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."
Five years ago this Day was mainly about remembering, celebrating, and memorializing two of my greatest dead Cat Teachers. Eight 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.
Looking back on the past, this Day of the Dead I am remembering many friends who died across the years, including the death of one who was with me at the beginning of my journey into Astrology. Because of my recent trip I also have been contemplating high school friends who have died, revisiting the memory of my very old father who died during the 9/11 2017 Florida hurricane, and the death of old dreams and assumptions which have opened me to the next chapter of my odyssey on Earth. While this year death seems to be at my elbow, I am grateful for where I’m at, since some years are "better" than others….
Still, because I have known so much death for so many years, I am continually reminded it’s a time to honor the living, both the hopes and dreams and the loved ones that I still have. Honoring the dead can bring us to a greater appreciation for the living, and how life and death are the inbreathing and outbreathing of our Eternal Nature.
Honoring the dead can bring us to the Eternal NOW, if we enter fully into the Mystery. And so while I'm fully experiencing the now "gone-ness" of people I loved and touched not that long ago, I can also appreciate that I can witness the love we shared. They may be "gone," but the love remains.
Because I've had a string of significant deaths between the Day of the Dead and mid-January over the years, this begins a season in my life each year where I try to be conscious in honoring my dead, and that which has passed and is passing, since that also allows me to honor that which lives. And I appreciate being vertical and breathing, since it beats the alternative.
So today we revisit some things 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 is the time to cultivate deep connectedness with the magnetism of Life itself, with our specific Way revealed through our recurring experiences with death.
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. Being Water, we can feel and remember our Eternal nature and connectedness with "All-That-Is." This time, consecrated to honoring those who have passed before us, is truly a 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 for many years. (Spoken as one who lived in the midst of that peculiar ritual for many decades!)
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 2018 Robert Wilkinson
Thanks for the reminder. I lit a candle for each of my parents and one for my cat companion of 13 years. The house feels much better now.
Posted by: Denise | October 31, 2018 at 07:24 PM
One of your most beautifully written posts. A keeper.
Calming, clarifying and kind. I grew up in the Squirrel Hill area and while I have not lived there for many years, the Wonder and beauty of that special place is always with me and I have been very, very sad for several days. This helps me more than you will know. Thank you Robert. And maybe I will stop crying soon missing my wonderful cat Grace. She departed her body in early May of this year and her death has been one of the most difficult events of my life. Reading this helps.
Posted by: Peg | November 02, 2018 at 05:12 PM