Autumn

You can smell it in the air,

The thickness of it

Riding on the mist

The damp and dark are coming in

Sliding like mushrooms growing in the corpses of dead plants

Smooth like

Sibilant

the dark is rising and the light wanes.

And the wheel turns

So do you love Halloween or Samhain.

I remember when I was a little girl we always used to do bobbing apples, made Turnip lanterns (never Pumkins I didnt know what they were) and we also had blindfold biting.

This was a game where you were blindfolded and had your hands tied behind your back. Then you walked into a forest of apples, onions and soap, hanging from strings tied to a broom stick, and you had to bite until you got one. If it was a sweet apple then you got a good year. If it was an onion, not so much and if you got soap that was the spirits way of playing tricks on you.

We did not do the eggs and flour thing that kids seem to do these days, (Ye gods I sound like my gran!) but we did bobby knock and if you were caught you had to have a sweet.

But Halloween, like Christmas, seems to have degenerated into a chance to wear riske outfits which are normally very shabby and really just an excuse to try to look sexy. Do we really need another excuse to get the baps out for the boys. Come on.

Or we move to a more dangerous aspect.

Now I know the place between the worlds is one of misrule. I know that at the middle of the crossroads is a place where up is down and down is backwards.

But the sudden appearence of the dangerous Clowns has made me think that we have no idea any more of how far to go.

Clowns scaring people, chasing people and generally being clowny, well in my opinion thats fine. After all its halloween.

But men dressing up as clowns with the specific goal of mugging, or physically assaulting people is just another excuse for violence.

Samhain is about valuing life not denigrating it with violent act. Yes misrule but with a side of reverence.

Samhain is about thanking your ancestors for being kind enough to give you a portal into this beautiful place we call Earth.

One thing I always tell my guys.

There were a million or more sperm released from your fathers penis, on that fateful night when your mother said yes.

Only one of them was you. The others would have been someone else. Be fucking grateful. You won the lottery!!

It doesnt matter whether your life is not what you wanted, whether you have the latest TV or a beautiful figure enhanced by the latest silicon.

What matters is that you made it

Congratulations

Think about all of the other poor buggers that didnt.

Samhain is about loving life and paying attention to it.

Looking at the seconds and minutes instead of planning for next year, which lets be honest has a good chance of not actually coming.

Live NOW

Thats what people who are in the process of dying say.

I am positive thats what the ancestors say.

Be reverent

Be attentive

and HAVE FUN

After all its LIFE!!!!!

I hope that you have a wonderful Samhain and that the Clowns dont get you