Spirit of Halloween: Halloween, Is Halloween Evil?

Halloween today is quite different from what it used to be, even though much of what we do today to celebrate this holiday is derived from old traditions. There is a tremendous amount of information on the web about the tradition of Halloween, so I am not going to spend much time on that, other than to offer you the basics. What I want to focus on is dispelling some of the myths of Halloween as a celebration of something “dark.”

Halloween, or “All Hallows Eve” has derived from the pagan holiday known as “Samhain,” which is pronounced ‘sow-an’ or ‘sow-in.’ All pagan holidays celebrate the specific season of the year in which they occur, and what that season represents relating to nature. There is absolutely nothing intrinsically ‘dark’ about this holiday, other than what people have done to it. This holiday honors the time of the year when the days are shorter and the nights become longer, and the holiday honors the souls that have passed on. I bring all of this up is simply because I would like to dispel any thoughts or ideas that you may have around this holiday, or the ‘dark energy’ that you may believe is being honored through this holiday, or ‘dark energy’ in general.

First of all, this world is based upon polarity and contrasts; there is no way around it. However, darkness is not the opposite of light, but rather the absence of light. Darkness is nothing, and has no power except for the power you give it! Your world would be a much sweeter place if you would recognize when you are giving darkness power, and STOP! That includes believing in a punishing and judging God, a belief in Satan, hell, judgment day, or a belief that there are dark forces trying to stop the light of God from being expressed, or dark forces that are attempting to f**k with you, and/or dark forces from which you need to protect yourself. Darkness cannot deny light, period, end of discussion.

So now back to Halloween. Halloween is a holiday that is based upon the honoring of cycles. Halloween is a holiday that is based upon the cycles of nature. Halloween is a holiday that honors the souls that have passed before us. Halloween is also a holiday of fun, so lighten up!

Let’s break some of this down to the basics. Every day you wear a costume. The costume may be a business suit, or the ‘mother’ or ‘father’ mask, etc. Do you think there is anything dark about that? We wear costumes constantly, we role play constantly, we play tricks on people constantly, we want ‘treats’ from people constantly. We honor the dead with every funeral or memorial service we attend. And you honor the cycles of nature with every holiday whether you realize it or not. Let’s face facts, if you were to take the time to look, every Christian holiday has been derived from a pagan holiday, so again, lighten up!

There is nothing intrinsically dark about Halloween, Paganism or Wicca. Sure, there are people that practice ‘dark’ rituals during Halloween, in Paganism and Wicca, and there are people that practice ‘dark’ rituals with Christianity, and every day of the year. But if you were to do your homework, you would find that Paganism and Wicca are beautiful practices of communing with God and nature. I would also bet that if you were to look back into your own genealogy that you would find someone in your family that practiced some derivative of these spiritual practices. If you are one of those people who thinks your family has always been Christian, you are likely fooling yourself because Christianity has not been around that long.

People, take the time to look things up. Take the time to investigate the essence of something, and take the time to lighten up and stop taking things so seriously. You will be much happier in the end! So, create a costume that you think would be fun for the evening, hit the streets, and show the world your happiness and your child-like nature. Enjoy yourself this holiday and Happy Halloween.

Much love and Namaste…

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