Tag: samhain

So.

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A few things.

  1. The Gavle Goat survived last year, I think I forgot to note that closer to when it was confirmed. (Editor’s note: see “A little late…“)
  2. There continue to be all kinds of tomten for all kinds of occasions, and I continue to not know why. I’ve now seen them for Halloween, generic fall-festival-ness, Fourth of July, and others that are currently slipping my mind.
  3. Since the Fall Equinox (9/23), I’ve been absolutely inundated with vibes. It’s not uncommon for me to pick up on changes like this, but this year has been especially bad so far, and the days are only getting shorter as of this writing. Everything feels different. Storms, days, nights, all of it. I keep getting the impression that but for certain conditions, I can’t stay outside for too long. (I shouldn’t, especially as winter approaches, because hypothermia is a very real danger, but this is something different.) I keep flashing back to the Samhain I saw a probably normal black dog, but it felt like a Thing. And Jason and the Scorchers were right: “The chill in the air wakes the ghosts of the ground.”
    The ghosts of the ground are waking.
    We’ll see how this goes.

The Dark Half of the Year

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Traditionally, the dark half of the year begins at or around Samhain and ends at or around Beltane. These are the two points where “the veil between the worlds” is at its thinnest and spirits can be reached. People have argued for years that this veil has been shredded or at least exceptionally porous lately, more so than it has been in the past.

I don’t know about any of that, but I do know that this year, I’ve been highly sensitive to the porousness of the physical world. It started, to me, somewhere two weeks before Samhain. I know that I was gradually being consumed by thoughts of ghosts and spirits. And then, three days before Halloween, I saw a black dog running across the street, in direct line of sight from where I work. I’m unsure if this was a sign, but it felt like enough of a thing for me to take notice.

I’m not sure what it meant.

Then there’s the persistent quest this year for something to Yule and Christmas that isn’t the usual cheery nonsense. Something deeper and scarier. This is the realm of Krampus, Berchta/Perchta, the Wild Hunt (in all of its forms), and, believe it or not, A Christmas Carol. This is the world of blizzards and bitter cold and the struggle for survival and the impulse to huddle together with loved ones (note: the key phrase is “loved ones”, and there are people I am biologically close to that I do not love). Part of me craves that atmosphere, as though the blizzard will contain the numinous.

Based on all the folklore, I think I’m on the right track with that one.