All Hallows Eve

Halloween. Sly does it. Tiptoe catspaws. Slide and creep. But why? What for? How? Who? When! Where did it all begin? “You don’t know, do you?” asks Carapace Clavicle Moundshroud climbing out of the pile of leaves under the Halloween Tree. “You don’t really know!”

—Ray Bradbury, The Halloween Tree

I remember it well. I was 29 years old and I had just swayed my way over to alternative religion after delving into several traditional disciplines over the past several years. Traditional Christianity doesn’t make sense to me. Believe me, I've tried to make sense of it, diligently in fact, and to no avail. So after moving to Seattle in 1998, and carefully giving thought to my course of life and how I wanted to raise my daughter, I sought the ancient pagan rituals and principles to follow. No mundane doctrines or boring worship sessions, and above all, no hypocrisy.

A few days before Halloween that year, also known as Samhain (summer’s end), or “Spirit Night” as they call it in Wales, I had decided to look into some holiday events at a local bookstore I often frequent called EastWest. I found out that a local priestess, Judith Laxer, would be holding a traditional Halloween ritual in the store's back room, and for a small fee, anyone could attend. Filled with curiosity and excitement, I paid my fee and awaited the evening of my first ritual.

I know this kind of stuff can be hokey and new-agey, but pagan religion is personal. One doesn't have to subscribe to chanting like a moron and wearing nothing but hemp hoping for enlightenment. I take it seriously. I don’t belong to a coven or even attend a congregation of like minds. That is what is so wonderful about being pagan. You can make it your own and worship as you see fit. I subscribe to the worship of nature; the trees, the flowers, the wind and rain. We are allowed to live here. It is a gift. Mother earth and the Father of the forest should be revered.

The local priestess was wonderful. She made everyone feel at home and the music we sang as a group made me feel as if I were a part of something old and great and real. Halloween is the “thinnest” part of the year. Thinnest meaning that is when the spirits can go between worlds the easiest. All of our Halloween fodder is actually pagan-based. The majority of our modern traditions can be traced to the British Isles.

So as the sabbat approaches, I take in all that is the Fall and begin celebrating one of the most important times of the year…including our modern ritual of SUGAR COOKIES! My daughter and I made ghost-shaped sugar cookies while listening to some Irish folk music Sunday night. It was one of the best evenings we’ve had in a long time. We got flour everywhere and it is of great surprise that we managed to get any cookies at all! They're not very pretty, but the quality time I spent with my daughter is what mattered the most.

Now, sitting here eating my pomegranate seeds, I wonder what will be next on our Halloween agenda. Jack-O-Lantern carving to keep away the bad spirits!