Thursday, October 31, 2013

Samhain Blog Hop 2013 - What I Love



Welcome to the Samhain Blog-Hop of 2013!  Please click on the labels at the top or bottom of this page in order to visit the other amazing blogs in this circle!

Our wrangler for this hop, Alison Cross, decided to get wild and crazy and pull away from more traditional Samhain themes in favor of something more universal: Love.  A very nice topic!  So as I was pondering what I love, in tandem with the time of year we're currently in, I realized that there is a durable connection between Love and Holidays for me, and a few other things (like Tarot!) that I'll discuss in this post!

I was born the day after Christmas, and so that particular holiday was always deeply special for me.  I loved the sense of celebration that permeates the air that time of year and the seemingly endless parties. One of the most important aspects of this holiday for me was the tradition.  My mother cultivated a beautiful set of holiday traditions that I came to adore, and to count on.  The environment was imbued with mystery and sacredness, and the activities during this time helped support those feelings - the connection to the past that has always been dear to me.  Tree hunting, the smell of pine needles, the first snowfall... hot chocolate and mulled cider, and spicy pfeffernusse cookies.  Decorating with my mother's mother's ornaments, and my own ornaments from my first few years on the planet.  Christmas Eve with a cozy dinner in front of the fire.  And Christmas morning was always a flurry of excitement.  My sister and I would wake up early, and always obeyed the rule we were given that we must not go downstairs...BUT we could stay on the stairs and *look.*  My parents grumbled and fumbled with the coffee maker.  First, presents (youngest goes first), then much later, after we'd almost forgotten them, the stockings.  Then dinner (the traditional pesto lasagna) and then..... I'd remember that the next day was my birthday.  Yesssss........



So now, my oldest daughter's birthday is December 27th; it just got better and better.

Now let me back up a bit.... Halloween/Samhain, Thanskgiving, and Christmas/Yule are my Big Three favorite holidays of all time.  Yes, it's true, I LOVE them.  I love the fact that every month from October to December (and even January if you want to count New Year's) there is a big, wonderful holiday steeped in tradition.

Samhain has always felt to me like a wonderful mix of sacred, haunting spirit with fun creepiness, and some excitement on top.  There's something wild about the night, about the fact that we dress up in disguise, and just at the time when we'd normally be eating dinner and settling in for the evening, we're venturing out into the world in pursuit of adventure, and, of course, candy.  When we would come back from trick-or-treating my mom always had a pot of chicken-and-dumplings on the stove. We'd separate our candy into piles, compare the goods, and warm ourselves within with a big steaming bowl of stew.

Halloween a few years ago...

Thanksgiving carries the same blessed weight of tradition, and one of my favorite memories as a child was watching my mom prepare her special Super Apple Pie and the pumpkin pies the night before.  The next morning I'd sit in the kitchen from morning to afternoon making cranberry sauce, checking the turkey, stewing the onions, peeling the potatoes.  The windows would steam up.  We'd sit around the table for a feast, and later stroll around the neighborhood.  Then on to pie and coffee, and days to come of leftovers.

And then we arrive back at Christmas!

So now's the time to mention how much I love my children three: Isabella, Lourdes, and Gabriel.  It has been a great joy for me to raise them with the traditions that I so adored as a child, and to watch their eyes light up each holiday in anticipation of what's to come.  I'm passing down to them the traditions that I inherited, and perhaps adding a few of my own touches along the way.

So to recap so far, let's review what I love:

-I love holidays.
-I love tradition.
-I love my kids.
-I love passing holiday traditions on to my kids.

And now..... for divination!

I love the connection I feel to spirit, and I love the ability to find guidance and confirmation and advice through the tool of Tarot.  In fact Tarot itself is a tradition which started with my mother, and was a beautiful element of my life growing up.  The first cards I ever used were my mother's Medicine Cards (Jamie Sams), though she herself had the strongest relationship to her Mythic Tarot (Juliet Sharman-Burke, Liz Greene, Tricia Newell).  And now I am passing the art down to my girls (and when my son grows, perhaps to him as well).  They love Tarot, and I must say that my 6-year-old is quite the intuitive reader!

So I want to bring in my favorite deck, which is the Wildwood (Mary Ryan, John Matthews, Will Worthington).  This is a deck that is steeped in a tradition of sorts...spiritual, shamanic tradition of the sort that resonates deeply with my soul.  (To translate: I love Wildwood Tarot).

Wildwood Tarot
Mark Ryan, John Matthews, Will Worthington
Sterling Ethos, 2011

The card in the Wildwood that represents tradition is the Ancestor, commonly known as the Hierophant in other decks. Not unlike the Hierophant, she makes spiritual traditions accessible and pass-onable.  But to me the Ancestor offers some additional, crucial elements.  The Ancestor is primal;  she represents the core of who we are - our spirit connection that goes back before the beginning of time.  She reminds us that we're never truly alone, for the ages of humanity that came before accompany us always.  When I look at her image I hear the words "Remember who you are."  Remember who you really are, which goes far beyond, and yet also embraces, the traditions that we choose to practice.

So, here's to what we love, and here's to Samhain! May the Blog-Hop forces be with you!

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21 comments:

  1. I love these traditions too - thanks for sharing yours. And I share your love of the Wildwood - the Ancestor is a special card :-)

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    1. Thanks for stopping through :) Yes, this card is pretty awesome!!!

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  2. Hooray for Holidays!! I absolutely adored the Wildwood's Ancestor - it's done so much for opening up a better undrstanding of the Hierophant in Tarot.

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    1. I agree! It's sort of been a lightbulb for having a deeper (and perhaps better) understanding of what the Hierophant can be ;)

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  3. What a whole lot of love you have going on in you in your life, Lucky girl! :)
    Your view on the ancestor has opened my eyes for this card. Never thought about the ancestor as "her" I like that very much

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    1. Aw!! Thanks, Ellen :) I'm glad you were touched by the Ancestor… she also transformed for me the way in which I worked with and understood card 5!

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  4. There's a wonderful smell of cooking around here! It sounds like your doing a grand job of passing on those traditions to your kids... :)

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    1. Haha, thank you! You know I didn't realize how much work went into passing those things down until I became a Mama. There was a bit of a learning curve, I'll be honest, but it's one of the best things about parenting, I think!

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  5. Wow - it must be 'spensive in December at your house lol! I love The Wildwood too - the Ancestor is a more accessible concept than the Hierophant for so many people. Sweet photo of the kids!

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    1. Gah, it can be, that's for sure!!! Thanks, about the kids… that was when there were just two little 'uns… now there are three! So Halloween just got more fun :-D

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  6. You so wonderfully brought the smells and love and tastes and love and textures and love wonderfully together that took me on a complementary journey through the kitchen with grandparents and parents and milling around the house and yard together as you reeled out your story. You took me remember my grandmother's response to why her cookies and cooking were so good, "I bake them with love, the ingredient that never belongs at the back of the pantry." Thanks for sharing such a full and rich life through this Triple Crown of Holidays. Happy Hallowe'en with love, and a Spooktacular night to you and yours.

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    1. Thanks, Jordan!!! Hahaha, yes, Love is always somehow the epicenter of it all, right? I'm glad it brought you back to your grandmother, that is awesome!

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  7. Thanks for sharing your traditions. We don't quite practice the trick or treating here in Singapore but I do read about it in books so when I read your post, it reminded me of my books during childhood. In fact, you know the halloween phenomena in singapore was only a recent thing!

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    1. That's interesting, Joanna! Many of my students are from various areas of Asia (usually Korea, China and Japan) and I was impressed with how Halloween has manifested across the globe, with dressing up and parties. Seems like trick or treating is one thing that has been slower to migrate :)

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  8. Thank you so much Olivia! I spent a lot of time in my Grandmother's and Mother's kitchen, helping out, eating tid-bits, and learning to cook. These are wonderful memories and this post made my day for the remembering of them. :)

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  9. Olivia, wonderful traditions! I, too, get to pack a lot of celebration into this space in the year, although both my children were born in November rather than December (and yes, Ali, it does hit the pocketbook rather hard!). So worth it all, though. We have very simple traditions now that the children are grown, but little things weave through from long ago, and new traditions have been adopted (like celebrating Hanukkah as well). The Ancestor is one of my very favorite Wildwood cards. She's just so…right the way Worthington made her.

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    1. Hey Joanne!! Thanks so much for coming through :). Yes, the Ancestor is just as you say "right." Will W. did a fabulous job rendering her! I like that you celebrate Hanukkah as well!

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    2. Yep, neither of us is Jewish by ethnicity, but hubby spent quite a bit of time studying Torah, Talmud and Jewish tradition in general with a rabbi back in the 1990s, so he prefers to celebrate the Jewish holidays, which is cool by me. I love all the mythical traditions. :) Happy Everything!

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