Samhain Ceremony

The Gaelic cross-quarter holiday of Samhain marks the turning point towards the darkest season. Many cultures celebrate this time as a potent threshold, a harvest festival and also a time to honor or appease the dead. The Catholic tradition continued rituals to support the dead with All Soul’s & Saint’s Days (Nov 1 & 2). While the remnants of ancestral reverence have long since disappeared in WASP-y culture (talking to the dead could of course be conflated with witchery or devil worship), there are currents of these traditions that remain or have been reclaimed in European-ancestored communities. Many of us are in a time of remembrance and repair in regards to our relationships with tradition, the ancestors and the land.

As we seek to build community and grow culture around these earth-honoring rituals and sacred transitions, we invite our community to join us for a Samhain Ceremony. Our intention is to craft a ritual to meet us--where, when and how we are.

We’re amidst great loss. Truly. Loss at a scale our psyches can hardly maintain presence with. This year has brought loss of hopes, dreams, rights, jobs, travels, relationships, loved ones, practices, beloved community spaces, shared breath space, forests, creatures, governmental protections, more species, and on. And on. And on. Even the illusion or promise of democracy is quickly slipping away.

Fear is our inevitable companion in the face of this massive dying. Fear of the unknown around the bend what with the election, the pandemic, the economy, the climate…

And even amidst, especially amidst the meltdown, there is also creativity, beauty, potential. And an ever growing need for our collective imagination to thrive.

On Saturday, we’ll honor our personal and collective losses of 2020 with a funerary rite, a ceremonial burn. Onto the pyre can go all that we’re mourning and all that we’d like to see die: white supremacy, patriarchy, extractive economics, unbridled capitalism, violent disparity. Whatever your personal losses, we invite you to craft or bring something to the collective pyre to honor or release. Our intent is for this ritual to support our collective metamorphosis. May we embrace the necessary shed so that we can seed new cultural forms into the ashes of an all-but-burned-out empire.

Supported by two live music sets, the ceremony will weave improvisational dance, elemental ritual, grief tending practices, ancestral reverence and community celebration. Bring whatever needs offering or honoring to this collective pyre. Bring your joy and play, your grief and rage, your creativity and imagination. After a participatory elemental and ancestral invocation, we’ll drop into wordless space with live music and movement to be with the various altars and flaming pyre.

We’ll also co-create an ancestral altar to feed our ancient and remembered dead and seed prayers for the time to come.

Schedule

1-3pm Arrival & Settle in

3:30pm Danced Invocation & Orientation

4:-5:30pm Daniel Chambo

Pyre Lighting

6:30-8ish Music by Gareth & Jonathan

...full moon & fire mingles, hot beverages

Attire

We encourage you to dress festively, honoring your affinity spirits (animals, plants, ancestors, mythical creatures). Consider your choice of regalia a ritual act, an invocation. Call in a spirit you need support or guidance from. One who may protect you in the trickiness of the season. One who may link you to your ancient ancestors. This could be as simple as a mask, a talisman or a full furry costume.

Camping Option

If weather permits, there are options for camping. You'll need to be self-sufficient and are expected to pack out all you bring. Downstairs bathroom will be available.

Reciprocity

 There are three pricing tiers with two discount options for Sustainers and for those offering Sweat equity (at least two hours on community work-day on Oct 25 or pre-organizational work). We ask that EVERYONE REGISTER. 

PRETTY PLEASE.

All proceeds greatly support this organization’s mission. Our specific intention is to seed the proceeds from this ritual into the creation of a functional kitchenette on the bottom floor of the house to establish a more self-contained retreat / hermitage / flexible use space for the organization. Until other structures are built / acquired, our vision for the downstairs is to be utilized for personal healing retreats, quarantine if needed, laying-in-state or for a person or small group to have space to ritually work with end-of-life preparations.

If you are inspired to make a donation for the cause or become a Sustainer, you can also do that here:  https://www.heartwardsanctuary.org/donate 

To donate towards the retreat space, please include "kitchenette" in the notes.

Rain date 

If we're rained out, the rain date will happen on Sunday, Nov 1 if possible or Nov 7.

Parking

On the right side of gravel road as you enter Heartward Sanctuary. Some parking available at the end of the driveway for handicapped, elders, differently abled bodies, mamas with lots of gear... You can also drive to the end of the road to unload and then park.

Covid-19 Protocols & Bathrooms

This is a physically distanced, open-air event. Please respect people's space.

Bring a mask. Indoor bathroom is available when needed with a mask. Masks optional outdoors.

Bring your own water vessel and what you need to be comfy outdoors for the late afternoon/evening (chair/blanket, etc).

If you are sick or have had a COVID exposure, please sit this one out.

There will be a hot beverage and food station. Please respect whatever guidelines are requested there.

*To continue the Samhain Celebration, on Sunday, we'll have space for a Sound Ceremony with Garth Robertson and Liz Bliss with space for visioning / listening to the spirits. Also ritual closure and final ancestral feedings. (Tickets sold separately for the Sound Ceremony.)