The Angels are always present to help us with the evolution of our souls. We can allow them to bring us fresh insights, deepen our awareness, and shift our perceptions into ever-deepening levels of love and loving consciousness.
The focus these next few days is on our place in the continuum of evolving human consciousness and our own place in our families and family lineages. As new realizations come to us, the Angels assist us with our own experience of self-realization.
These days provide us with the opportunity to reflect upon who we really are – who we are apart from the mundane details of life, apart from the places our egos are sticky with preoccupations and apart from the negative attachments to the mental clutter we have accumulated.
The Angels can help us use the special properties of Halloween, All Saint’s Day and All Souls Day to evolve and to expand our current understanding of the importance that each of our lives plays in the evolution of spirit and to see our right roles and responsibilities more clearly.
These days provide a powerful combination of fun and playful celebration, respect and reverence for departed loved ones and ancestors, and, a time of communion with the saints and souls who hold love and helpful intentions for us.
These days can be a rich and rewarding experience for us on all these levels!
First, a little history to clarify how our celebration of these days have evolved to their present form:
Halloween: October 31st
Halloween began with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. The Celts lived 2,000 years ago in what is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France. The Celts celebrated their New Year on November 1st, which marked the end of summer and of the harvest season and the beginning of the dark, cold winter – a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the New Year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, and believed that the spirits of the dead returned to earth that night and that they would be able to communicate with them. To the more spiritually sophisticated, this was not ghostly, ghoulish or ghastly, but an opportunity to receive help, guidance, answers and wisdom.
All Saint’s Day: November 1
All Saint’s Day is a Christian holy day observed by many Western churches on November 1 and by Eastern churches on the first Sunday after Pentecost. The day honors all saints, even those not known by name.
Roman Catholics, the Orthodox, Anglicans, and Lutherans celebrate All Saint’s Day. However, because of their differing understandings of the identity and function of the saints, what they do on All Saint’s Day differs widely. Generally, the day is observed by remembering, celebrating and thanking God for all saints, both dead and living. Historically, All Saint’s Day was known as Hallowmas.
All Soul’s Day: November 2nd
All Soul’s Day is a Roman Catholic day of remembrance for friends and loved ones who have passed away. This day originated with the ancient Celtic Festival of the Dead, which celebrated the Pagan belief that the souls of the dead would return for a meal with the family. Candles in the window would guide the souls back home, and another place was set at the table. Children would come through the village, asking for food to be offered symbolically to the dead, which would then be donated to feed the hungry. (This may be the origin of the American tradition of Trick or Treat.)
The day purposely follows All Saint’s Day in order to shift the focus from those in heaven to those struggling through the process of getting there. It is celebrated with masses and festivities in honor of the dead. While All Saint’s Day is a day to remember the glories of Heaven and those there, All Soul’s Day reminds us of our responsibilities to live sacred lives and that there will be purification of the souls of those destined for Heaven. (I believe we are all destined for heaven and that the Angels to their best to help us purify our consciousness on our way there!)
All Saint’s Day and All Soul’s Day were originally in May. They were moved to November 1st and 2nd to downplay the Pagan holidays of Halloween (All Hallow’s Eve) and All Souls Day (also known as “Day of the Dead” or “Dia De Loss Muertos.”) Religious leaders felt these holidays were too popular at the time to ban outright. They thought that if they moved the Christian holidays to this time period, the pagan holidays would slowly die away.
I mention this to help us realize that all Holy Days are constantly evolving just as we are. The names, purpose, intent and focus of our holidays match the evolution of our consciousness both as individuals and as a society.
How can you shift your understanding and the purpose of these days for yourself, your family and your community?
On Halloween, the Angels help us to play with the identity we have built for ourselves. It is a time to drop our familiar personality and act out a role. We can play out our own hero’s adventure, something of whimsy, or something dark and frightening. If we choose, we can also look within and, through playful introspection, free ourselves from some of our goblins and demons – our own fears and dreads. In other words, we can see more clearly how we play the game of trick or treat with ourselves.
On All Saint’s Day, the Angels help us to connect with the loving wisdom of the Saints who developed their abilities to immerse themselves so deeply in the love and grace of heaven that transcend our more earth-bound sense of reality.
Pick one or more saints to contemplate and meditate on this day. Ask the Angels to help you connect with the wisdom, love and special qualities of this saint. How will these qualities help you with your life right now? Pay close attention to how this applies to you and your family. Allow the qualities this saint possesses to inform and guide you. Choose to strengthen these qualities in yourself.
Remember to express appreciation and gratitude for this saint and the deep effort that attaining the qualities and wisdom required.
Remember that all the grace, wisdom, truth and love that any of acquires is available to all of us. Nothing of grace and love is ever destroyed or lost – the saints are eternal reminders of this!
On All Soul’s Day, the Angels help us to shift our focus to those souls who we are connected to and to whom our prayers and thoughts can be of help.
I have been leading Angel workshops and doing personal Angel sessions for many years and I have yet to see a core issue that a person is working with that is not connected to his/her family and ancestors. Our core issues are truly part of our soul linage and, like a web, connect both backwards and forwards in our family line. In my experience, it is clear that we have come to our parents in partnership in learning and expanding through the healing of these core issues. Ditto for siblings, spouses partners and co-workers.
All Soul’s day can be used to access the wisdom of our soul families – to pray, meditate and heal these issues in ourselves and, by so doing, relieve the need for more struggling and suffering across the whole family web. The progress any of us makes here is accessible to all.
Pick one of your core issues, and through introspection and meditation, follow the web backward, through your ancestors, around you now in your family, and foreword into the new generation to come:
1) Use what you learned about yourself on Halloween to drop your defensive mask and egoic preoccupations.
2) Use what you learned from the Saints to bring the specific qualities of wisdom, healing, love and grace to your issue. You will find that it has been hungry for this for a very long time.
3) On All Soul’s Day, give this wisdom, love and healing to all the souls in your soul family: your ancestors, all those living, and your prayers and intentions to all of those to come. Plan the actions you will take in the next days to bring this into being. If you are willing, plan your course for the next year and act upon it month by month.