Sermons by Reverend Don Beaudreault
Samhain/Halloween: Celebration of Wiccan Spirituality
Rev. Don Beaudreault
Unitarian Universalist Church of Sarasota, FL
October 30, 2005
OPENING READING: from "A Natural Order"
The life there was
in a season of green
drew sustenance
from prior season of life.
In return
sustenance will be given
to generations to come.This is the natural order,
the cycle of seasons and living things.Let us learn to take
when we need to take;
Let us learn to give
when others have need.Giving and taking
is the ongoing celebration
of living.
In the celebration
all life is enriched.Edward Searl
MEDITATION READING: from "Hearken Now, the Darkness Comes!"
Mists gather in the valleys and pour down the ancient riverbeds to the darkening sea. Hearken now, the darkness comes!
And in the turning of the year, the walls of time and space become as air, until life and death are as one and departed souls walk again among the living. Here on this most sacred night, as the old year died and the new was born, around the fires the people gathered in celebration. There was wine and cider from the vines and groves, bread from the fields of winnowed wheat, and meat steaming from the slaughter. A great feast and celebration of life to take into the darkness. Hearken now, the darkness comes!
And as the earth moved onward into the darkness, the veil between the worlds grew thin.
Turn and turn again the Earth did in its endless dance among the stars.
We the children of this ancient age remember.our honored dead who speak to us again as the walls of this world grow thin. We pass the Cup of Remembrance as we think upon one who has gone before. We remember the good times and the bright things we treasure from their memories, and we allow them to fly free. We make our peace with She who waits for all.
We remember the fears of the darkness, and in our masquerade and games, we come to terms with Death and with change. For such is the meaning at the heart of the feast.
So prepare you now as the darkness comes. Ready the harvest of your hopes and dreams. Light the fires against ignorance and fear. For remember also, that the darkness is but one turn upon the Wheel, it is the darkness of the womb. And the Death we all must face is merely the doorway to the Life to come.
"Lark"
PROLOGUE TO THE SERMON:
Wicca is a neo-pagan religion based on the pre-Christian traditions of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Its origins can be traced even further back to Paleolithic peoples who worshipped a Hunter God and a Fertility Goddess. Cave paintings found in France (and dated at 30,000 years old) depict a man with the head of a stag, and a woman with a swollen, pregnant belly. They stand in a circle with eleven mortals. These archetypes of the divine are worshipped by Wiccans to this very day. By these standards, the religion that is now called Wicca, is perhaps the oldest religion in the world. ( http://www.magicwicca.com/wicca/definition.html )
The Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans (CUUPS).works to enrich and strengthen the religious pluralism of Unitarian Universalism; promote the study and practice of contemporary Pagan and Earth-and nature-centered spirituality.promote inter-religious dialogue, and work for the healing of the Earth. (Excerpt from the UUA Directory)
SERMON:
I didn't know what it was all about when I was a kid of sixteen, standing over my grandmother Clara as she lay dying in that hospital bed. I only saw what I saw; heard what I heard; and felt what I felt. That she was communicating to her dead husband Tom, lifting herself out of her bed, reaching to him with outstretched arms, and whispering over and over: "I see you Tom, I see you!" What I felt was utter amazement, sensing that I was privy to a rare and special moment of human interaction. And then, she was gone.
Halloween, or as it is known by its Wiccan, pagan name, "Samhain" (pronounced "Sow-in") is the time of the year according to ancient Celtic belief from 2,500 years ago if not a lot longer when "they" come back us again - our departed loved ones.
Samhain.marks the end of the agricultural season and the beginning of Winter..Samhain was the beginning of the year and the cycle of seasons. It was a time when (the Celts) turned to their Gods, seeking to understand the turning of the cycle of life and death.. Samhain was a time when the gates between this world and the next were open. It was a time for communication with the spirits who were believed to roam free on this night. It was a time of divination, when the ancestors were contacted for warnings and guidance through the dark Winter months. (Celebrating Wiccan Spirituality, Lady Sabrina, p.235)
The death of my grandmother has become for me a "Samhain experience" in the sense of it representing "a time when the gates between this world and the next were open." And I do have the Celtic blood within my veins from my grandmother and from all that ancient genetic pool of which she and I were connected.
But then, it seems part of the universal human experience for some to believe in such communications when the door between life and death opens a wee crack, providing a momentary glimpse of what lies on the other side.
Now as important an aspect of life as this might prove to be for some - whether in a literal way, how, we might ask, can this be of importance for those who eschew such mystical possibilities; who profess a rationalistic "show-me" approach to life?
Ah! But this is the joy of Samhain, of Halloween, because it calls to one and all to heed the advice of the English Romantic poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge in allowing:
That willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith.
Yes, it is a faith - a belief that is more poetic than prosaic; that brings forth the wonderworks of the creative and imaginative mind; that calls us to a state of amazement and awe at the mystery of it all. To quote myself:
I only saw what I saw; I heard what I heard; and felt what I felt.
And such a state of existence can be such a boon to going about our lives.
Let me suggest how such a "willing suspension of disbelief" - such a Samhain perspective, might be a source of such inspiration and guidance for us.
Truly, there are those - Celtic descendants or otherwise - who literally believe in spirits who communicate with us; there are others (and that would include me) who are more agnostic in our approach - meaning, that we are open to all kinds of interesting possibilities in regard to the subject; but even the skeptics (that would undoubtedly include some of you) can benefit from an inquiring mind concerning this major theme of Samhain.
In regard to all three perspectives, we can see how essentially USEFUL the image can be. Consider these words from one of our Unitarian Universalist hymnbook:
I cannot think of them as dead who walk with me no more;
Along the path of life I tread they are but gone before.And still their silent ministry within my heart has place
As when on earth they walked with me and met me face to face.Hymn #96: "I Cannot Think of Them as Dead"
(words by Frederick Lucian Hosmer, from Singing the Living Tradition)
I must say that here is the Unitarian Universalist interpretation of theology or metaphysics (things beyond the physical, observable world) to one's benefit. Yes, we recognize that people die, but no, we do not have a doctrinal belief in an "afterlife" the way traditional Christianity does (or the way other world religions or philosophies do). But yes, we Unitarian Universalists also can say at least something about what happens to us when we "move on": simply, that we might very well live on in the thoughts of others, and even be a source of healing or instruction for them based on what we were when we were literally alive.
This thought is indeed useful because it is comforting. To think that our beloved are not only dead but also forgotten by us - that they can no longer be there for us when we need them for guidance - would be such a sad reality.
It has been my delight as a minister over the years to hear people tell me what joy they have found through their sorrow at the loss of those they have loved. But still, the joy! They feel that their deceased loved one is still with them. Some people have told marvelous stories of "feeling" a presence; others have told of "hearing" their beloved one's voice or "seeing" the person or, in the case of one woman, feeling her husband's presence with her -yes! - in bed! That's what she told me, so who am I to deny her experience!
I know for myself, being the Celt with a French twist, that I have had experiences with my lost loved ones.
Having my mother appear to me while I was awake a few days after she died and both seeing her and hearing her when she said, "It will be alright, Donnie! It will be alright!"
Having that dead grandmother Clara appear to me when I was in the emergency room and nearly dead myself, having reacted to a drug. Her smile brought me back. "It's not time, yet, Donnie," she said.
Having my other grandmother, my French Canadian one named Marie who died twenty-three years before I was born, guide me to her grave merely through my sensing that it was hers - rather like a "divining rod."
Having my father tell me - yes, I hear his voice every so often - that I have done something of which he is very proud - or, in some cases, not!
Having that English poet John Keats (long dead) literally right before my eyes as he was crossing his backyard while I was about to enter his home - and then seeing him mysteriously disappear.
Having a "feeling" - the classically named "chill" - that there are others around me - that "greater cloud of witnesses" - who, though disembodied, are somehow there for me as guides.
How usefully healing these experiences have been, connecting me beyond my own sense of "self" to a larger realm of "selves" - if not to the all encompassing "Self." Here, indeed, are aspects of Ralph Waldo Emerson's philosophy, and of Eastern philosophy - that tell us we are caught between this world and something beyond ourself - that we have both "immanent" and "transcendent" natures.
Now, this idea of connection between life and death, this in-between place, is not merely a Celtic invention.
The Buddhists have a term for it: "bardo," a combination of "bar" meaning in-between and "do" meaning "island" or "marking point." It is a place between places - a place between life and death. A place I have witnessed not only through the experience of my dying grandmother, but by experiencing in the dying process of others, especially when I was a hospital chaplain. Truly, there is something quite extraordinary about this experience - something as old as humanity itself, crossing over cultures.
In medieval times, musicians would play at the bedsides of dying patients, believing that they were helping the person's transitional process while he or she was in that "bardo" state. This idea has come back a bit in modern times, and I myself, was honored years ago to be asked by the family of a dying man in the church I was then serving as its minister to play his favorite song on the piano: "Over the Rainbow." And I was doing so at the very instant of his death, which turned out to be a very peaceful passing.
Think of this image, too, as told in the following story from 1920:
While yet a young girl, Mrs. Hand was visiting her grandmother's family. Having been playing in the garden she ran inside and found that the building had changed. It was suddenly darker, as if there was less window space, and all the furniture was different, and older in design. A door to the kitchen was no longer there. Naturally assuming that she had entered the wrong house by mistake, the girl left. As she exited the lighting changed. So she went back into the house and it returned to the strange, old world formation she had just witnessed. She left to go outside a second time and then, ten minutes later, when she returned for a third peek indoors everything was as back to its normal appearance. The light levels were as expected and an aunt was cooking in the kitchen as anticipated.
In effect, Mrs. Hand seems to have seen the building in two time zones side by side. But the act of entering the door had worked like a portal or gate through the centuries. (Excerpt from "Time Travel" by Jenny Randles, Blandford)
As the writer on Wiccan spirituality, "Wren" says of this story:
A doorway is that "place that is not a place" indeed. You are not exactly "in" nor are you precisely "out". You are in the act of coming or going...entering or exiting... leaving here and entering there. What could be more magickal than that?
As the poet William Blake, who literally saw "dead people" (especially his brother), put it:
If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear as it is-infinite.
Again, whether or not you take Mrs. Hand's experience and William Blake's idea in a literal fashion or not, you certainly can benefit from considering these things, because they give you a realization that reality is not always what it might appear to be! And you need not be a "mystic" to believe this!
Think about "time" as a subject.
Have there not been periods in your life concerning "time" when "time stops" - or seems to? Or at least slows down? Or speeds up? Remember what Einstein said about the relativity of time - and I am not talking physical formulations here! Said the great presumably heterosexual scientist:
Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity.
So that makes me think that Samhain in regard to the opening of the doors of perception between the living and the dead, is a celebration illustrating a physicist's dream. It is when time and space belie strict definition.
Granted, those early Samhain or Halloween experiences were frightening times for people. The ancient Celts did not want the disembodied spirits to be nosing around since their intent was to inhabit the body of a living person. In order to have these spirits avoid them, our ancestors would extinguish the fires in their hearths, thereby producing darkness and cold. They also would dress as demons, hobgoblins and the like to frighten the spirits away Then a Druid priest would create a huge bonfire in the village that would accomplish two things: symbolically honor the sun god for having produced a bountiful harvest, and simultaneously frighten away those scary spirits. If need be, a person deemed already possessed, would be sacrificed on the bonfire.
Now, hopefully nobody wants to get that literal today! But these images of ancient times can speak to us of a richness and creativity to our being; they can speak of the human need to wonder at the mystery of existence, even to the point of fear.
So may we at least do the wondering and try to do the best we might - through our intelligence and effort - to avoid the fear at this time of Samhain and throughout the rest of the year.
Might we leave our doors of perception open, seeking our roots in antiquity and dreaming our dreams of the future, all the while realizing along with T. S. Eliot that:
We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
Let me close with a poem of mine about the movement of light and dark:
Dark into light into dark again
The dance pervades the shadowing and lightening -
Night into morning into night circling:
One substance in myriad forms.
The blank canvass, black on white on black,
Shadow by shadow, light by light,
Bow, turn, repeat, and again,
Descent, ascent,
One piece, many notes.
An infinity of steps rounding the universe.
CLOSING WORDS: "The Open Door at Samhain"
Between the heavens and the earth
Move beyond the fiery screen, Between the seen and the unseen;
The way now opens to bring forth
The Hosts of those who went on before-
Hail! We see them now come through the Open Door.
Shed your anger and your fear, Live anew in a new year!"Unknown Author (quoted by "Wren")