Samhain extended

 

I remember garnering from the writings of Ross Nicholls that once Samhain, which we now celebrate on just one day, covered the period from October 31st through to the Winter Solstice on the 21st of December. This year as Samhain approached I'd been mulling that idea over, considering it's applications, and when I heard Phillip Carr-Gomm mention that Samhain had once been more of a season, I took it as a sign. I'd been riffing on the idea of extending the themes of Samhain, of endings and of letting things go, of cleaning out and preparing for the beginning of a new cycle; and as we approach the Winter Solstice that period is coming to a close. How did it go? Well, I think. There was the practical cleaning out; finding jars of dried mushrooms, nuts and herbs dated 2013/2014 at the back of a cupboard (I wont be eating them); then with the end of the growing year in the garden there was, pruning shrubs and trees, clearing beds to be done; and beyond that generally tidying my home was positive. Those were the simple bits. Harder the mental clearing; spending time considering and discarding the negative intellectual habits, reductive attitudes, beliefs and ideas I'd adopted over time, which I'm going to attribute mainly to the influence of the intellectually stifling/regressive and divisive echo chambers/silos of social media (it's a shame that social media never lived up to what it could've been).  Finally, I spend a great deal of time meditating on the mental baggage I needed to let go of for my emotional well-being; it's been a tumultuous and unsettling few years and the acquired baggage continues to drag me down like Marley's chains. The latter was the difficult one, especially with many of the contributing factors unresolved. Still, overall the exercise felt beneficial; it's certainly one I'll develop next year.