The Magical World of Tylluan Penry

There's a full moon tonight and there's something in the air...of course, it's Halloween! A wonderful time of year - I've lit one candle already, and some incense, and now I'm off to light some more.

Brightest blessings
Tylluan

Make no mistake, I love this time of year. And it always saddens me when it seems to turn into the Silly Season when vicars, ministers and those who write in Church Magazines start harping on about how it is all connected with devil worship. This is then seized on by the media... who aren't quite sure whose side they're on anyway, because Halloween helps them sell their newspapers just like any other festival.

Halloween has nothing to do with the Devil. The devil is a Christian construct, made up of part of pagans gods, some of whome had horns (Cernunnos) or the legs of a goat (Pan). The whole idea of good versus evil is very complex in Pagan myth and legend, where even trickster deities such as Loki (in the NOrth), or vengeful ones such as Juno (in the ROman Empire) were also capable of acts of kindness. And conversely, 'good' deities were capable of great cruelty, such as when Apollo and Artemis murdered Niobe's children. They may have felt they were being insulted, but their argument was with Niobe, not the children.

So the idea that celebrating Halloween, which in the north at least was often known as Samhain, is in some way to worship the Christian Devil is total nonsense. But it still goes on.

And what makes it worse is that people who really should know better, Head Teachers and their like, seem to get carried away with this.

Well I'm rather sick of this 'Either you're for us or against us' dichotomy. I love Halloween. I celebrate Halloween. Halloween is not all about trick or treating - although some people do seem to emphasise this aspect. But nobody went trick or treating when I was young - that's a commercial aspect of the festival, pushed, I suspect, by the makers of Halloween sweets and decorations.

The thing to remember about Halloween is that the Church never managed to appropriate it. Other festivals became more or less successfully Christianised... Christmas was turned into Yule, even though there is no way there shepherds were out guarding their flocks in late December. The Spring Equinox was turned into Easter... but they never managed to do away with its association with hares and eggs. Imbolc, on February 1st was turned into Candlemas - with virtually all the same symbolism. The greenery of the spring festivals morphed into Palm Sunday. The list goes on and on...

Halloween remains a sticking point. To be fair, the Christian Church did try. They appointed November the first as All Saints Day (the Hallows of Halloween). And for good measure the 2nd November became All Souls Day... but Halloween remained, stubbornly engrained into our psyche. The great fire festival. And of course, the Gunpowder Plot, celebrated as Bonfire Night on November 5th helped keep Halloween vaguely respectable. There was now a good, patriotic excuse for lighting bonfires.

So - siding with the devil? Not at all. Halloween is a very sacred time when we remember family and friends who have passed on. For some Pagans the Oak or Sun King 'dies' at this time of year, to be reborn at Yule, the winter solstice. Just as the Holly King or Dark Lord dies at Beltan (May 1st) and is reborn on the summer solstice. The Dark Lord is not the devil. He is a necessary balance to the harmony of the year.

However you decide to celebrate Halloween, remember it's an ancient festival the last of the harvest celebrations for this year. 'All is safely gathered in,' to borrow the words of a well-known Christian hymn. Even the least psychic of people often senses 'something' at this time of year. And it's not something to be afraid of either, this thinning of the veil between this world and the next. It's a comforting reminder that we never really lose those we love. They remain close because the Other World is not really that far away.

Halloween - with all its traditions - is almost here. Enjoy it!

This was recommended to me by one of my daughters... it's the Ukraine's Got Talent Winner.... do check it out, it's so beautiful:

Well, I haven't blogged much lately, but Samhain (or Halloween) is fast approaching. As a solitary pagan I have to ask myself what this means to me and how I will celebrate it. One of the 'problems' with being a solitary is that there is no set ritual, you have to start from scratch and build it up for yourself. But it's only a problem if you make it so - view it as an interesting exercise, a challenge even, and you see it in quite a different light.

I love this time of year, there is something very special about it. You can feel the changes in the air. A week or so ago everything still had a golden sheen, now it's darkened, like copal varnish on an old painting. THe original colours are still there somewhere, but they're harder to see now.

So how to approach Samhain? Divination tends to be easier - or at least different - at this time of year. That's because the veil thins out between this world and the other worlds that seem to co-exist around us. All sorts of possibilities open up, if only we are brave enough to look for them.

Apples are cheap and plentiful. Many of the Halloween games of my childhood seemed to involve them. Bobbing for apples, ducking for apples, toffee apples... and yet apples also signify the masculine life force (and pears symbolise the feminine.) At this time of year many Pagans believe that the Sun god - or god of light (or Oak King) finally dies, to be reborn at Yule (the Winter Solstice). Conversely, on the opposite side of the year, Beltane (May 1st) the Dark Lord, or Holly King dies, to be reborn at the Summer Solstice.

At this time of year, when the long dark winter nights are fast approaching, it pays to remember that the long bright summer evenings are just half a year's cycle away.

My world is all about finding the balance in life. I may not always succeed, but I'm always trying.

My name is Tylluan and I will NO longer tolerate online stalkers.

I will not feed their fire by responding to their comments or posts except in three four ways:

1. I will choose to delete their offending comment if I can
2. I will ignore their comments/posts on another blog
3. And then, I will move on.
4. And if they still persist, I WILL hex them.

I will not give them blogging space or another thought for there are many other people here that deserve my energy and attention.

May this blogging community regain its blogging spirit and take back this community from stalkers and claim it as their own.

For the past week or so my inbox has been regularly bombarded with reminders about Blog Action Day and doing our bit for climate change.

Am I the only one who finds it just a bit hypocritical weird that this co-incides with large adverts for BMW all over the BCUK's home page???

Clearly a case of 'Do as I say,' not 'Do as I do' I think.

The problem with noticing the seasons is that for most of us we are far removed from the natural world where such changes would be most obvious. Or are we? Give nature half a chance and she's there, nudging us half awake, urging us to remember our own heritage before it's lost forever under a sea of concrete.

Strange things happen around equinoxes. THe last one was only a short time ago, the 21st September, but you can still feel its effects, like ripples in a pond. The world becomes restless. Open your eyes and look around... there are things for us all to see, if only we look.

For example, have you noticed dogs becoming restless at this time of year, maybe barking at thin air? That happens around the equinox.

A friend in the US told me that he notices that snakes become very edgy too, hissing at.... nothing. What do they see? What do they know?

House brownies and creatures from the other worlds become very active too. A few nights ago every single clock in the house stopped. All properly wound. And no reason for them to stop. But they did. And I believe that too, is evidence of the very strong energies around at this time of year.

But now we need not only to notice, but to look forward. To Halloween/Samhain. That great festival of the dead when the veil between worlds thins out. This is the time of year when you can when you can experience things you may not expect... may not even believe in!

Look out for the leaves. By the end of this month, they will be dancing. I mean it. Look how they fall in small piles, and then the wind makes them dance in a way that doesn't happen at any other time of year. Almost as though they are being driven... and who knows? Perhaps they are.

There is something about, the unique spirit of this time of year. Start looking out for it and you will notice things....animals behaving differently, the birds, the leaves.... aim not only to look but to listen.

Taking notice of how the year impacts on us isn't just an interesting thing to do, it helps empower us too. Every season has its own unique offerings. We have passed the half-way house of Autumn with its brilliant golds and russets. Now the world darkens slightly, gathering speed towards the end of October, with Samhain/Halloween the last of the three harvest festivals (the other two fall at the beginning of August and the autumn Equinox).

Even though I'm not a farmer, I feel the need to gather in my own harvest, my writing, my research, all those things that are vital to me as a person. I gather them in and keep them safe against the coming winter.

All you have to do, is look out for those dancing leaves....