Samhain and the Bones of Death

We are the bones of death. Right now, in this very instance, we are the walking dead. The acceptance of this fact and the empowerment of this knowledge is one of the few things that the Craft makes claim to offering. As Witches, we are those whom dwell at the edges of society and interact directly with the unseen forces of the Spirit-world. This role gives the Witch a particular role that both benefits them and the greater community at large.  

It has been a long time since I have written anything about Samhain. If the truth were told, and it will be, I’m just not interested in rehashing the same ole beginner lesson about this time of year. Nor do I claim that this blog is anything but the same ole beginner lesson. There is nothing new, only the new again. For you see, the meat and potatoes of this feast lay in the silent undertaking of the work and not in the talking about it. To say that when we die we go to live amongst the ancestors is a starkly different perspective then to sit in the knowing that under our flesh lay the bones that could become the ancestor relics of our own descendants. We are the bones of death; we are the walking dead.

There are lots of ways for the Witch to engage with death and this time of year is a dark brew saturated with the work of the dead. Will you be sipping of it?

It does not matter whether it is via dressing up in costumes or something more “witchy” such as stirring the roots to enliven the dead by which we may redden them to life again. It does not matter to the Witch. It does not matter because there is a knowledge here that comes only from having experienced it. It is this that the Witch does for the community.

By becoming immersed in the litanies of the dead, the Witch comes to an understanding that transforms them into the keeper of a great a mystery—the mystery of death. We hold that mystery and translate its familiarity for those less keen to welcome the departed to their table. We stand in the crowds, alone, yet with the sacred truth that the ancestors are not themselves relics of the past. The past is not a place where the dead dwell, the ancestors are now. They, all of them, are right this moment. This we know.

The Witch knows this as true because we do not call the ancestors up from a time that is no more, nope, we actively work with them right now, in this moment, and they answer that call. Likewise, when we die and cast off the flesh that clothes these bones, we do not go to live in the past but instead transform in the now.

We are the bones of death; we are the walking dead.

Boidh Se,

-SM

“Lost in a thicket, bare-foot upon a thorn path.”