Skeletons Don't Stand Up

                  The Fireplace Records, Chapter 32

Skeleton's Don't Stand Up

One September day, I was enjoying my morning walk in the Kith of my suburban neighborhood. It was late in the month, nearing Mabon, the Autumnal Equinox.  I passed a home where Halloween decorations were set up attractively in the front yard. There were plastic skeletons, pumpkins, a scythe, ghouls, gravestones, and wee-folk statues, etc. Flimsy ghosts hung from ropes.  I stopped and stared for awhile.

The skeleton was propped up so as to be standing with one arm upraised. I pondered this position.  Real skeletons are always the final remains of lying down dead animals; they don't stand up and wave to us.

Are our Halloween characters and symbols a way of challenging death, spitting on our fears, laughing in the face of death, making fun of death; or, honoring the dying and dead?

We imagine and invent all kinds of scary monsters: ghosts, ghouls, demons, devils, Big Foots, UFO aliens, gremlins ... We pretend they exist, we search for them, we fear them.  We also delight in being safely afraid as with horror films and with televised specials about vampires, the walking-dead, devils, and hundreds of X-Files searches. We fear death and destruction, and delight in inventions and fictions that represent that outcome. Real threats like cancer, heart disease, earthquakes, floods, landslides, famines, and wildfires seldom have a projected Face, and are not often personified nowadays. The ancient Pagans did have many gods and goddesses that personified nature's destructive forces. Some Christians nowadays often say that God caused a flood or disaster because American society tolerates homosexuals or atheists and, therefore, everyone deserves punishment. 

There are not many Zen Koans dealing with scary supernatural beings.  Just a few: a monk reincarnated as a fox (GB 2), a monstrous serpent in a cave (SAM 37, SAM 24), an evil underworld badger (SAM 47), a hearth spirit (OM 31), an turtle-nosed snake (ZE 34), a blood-sucking toad (SAM 34), a doppelganger nun (GB 35), demons (OM 3, OM 15). Sometimes, a Zen priest is called to exorcise the evil creature, but they don't seem willing to get involved. 

The Zen Masters often play along with folk superstitious, like Father Don Manuel in Miguel de Unamuno's novella "Saint Manuel Bueno, Martyr." The priest plays the role of a Catholic believer so as to reduce the suffering and provide some harmless contentment for his appreciative and adoring peasant parishioners. But Father Don Manuel does not really believe in an after-life, Catholic dogmas, or supernatural beings. Like the Buddha, reducing suffering is the primary goal of his actions in the world.

Comments, Sources, Observations

Our primitive fears of the darkness of the night often breeds imaginary creatures.
X-Files actors often find themselves with flashlights in the dark.
Fictions are often fun, but still fictions.
Some people believe that Harry Potter is a real person, existing.
Pretending is essential to Play.

Subject Index to 1,975 Zen Buddhist Koans  Look under the subject headings of "supernatural beings," "demons," or "snakes."

Meetings with Master Chang San-Feng 

One Old Taoist Druid's Journey  Plenty of Animal Spirits and Wee-Folk Discussed.

Refer to my Cloud Hands Blog Posts on the topic of Koans/Stories. 

Subject Index to 1,975 Zen Buddhist Koans

Zen Buddhist Koans: Indexes, Bibliography, Commentary, Information

The Daodejing by Laozi

Pulling Onions  Over 1,043 One-line Sayings by Mike Garofalo

Chinese Chan Buddhist and Taoist Stories and Koans

The Fireplace Records  By Michael P. Garofalo

More like a UFO Alien than a Skeleton
You get the idea: darkness, fear, evil

  

Preparing for Halloween

 

 

Here is how our front porch looked when decorated for Halloween Day.  
We decorated our home in Red Bluff, California, from 1998-2017.  
Notice the five spherical white spectral (ghostly) visitors coming to "trick or treat" at our front door.    

"To all the ancient ones from their houses, the Old Ones from above and below. In this time the Gods of the Earth touch our feet, bare upon the ground. Spirits of the Air whisper in our hair and chill our bodies,  and from the dark portions watch and wait the Faery Folk that they may join the circle and leave their track upon the ground. It is the time of the waning year. Winter is upon us. The corn is golden in the winnow heaps. Rains will soon wash sleep into the life-bringing Earth. We are not without fear, we are not without sorrow...Before us are all the signs of Death: the ear of corn is no more green and life is not in it. The Earth is cold and no more will grasses spring jubilant. The Sun but glances upon his sister, the earth..... It is so....Even now....But here also are the signs of life, the eternal promise given to our people. In the death of the corn there is the seed--which is both food for the season of Death and the Beacon which will signal green-growing time and life returning. In the cold of the Earth there is but sleep wherein She will awaken refreshed and renewed, her journey into the Dark Lands ended. And where the Sun journeys he gains new vigor and potency; that in the spring, his blessings shall come ever young!"
-  Two Samhain Rituals, Compost Coveners, 1980 

  

"Tonight as the barrier between the two realms grows thin,
Spirits walk amongst us, once again.
They be family friends and foes,
Pets and wildlife, fishes and crows.
But be we still mindful of the Wee Folke at play,
Elves, fey, brownies, and sidhe.
Some to trick, some to treat,
Some to purposely misguide our feet. 
Stay we on the paths we know 
As planting sacred apples we go.

This Feast I shall leave on my doorstep all night.
In my window one candle shall burn bright,
To help my loved ones find their way
As they travel this eve, and this night, until day.
Bless my offering, both Lady and Lord
Of breads and fruits, greens and gourd."
-  Akasha, Samhain Ritual  

Samhain

Halloween,

The Day of the Dead

 

October: Poems

Quotes

Lore

  

The entrance to our front driveway in Red Bluff featured a seasonal display that Karen prepared from 1998-2017. 
Karen is petting our cat, King Tut, in the early morning hours. 

We now (2020) live in Vancouver, Washington.  

Halloween Pumpkin Carving

 

We enjoyed a pumpkin carving party with 9 people this last Sunday.  Karen had made chili beans, cornbread, and chocolate cake for the party.  We have done this for four years in Vancouver.

Halloween-Samhain-Otherworld Day Customs, Lore and Activities
By Michael P. Garofalo

Halloween, October 31st, Welsh Samhain, All Hallows Eve, Day of the Dead     
Summer's End, Hallowmas, All Saint's Day, Shadow Fest, Martinmas, Old Hallowmas, Nut Crack Night
Beginning of the Winter/Dark Season, Otherworld Borders Day, Ancestors' Night, Hallowed Evening
Winter Nights, The Last Harvest, Feast of the Apples, Great Rite, New Year's Day for Witches, Day for the Ancestors
Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) in Mexico, and in many other Hispanic and Catholic Cultures
A Day to Remember and Honor Dead Relatives and all the Ancestors and the Great Traditions 
1st Celebration in the NeoPagan Holy Day Annual Cycle or Wiccan Wheel of the Year 

"The eve of the New Year or Oidhche Shamhna was a gap in time. Thus, the spirits from the Otherworld could enter into our world. Rituals on Oidhche Shamhna include providing hospitality to the dead ancestors. They welcomed the dead with food and drink and left the windows and doors of their homes open for the dead to enter. But all spirits from the Otherworld were not good; there were evil spirits too. To keep evil spirits away from their home, they carved images of spirit-guardians onto turnips and placed them at the doors of their homes. As part of the festivities young people wore strange costumes and moved around the village, pretending to be dead spirits visiting from the Otherworld. The Celts believed that on the eve of New Year not only did the boundary between this world and the Otherworld dissolve, but the structure of society dissolved too. Boys and girls would dress up as members of the opposite sex and play pranks on the elders."
-   Celtic New Year  

"Perhaps the most famous icon of the holiday is the jack-o-lantern.  Various authorities attribute it to either Scottish or Irish origin.  However, it seems clear that it was used as a lantern by people who traveled the road this night, the scary face to frighten away spirits or faeries who might otherwise lead one astray.  Set on porches and in windows, they cast the same spell of protection over the household.  (The American pumpkin seems to have forever superseded the European gourd as the jack-o-lantern of choice.)  Bobbing for apples may well represent the remnants of a Pagan 'baptism' rite called a 'seining', according to some writers.  The water-filled tub is a latter-day Cauldron of Regeneration, into which the novice's head is immersed.  The fact that the participant in this folk game was usually blindfolded with hands tied behind the back also puts one in mind of a traditional Craft initiation ceremony."
-   Mike Nichols, All Hallow's Eve

 

October Lore

 "Leaves fall,
the days grow cold.
The Goddess pulls her mantle of Earth around Her
as You, O Great Sun God, sail toward the West
to the land of eternal enchantment,
wrapped in the coolness of night.

Fruits ripen,
seeds drip,
the hours of day and night are balanced."
-   Mabon Sabbat and Lore    

"A year of beauty. A year of plenty.
A year of planting. A year of harvest.
A year of forests. A year of healing.
A year of vision. A year of passion.
A year of rebirth.

This year may we renew the earth.
This year may we renew the earth.

Let it begin with each step we take.
And let it begin with each change we make.
And let it begin with each chain we break.
And let it begin every time we awake."
-  Starhwak, Reclaiming Samhain

Halloween (Samhain): Bibliography, Quotes, Poems, Links, Lore
October 31, 2020

The Two Realms Mingle

 

 

Here is how our front porch looked when decorated for Halloween Day.  
We decorated our home in Red Bluff, California, from 1998-2017.  
Notice the five spherical white spectral (ghostly) visitors coming to "trick or treat" at our front door.    

"To all the ancient ones from their houses, the Old Ones from above and below. In this time the Gods of the Earth touch our feet, bare upon the ground. Spirits of the Air whisper in our hair and chill our bodies,  and from the dark portions watch and wait the Faery Folk that they may join the circle and leave their track upon the ground. It is the time of the waning year. Winter is upon us. The corn is golden in the winnow heaps. Rains will soon wash sleep into the life-bringing Earth. We are not without fear, we are not without sorrow...Before us are all the signs of Death: the ear of corn is no more green and life is not in it. The Earth is cold and no more will grasses spring jubilant. The Sun but glances upon his sister, the earth..... It is so....Even now....But here also are the signs of life, the eternal promise given to our people. In the death of the corn there is the seed--which is both food for the season of Death and the Beacon which will signal green-growing time and life returning. In the cold of the Earth there is but sleep wherein She will awaken refreshed and renewed, her journey into the Dark Lands ended. And where the Sun journeys he gains new vigor and potency; that in the spring, his blessings shall come ever young!"
-  Two Samhain Rituals, Compost Coveners, 1980 

  

"Tonight as the barrier between the two realms grows thin,
Spirits walk amongst us, once again.
They be family friends and foes,
Pets and wildlife, fishes and crows.
But be we still mindful of the Wee Folke at play,
Elves, fey, brownies, and sidhe.
Some to trick, some to treat,
Some to purposely misguide our feet. 
Stay we on the paths we know 
As planting sacred apples we go.

This Feast I shall leave on my doorstep all night.
In my window one candle shall burn bright,
To help my loved ones find their way
As they travel this eve, and this night, until day.
Bless my offering, both Lady and Lord
Of breads and fruits, greens and gourd."
-  Akasha, Samhain Ritual  

Samhain

Halloween,

The Day of the Dead

 

October: Poems

Quotes

Lore

  

The entrance to our front driveway in Red Bluff featured a seasonal display that Karen prepared from 1998-2017. 
Karen is petting our cat, King Tut, in the early morning hours. 

We now (2020) live in Vancouver, Washington.  

The Dead and Dying Are About

Halloween, Samhain, Dad of the Dead, End of the Year Coming, Fall

In America, today, we enjoy Halloween festivities.  People dress up in costumes.  Candy is exchanged and given to children.  Activities and games are played: bobbing for apples, scaring people, pranks, walking in corn mazes, pumpkin carving and rolling, nighttime fires, pie making, harvest activities, etc.  Of course, many people in America do nothing unusual today; and could care less about Nature religion and "pagan" Samhain festivities.   

I shoveled up the rotting remains of four pumpkins on our front porch ... limp, blackened yuck.  

We accidentally killed a squirrel on Highway 99, North Main, when it ran from the Red Bluff River Park onto the roadway.

Karen's friend's dog died today.

224 people died today in an airplane crash in the Sinai, Egypt.
Millions are dying from diseases: malnutrition, malaria, tuberculosis, AIDS, typhoid, poisoning, cholera, cancer, stroke ....
Many are dying today because of wars and fighting all around the world.
Somebody dying has always been news, everywhere. 

Memories of Ancestors.

Greco-Roman Hellenistic Era
Memories of Traditions, Customs, Religions. Rituals, Languages
Time.  Death or Renewal Rituals

El Dia de la Muerte.
Remember and celebrate our Ancestors.

Halloween Skeletons will walk on the streets tonight.

Macabre.  Play acts and costumes.  

Reminding us of Darkness, Fears, Monsters, Fate, Death!

Happy Halloween!!! 

This post to the blog was first sent out on October 31, 2015.  

Karen at work as Special Education Instructional Assistant

Halloween Party 2014

November 2012

October Morning Mild

“The Wheel rolls more, and Autumn returns.
Cooler the rain; the Sun lower burns.
The coloring leaves presage the Year:
All things move into harvest’s sphere.
I vow to savor fruits first picked;
nor into grief shall I be tricked.
I vow to offer what once I spurned,
and face the Turning reassured.
- Asleen O’Gaea, Celebrating the Seasons of Life: Beltane to Mabon, p. 116.

Samhain, Halloween Celebrations

"O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow's wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow.
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know.
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away."
-   Robert Frost, October

October: Quotes, Poems, Sayings

The entrance to our front driveway in Red Bluff featured a seasonal display that Karen prepared.  Karen is petting our cat, King Tut, in the early morning hours. 
We now live in Vancouver, Washington.  

The Two Realms Mingle

Our front porch before Halloween Day.  

Notice the five spherical white spectral (ghostly) visitors coming to "trick or treat" at our front door. 
Red Bluff, California, 1998-2017   

"To all the ancient ones from their houses, the Old Ones from above and below. In this time the Gods of the Earth touch our feet, bare upon the ground. Spirits of the Air whisper in our hair and chill our bodies, and from the dark portions watch and wait the Faery Folk that they may join the circle and leave their track upon the ground. It is the time of the waning year. Winter is upon us. The corn is golden in the winnow heaps. Rains will soon wash sleep into the life-bringing Earth. We are not without fear, we are not without sorrow...Before us are all the signs of Death: the ear of corn is no more green and life is not in it. The Earth is cold and no more will grasses spring jubilant. The Sun but glances upon his sister, the earth..... It is so....Even now....But here also are the signs of life, the eternal promise given to our people. In the death of the corn there is the seed--which is both food for the season of Death and the Beacon which will signal green-growing time and life returning. In the cold of the Earth there is but sleep wherein She will awaken refreshed and renewed, her journey into the Dark Lands ended. And where the Sun journeys he gains new vigor and potency; that in the spring, his blessings shall come ever young!"
-  Two Samhain Rituals, Compost Coveners, 1980   

"Tonight as the barrier between the two realms grows thin,
Spirits walk amongst us, once again.
They be family friends and foes,
Pets and wildlife, fishes and crows.
But be we still mindful of the Wee Folke at play,
Elves, fey, brownies, and sidhe.
Some to trick, some to treat,
Some to purposely misguide our feet.
Stay we on the paths we know
As planting sacred apples we go.

This Feast I shall leave on my doorstep all night.
In my window one candle shall burn bright,
To help my loved ones find their way
As they travel this eve, and this night, until day.
Bless my offering, both Lady and Lord
Of breads and fruits, greens and gourd."
-  Akasha, Samhain Ritual  

Samhain

Halloween

The Day of the Dead

October: Poems

Quotes

Lore

  

The entrance to our front driveway in Red Bluff featured a seasonal display that Karen prepared. 
Karen is petting our cat, King Tut, in the early morning hours. 
We now (2020) live in Vancouver, Washington.