It Gets Me Every Year......

The Reaper comes among us at this time of the year, swinging his black scythe—the harvest is upon us. The bounty of the summer season is stored in the granaries of the tribe to sustain us throughout the dark days ahead.

And as the Reaper passes, harvesting both the essence of the grain and the souls of the Lady’s people, he also rends the veil that separates the living from the dead, the Land of Home from Summerland.

At this time we are reunited with those who have passed into Summerland to learn again the lesson that life and death come equally to all and are separated by the merest of illusions.

That as they are, so we have been, and will be again; and that they shall be again as we are now; over and over as we spiral upward, dancing our way back to the presence of the Great Mother, even as the smoke and ash of the fires of autumn dance their way upward into the starlit sky.

(WiccaCraft for Families; Margie McAthur, Phoenix Publishing, 1994)

Every year when I read these profound words I become silent, and am filled with thoughts of my ancestors. My mind stretches far back into time—to their lifetimes—and far forward in time, to the lifetimes of my own progeny. I think of how I sit here, in the middle...and I muse upon the cycle of life and death.

These words were written by my friend JoAnn Aelfwine for a Samhain ritual we held for our children many a Samhain ago. These children now have children of their own. And so the cycle goes, and the wheel of life keeps turning.


A Blessed and Happy Samhain Season to All!
May you find strength and wisdom in your ancestors, and joy and comfort in your children!