Category Archives: Mythology

Piercing the Veil — Dream work at Halloween

The Universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.        Eden Phillpots

 

Death, and what awaits us when we depart physical existence, are among humanity’s greatest mysteries and most profound questions, perhaps second only to where we came from and why we are here.  Most people believe that earthly life is not the end and that some aspect of our soul or spirit continues after death. Dreams are one of the ways we can move back and forth between the veil that separates the visible world from the unseen realm.

Sometimes dreamers encounter deceased loved ones in dreams. While this may be symbolic in terms of what the deceased person represents character-wise, often these are real meetings. Many people have also reported visits in dreams from relatives at the moment of death, as if they are stopping by to say goodbye. These powerful experiences often help with loss and grief.

On the last day of October, we celebrate Halloween, Samhain, All Hallows Eve, or All Souls Day, depending on the tradition. Samhain is pronounced “sowen,” and in the ancient Celtic language meant Hallow tide. This was the Celtic new year and was the time set aside to honor the dead and to pay attention to all the manifestations of the thinning veil.

The history of Halloween stems from the Celts, and we have to peer back in time nearly 6,000 years to trace the shadowy origins. Halloween and Thanksgiving have the same root origin, and their purpose is to celebrate the harvest before the cold and dark of winter. Millennia ago the year began on the date we now call October 31, after the third and final harvest, midway between autumn equinox and winter solstice.

In the modern world, winter’s dark and cold are illuminated by artificial light and warmed by generated heat, so the conscious passage of this season is less dramatic.  Because we are insulated, we lose touch with the darkness and its part in the shifting rhythm of life. Prayers for the dead and activities to honor and communicate with ancestors are common activities at this time in cultures around the world. Leaving an ancestor’s plate on the table is the origin of the treat part of Halloween. The trick part came much later before World War II and was called Mischief Night. Therefore, modern celebrations of Halloween include ghosts, goblins, witches and costumes and well as “tricks and treats.” Carved pumpkins with scary faces and candles inside were meant to scare off evil spirits.

All of these symbols and activities are remnants of practices that have to do with engaging and interacting with the unseen realm. The same is true with dream work and making the most of our dream time can be enhanced at this time of year because of the thinning veil that separates the worlds. In truth it is more that our frequency is heightened, allowing us to perceive energy that we normally don’t sense.

What does all of this have to do with dreams you might ask? This time of year, when the annual turning of the wheel presents an opening to the spirit world, and the veil between the visible and unseen world thins, provides a more open portal to communicate with beings no longer in form. Likewise, the ability to receive messages through this opening is enhanced and dream messages may be more pronounced.

Setting time aside for dream work that has to do with those who have passed on can yield huge dividends in forgiveness, release, and surrender. Some dream fragments are actually memories of our own nighttime travels in the spirit domain and at this time of year dreams are often more intense. Dream symbolism may relate to unfinished business. Unspoken communication with deceased loved ones can work to resolve Karma that is still in operation and may be draining resources and growth in waking life.

Another benefit of working consciously with the parting of the veil near Halloween is a heightened ability to communicate with our own spirit guides. If we take advantage of the opening, our guides will speak to us through dreams. This is almost the opposite of the old axiom about making hay while the sun shines. Here we are doing deep work that can only be done in the “darkness” of our psyche while the soul is in charge rather than the less-evolved personality. Getting serious about your dream journal, and remembering to ask important questions before you sleep, offers opportunity for an abundant harvest of personal growth.

Light a candle, set an intention, and expect a powerful dream.

Photo by Vino Li on Unsplash

 

Virgo Goddesses

Goddess Sign — the Sheaf of Wheat

  “All things bear fruit according to their nature.” Goddesses for Every Day

The Goddess Sign for Virgo is the Sheaf of Wheat, which appears in depictions of the constellation of Virgo as the bright star Spica that is held like a staff in the hand of the goddess.  The mutable earth sign Virgo relates to the stage of spiritual unfolding which focuses on specialization of forms.  Virgo represents the stage in the cycle when the soul’s experience is focused on assimilation of knowledge.  In this phase matter is organized, purified and refined into specific and recognizable objects.  Here we might say the Grand Plan of the Cosmos is carried out in detail. Metaphysically Virgo is the matrix and represents the womb of the inner spiritual self, containing the seed and eventual fruits of the Spirit.  Seeds germinate in darkness, breaking their way out of their shell casings, and sending roots into the Earth.  Like the abdomen and intestines, which Virgo has dominion over, this phase distills the qualitative pearls from life.   

In every case I have been able to find except Egypt, the Earth is always seen as feminine.  She is a great mother goddess who gives birth to and sustains her children from the substance of her body.  This expresses through the fertility cycles of the seasons.  Virgo goddesses include goddess of agriculture and grain, as well as the harvest, and the annual descent into the underworld while the Earth grows barren for a time.  Icons of these goddesses include generous platters of fruits, overflowing cornucopias and waving fields of grain.  

Virgo is the only female among the zodiacal constellations, and other than the twins, Castor and Pollux (Gemini), she is the only human figure.  Author Richard Hinkley-Allen says, “Those who claim very high antiquity for the zodiacal signs (15,000 years ago), assert that the idea of these titles originated when the Sun was in Virgo at the spring equinox, the time of the Egyptian harvest.”  Australian astrologer Bernadette Brady has remarked that, “Whatever image is chosen across time and cultures, what is contained in Virgo is the archetype of the harvest-bringing goddess, pure and good, independent of the masculine.  She gives the four seasons and is the source of the fertile Earth.”  The more ancient concept of “virgin” described a woman who was independent and free to love whom she chose. 

Demeter was the Great Mother earth goddess of the people who preceded the Greeks.  Her sacred rites, known the Eleusinian Mysteries, were celebrated for nearly two thousand years, as long as Christianity has existed, in what is now mainland Greece.  People came from all over the known world to participate in these secret ceremonies.  We don’t know many details of these activities, as the penalty for revealing their contents was death.   Some aspects are known or suspected however, as the high point of the ritual was said to be a “sheaf of wheat reaped in silence.”  The Eleusinian Mysteries are similar in significance to the annual celebration of the mysteries of Isis and Osiris in Egypt.  I believe the deeper meaning is learning move in resonance with shifting seasons of light and dark in order to harvest blessings in their time.  

Based on and excerpted from Goddesses for Every Day © 2010 by Julie Loar.  Printed with permission of New World Library, Novato, CA. www.newworldlibrary.com     

Gates of Starlight

Milky Way Galaxy

“May we come and go in and out of heaven through gates of starlight. As the houses of earth fill with dancing and song, so filled are the houses of heaven. I come, in truth. I sail a long river and row back again. It is a joy to breathe under the stars. I am the sojourner destined to walk a million years until I arrive at myself.”        

                                                           Normandi Ellis, Awakening Osiris

Existence is vast, seemingly boundless and immeasurable. The latest figures from NASA estimate that there are one hundred billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy pictured above. There are also estimated to be a jaw-dropping two trillion galaxies in our universe alone. It’s impossible to comprehend this immensity of scale, and yet it’s believed by scientists that we are also part of a multiverse. Perhaps an unknown number of universes co-exist in a Cosmos of parallel dimensions that spread light through infinite space and time. What is the significance of one brief human life in all this immensity? 

The ancient Egyptians were master sky watchers. Monumental temples aligned with the rising of bright stars and calendars and ceremonies were planned based on the sky. Egyptian funerary texts called the Book of Gates proclaimed that when Ra, the sun god arrived at the twelfth and last hour of the night, before dawn, the miracle of rebirth occurred through the gate “with the mysterious entrance.”

 In The Traveler’s Key to Ancient Egypt, author John Anthony West describes Egyptian funerary texts as “manuals of spiritual instruction” and says the Duat is the “field” in which the transformation of the soul occurs. The theme of transformation and reclamation also runs through other ancient mystery traditions. Many ancient gods were seen as solar and stellar fire, and many rites represented the redemption and regeneration of this spiritual energy. The ineffable mysteries they sought to unveil, and the hidden knowledge the rites contained, held and transmitted this wisdom. Manly P. Hall, in Secret Teachings of the Ages says, “Mysteries were the channels through which this one philosophical light was disseminated.”

The Eleusinian Mysteries of ancient Greece took place from 1,600 BCE to about 400 CE, although most scholars believe their origin is much earlier in the Mycenean period. They were contemporary with, and bear strong resemblance to, the Egyptian mysteries of Isis and Osiris. In the Greek mysteries the goddess Demeter, carrying two torches named “intuition” and “reason,” searched the world for her daughter Persephone, who symbolically represented the lost soul. She had to be rescued from the underworld, where she had been abducted by the god Hades.

Sometimes the light seems to go out in our lives and we can be deeply challenged by a darkness of spirit. Although we know the Sun still shines behind the clouds, and the stars still burn even though hidden in cities by artificial light, at these times we need courage and the love of friends. Poet Khalil Gibran said, “One may not reach the dawn except by the path of the night.” This is true, but there have always been those who hold lanterns to guide our way through the darkness to the mysterious entrance of initiation. We can take heart that this universal path of spiritual teaching has permeated spiritual traditions throughout time. Often called the Underground Stream, the spiritual wisdom of ages is always present, even though hiding in the shadows at times. Our job is to remember that the light is always there and to prepare ourselves to receive the gift of ancient wisdom, which sheds light on the Path.

 Julie Loar’s blog won a gold medal last year.

http://www.JulieLoar.com