As many pagans celebrate their holidays by the Christian names Lammas (Mass of the Loaves) and Candlemas (Mass of the Candles) instead of Lughnasad and Brigid, I choose Halloween over the more traditional Samhain. In our culture, it is Halloween that invokes the images of the dead rising again. After a few years, I got tired of Samhain. Samhain, it seems to me, has degenerated into a yearly "Let's have tea and cookies with dear dead Grandma who just must have been a Witch even though she went to church every week." Once again we would go to the Cauldron of Rebirth (or some other transformative image) and get rid of our old selves and transform into our new selves (just like we did in half of the other holidays in the year).
I wondered what was wrong. Why did I tell everyone that Halloween was my favorite holiday when I didn't enjoy Samhain? Halloween is fun. It is a time of power and mystery. It is spooks and goblins and all the darker sides of life. Samhain is a sanitized happy trip to the Isle of Apples. I decided I wanted Halloween again. I wanted the spookiness back.
Unlike any other pagan holiday, Halloween is purely a time of death. The harvest is done and the winter is coming. The wheel is turning to the dark side and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it. (OK, OK - You can jump across the wheel, by moving to the Southern Hemisphere, but that's about it.) Everything that lives also dies. If you celebrate the life in the trees, don't forget their death. Even the Fey will die if no one remembers them. Halloween is the time to celebrate death. Death isn't just a path to rebirth, it is a power in its own right. It gives meaning to life. On Halloween we celebrate the passing of time and remember those who have lived before.
At Halloween, the veil between the worlds grows thin. The dead cross back into the land of the living. This means all the dead, not just those we admire. For every great artist or inspirational thinker, there is also a serial killer or slave trader. Not to mention a dozen or so completely average dead who just want a night out. While your dear departed brother comes back on Halloween, so does the idiot drunken jock that was driving during the wreck that killed them both. The dead are both good and bad. It is a powerful and scary thing to have them all wandering about again. In times past, people left out Soul Cakes to appease the huge mass of dead out on Halloween. The dead would take the Soul Cakes and not disturb the living. This is important unless you are completely at peace with all your dead.
Modern pagans often forget that there are lots of dead out there. How many ancestors do you have? I have two parents, and they have two parents and so on. How many of your living relatives are going to talk to the dead this year? As you can see, there are many dead for each living pagan who wants to talk to them. This doesn't even count all the friends, animals, and miscellaneous spirits important to you, both good and bad. By always concentrating on the same few usually human ancestors, you miss the richness of Halloween.
With these ideas in mind I created the Ritual of the Forgotten Dead for Halloween last year. The idea was to create a space where the dead who no one ever remembers get a chance to be heard. It is a chance for you to
mingle outside your normal circle of friends, if you will. There are a few different ideas here that I will talk about as they come up in the ritual. Have fun. We are all going to die; celebrate it while you can! Make it as spooky and mysterious as death is.
Ritual of the Forgotten Dead
Set up the space: Find an indoor space where you can have lots of candles. Fill the space with candlelight and decorations, if you can. You will be reading and writing by candlelight. Black candles are ideal, but any will do. Decorations should make you think of death. Most normal Halloween decorations, such as skeletons, spiders, etc., will work fine. Set up your altar as normal for Persephone in Her Queen of the Dead aspect.
Cast the circle: My own preference is not to cast a circle for this ritual. A circle keeps out the spirits that you don't specifically invoke. The idea of the ritual is to talk to those same spirits. A circle seems self-defeating. My circle-mates, on the other hand, were very nervous about calling spirits without the protections that a circle provides. We cast the circle. If you cast a circle, make it strong and be aware that later Persephone will be opening a gate in it.
Invoke the elements: This is a ritual for the dead, and that includes the elements. Concentrate on the "ghosts" of the various elements and be creative. Try to see them in new ways from how you normally look at them. Here are the invocations we used.
Ghosts of the Wind, Spirits of the West, I call you! By the fallen leaves that mark your passing and the phantom of solar wind, come and join our circle! Bring us your knowledge of the last breath we exhale in death!
Ghosts of the Fire, Spirits of the South, I call you! By the ashes of the funeral pyre and death of the Sun in eclipse, come and join our circle! Bring us the passion of a flame burnt briefly bright, but now blackened and cold!
Ghosts of the Water, Spirits of the West, I call you! By the concealing mists of water evaporated and bones and silt of a dry riverbed, come and join our circle! Bring us the secret wisdom of a body washed up on the shore!
Ghosts of the Earth, Spirits of the North, I call you! By the sand of mountains destroyed and the dust in an age old grave, come and join our circle! Bring us the still strength of the wreckage after an avalanche or earthquake!
Invoke the Goddess: There are a few possible choices here, but I chose Persephone. It is as Queen of the Dead that Persephone came into her own. She cast off her "flower child" upbringing and became co-ruler of the Underworld. It was Persephone, not Hades, who let Euridice go because of the beauty of Orpheus' music. Hecate, the popular pagan choice for Queen of the Dead, represents a significant misreading of the relevant mythology. Hecate was the Witches' Goddess. She found the way to the Underworld, but did not rule there. She didn't even lead the dead there, that was one of Hermes jobs. Hel would work well in this ritual if you like the Norse mythology. She was the sole ruler of the original Hell that bears her name. Reincarnation death goddesses like Kali should be avoided as their dead always walk the earth as their new reincarnated selves. Here is the invocation we used. Pomegranates should be avoided lest the invocation get out of hand.
Lady Persephone, Queen of the Dead, we call You! You whose passing turns the Wheel. Beautiful queen who rules the Evermoor, come join our circle this night so that we may give voice to Your chosen. Come and join us Persephone, on this Your night!
Invoke the God: Actually, I prefer not to invoke the God in this ritual. Following the Wheel of the Year, the God is dead now, and not yet reborn. The god candle on the altar should just be left unlit, preferably with a burnt wick symbolizing that His time came and went. If you really want a God, Hades, the husband of Persephone, would be a good choice. Lugh or Jesus, both in ghostly form, might also work as gods who have died and led the way out of death.
The working: Here is where the spirits get to speak. Tell Persephone that the time is now. Ask her to open the Gates to the Underworld and bring to the circle those forgotten dead who most deserve to speak. Let Her do the choosing and calling. Here is the form we used.
Lady Persephone, Queen of the Dead, the time is now! Open Your gates as You did for Euridice, and let Your people out! Bring to us those who most need voice, those deserving forgotten dead who have too long been silent! Bring them to us that we might do Your work and guard us from those spirits who might do us ill. Bring out Your dead, and protect us from all harm!
Each person should light a candle in front of them and begin automatic writing* by its light. Do this for no more than five minutes. If you haven't practiced, five minutes is a long time to automatic write. Whoever has been calling Persephone should remain outside the working to monitor energy, watch for problems, and watch the clock. This kind of working is a bit much for some people and having someone "taking care of things" will help matters along. Don't worry, the spirit show is just as fun inside as out. After five minutes, call a stop and talk to Persephone again. Ask her to get rid of all the spirits and protect us from them. If you are not careful about doing so, this is a good way to get haunted.
Lady Persephone, Queen of the Dead, let the Wheel turn again and return Your people to Your Realm. We have given voice to Your people, now gather from us from those who would stay as You gathered Euridice after Orpheus turned. Lady Persephone, recall Your people and close Your gates!
Now everyone can sit and share. Give voice to the spirits by reading their words to each other. If you wish, now is a good time to do libations (food and drink), being careful to leave some for Persephone. This should be fun. The spirits say odd things. Share and enjoy.
Dismiss Everything: As usual, dismiss the God (if called), Persephone, the Elements, and open the circle (if cast). The dismissals are usually based on the invocations so I'm not going to repeat all of them.
The idea with this ritual is to have fun and revel in the unique energies of Halloween. It is a time of death and the dead, so celebrate them. There no need to weaken death by only seeing the rebirth aspects or to pretend that all the dead are happy-mommy guidance figures. Halloween is awesome and potent. The mysteries of death are seen in the raging heart of the storm as well as the quiet nighttime passing of a loved one. Halloween rituals should reflect this.
*Automatic Writing
Automatic writing is a way to get at hidden things. By yourself, it can act as a way of getting at your unconscious mind or helping you to see things in a different way. With the proper energies invoked, it can act as a form of divination like tarot cards or scrying. If you use it with spirits around, it can allow them a voice to speak, kind of like a Ouija board. In the end, it is just another tool any witch should have in her cauldron to use as she sees fit.
Remove any distractions from your area. Sit somewhere you can write. Put the paper down and put the pen on it. Focus your mind on your idea. If you are doing introspection, hold your image in mind. If you are doing divination, think of the Fates, or Nemesis, or a clock, or whatever imagery seems appropriate to you. If you are communing with the spirits, think of them. Write whatever word first pops into mind. Then write whatever word second pops into mind. Repeat as necessary.
The key here is not to think about the words at all. Just write them as they occur. Try not to even think about what they mean, otherwise you will start directing things. If you find yourself doing word associations like dog-cat-food-pizza-pepperonchini-pepper-salt-sea-etc...your mind is interfering. Don't try to link the words or find meanings. There is plenty of time for that when you are done. Just take it one word at a time and try not to think about what comes next. If you get stuck, just write anything. The act of writing may start the flow again. This is not easy. Five minutes is a long time to do this, so don't get discouraged.
When you are done, look at what you have written. It will probably be weird. Read as many hidden meanings and subtle nuances into it as you see fit. Some stuff will probably be cool, some will be really stupid. Take whatever is meaningful to you. If you are not linguistically inclined, it can be done in other media. I've seen artists just add random picture after picture to a page and then try to make sense of it at the end. It can even work for typing at a computer. With that in mind....
I see a dog with a scarf before me. He has a balloon near by. At a beach, the river ends.
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