A Simple Path: Journey of a Hedgewitch .: PaganPages

A Simple Path: Journey of a Hedgewitch

The Hedgewitch lives in the space between the Village and the Forest. Between the mundane and the magical. S/He lives with a foot in both worlds.
This column is dedicated to the Hedgewitches of the planet earth.

The Thinning Veil

The first of the gold-tinged leaves have begun to fall, here in the high desert hedge. It is nearly Mabon, as I write this, and the change of seasons is already becoming quite obvious.
By 8pm, the sky has darkened to nearly full-night.
Even here in the heat of the desert, the nights have begun to cool down to 'extra blankie' levels.
The stores are now festooned with pumpkins, red, yellow and golden leaves, Halloween costumes and unbelievably high stacks of bags of coveted Halloween candy.

This is the season where I, for one, come alive. As the rest of Nature prepares for her slumber (after a nice huge feast), I am starting to feel a familiar twinge in my spirt... "the veil thins...".
My dreams become so vivid that I believe that I am there. The waking visions, I have, begin to startle me with their intensity.
Suddenly, it feels as though anything is possible, and the things I see out of the corner of my eyes can no longer be dismissed as 'just my imagination'.

For some, this time can be really scary, as their experience with the 'paranormal' (for lack of a better word) is limited to watching Ghost Whisperer on Friday nights.
I can hear it in the idle chatter in public places... "I had the weirdest dream last night..." or "hey! Did you see that?".
I know what they mean, as it has been happening to me, as well, and for several weeks now.
I wish that I could comfort them, and say "no worries! It is just the restless spirits of the dead", but I rather know how they might respond to this information. Aside from wishing to burn me at the stake in the town square, they would be scared out of their minds to know that this is truly taking place.

My local population is Catholic, predominantly, and the cultural collection is Native American and Latino. Sure, we get the odd Methodist white retired couple, but mostly, they are the native population of the Southwestern US. Here, we are just far enough away from Mexico, proper, not to see a lot of Day of the Dead activity, just a day or so past our own Samhain. No parties in the cemetary (bummer, I was hoping to get invited to one), or having feasts on the graves of their loved ones.

So, my household brings this to life in our own, transplanted, way.
Last year, my husband and I spent the entire month of October designing and building a cemetary in the front yard. Our theme for the year was "Old West" cemetary, and we had gravesites for some of the early US heroes and villans, including Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane and the James' boys.
We also built a monument to remember Dr. Xavier and Jean Gray and Cyclops, who met thier untimely demise in the most recent XMen movie (what can I say, my husband has been a comic book freak since time began...)
We also lost our beloved ancient Saint Bernard, and so we built him a rememberance site as well.

We decorated the graves of the lawmen, gunslingers and riverboat gamblers' with mason jars with candles and toy guns and holsters, gold chocolate coins, and play money. We filled Captain Morgan's rum bottles (that I graciously emptied and saved ;-) ) with iced tea (just in case the neighbor heathens got cute) and left them for the thirsty ghosts. We stapled playing cards into poker hands and left them as offerings also.

This year, we are leaning toward a more musical theme, and plan to honor the Famous Musical Dead. Buddy Holly, Janis Joplin, Jimmi Hendrix, Jim Morrison... the list could go on and on.

I am not sure how the display affects the adult population fo my town, but the children are absolutely mad for it! Last year we gave out over 1,000 pieces of candy, and treated 500 kids to a fun night on our street. There is always a gigantic herd of kids, not only from my neighborhood, but from all around. They bus children in from the reservations to come to our street to trick or treat. Some of these kids have never seen a jack-o-lantern in their lives.
For them, it is like going to an amusement park!

Once they are gone, I retire indoors for a more somber celebration. The recent dead are honored and a plate left out for the hungry ghosts. When you are pretending that there are dead people buried in the front yard, all precautions must be taken to make their ghosts and any they bring along, are happy and fed.
I also lay Dumb Supper for our own recent dead and spend some quiet time meditating on them.

I feel like this is 'my' time of year, and I am blessed to have a few friends and acquaintences who need help explaining the 'weird' things that are happening to them. Not all of them understand or can accept it. But many find that they can. To some it is even a comfort to know that the veil has thinned enough to say the things to their loved one that they neglected to say, in life, when they know it can be heard.

I pray that all should have a wonderfully blessed Season this year. I feel a deepened pull from the Otherworld, this year, and I wonder how many people who have never 'seen' will see this season.
Take this opportunity to see the hidden things. To welcome the presence of the Otherworld into your lives. To honor the Dead and remember them.

Have a wonderful Samhain season and a very Happy Halloween.
Brightest Blessings,
Willow

author: Willow Winterborne