Today would be the 31st October, I'm thinking. For some, that's Halloween. For others, that's Hallowed Eve, or All Souls' Day, or Samhain, or the day before All Saints' Day.
But for me, being an earth-centred witch, it's Beltaine (Beltane, if you prefer). Right now, we are at the point of the swing of the seasons, where Spring passes the climate into the hands of Summer. Birds have mated and are raising their young, plants have flowered (and still are flowering), and their scattered seeds are germinating and growing. It is a time of youth, and the rising of blood or sap, and life.
Samhain/Halloween is later in the cycle. It is the point where the harvest has been gathered in (hence the symbolism of grain and pumpkins (storable supplies of food to get communities through the barren winter). It is a time when the ailing and elderly are starting to be more likely to die as the increasing cold weakens them. It's a time when the spirits of our ancestors are more likely to be around, as once the harvest is over there's less physical work to do, and it's possible to sit back and think. It's also a time of sitting around the family hearth, and listening to the old folks (alive and dead) telling stories, passing on family knowledge, oral history, and just plain horror-stories.
Yep, the Autumn/Winter transition doesn't happen now, here, but around April/May, when we are actually entering into the colder months and the shorter, darker days. And In this time when I can't keep up with all the weeds enjoying the energy of Beltaine and springing up in my vegetable patches, and with the commercial centres reminding me of Sanhain by decorating with plastic pumpkins and plastic skeletons, I'm finding that I'm missing that darker energy.
I'm of a mind to talk to my dead friends all year round, and many of them answer, or even initiate the conversations. But to have a few days put aside to do only this, is quite special. When I stop writing this, I will stuff a few baggies with sugar - treats. And a few tricks, in the form of plastic cockroaches and blowflies. This, just in case kids come begging. Who knows, they might - I have a skeleton sitting out the front of my house all year round. The postie and the neighbours are quite used to it - nobody turns a hair. I have a few real animal bones scattered around the interior of my house, as well as a few stereotypical Crone-like witches - I might give them a night outside, as well.
I really should get around to introducing myself to the local primary schools, and offering to do a talk on Halloween and witches once a year in mid/late October.
All Souls' Day is followed by All Saints' Day, the first of November. Get a Catholic to tell you about that one. For me, this has significance in that it is the first day of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, a misnomer as it's actually international). For over a decade I've been watching my friends participate, but I always identified as a writer of shorter articles and short stories, rather than a novelist.
Less than a week ago, I wrapped up a novel. In the later stages of writing, two more longform ideas occurred to me, ideas that cannot possibly be written in short forms. Plus, of course, the memoire that various people have been egging me on to write, about my time as a night manager in a coastal hotel.
The memoire can wait. It is still too recent, and I still feel a bit scarred by it. I'll see how I feel in another decade. So that left me to choose something to write for NaNoWriMo, out of Idea A, and Idea B. Idea B was a framing story, set solidly in the present and in the outback, in a society with a huge dependence on WiFi for basic functionality. How a diverse group of people break down in the absence of both urban infrastructure and WiFi interests me. That is the framing story: the inner narrative will be a series of monologues that each of these stranded people tell each other for entertainment during two long nights where they don't even have electricity.
That was Idea B. Somewhere in my subconscious I chose it over Idea A in the last day or two, and I'm getting ready to write, starting tomorrow, on the first. It tickles me to think that at a time of year when the other half of the world is celebrating Samhain, a time of sitting around and telling stories and passing on wisdom and spooky tales, I will be writing a book about a group of most reluctant storytellers, sitting around telling stories because they have absolutely nothing else to do.
And now, I should go and fill a few lollybags. With more than lollies. Muahahaha!
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