A Cosmic Halloween
is it the end of the world as we know it?
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We are fast approaching the season of the dead.
Hallowe'en, the eve of All Hallows, begins a three-day celebration to commemorate and honor our beloved dead. This custom is especially pronounced in Mexico, where it is still a very visible and loved part of contemporary culture. We will explore more Day of the Dead celebrations in just a little while.
First, let's orient ourselves to the moment we inhabit in time and space.
The harvest feelings linger, but we know the darkness is creeping in and the veil is thinning. Take a moment to feel your feet on the ground, look out the window, and notice what the outdoors looks like. Greet the day or night, notice the sun or moon and any animals you see. Remind yourself that you belong here and are part of the larger cycle of the seasons and the turnings of the cosmos.
I used to avoid the "death" energy of autumn, preferring to focus on "peace and plenty" and "family and friends ." But now I'm older, I understand that wisdom can be found in The Time of the Dead.
It is a curious thing, our celebrations of remembering the dead. It's become a somewhat uneasy celebration in Western culture. The Catholic Churches' two feast days of All Saints and All Souls used to be embraced with much more enthusiasm and acceptance. Celebrations in memory of the dead go far back into human history. Ways to honor and keep the dead have changed drastically over the millennia, and much of what was once common now repels us.
There was a time not too long ago when most people were born and died at home. When they died, their bodies were lovingly tended by family members, usually women, and the wake was held at home, and the body didn't leave the house until the time of burial. Then, it was buried not too far away in the local churchyard.
In some of the oldest domestic structures we have uncovered from the Neolithic age, we find that families buried their loved ones beneath the floor, thus keeping the generations close despite physical death.
We are all part of the cycle of life and death. What happens beyond physical death is a matter for you to explore and find answers to through philosophy, science, faith, or all three.
That we have an inner instinct that physical death is not the end is attested to by the many ancient documents like The Tibetian Book of the Dead part of the Profound Dharma of Self-Liberation through the Intention of the Peaceful and Wrathful Ones, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, aka The Book of Emerging Forth into the Light, the Christian Gospels, canonical and gnostic, along with writings and grave goods from burials scattered across time and continents.
Somehow, we know that physical death is not the end.
It may be understandable that various cultures have sacred times when they remember their ancestors and departed loved ones. But it is curious why those celebrations land when they do, at the end of October and early November.
Theories
I love theories, especially when they challenge long-standing assumptions that have become so embedded as to eclipse new thought and advances in our understanding of the universe.
Let's explore one of those edge theories that proposes an explanation for why so many cultures honor their dead at this time of year.
This theory comes from Randall Carlson. I'll insert his entire talk on this subject as a video at the end of this post so you can explore this in more depth.
Late October through November is Pleiades season. This unusual cluster of stars rises in the east at sunset. At this time of year in the northern hemisphere, if you look straight up to the zenith of the sky at midnight, you'll see the Pleiades. This is known as the culmination of The Pleiades.
Memorial services to the dead at this season of the year when the Pleiades occupied a conspicuous position in the heavens are found to have taken place and to have been a feature in the history of almost every nation of the Earth, from remote antiquity to the present day. The universality of this custom may be considered one of the most remarkable facts that astronomical history records, and it serves to make the study of this group the most interesting chapter in all stellar history. ~ Star Lore of All Ages, pg. 411, Wm. Tyler Olcott, 1911
Carlson uses many sources and sights traditions of honoring the dead during Pleiades season, including the Hindu Feast of Lamps and the Japanese Feast of Lanterns. Ancient Mexican tradition held that the world was once destroyed when the Pleiades culminated at midnight. This belief is echoed in ancient Greece, Egypt, the Pacific Islands, Ceylon, and among the Aztecs, Fijians, Tongans, Peruvians, aboriginal Australians, Jews, and Druids. They all had traditions of remembering the dead during this season.
More precisely, November 17th comes up again and again as a date that remembers a cataclysm, essentially the end of the world and the loss of life on a mass scale, and that's what's being memorialized in Day of the Dead traditions around the globe.
Carlson encourages us to look to the heavens and points us to the constellation of Taurus, which, from our point of view on Earth, produces a meteor shower each Nov. 1-3 that emanates from the Pleiades, which sits on the shoulder of Taurus, The Bull. Also, on November 17th, another meteor shower descends from the constellation of Leo. It's also interesting to note that the Jewish Torah places the date for the Biblical Flood using our current calendar on November 17th, and the Druids saw this date as the beginning of the reconstruction of the world.
Essentially, what Carlson is proposing is that all of the worldwide celebrations honoring the dead during Pleaides Season, late October through November, are remembering our ancestors who died during an earth-shaking catastrophe triggered by asteroid strikes that came from the Taurid or Leonine meteor events that occur on November 1-3 and 17th.
How far back does this ancestral memory go? When might there have been an asteroid impact that wiped out most of the population on Earth?
Carlson points out a cave painting from Lascaux created nearly 20,000 years ago. It shows a bull (Taurus) and the Pleiades star cluster above the shoulder. This indicates that our distant ancestors knew the Taurus constellation, imagined it as a Bull, knew the Pleiades, and thought it important enough to record them. Did they create this tableau of the Bull and the Pleiades as a memorial to the dead? Was the memory of a cataclysm ancient even then?
I'm fascinated by this idea because it explains why the weeks around Halloween are spooky season. Late October and early November stir a sense of dread and fear. It's a time of bad omens, destructive and evil forces. In modern times, these feelings of unease may be projected onto current ideas around witches, the devil, vampires, black cats, and the typical Halloween fare. Do they go back thousands of years to a universal trauma sustained by humanity when an asteroid impact nearly destroyed the world? Perhaps.
We know very little of our ancient past. We understand just the tip of the iceberg, and our understanding is likely distorted. It's essential to listen to alternative theories and, at the very least, give them consideration. It's also vital to de-bunk when necessary.
Ancestral memories are in you. They are hidden under layers and layers of personal memories and the memories inherited from nearer ancestors that formed your current family tree, great-great-grandparents, and the like. But deep in the recesses of the human family memory bank, we know things. We remember. The mental images are no longer apparent; through long ages of accretion, the story has been covered with layers of myth, legend, and symbolism. The one place we still remember is in our body. We feel through sensation, or the memory of sensation, an echo of foreboding and dread at Halloween.
It's not supersticion. It's remembering.
This Samhain season, October 31st through the winter solstice on December 21st, as you are honoring your beloved family members who have crossed and your ancestors, offer a moment of silent remembering for the lives of your most distant ancestors and remember that we, also are vulnerable to natural forces of immense power. Let that knowledge fuel your gratitude for each day, reassure you that we are resilient and that your ancestors survived whatever caused the end of the world they knew. Therefore, you, too, can survive whatever unexpected disasters arrive.
Do you honor your ancestors at this time of year? Do you feel a connection to your distant ancestors? Are you a stargazer? Can you find the Pleiades in the night sky? What do you think about alternative theories of history?
The comments section is a safe and welcoming space to share your insights and experiences.
Comments and conversation are always appreciated and enjoyed, so feel free to let your voice be heard. I read them all and try to respond to each one.
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Discussion is encouraged. Leave your reactions and insights in the comments.
We tend to forget the harvest of the Roots, ever since pumpkins largely replaced turnips as the lamps of Samhain.
Thanks for your insights. As someone facing the end of life, these comments are important to consider.