Samhain and 'Halloween'

'Only those who know the past can understand the present and shape the future'

- Parsifalrain, October 08

Samhain takes place on the Night of the 31st of October on the 1st of November, an original Full Moon
Event.
In the Germania of past days, the Feast was also known under the name of 'Winternacht' (Winter Night)
or 'Winteranfangsopfer' (according the Snorris Ynglinga Saga 'vetrarnattblt'), the (Sacrifce at the
Beginning of Winter to avoid a coming Year of bad harvest and so famine - then it was duty to sacrifce
against the Winter Time -- a Time full of deprivation; thus for a good Year)

above: The Year begins with Samhain, so the beginning of Winter, because the Celtic calendar knew only
Winter and Summer.
Samhain is primarily the Funeral and Ancestral Festival, which was captured by the church as 'All Saints'.
The substitute - holidays were introduced by the church in the 9th and 11th Centuries (exactly in the
Years 835 and 1006).
In the second place, Samhain represents the Feast of the Warrior and the Universe.
Samhain is in constant interdependence with the 'Witch-Festival' Beltane, which is celebrated in the Night
on May 1st.
This High-Festival is consecrated to the Gods Odin / Wotan, Frigg and Tyr.

Samhain is the feast of retreat and silence.

The Summer is over, the Harvest has long since been brought in and Life outside is receding in
importance.
It's a very bleak Time.

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The Days are getting shorter and shorter, the colorful Autumn colors and the plump Life gradually fading
away.
The themes of Dying and Death are becoming more prominent and are, as in almost no other Season,
visible, palpable and tangible.
It is Time to retire to the warm room and look inside.
The past Year will be considered retrospectively - old may be let go, and at the same time the Seed, which
is to be raised in the coming Year, and Born in the Winter Solstice, may be sown.
We draw our strength from the silence and from the refection of our own Roots by commemorating our
Ancestors, talking to them, asking them for advice, and also asking their Blessings and Protection for the
coming Year.
The veil to the Otherworld is now so thin that we can particularly easily get in contact with beings from
the other worlds.
When the fog lifts, we people fnd entrances to the Worlds of Elves and Fairies.
Previously, the time after Samhain was the one in which the people mostly stayed in the house.
It is a quiet, dead and cold Time.
Nature slowly dies, Mother Earth withdraws and goes to rest for a while.

In Samhain, the Otherworld stands wide open, the past and the present are united, and the spirits of the
Ancestors pass through the Flaming Rainbow Bridge Bifrst into the realm of men.

Especially for the Celts, the Year is like a great Day with Morning, Noon (= Summer Season), Evening
and Night (Winter Season).
Samhain is the Beginning of the so-called 'Jahresnacht', the Night of the Year.
The Celts had only two Seasons, the Summer half-Year = the Day of the Wheel of the Year, and the
Winter half-Year = the Wheel's Year-Night.
And Samhain was the New Year's Eve of the Celts !
It was the Night that symbolized the transition from the Old to the New Year.
And exactly this Night represents again a free space between the Old and the New.
In such interstices everything is possible.
The walls between the Worlds become particularly thin or dissolve.
These transitions, from one space to the other, resemble interstices where no order or law prevails.
One could also call it a 'whirling chaos', in which the Other Worlds visit the human World, and on the
other hand people can more easily associate with the so-called 'Other World' with the help of
intoxication, trance or ecstasy.

Death of the King of the Wheel of the Year

From a mythological point of view, Samhain also referred to the Time when the King of the Wheel of the
Year (= Sun) dies.
The 'huntsman' slays the Sun-deer, robs his wife, the Vegetation Goddess, and drags her into the
Underworld.
There she now rules as a Dead Goddess (see also Demeter Myth)
To the clairvoyant, she appears as an old Woman.

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A very famous Myth is King Arthur, who is shipped from the old Morgana, who, in the case of
Morrigain, with the bier to Avalon.
The old King dies and the new King is born again at the Turn of Winter.
So the whole Year was integrated in a great Myth.

Ancestor worship
The contact with the Ancestors, the permeability to the Netherworld, is a core theme of Samhain.
It was believed that on this Evening the dead would have permission to return to the place of their former
Life.
And since, as a matter of course, they were largely revered Ancestors, the living faced the event with
mixed feelings: with respect and with shyness.
The Ancestral Cult was of particular importance in all the known Ancient Cultures.
The connection to the Ancestors, who were behind one, was one of the greatest sources of power of
earlier Cultures.
These Cultures did not separate themselves from their deceased Ancestors, but felt their ubiquitous
presence in Life.
They asked for advice and assistance in all important matters, they worshiped them and respected them.
And the strength and help that came from the Ancestors and could still come today was incredible.
And it was this very Night that gave them special attention in the form of a meal, for example, which was
provided for them.

Name meaning for Samhain

There are two names for Samhain.
In the foreground, it just means 'Summer End' (Sam-Fin).
In a deeper sense and second aspect, it points to marriage in the sense of 'Union'.
Since the ruler was directly responsible for the fertility of the country, his establishment primarily meant
his marriage to the Holy Earth of the Kingdom entrusted to him. -
For the real Queen of the country, the designer of the fate of the country, was the Great Mother Goddess
Herself, the personifcation of the country.
By the Union with it, the ruler (King, Prince, etc.) received his consecration.
The ancient Goddess of the Earth chose a King of the Wheel of the Year as a terrestrial husband, whose
fate it was to sacrifce his Life at the end of a Period of government for the good of the Tribe, to make way
for his successor, the young and powerful King.
This 'ritual kingship' was actually exercised thousand Years ago and took place around the time of
Samhain, where the new King was to be enthroned.
The Holy Marriage, under which the fertilization of the Earth by the Sun had originally been
understood, so that new Life may arise from it, was reproduced in an analogy, later varied more and
more, and with increasing Time abstracted.

Mother Hulda (Holle) and Elder

A plant or better fruit is particularly suited to embody Samhain.
And this is the Elderberry with its black Elderberries, from which one can make a wonderfully tasting
Elderberry liqueur, or else a very healthy juice for the Dark Season.

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The Elder is holy to Mother Holla, the great Goddess of Life and Death.
As is well known, the deceased were received in Frau Holle's Otherworld.
And there were burial rites, where the dead were laid on Elderberry brushwood, and so on.
They were also buried under the Eldertrees, also called Ellhorn.
The frst name 'Ellen' comes therefore.
The Elderberry tree, which grows as a Tribal Tree next to the house, is a treshold tree, an access to the
dead ancestors.
And to Sahmhain were for these clansmen milk, porridge, bread and beer put under the Elder.
Frau Holle is also the Mistress of the Spirits, Elves and Elemental Beings.
These are especially the Beings that can be perceived in Samhain in the so-called 'Fairy Hills'.

In the Allgu in Bavaria, Germany, the Lady Holla is also called 'Percht'.
She is well-known because of the 'revival' of the Perchtenlufe at St. Nicholas.
The Percht is one of the darkest Goddesses, the Mother of the Night.

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Every nation honors her under a different name.

The Elderberry blossoms white in Spring, but the berries are ripe black and are uncooked as poisonous as
the spine of scorpion.
Everything very close together: healing but also poisonous, light but also dark.
The tree itself is 'heavy', she 'sucks' down.
But the wood is quite light and airy.
Like the triple Goddess herself, who unites all opposites.
The Cultural symbolism of this tree spans the polarities:
Birth, the entering into Life and Death, the departing of this Life.
Love, eroticism, a place which connects a life and death, is also contained in the symbolism of the Elder.
Also the Love, the Eroticism that takes a life and death connecting station, is included in the symbolism of
the Elder.
The fairy tale of Frau Holle also expresses exactly these different themes.

I wish you a peaceful start of the Dark Season.

Maybe you can savor this special evening and your ancestors with a sip of Elderberry liqueur.
Perhaps there is a favorite grandma or a favorite grandpa.
Or an already deceased favorite aunt or perhaps even mom or dad, you have lost.
This is a special Evening, where you can think of them, where you can probably pore over picture albums,
let revive memories.
You can tell stories of the Deceased, which one still knows, and pass it on so, Ancestors love this !
You can cook and eat a particular dish, which you know from the late grandma.
There is no limit to your imagination.
More about the Wheel of the Year-Celebration Samhain here

Halloween
Now comes back the Season, where we are incessantly told by all sorts of experts what we should know
and believe about Halloween.
However, the old Knowledge, the Wealth of Experience of our Ancestors can impossibly be mediated by
the interpretative aspirations of today's so-called 'experts' as for one, the underlying historical-
sociological background are disregarded or misunderstood.

On the other hand, for a better understanding of Samhain/Halloween, it is deemed necessary to

understand the cosmic aspects of this Sabbat:
Indeed the in at least fve thousand*) Years achieved knowledge of astronomical events which our
predecessors had acquired has already gone walkabout to so many of the self-appointed specialists and,
sadly, they are nowhere near common about anything like Life Purpose or Life circumstances of our
Ancestors.
As a result, through their one-sided approach, all the connections of the Ancestry of our Forefathers,
manifested in the Wheel of the Year and it's Celebrations in both Hemispheres and thus the becoming
(Ostara, the Vernal Equinox, Beltane), the Sein (Summer Solstice and Lugh) and the passing away
(Autumnal Equinox -> Samhain), just as well the essential Traditional connections that are so vital to Life

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(the Life's alignment according to the givens of Nature), further the recognition of adorable Nature in all
Things including the subordination and orientation to Nature of the ... Natural Religions, may always
remain in the dark and can only be made by assumptions, based on more assumptions and error.

'At the beginning of a scientifc endeavor, it should be one of the frst tasks of the seeker to
prepare his mind for taking up the truth by taking all the crudely and hastily accepted opinions
on the objects and relationships which he is trying to verify and may misguide him either to
discard, or at least to loosen his grip on it; and to strengthen himself by an effort and a
determination, for the unprejudiced acknowledgment of any conclusion which is presented as
supported by careful observations and logical arguments, even if it should turn out to be
contrary to views which he had previously held or which, without investigation, he has inherited
with confdence in others'.

- John Frederick William Herschel, A Treatise on Astronomy (1833)

In order to keep a long speech short, I may present the very simple basic facts about 'Halloween' beyond
the politically correct mainstream narrative of distortion of history and deluding the public.

Halloween is a Festival of a dying Year.

What we call today 'Halloween' was celebrated 2,000 years ago by the Celts.
Among the Celts, October 31st was the last Day of the Year.
On this Day the Summer was passed and the Winter greeted.
At the same Time, one thought especially of the deceased of last Year.

The Celts believed that the souls of those who were deceased this year migrated to Otherworld on this
Day.

Many believed that all the dead on October 31 were visiting the Earth.

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As spirits they came to their houses or wandered around the Night, frightening the people and playing
pranks.

Known as the American name 'Halloween', the Feast of Spirits is probably better known.
Irish immigrants brought this custom to America.
The name was as follows: In English is called all saints, 'all hallows day'.
The Night before all saints day is translated with 'all hallows even'.
This 'all hallows even' is shortened as 'Halloween'.
According to this, the name 'Halloween' is already a christianized name.

The modern-times customs around Halloween:

The ugly masks are supposed to chase away the spirits by this kind of 'evil carnival'.
To this there is 'trick or treat', whereby the children with so-called 'boo bags or Halloween bags' pull
around the houses, collect sweets and when they do not get tuck, pelt the houses with rotten eggs.
Particularly well-known at this time is the sweet 'candy corn', specially made for Halloween, which is
sugar-free and consists mainly of corn.
On average the Americans consume about 10 million kilos of 'Candy Corn' for Halloween !
What also belongs to Halloween are the light chains (luminaires), which are mostly used in pale or
gloomy yellow.

The christianized tradition of pumpkin lanterns originates from the story 'Jack O' Latern'.
Jack, a blacksmith who had been as deceitful as he was, duped the devil three times when he wanted to
take him to hell.
So the devil promised not to fetch Jack anymore.
When his time had come, Jack died.
But he was not allowed to enter the heavenly gate because he had been lacking moral principle, trickish,
and stingy all his life.
In front of the gate of hell, he was told that he was not allowed to enter, because it had got the Devil's
promise.
Since it was bitterly cold and dark on the Earth, he got a piece of glowing coal directly from the hellfre.
This coal stuck Jack into a hollowed-out turnip, and since then turned as a damned soul through the
darkness on the eve of 'All Saints Day' ...

*) The science of astronomy as the oldest science, is the root of the Celtic-Germanic Culture - Cycle.
It shows with her respective state, the development of the human spirit.
Already at least 5.000 years ago, the sky was measured completely.
The Megalithic mathematics, the technique of measurement, the Megalithic Unit Dimension, which have led to a
comprehensive geodesy.
The spherical shape of the Earth was known.

This painstakingly and meticulously researched record is made available by courtesy of researchers such as
Alexander Thom, C. A. Newham, Edwin C. Krupp, Rolf Mller, Hermann Drr and others, that Europe had
developed to this time, a strikingly high humanities-science, which, of course, was also refected in the Nature-

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religious customs of the Celts as well as Teutons (too often with 'blurred borders', i.e., whose Cultural Circles often
enough overlap, cannot be completely clearly distinguished), because science and religion were a unit.

Silent and by the general public hardly considered is a tremendous knowledge from our Ancestors which is
growing up and can give our young people a new self-consciousness.
In more recent times appear some bright spots:
The Sddeutsche Zeitung reported on 31.12.91 the discovered trench roundel in lower Bavaria and of 'monumental
architecture, with astronomical orientation', which is 2,000 years older than the calendar system 'Stonehenge' in
the South of England (age: over 4,900 years).
Passauer New Press referred to these sites as 'the oldest Observatory in the world'. 'The cradle of the calendar is
located in lower Bavaria between Danube and Isar' (March 1992).

Such reports are rare, but research is tremendously important, because many interested people will be prepared for
further discoveries.
But these isolated reports, often also only as single-columns in the paper - can not replace a total representation of
the research object.
An overall presentation of the revealed facts forbids the prohibition by 'various' reasons.
In addition, many well-intentioned researchers do not have thorough knowledge in astronomy.
Then they can, of course, never recognize the importance of the early history of Astronomy, let alone understand
the stone settings.
Without a thorough knowledge of the oldest science, every historical research is questionable.

Napoleon called the offcial account of history a 'fable', for it was always the portrayal of the rulers.
After World War II a research on Germanism was forbidden by the victorious powers.
Thus, the distortion of history was further developed to the present Day.

related:
Wheel of the Year-Celebration Samhain

8 Samhain and 'Halloween'