We Need To Talk About Samhain 🎃 Appropriation Issues & Deeper Meanings of the Wheel of the Year
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- čas přidán 29. 08. 2024
- In this video, I'm sharing my take on the issues around cultural appropriation and how to have meaningful practices for the Wheel of the Year.
This is relevant for anyone looking to have a deeper conversation about the Wheel of the Year. Whether you're a witch, animist, or just curious, this video is for you!
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loved hearing your perspective on this
for me, it's very complicated (for this time of year specifically but also for my practice choices in general) because as a brown person in the states who doesn't have very far ancestor knowledge because of displacement and native erasure and poor documentation of family history and the legacy of slavery etc etc - it is difficult for me to pinpoint what good ancestral practice/ancestor mimicking or based practice would look like for me because who knows what people were doing before they were forcibly moved/removed and forced to forget
this is something i struggle with when determining what "makes sense" for me to do based off of who i am
Thank you for sharing your situation and difficulties. When your ancestors have been forcibly uprooted and degraded and their sense of belonging erased, then it is understandable that you feel the way that you do about ancestor practices. That connection includes a legacy of trauma which is wholly unfair and disgusting. I am so sorry that your ancestors were treated that way and that your life is affected by that in very real ways.
The only thing I can speak to that experience (and I appreciate that it is naive and possibly disrespectful to even attempt to speak to this, though I hope not - I don't intend it that way) is to look to what you do know, which is yourself and the place where you live now. Do you feel at home there? Do you find that your emotions are mirrored or affected by the seasons and/ or weather there? Are there times when you feel more hopeful? powerful? tired? alive? Do certain animals, or plants, or parts of the landscape seem to speak to you more than others?
By centring yourself in your practice and gradually looking out and building relationship and connection from that centrepoint it could mean there is no need to mimic practices from another time or place. Although I fully acknowledge that this may not be helpful or possible, as I am unfairly privileged to have a different ancestral story and dwelling place.
Thank you for this reflection though! I am similarly situated. I appreciate this reflection. I will pay attention to what’s around me.
I loved this discussion! It made me wonder how much the measurement of time (clocks, watches, scedules) has affected our ability to appreciate the subtle changes in nature that told time for us.
Every year I tell myself I'm going to do better about celebrating the Wheel of the Year. Before I know it, the year is finished and I did poorly in my goal. Rinse/repeat. Listening to you today, I realised I have been missing the point. Just being awake to the changes I see in nature and truly being present and appreciating those natural cycles is the real celebration.
I love this comment Charlee! Yes!! That's exactly it. It's not about the pomp and circumstance (though if we enjoy that and find it nourishing then by all means go for it) but about the noticing and being in conversation with the place where we are rooted.
This just warmed my heart. ❤ My practice has changed, actually I’m no longer practicing witchcraft. However, I feel the changes in the seasons, and I absolutely agree with you. My Zen Buddhist path is definitely taking me closer to nature than I have been in quite some time. Thank you for your wise words, my friend. 🙏🏻
Hi Jenn, I saw that you are pursuing a different path (though in many ways I feel there are similarities like you said). Any journey which brings us back into relationship with the earth and the other beings (not all human) which dwell here is worth taking IMO. Thank you for sharing your path and the twists and turns you are taking along it. It's appreciated
As someone who has spent the vast majority of her life in the southern United States and has never really connected with American "spooky season," I really appreciate this video. I celebrate seasonally as best I can, but I long ago learned that I had to throw out "traditional" practices and develop my own. But I'm only just now starting to move away from using the Sabbat names I learned as a Wiccan two decades ago, which just goes to show how ingrained tradition can be, since I haven't identified as a Wiccan in seven years!
And yes, the modern Mexican Day of the Dead is heavily influenced by the arrival of Catholicism. Depending on the culture, some indigenous Mexicans celebrated their dead during the summer. Some still do; there was such a celebration that took place locally this year where I live in South Texas.
Thanks Sara 🙏🏻 that’s interesting about the summer commemoration of dead in some Mexican traditions.
It sounds like you’ve found a place with your practice which makes sense to you - which is meaningful. Which is what it’s all about in my mind.
And using words for celebrations even when they don’t quite sync, but which allow other people to understand and connect with us is probably helpful? I’m not sure. So much of our language is like this, close but not quite 😂
Thank you Jessica 💙🦋
I think a lot of it is for people coming from a Christian background that need a formula or format. There is no bible or guidebook and they crave guidance . So they find different things and think that these things are gospel. Not knowing the real history of them. It’s really hard to move beyond that conditioning.
Most of us don’t know even where to begin or that we can actually pick and choose what is right for us.
As individuals that don’t know our ancestry we should go with our gut and pick and choose what is right or good for where we are now. Keeping the changes in nature that are happening around us, interacting with our community and definitely working with the moon. Like you said … I will be someone’s ancestor someday. Leave them a practice or wheel of the year as their ancestral tradition. Xxxxx
Gosh, I hope that made sense.
This is such a good point Lisa! You're right, it can be disorientating to step out of a spiritual path with clear rules into one where it can seem like anything goes! Having some kind of anchor is helpful, and the wheel definitely does provide that. I just want more for people than swapping one set of dogma for another. I want people to discover their own paths and meaningful connections.
I love what you said about us creating meaningful practices and then passing them on so that they become traditions. That is something which I know many people feel they missed out on receiving, and so if we can offer this to those who come after us then that is wonderful
@@JessicaandtheMoon Yes! Our world is forever changing and whatever traditions we create should communicate the flexibility to adapt and keep the traditions alive and available.
@@JessicaandtheMoon Just another kernel of knowledge. Most Christians think they are celebrating Jesus birthday on December 25th. In actuality he was most likely born in the spring early summer.
December 25th was designated as a day to celebrate that Christ was born not his actual born day. Somehow it has gotten muddled over the years and the church has never corrected it.
@@lisastevens2607 the birth of the son coinciding with the birth of the sun works too well to correct.
This is such a good video.
As someone who lives closer to the equator (Florida) I can tell that the wheel is more geared temperate climates. Like Beltane /May Day is suppose to be the awake of fire and longer days but where I am it’s the start of summer. It’s already warm and only going to get hotter. Where as Samhain for most is the dying and closing, it feels like things are coming alive. The blistering heat is finally cooling off and the rains come to allow pleasant days. Meaning days outside even more then Summer. Basically I’ve had to observe and learn my own areas wheel of the years and what it means to me and my practice.
I also don’t like to gender my practice either. Spirits, deities, fae, the unknowns, are just that. I don’t feel they have a gender in the way we think so I’ve gotten rid of that language/idea as much as I can (learning more everyday).
I like to use the wheel as a reminder and way to celebrate to what’s going on globally in the northern hemisphere, it’s choosing to make my own wheel for my local area that deeps my practice.
Yes! I love this, thank you for sharing. Cultivating that meaningful connection with where we are isn't a quick thing but an ongoing lived process. You will still find those 8 universal qualities of time where you live, but the timings and order will look different.
Ooooooooo, I am SO here for this level of nuance on CZcams, what a fabulous video!
Thank you so much. Nuance is such a good way of describing what I feel like we need in our practices.
Really appreciate this. As someone of very mixed ancestry, who did not grow up with biological family, or in a place with historical ties, the arguments over gatekeeping, appropriation, & heritage can seem like just so much noise. I get it, but don’t feel it. If anything it just sadly accentuates my lack of connection with any particular culture. I have instead turned to my connection with the planet & it’s nameless rhythms- the earth doesn’t label itself. And after living & working all over the world & now entering my elder years - I realize all humans are indigenous to the planet & we all appropriate. All the time. In large & minute ways, from those who have gone before, and those we meet. Everyone rightly gets to have their issues with this, but I think it can kill our appreciation for other traditions & cultures if we are too uptight. Perhaps we would be better off seeing our traditions as evolving variations within one, centuries old, human culture. 💗
Yes 🙏🏻 thank you for sharing.
For some of us an obvious entry point is our ancestry, especially if we live in ancestral lands. But for so many of us the entry point is from personal connection with the earth/ cosmos.
I love what you said about that zoomed out perspective, that we all share that larger story and connection.
I feel like we need to hold space for both of those truths. That we are all one and children of the earth, AND we have individual differences which influence what is more meaningful for us.
@@JessicaandtheMoonLovely response. Thank you. I’ve also felt that if we all were encouraged to perceive ourselves through an “indigenous” to the planet lens, it could cultivate a broader sense of commitment to the health of the planet. One can wish…💗💗💗
@@SN-sz7kw wish and spell 😉🧙♀️👌🏻
I found this discussion really thought provoking in a gentle and compassionate way. Thanks for speaking on this, Jessica!
Thank you! I'm especially glad you found it gentle. I worry when I talk about these more controversial things that I may accidentally hurt people by not understanding their perspective and experiences.
Your talk was so interesting & informative & well spoken. Answered some questions I had in just previous video❣️. I just subscribed so I know they’ll be lots of information there. Thank you.
Thank you 🙏🏻 I’m so glad you found it helpful. Welcome ❤️
Diolch Fawr one of the best discussions on the Wheel of the Year I have heard.
Croeso! Thanks for listening and taking the time to comment.
Thank you so much, I really appreciated the sharing of your thoughts and ideas! It sparked a lot of pondering for me, so will definitely be re-watching and doing a bit of journaling on it. Has also inspired me to keep working on creating my own personal practice.
I'm so glad you found this sparked ideas for your own practice, that is the best compliment.
Thank you! Right now I'm in France in a mansion and when you were talking about our dead and ancestors, the lights flickered for the first time being here! 🇫🇷⚜️💀
Ooooooooohhh!! :D
Hi Jessica thanks for talking about this 💗 I always appreciate your perspective
Thank you so much
Brilliant! This gave me food for thought! My DNA is English Scottish Welsh Swedish Dane and I love knowing what my ancestors would have done ❤
As someone who has practiced Christianity and then a Pagan spiritual path I agree with you that both of them follow a seasonal year, although the Christian faiths usually make it more about how the seasons relate to the life of Jesus rather than nature. I would not need a wheel of the year or even a calendar know what time of year it is because I can feel the shifts in nature. Like to way the sun shines through my pantry window in the spring is different than the way it shines through it in the summer or fall. I tend to celebrate the seasonal changes rather than the Sabbats, but the sabbats give me names to call these shifts and dates to celebrate them, and I love to celebrate! Great thought provoking conversation.
Oh that's such a perfect way to describe that connection with the changing seasons, through that seemingly mundane but oh so meaningful observations of the changing light. I love that! It's those kinds of deep noticing which I feel is the same as prayer/ devotion. We are truly in conversation with our place.
Thank you Jessica. Honest and reflective as always. I just love how you explain things that feel awkward and knobbly! Lots of food for thought as well as a deep sign of relief that you have said all of this out loud. Ponder ponder 😂..
Thanks Helen
The dogmatic stuff seems to be part of human nature. This is such a nice conversation from you-thank you for your insights, Jessica. I appreciate you. 🥰
Thanks Caroline 🙏🏻 I feel sometimes like I’m just wired in an anti-dogmatic way as I seem to have been pointing these things out my whole life 😂
Thought provoking! I only resonate with Sahmain and Yule to be honest. I enjoy bringing light in the darker months. I’d be interested to find out what my ancestors celebrated though - mum’s Welsh, dad was Irish 🤔
Yes it’s funny how some spokes resonate more strongly than others (I suspect due to the qualities of time which feel more natural to us).
I love reading about the history of my ancestor’s practices, but I don’t find personal value in reconstruction of that in my personal practice.
I really loved this video & thank you for making it. I don't experience a change in the seasons at all where I live, but I do feel connected to those "time markers" that change according to the human story around me.
Thanks Marlene 🙏🏻 I find it really fascinating how the connection is different because our places are different. It’s something I’d love to hear more about ❤️
Always love to hear your thoughts! Many blessings!
Thank you so much
So kia ora (hello) from Aotearoa / New Zealand. Practice among Pagans differs here very much individually, but *most* folks I've connected with who celebrate the Wheel of the Year and use the Gaelic names for the seasonal festivals here observe dates six months out from when the festivals would be in the Northern Hemisphere. So, for example, we're coming up to celebrating Beltane as you're all celebrating Samhain, and we'll be celebrating Litha when you're celebrating Yule. As you say, it just doesn't make sense to celebrate the quiet and going within of a festival for the dead when the world outside is exploding in a riot of colour and warmth and life.
That said, I've felt less and less connected to the traditional Wheel of the Year as I've grown older. Because while we do have four-ish seasons here, they're much, much 'fuzzier' than they are in the UK. Part of what I miss about living in the UK is that the seasons there were so clear and distinct. But especially in my part of the country, Auckland, which is literally known for regularly having 'four seasons in one day', pretty much all we can say is that the average temps in Summer will be warmer than the average temps in Winter, and that several trees WILL blossom in Spring, and others WILL lose their leaves in Autumn. But the vast majority of native plant life here is evergreen, so the trees that respond to the seasons are often introduced.
So personally, I find the solar festival markers useful to block out time to take a step back from my life - to rest and reflect and reconnect with and sometimes celebrate whatever is actually going on both within me and in the world outside my window. The exact date I do it doesn't matter, but it's usually some time in the week before or after the Wheel of the Year date because if it isn't , I can end up forgetting to do it. That's come to feel more meaningful to me than a celebration with the 'trappings' of the Wheel of the Year that doesn't actually reflect the reality of my inner or outer world.
Thank you so much for this detailed and thoughtful comment 🙏🏻
Yes, I’ve noticed that many southern hemisphere pagans work the wheel six months out. It’s interesting hearing how that fits (or doesn’t) with what is going on for you in NZ.
I love that you’ve found a rhythm that works for you. You’ve got the reminder of the wheel but also feel into what the current energies actually are where you live. That’s exactly what it’s all about to my mind ❤️
I really think you would enjoy the book Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat In Difficult Times by Katherine May.
It isn’t a spiritual book, buts it’s all about honoring winter as an important season in life. I think you would appreciate it.
Thank you 🙏🏻 you are the third person who has recommended that book to me and my rule is when that happens that I need to read it. Perfect timing too ❤️
It seems like the two that cobbled together the "wheel" concept was attempting to kind of "standardize" a general mash up of regional cultural celebrations (I don't know if they meant it in a helpful way or for selfish purposes).
I can see where it would have the potential to be helpful in trying to create a shared set of traditions for celebration, especially for groups of neighboring peoples searching for incomplete pieces of traditions that were taken from them. I think people also like to have a "more the merrier" sort of atmosphere when celebrating. Of course when someone attempts to standardize anything, it loses local "flavor" and cultural significance that gave it purpose in the first place. Maybe it's good as a base and gives people a way to celebrate with "adjacent" cultures?
I'm not sure. It's really complicated. I appreciate that it created a larger sense of community, but I also understand that it creates misinformation and doesn't necessarily teach the importance of celebrating where you are and who you're from in a more authentic sense.
I love this comment Alisha, thank you. You've captured that sense that it isn't all one way or all the other. There are meaningful resonances with the wheel of the year AND personally meaningful practice rooted in the land. It doesn't have to be either/ or, it can be both/ and.
@@JessicaandtheMoonI loved the discussion. Thank you for bringing it to the table. I think it’s good dig deeper into why we celebrate what we celebrate (no matter what tradition). I think it reinvigorates a more personal spiritual depth.
I have never celebrated the Wheel of the Year and I always feel guilty that I don't. I write them on my calendars and thats about it. I guess I don't really celebrate American holidays either. Just not my thing.
I hope this video helped you let go of that guilt about not celebrating the “right” way. It’s about finding meaningful connection not performing according to a calendar ❤️
While I know our ancestors didn't celebrate the wheel of the year as we know it today, I'm sure they did celebrate and honour the gods of their time. 6 generations of my ancestors , I've got back to 1580 so far, were sheep farmers in Lancashire. Being country folk, they would have a close relationship with nature and celebrated harvest because it ensured their survival and the survival of the pregnant sheep. It protected their only livelihood. So they might not have called it samhain, but it would have significance for them. Their productive year was behind them , the hard work is done. I'm sure having enough food and preserving it was very vital to them. They would have lived the seasons, prayed for clement weather. Imbolc would have seen the lambs being born then it would be time to start sowing seeds and working the land, hoping the harvest will see them through. I love growing veg and imbolc is the time I sow my first tomato seeds indoors. Our ancestors would have very much been led by the seasons beginnings and ends. They would have prayed for or petitioned their god or gods in ancient times for success or performed certain rites or habits to appease the God's. Seasonal Things like making corn dollies, or seasonal tokens. In the 1600s, my ancestors were methodists, they bought a parcel of land according to aution papers for the local church to sit on. But before that, our ancestors built stone circles for some reason. Was it to do with the seasons? Probably. Observing nature, the stars, the moon, and the sun would have been vital to their very survival. In times of illiteracy, it was their only clue when to do things in order. Maybe it was counting of the moons or the height of the sun? But they would have been celebrated the beginnings and endings of the season. So I don't believe it's appropriation or
Using another's culture. The yearly seasons would have been important to mark for all peoples around the world even if its under a different name. When is a better time to celebrate/ honour our dead than at the end of harvest or the beginning of winter? All the work of the summer and autumn is done, it's a time to reflect and rest and pray/ petition their harvest will last the harsh winter ahead. It is the death of summer, after all. I believe there's no better way to honour our ancestors thaf
Thank you for sharing about your family history Alison, fascinating!
Yes, it's exactly that - that when we lived in partnership with the land then our ways would be naturally entangled with the seasons. And this would look different in different places in the world with their own patterns and cycles.
We live in a different world now, but our need to connect with these seasons and cycles remains, and you are honouring that with your tomato seed planting at Imbolc (among other things I'm sure). We find our own ways back into connection. It doesn't have to (and probably shouldn't) look like trying to reconstruct ancient practices, but it needs to be personally meaningful and in conversation with the places where we dwell.
A bit freeing for me actually to not feel like I MUST give my attention to Samhain. It doesn’t particularly resonate as much as Litha, for instance, for me ❤ but I thought it was just those little unique preferences
I'm so glad that you found it freeing! That was something I was hoping to do with this video. We do not need to follow a prescribed path. Yes it's nice to have some ideas and perhaps even some structure but unless it's personally meaningful then it's just going through the motions, which makes it dogmatic and unhelpful I feel.
I have taken DNA tests and done research, and my ancestors are a mix of Scottish, Irish, Welsh, English, and Norwegian. I expected more countries, but in the over 300 years since some of my ancestors came to the US, none of them seem to have married outside the people who came from those northern isles. So I guess I am a mix of Celts, Gaels, Picts, Vikings and so on. The Great Lakes climate where I live is similar to that of my ancestors. To me it seems right to draw from whatever calls me from any of my ancestors.
Thanks, your talk was interesting.
The DNA explorations which are available to us now are so interesting and lead to a lot of insights. I love that you are also taking the place where you live now into your practice, building relationship with the land there, as well as drawing on ancestral wisdom.
Thank you Jessica for a very interesting post, its strange, my family were discussing this yesterday, because our boys are at nursery now ,they are having a party for Hallows eve, the parents were told to bring pumpkins in, my our part of England it has always been turnips or beats, we have misrule on Hallows eve, as farmers we take turns to host barn parties (which get a little wild on home brewed wine, bear, or cider,) the host does a toast to remember family members who are no longer here, I do feel its all got to commercialized and lost its true meaning, my grandma leads my mum and I in our practice, which honour's our families ancestors, hopefully the night will be storm free, but whatever people do enjoy it😊
Thank you for sharing your customs for this time of the year Thea. It sounds like a lot of fun! And with meaningful ancestral connection too.
And yes, turnips - well, swedes - would have been carved here too, not pumpkins. But pumpkins are SOOOO much easier to carve :D So I have been happy to embrace this change to what would have been traditional. For me it's not so much about historical accuracy but meaningful connections and practices.
I love it! I'm from Seattle with ancestral ties to Australia, England and Scotland. I will move to Europe to live closer to my ancestral ties and travel! 😊🧳
I find it so cool and interesting that some people love to travel and experience being in different places. Have you read "If Women Rose Rooted?" The author of that shares about her experiences of connection in different places in the world. It's a good read.
Me, and my ancestors, are not wanderers :D We've been in the same couple of hundred miles for centuries (maybe millennia but I haven't traced it back that far).
I love that you talked about Samhain and clarified that it is a Gaelic celebration.
I used to celebrate Samhain & the wheel of the year, but since diving into my welsh heritage I've realised that this doesn't represent me or my heritage although like you said we share the Celtic aspect.
I did recently learn that the whole of Britain would once have been Celtic until they weren't lol but what I mean is that in wales we just hung on to our original culture and heritage and it still stands today. I always find it a shame that cornwall became English. I personally feel cery close to cornwall, I have strong cornish ancestry going back to at least 1598 until my Great grandad arrived in south wales in 1911.
This time of the year I feel called to sink deep and swim in the underlying consciousness, I like to consider the mysterious depths and what can't necessarily be seen. The darkness is inviting and warm and cosy, it feels like a cave of safety and has a very nurturing energy not forgetting the dark aspects too, the shadow.
YES! I love what you said about the shadow aspects and the nurturing aspects of the void. It is womb AND tomb. Holding space for those seemingly opposing meanings is so hard for people to do, but really accelerates our growth when we can do it.
It's the same with researching history and ancestry, it's really valuable, but our practices are for the here and now, not a reenactment of what was relevant in another time. We can look to other times and places for inspiration, but to make it meaningful (I believe) it needs to be rooted in the time and place we are living in right now.
yes, yes, yes! thanks so much for sharing your perspective. I tend to "take what I like and leave the rest" in regards to the "popular" pagan practices, and really lean in more to what I feel in my "blood & bone" like you say, but also by what I've read from like ADF, and Erynn Laurie, digging into some more of the Norse stuff now too.
Thank you Carole
@@JessicaandtheMoon yes , exactly, and that's what I tend to do, use what resonates and feels meaningful to me. and also speaking from my heart and spirit instead of relying on scripts, although scripts are sometimes good for a starting point for me, to inspire.