goddess. For example, by offering pure sattvic ghee to Goddess Brahmacharini on the first day, she blesses us with a life free of disease. By offering sesame seeds to Goddess Siddhidhatri, she gives us the boon of safety and security. This is to denote that we can invoke them and, by imbibing a particular food, receive its tatwa or quality. So in essence: the food plus pure intention plus blessing plus bakthi (the heart of devotion) plus manthra... equals magick potion!
Funny Story Of Kali Maa Giving Boons Through Her Potions
Raman who is from Tenali, Andhra Pradesh, in the south of India, has Goddess Kali appear before him in her full glory with a thousand heads as he visits her temple and diligently chants and invokes her. Tenali Raman starts laughing uncontrollably as she appears. She is annoyed in the beginning as usually many are awestruck and no one has, so far, had the audacity to laugh at her. But on hearing his wit and imagination she starts laughing as well. Tenali Raman was down with a cold a few days ago and he said that, just with one nose he was exhausted blowing it. He had imagined what would happen if Kali Ma came down with a cold with her thousand heads. She sees the humour in it and calls him Vikatakavi. This means, “a poet who writes funny or satirical verse” and Raman goes on to become the vikatakavi in king Krishnadevaraya's court. Vikatakavi, when written in Telugu, the language of his land, is a palindrome. This means it reads the same forwards and backward like with the word "madam" in English.
Kali Maa also offers him a choice between two cups. One holds the milk or essence of wisdom and the other has the blessed curds of wealth. Now Tenali Raman says that he wants to take a closer look and then decide. He takes both cups and gobbles them both up and then asks for the Mother's forgiveness. He tells her that one without the other would make him miserable and he did not want to fault the Divine Mother for his misery. She once again chuckles, sees the truth in that and forgives him.
“Aa-Ooo-Mng” Or “OM” In Yoga & Aa-Oo-N Or “Awen” Of The Druids
It is no coincidence that the Druids attribute “Aa” as the sound of the earth, “Oo” the sound of the heart and “N” as the sound above. Also the Christian “Amen” is very close to the druidic “Awen.” When Awen is chanted traditionally, it is intoned very similarly to the “Aa-Oo-Mng” of the Yogic tradition. Sounds also shift vibration and hence they also can be used as potions to align and heal. Many old Welsh poems describe Awen as divine inspiration, breath, breeze, breath of life. Just as we chant the short OM or the longer version, Awen also can be chanted as Awen or as separate syllables. In its short version it sounds like the christian Amen and in its longer form like the Yogic sacred sound. That seems to be the missing link I was looking for between the Om and Amen.
Psychic Protection
Though Halloween has morphed into an endless night of sugar highs for kids and adrenaline highs for both adults and kids, we can reclaim some of its original intention - to clear physical and psychic worlds. In that sense we can look at it as a psychic autumn cleaning as we have a physical spring cleaning. We can hold the prayer for protection for ourselves and others so energies from other worlds do not feed off our unresolved emotions. We can use the simple yogic jathis of shaking out our emotional cobwebs, so that no heebie jeebies get stuck in our space. Happy Halloween!