Stories of Us
We turn to ancestors at Samhain not out of morbid curiosity about the past, but because we can find hope for the future.
Some of this post was initially featured in 2020 on my (now defunct) Medium blog. This is an updated version.
My guess is if that even if you are fairly new to paganism and witchcraft you've heard the rap on Samhain. The veil is thin, this is when we reach out to our ancestors. Death, ghosts, spirits from the Otherworld are all around us, and this is our chance to honor them and hear messages from them, yadda yadda yadda....
It is a mistake to believe that just because Samhain is when we can speak to our ancestors that it is a holiday about the past. Like all pagan holidays, whatever they are and whenever they occur, Samhain is about the power and urgency contained in the exact moment that we’re in. And that’s as true now as it is every year, at every Samhain.
What does Samhain have to teach us at this moment?
Right now, we're seeing a lot of conflict, a lot of disconnection, disinformation. It's hard to know who to trust and how to move forward. With war all around, and death all around, the conflicts seem so intractable. It is easy to lose our grip on hope, and slip into despair, and start giving in to the messages that tell us that there is no way forward, and no future that will look different from what we're in now.
The place we are in the seasonal cycle reflects some of that hopelessness -- the leaves are falling off the trees. There is nothing left to harvest. We're laying in for the winter which promises to be long and cold and dark. Maybe we have enough to get through, but what if we don't? Death is the order of the day -- or rather the occupation of the night. The veil is thin and we are reminded of our dead, they feel so much closer.
And yet, the dead have something to teach us about what it means to be alive right now, at the moment when the darkness is falling and hope is hard to find.
Samhain's focus on ancestors is here to remind you that you are the product of a series of miracles of survival. You are the one lone spermatozoa that made it to the egg. You are the one chance meeting that led your parents to find each other. You are the child who survived a flu pandemic to become your grandmother. You are the boy who fought a war for freedom and became your great great grandfather. And on down the line.
At Samhain, one of the reasons we honor our ancestors is that they are proof that we come from strength, from a lineage that is marked by survival. We are the outcome of their actions and decisions, for good or for ill.
During a time where there is so much at stake, where death stalks the land, where so much is so hard and where everyone’s nerves are frayed, we need to have something to believe in. And we can believe we have a future, because of all the survival that has made up our past. So at Samhain, we honor and remember all that has made us who we are, all the miracles of survival that led to us being here today, right now.
We all have stories of our ancestors. Some of them are stories of honor and greatness. Some of them are stories of darkness and pain. Not all of our ancestors were great or did good things. But we have the stories. We remember who we are when we tell them. Stories of struggle when we tell of grandparents who survived the Great Depression. Stories of ancestors who made some mark on history — an Olympic medalist or a famous novelist. Stories of ancestors who brought joy and laughter at dinner tables and at family gatherings. Stories of selfish ancestors who other of your ancestors endured and rose above. Stories of ancestors who sacrificed themselves for the common good by fighting a war or working as a nurse. At Samhain, we need to remember those stories, tell them to ourselves and to others.
Stories seem like a fragile shield against a growing darkness. Stories cannot harvest crops or keep you warm when it is cold. Stories cannot stop a war or build your retirement savings. But stories can help us find the strength and inspiration we need to do all those things. Stories help us to keep going when we have forgotten how to hope and when we can't see the future. Whether we’re paralyzed by fear or in a restless anxiety loop, or trapped in a moment we can’t seem to get out of. Stories help us find that thing within us that gives us courage to act, that gives us the peace to stand still, that shows us that things will move forward, because that's what time does.
The Wheel will turn, and things will change, because that's what the Universe does. Our ancestors went through so much change just to get us here and now. And the Wheel is still turning. The changes are still coming, and not all of them are to be feared. Some of them are to be welcomed. A funny thing happens when you start engaging with your ancestors -- you find out that you are their miracle. So much of what they hoped for when they were among the living is bound up in you. Your story -- the one you are still writing every moment of every day -- is part of a bigger story, a bigger miracle than you ever imagined.
This Samhain, reach back into your history. Find the stories of your ancestors. Find their strength in you. Find their wisdom in you. Find the miracles of your past as they live in you today. And use them to face the future.
Blessed Samhain, y’all.
Love this: And yet, the dead have something to teach us about what it means to be alive right now, at the moment when the darkness is falling and hope is hard to find.