The pagan adjacent boyfriend wanted to
help me celebrate the autumn season, so he suggested we go to a
haunted house. I went and I enjoyed it, but of course wandering
through an abandoned school that's been purchased and re-vamped into
a Haunted House that predominately features cannibalism of different
genres, ax murders, insane asylum patients, and clowns has nothing to
do with my holiday. He sort of know that, but he feels lost in
helping to support my faith where he sees I'm not doing what I've
talked about doing back in Massachusetts.
I think it's hard for him to grasp the
concept that my Neo-Paganism is locally connected and I will
celebrate seasonal changes differently in
Alabama vs Massachusetts. It's true this time of year was
magnificent in Massachusetts. It was starting to get cold,
there's about a 50% chance that a frost has happened already (it has this year). All
these local farm stands and harvest-ish themed things seem to appear
over night. There were a lot of hot drinks and hot fresh meals.
Apple donuts, pumpkin donuts, cakes, pies, fresh acorn squash and
butternut squash. Apples as far as the eye could see!
Beyond that, there was this strong tie
to colonial times in MA. There were Victorian homes everywhere.
Pagan/new thought and the general population liked to connected
modern celebrations with older ones. Honey sticks, herb gardens,
ghost walks more information that scare , apple bobbing, donuts on
the string. All the semi-traditional things were still celebrated by
the general populace.
Also, because it was getting cold,
there really was this sense of urgency to batten down the hatches and
prepare for winter. There is a real concern regarding purchasing
heating oil, wrapping up summer gear, purchasing enough canned goods
that should one be stranded one could still eat. I associate all of
this as part of what I should be doing and what I should be looking
for in others this times of year. I can't say how much of a relief
mild winters are and at the same time, how it leaves me both in me
practice and life sometimes at a loss.
There is way less work involved. There
is no sense of urgency along with the crazy joy that nature is
beautiful and brutal. There is always thankfulness for lovely days,
but the praise seems less meaningful when every day is beautiful and
mild and the coming winter will be soft compared to what I know.
It's true this year our summer was brutally hot and dry. I watched
corn literally burn away over the course of a day in the relentless
sun. In some ways, this winter will be a relief. Everyone here
thinks it will be unusually cold and wet, which will kill all the
extra bugs we have, restore our water table, and hopefully heal some
hurting farms for the spring.
Some of my practices will be the same.
My reverence for my ancestors is more or less the same. This year my
celebration will be especially focused on my Grandfather as he passed
in Aug of last year and his birthday was Oct 28th, I feel
particularly close to him right now. My reiki meditation will
essentially be the same, though the themes, the requests, and the
healing is somewhat changed.
My month of semi-public celebration is
very different here. I am spending more time in quiet reflection
before Samhain than I ever have before. This kind of quieted mind
used to come as I burned out all my frantic energy in preparations
for the fall. I am reminded of the fable of the hard working ant and
the lazy grasshopper: all my life I've been the ant and now even
though my preparations for the seasons are appropriate, I feel like
the grasshopper.
I am walking out in nature more often.
I spend hours at the Tennessee river where I feel particularly
connected to the river's divinity. I walk slowly and thoughtfully.
I wander off the path and through the woods or into the river to
explore and contemplate. I feel like a baby who has to put everything
in it's mouth to learn what it is and what it means.
Right now, I feel that Alabama requires
more complex acknowledgments than MA lands did. There is death and
decay in the land right now. I can see it in the trees, smell it in
some areas, and I feel that old ending magic I did in MA in areas of
the land. With that energy is the energy of life still in full
bloom, berries are all over tons of the bushes an trees, cotton is
in process of harvest, flowers are still blooming, the sun is still
out for huge swathes of time, and the weather itself still gets up to
the 80s most days. There's actually this sense that AL is a safe
haven and that more life is coming in soon to partake in the
offerings. Song bird and water bird migrations have just started in
these parts and will be in their peak in November.
I'm still coming to terms with the idea
that there will be more than snow for me to look forward to in
November. I feel like that quiet shut down I expected to come at
Samhain time, won't really hit until the beginning of December.
For now I'm going to try to keep my
mind quiet and open. I want to hear what my Gods and the land is
telling me. I'll leave this post with a few pictures I've taken of
Alabama fall in attempts to see, understand, and worship the land.
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Article copyright Swift Rabbit/
Southern Pagan Muses
southernpaganmuses.blogspot.com
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