Dia De Los Muertos, Halloween, and All Saint's Day 2012

by Robert Wilkinson

During late October every year, the Sun in Scorpio blesses us with a time to honor our Eternal connection with those who have died before us. This period, known many places as "Dia de los Muertos," or "Day of the Dead," is dedicated to celebrating life and "all our relations."

This year I'll be doing my remembrance, celebration, and memorializing in New Mexico. Two years ago I was away from home with a Spiritual Scorpio Brother at one of the bloodiest battlefields in American history. It was a remarkable experience which I wrote about after I got back. As I've posted quite a bit in past years about this profound period where we honor the dead, rather than compose something new this year, today we'll revisit some of what I've written in years past about this very special day.

This is about "sacred mythology." Here we are offered a chance to reconnect with all that is sacred in Nature and ourselves. This time of Scorpio, showing the light of ever deeper feeling connections with others and our deepest Self, vitalizes our ability to commune with both the dead and living, and can remember our Eternal nature and connectedness with "All-That-Is." This time is consecrated to honoring those who have passed before us and a true celebration of life.

It is an awe-inspiring and deeply transformative experience to enter into, and helps our inner nature remember that it's okay to celebrate the dead as well as those of us in a body. I was first exposed to it in the years I lived in Texas, where it is one of the most powerful celebrations of the year. As it's already started many places, take a moment to honor and thank your dead for being there for you to love.

This is one of the more profound times of the year. The ancient Chinese thought this was the season of "cutting and destroying," where the leaves fall, the fruits are available, and the life force begins to go dormant for its Winter rest in the Northern Hemisphere. (Perhaps the "Day of the Dead" in the Southern Hemisphere should be observed at the end of April and beginning of May?)

So however you are moved to do so, please open to how you can honor the dead. This "Day of the Dead" is not just one more commercial holiday. It is a period of depth communion with those who have passed away before us. It is a time to honor our connectedness with our departed but not forgotten loved ones.

The original intent of this sacred time had absolutely nothing to do with giving the candy industry a boost between Columbus Day and Thanksgiving. As an aside, I've always felt these last two were very peculiar "holidays," since the former celebrates the beginning of enslavement and disease of the original inhabitants of this continent, the latter a distorted excess complete with Aggie and Longhorn football.

This time also has zero to do with fear of ghosts, real or imagined. We inherited Halloween, All Saints Day, and all Soul's Day (often forgotten) from our ancestors, but their true meaning has been ignored by our market-driven culture. In the year cycle of light and dark, manifestation and rest, this is a time of love and celebration WITH the Spirits of those no longer in a body, our loved ones across space and time.

When I first learned of this profound time in Texas many years ago, I was taught that it is a celebration of community, a time of the year to light candles, create altars and shrines to honor the dead, and celebrate the omnipresent power of the Eternal Life.

I learned to feel the universal reality that we all do eventually drop the body and re-join our loved ones, and as we honor the dead we enter a timeless stream of being remembered and honored in future "Dias de los Muertos" by those we leave behind. It is a time to celebrate continuity and connectedness of life.

Though many feel sorrow, it is not a morbid time. It certainly should not be a time to create fear in children through "scary" horror stories or the bizarre associations with deviltry and ghosts and haunted places. The deeper meaning of this time of year we enter a collective zone where we can honor our timeless bond of love with those who have departed this Earth. It is a time to grieve AND celebrate.

We can open to experiencing more fully our eternal nature in a profound on-going moment of connectedness with where we came from and where we're going, and the life and love we all are together. It's a great time to re-experience that we are Eternals, having human experiences. We have a body, we have feelings, we have a mind, but we ARE Souls, and our nature is Light-Love-Life.

So over the next few days, while others are eating candy, shopping, or talking about the white noise of life in this 4 dimensional reality, take a moment (or three) to light a candle, remember your loved ones, and celebrate the eternity of life, light, and love. It'll help you feel that you're very, very alive, and always will be!

Many blessings on all our loved ones and all our relations. May those who have passed over never be forgotten, and may they rest easy in the frequencies of Devachan and the Heaven world, secure in the lap of Divine Mother. Aum Namah Shivaya!

© Copyright 2012 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[Eva]

Thank you, Robert!

[dcu]

Thank you Robert for reminding us that this is the time of year when the veil is thin between the worlds. Thank you ancestors for our lives and bringing us to this point. We honor you.

[Debbie]

I have learned to follow my sense of connection to nature down under and indeed have not long ago celebrated Oestre (easter) as it is a time of new beginnings down here. As a natural born medium I find it hard to celebrate "the day of the dead" as to me they arent, they as you have so wonderfully put, have simply dropped the body and I have always used it as a day of remembering eternal life of the spirit instead. Thank you for using your space to try and educate this, Robert, it is really a time to help educate a spiritually starved world in many ways, how to fish by understanding why it needs to be done and sharing your understandings of how.

[Wild Horse Running]

Im "seeing myself" in the leadup to the Eclipse on the 13th....it falls on my sun...and I do not like what I see. It seems I have been unable in the past to "stop certain habits"....nothing like seeing yourself, to make you want to vomit up that which sabotages your possibilities for full potential.

..... but its painful to see.

[lrm]

i like thanksgiving and it may be excess and football to many, but not to everyone.(:
columbus day-well, that is a weird one, to be sure. meant as a distraction, but now just another day for sales at the big box chain stores....
cheers!

[lrm]

Also, while many have moved on, there are indeed souls who get stuck or trapped, in between worlds---so haunting is a reality and sometimes more easily experienced by many so called living, due to the veils thinning.

It is not an either/or thing; though certainly it's not a morbid time. But what can we expect: the masses will be swayed by flight or fight extremities, including death and ghosts. Also, this conveniently keeps them from exploring their depths more fully, b/c who knows what one might find there, right?

either way, every culture has their way of honoring, remembering those who have been before and will come-and acknowledging that the ancestors have an impact.
And it's not always seasonal as in 4 seasons, as far as time frame.
so many overlays of time templates and energies, at play on this planet....

[Elah]

I told the story of Samhain to several children on Halloween and described the making of the altar and offering of food as a practice of honoring our ancestors and all that they had made possible for us in this life. The children were so interested and immediately "got it." They shared their stories of their own relatives and thought deeply about the legacy left for them.

[dcu]

Here is a comment from a friend who is a native of Poland who grew up in France and offers a European perspective:

I enjoyed tremendously Robert's article on the subject and how he suggests that we apply this in a universal way of connectedness with All Life.

Being originally from Poland and France I would like to offer an additional bit of perspective, as it often strikes me that here on this beautiful, huge American continent we only focus on the (unfortunately) commercialized skewed current anglo culture or alternately are aware of the ever more widespread and popular Hispanic culture. The Dia de Los Muertos is a uniquely Spanish/Hispanic, most wonderful and colorful way to celebrate the All Saints Day.

November 1 is an old, traditional, religious holiday that started in Europe over a thousand years ago. We all know that Europe has many different countries, cultures, languages and traditions. Although they are very different from each other, yet all have the same roots originally in earth based religions and then in Christianity - with a strong addition of Jewish wisdom traditions woven in.

First of all in most of Europe November First is not called " the Day of the Dead" ( literal translation from Spanish). From the religious perspective it is the All Saints and All Souls Day. Much of Europe has now lost the religious fervor of the past, but traditionally there would be church services as well.

In secular practice Nov 1 is an equivalent of the American Memorial Day. In Poland particularly and I think in all Eastern Europe - where the history is so full of centuries of wars, uprisings, tragic bloodshed and fights for freedom, heroes and martyrs..... most people go to the cemeteries, and yes, candles, but especially flowers, - chrysanthemums - are brought in to the graves of the loved ones that have passed on , and also to the graves of all the great figures in Polish history and culture, the honored and remembered ones. Hence the mum is the flower symbolic of the offerings to the ones that have passed on - a grave stone flower...

The day is not like a colorful Mexican festival, but more of a grave, solemn occasion to privately and publicly remember and pray for the souls of those that came before us and who paved the way for us, that sacrificed for us, the fallen heroes, etc.. so there is even a bit of a Thanksgiving note to the holiday - the appreciation and gratitude to those dear souls that gave us so much.

On a lighter note - if you ever go to Europe and happen to bring someone a flower - do NOT ever bring a Chrysanthemum - just like for the Chinese a gift of a cactus is a faux pas, so would a mum be to a European!!! ha, ha!!!

Well, thank you again for the beautiful article and I hope that this little addendum adds another facet to this famous day of November 1.

With love, a friend

[Sara]

Robert, if someone is born on November 2, does any of this effect them? Or is the natal chart totally separate from ancient traditions and what some say is a time when the veils between the worlds becomes permeable? My granddaughter was born Nov. 2, 2005 but I don't see this influence so far.

Thank you for all your wisdom!

[Kirstei]

Hi I am Kirstei and live in Australia down in Victoria. It was Beltaine (I suppose!!! (-:

The energy was very intense here on Samain and I really found that I was living under conditions I could not cope with anymore. It was so unbelievable to break some bonds of limitation - I was so suprised and so were others...oopps...a little bit of dynamite!

Peace