Samhain 2015

Samhain Blessings!

One of my favourite festivals.
Welcoming the dead, honouring the ancestors, bonfires, pumpkin carving, spooky music, meditation, divination, offerings to the dead; it is a wonderful festival.

I particularly like this festival because it removes some of the taboo and fear around the dead.  In a society that likes to keep it's distance from death, Samhain brings home that death is simply a part of life.  With my son, I mix the commercial fun elements of Halloween with the spiritual of Samhain.

My alter, after my boy was born, was transmuted into a season table.  It serves the same function; brings nature indoors, provides a sacred space, a focus point for meditation, spell work and offerings. Additionally, its a fun way to include the boy in my traditions and festival celebrations.  Those glass pumpkin jars, he made those when he was three years old.  There's two large horse chestnut leaves we soaked in glycerine to preserve and season swap gifts from other mamas.  Our season table represents both the spiritual, magical and the family and community we surround ourselves with.

This year I helped my lad make his own costume.  Part traditional Yorkshire thriftiness, part dislike of commercial costumes and part a enthusiasm for making and "upcycling".

He decided he'd like to be Herne the Hunter, who according to pagan legend rides again on Samhain, leading the hunt.  He is often linked to Cerrunos and Pan; although Herne is a spirit not a god; his association with hunting and forests though means he is often lumped in the same category.  Herne has another association, which made me choke back laughter on the mental images I had when my boy suggested dressing up as Herne.  Most statues of Herne feature an enormous phallus; he is considered to be a potent fertility and sex symbol.

I curbed my sense of mischief, and maneouvered my boy towards a  "Green Man" type representation of Herne.  Oh my goodness, what a success, he loved making the mask, he was thrilled by the reaction of his friends to his costume and he was enthralled by the story of Herne and King Richard.



Later he designed a face for his pumpkin, then we took it downstairs and he carved it alongside the other children carving theirs.  Then it was time for him to go trick or treating, and for me to go and sit by the bonfire outside, and stare into the flames, drink cider, eat cake and roasted chestnuts while the now lit pumpkins kept evil spirits at bay.

Eventually the children returned laden with sweets.  Some were ritually burned, (they really did come back with a LOT!), they played in the dark, and we stayed by the fire.
Near midnight, the flames had died away until there were only the dancing embers.  We watched them for a while before ambling upstairs.  My boy had brought his pumpkin back up and relit it in front of the season table, including all the other candles.  He was awed.
Soon afterwards, I sent him to bed, spent some time with my passed family and then off to bed I went myself.


A truly magical Samhain.

Epithany!

What a ninny!

Weekends!  Yes, weekends.  I have been struggling for months fitting in Rye's learning time with the usual plethora of social meetings, trips, and spontaneous get togethers that a Home Ed child typically has going on each week, along with my own need for some time to do my work, domestic stuff, my own social events etc. It  has been proving very difficult to be consistent.

Difficult, because I've been trying to fit it all in Mon-Fri.  Generally speaking weekends for Home Educators, at least the ones I know, is generally reserved for family time, and family only trips.  Weekends here are a mixture of childminding and pottering/domestic duties/downtime.   The light bulb moment was when it dawned on me that Rye's "learning time", could stretch over the weekend, and a little into Monday and Tuesday, leaving the other days free for other types of learning and play.

That reading time on a Sunday could involve our usual long morning snuggles in my bed, with me reading to him and vice versa - Saturday, easily maths and simply science covered through games - which can easily involve my four year old mindee too!  I do feel a ninny.  Weekends, it's so obvious.

And when one has weeks like last week, usual activities that Rye attends, along with birthday parties, a trip to Manston, me babysitting a friend's 3 children because she was ill, for a couple of days, fitting in the building blocks of academic learning can be difficult.  It is learning that Rye has requested so it is important we fit it in.

To my mind, days/weeks like this are, certainly at this stage, are too important to miss.  It's days out like that, that fires the imagination, sparks new learning opportunities, and practicing social skills.

I suppose, even after all these years, I'm still deschooling, still ridding myself of mainstream educational norms;  of course the more formal stuff isn't restricted to Monday to Friday.

What a ninny!

More snow.

Yup, we've been graced with more snow - much to my surprise as most of yesterday it was very wet sleet; but towards the evening it turned to snow and by 9ish it was most definitely settling, much to the excitement of Rye.

So today has naturally involved lots of snow play - he's played in the back garden, jumping on the trampoline, riding his scooter in the snow; then he asked to play in the front garden and made a couple of wee snowmen.

 And naturally we had to go sledging.  Apart from another family, we were the only ones out.

 Rye made me laugh, as he rode the sled he shouted, "HO HO HO". 

Climbing back up the slope proved slippy work.


The snow caught me a bit unawares; the past week its been very cold sure, yet beautiful sunny days; that fools the unwary into thinking the warmth of spring has arrived and go out with only a cardy on.... brrrrrrrr.

 We've spent a fair bit of time at the park; Rye riding around, and playing on the various apparatus.  Often we are the only one's braving the cold weather.

 The sea gulls made me giggle; initially I thought they were cold; they were hopping from foot to foot; and then I realised that they were actually trying to get insects/worms to come to the surface so they could eat them.  The ingenuity of nature constantly amazes me.

There have been chats this week about what it means to be Pagan.  Until he chooses otherwise, if he chooses otherwise, I'm raising him Pagan.  So we've chatted about being pagan, our ethics, our responsibility for ourselves, the earth and each other.  I teased him and told him that we could fly - and we can.... in our minds.  Naturally he wants to try - I'll take him on a journey; learning to quiet his mind will be good for my boy - his mind is so often a whirling tornado of thoughts.   Celebrating the festivals with him is that little bit more exciting tis year too; he's that bit older, bit more attention, bit more able to understand, participate.  Wonderful stuff. 

And well, naturally all that talk of flying was bound to end up in his play:

"Look mum, I'm Iron man and I can FLY".