Happy Samhain, everyone! No, this post is NOT late! Samhain is a three-day event, starting about October 31 and lasting till, about, today. Samhain is an Irish word meaning “end of summer” or “end of the harvest.” The Celtic calender had the year divided in to two haves, a light half and a dark half. Samhain marks the beginning of the dark half, which lasts until Beltaine.

For our ancestors, it was a time of celebration, since the harvest was fully in, food was plentiful, and work was slacking off. It was also a time to take stock and make the grim calculations required to survive the winter. Excess livestock was slaughtered and salted, breeding stock moved from the summer fields to winter shelters, and other foodstuff accounted for and stored.

This is one of my personal favorite times of year, but perhaps that is partly because of the differences in climate I enjoy relative to my Gaelic ancestors. The miserably hot and wet weather of South Louisiana turns cooler and dryer, for example. Hurricane season is over. The mosquitoes are not quite as bad. Winter here is not very harsh and there is greenery year around. This is not the kind of place where a festival like Samhain would have ever naturally developed. There are still some major harvests left to collect and winter does not have much dread for us.  It’s more of a relief, really.

Still, the magic of Samhain is present. It is a between time, a time on the cusp of changes in the world around us, and a time where we remember our dead and pray they remember us.

My son is now five, and I want to incorporate the remembrance of our ancestors in a meaningful way for him now that the hullabaloo of Halloween itself is just past. We talked about this kind of thing briefly in our Halloween preparations. I had him dressed up as a woad-painted Celt, after all. But I think we also need something for more quiet reflection.

I thought of involving a cemetery somehow, but there are no nearby grave sites of anyone we are directly descended from. We’d have to travel a good three or four hours for that. Maybe that would be good for some day, but I have in mind something simple.

My thought is to sit down with him with some paper and crayons, talk to him about some of our ancestors, and “write” to them together. Then, we would ceremonially burn the paper, sending our letters to the ancestors. Lastly, we will put some food out for them on this last day of Samhain. I think it will be a lovely thing.

I hope everyone had a lovely Samhain and may your ancestors watch over you this coming new year.

Inanna at At the End of Desire wrote recently about a New York Times article which related mental health to the narrative style of the stories we tell about ourselves. Those with mood problems, for example, tell stories in which every major incident is tainted by some dark detail — “notes of disappointment.” Inanna suggests that a storytelling technique using this information could be used therapeutically to change, subtly and over time, characteristics about our selves.

This makes me wonder if a positive form of cognitive therapy could be to “rewrite” the stories we tell ourselves, making ourselves the heroes instead of the victims. I can imagine a therapist, peer counselor, or friend gently pointing out the “notes of disappointment” in a story being told and suggesting ways to change the narrative.
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Of course, it’s not as simple as “thinking makes it so.” (I don’t really understand the Law of Attraction, but I know that that’s not so simple either, The Secret notwithstanding.) If anything, the retelling works more like an affirmation; repeat it often enough, and you can cognitively “rewire,” training the mind to move in a different groove.

The possible connection of such a technique to ritual was, of course, not lost on her and she concludes with the observation that “Ritual and magick could also be powerful tools to aid in retelling.” I would expound on that and suggest that ritual and magic are extremely powerful and useful psychological “self-help” techniques. The connection between the power of storytelling and magic was made clear to me by a passage later in the article, relating how people who found recovery, externalized their problems:

At some level, talk therapy has always been an exercise in replaying and reinterpreting each person’s unique life story. Yet Mr. Adler found that in fact those former patients who scored highest on measures of well-being — who had recovered, by standard measures — told very similar tales about their experiences.

They described their problem, whether depression or an eating disorder, as coming on suddenly, as if out of nowhere. They characterized their difficulty as if it were an outside enemy, often giving it a name (the black dog, the walk of shame). And eventually they conquered it.

“The story is one of victorious battle: ‘I ended therapy because I could overcome this on my own,’ ” Mr. Adler said. Those in the study who scored lower on measures of psychological well-being were more likely to see their moods and behavior problems as a part of their own character, rather than as a villain to be defeated. To them, therapy was part of a continuing adaptation, not a decisive battle.

The findings suggest that psychotherapy, when it is effective, gives people who are feeling helpless a sense of their own power, in effect altering their life story even as they work to disarm their own demons, Mr. Adler said.

A sense of power? Disarming demons? Sounds like ritual and magic to me. I’ve discussed the psychological affect and benefits of ritual here before, and this reinforces my theory: that ritual and magic can be seen as a way to effectively communicate with the subconscious and thus change our lives for the better. If externalizing our problems is an effective therapy, what can be more therapeutic than magic in which our problems are not only externalized but given physical form, say as a poppet or a note on paper, and then manipulated or destroyed?

I am leery of reducing magic to simply a mind-trick we play on ourselves, but I think it helps to recognize that, at least on some level, that’s exactly what it is. The surprising thing I have come to realize, though, is that recognizing the “mind-trick” doesn’t reduce the power of the magic, it only helps us develop better and more powerful rituals! The reason for this is that the subconscious doesn’t know the difference. The distinction is being made by the conscious, rational mind. So, what can we get out of this article that will help us design rituals? Here are my thoughts:

1. “Externalize” the problem you are dealing with. Make it real and separate. Represent it with some tangible object that you can work with.
2. Word spells in terms of overcoming obstacles. Word them with the problem first, then the resolution. Negative, then positive ending.
3. Use third person instead of first person as much as possible.

It would also seem to me that this storytelling angle reinforces the importance of journaling. Journaling lets you see what’s going on in your life from another perspective, lets you integrate thoughts and feelings using both sides of your brain, and, as this article suggests, gives you a narrative you can review and examine in a different light, letting you see how your own “notes of disappointment” are bringing you down.

Erynn Rowan Laurie, an elder of Celtic Reconstructionism and collaborator on the Celtic Reconstructionist FAQ project, has recently made available a PDF file, giving the beginner an excellent introduction to the Ogam and her valuable insight into it. This PDF will be the core of her upcoming book on the subject to be published by Megalithica Press.Though reading several books on the Ogam, I never felt them to be very accessible to me. Laurie’s fresh perspective and insight has unlocked the door and I’m studying this fascinating alphabet with renewed interest.

Although easy to read, Laurie’s scholarship is rigorous for such a brief treatment of the subject. She clearly explains her sources and differentiates them from her personal insights.

After some introductory notes explaining briefly the history of the Ogam and her approach to them, Each Ogam is given one page. The descriptions start with the traditional associations, and then Laurie gives us a few paragraphs of her personal insight, which I have found very edifying. A later section briefly discusses divination methods and other practical uses.

In short, Laurie’s work provides an excellent springboard for a beginner (like me) and I look forward to her completed book on the subject.

Hat tip to Brenda.

It is said that the Song of Amergin encapsulates the essential, esoteric truths of “druidism.” My Buddhist-trained mind sees it as the “Heart Sutra” of Druidry. It contains all of the essential teachings deeply embedded in its imagery. One could study and meditate upon it for a lifetime and still not uncover all its secrets.

In my research of the Song, I’ve found dozens of translations, including a famous one by Robert Graves which, after reading more literal translations, I consider an abomination.

My personal version is one in which I cherry-picked preferred translations from two fairly literal versions: one I found in an ADF ritual and one by Lady Gregory. Here it is:

I am a wind upon the sea
I am a wave of the ocean
I am the sound of the sea
I am a stag of seven tines
I am the bull of seven battles
I am a hawk above the cliff
I am a golden teardrop of the sun
I am the fairest of blossoms
I am a wild boar in valor
I am a salmon in a pool
I am a lake in a plain
I am the word of knowledge
I am the head of the spear in battle
I am the God who kindles fire in the head
Who enlightens the assembly upon the mountain, if not I?
Who telleth the ages of the moon, if not I?
Who showeth the resting-place of the sun, if not I?

I found a very helpful exposition of the Song, with the original Celtic text, literal translation, and poetic interpretation of each line, by Mad_Dog_Fargo, on Everything2.com. He concludes with his own observation about the deeper meaning of the Song:

The Song of Amergin is not really about what it means to be a druid, but rather what it means to be a poet. Since it has established that the poet lives in varying forms in all of us, it is applicable to druids, but is also applicable to everyone.

In other words, it’s not about being a druid, it’s about being human.