With autumn approaches the Halloween season and a time for understanding

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With autumn approaches the Halloween season and a time for understanding

Max Holton

The season is upon us where the autumn produces vibrant colors in the trees, the harvests are coming in and the night’s temperatures are cooling off.  The thoughts of ‘Trick or Treat’ soon fill the air. With the season the television show reveals gaudy horror movies, and the thoughts of witches, ghosts and goblins fill the air. Retails sales this Halloween in the U.S. are estimated to be in around $5 billion this year; to include candy, decorations, costumes, even ghost tours.  Dr Christopher Bashaw of (RIP Academy at www.RipAcademy.com) Rhode Island Paranormal Academy and the RI Ghost Tour.com which is based out of Providence, Ri states, “We expect a surge in business this year, now through Halloween.”

And while most in America see the season as a “fun holiday” filled with the taste of hot apple cider, and a time to pleasantly scare themselves in a mocked-up haunted house there is actually more to the season than the commercial and superficial aspects most of the public attributes to this time of year.

With a conservative estimate of 1 million Neo-Pagans in the world the autumn time calls in more than the superficial.  To many Pagans this is a celebratory time:

 The Autumn Equinox- the second time in the year when day and night are equal.  This time of year was traditionally the time of rest after labor during a simpler stage of our society’s evolution. This is a time of the year when Pagans honor balance between light and dark. For many Pagans this is celebrated sometime between September 20-23rd as Mabon.

-Samhain is typically October 31, and what we call Halloween. To the Pagan Samhain or Sowen was a Gaelic harvest festival popularized as the "Celtic New Year". The holiday is marked by many Pagans as the end of the harvest, the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darker half". It was traditionally celebrated over the course of several days. In Scotland it is still the custom in some locales to set a place for the dead at the Samhain feast, and to tell tales of the ancestors on that night which has added to the concepts of our now present Halloween. During the Samhain festival typically bonfires are lit in the night during the celebrations. 

Unfortunately many in the West misunderstand Pagans; thinking that they are devil-worshipping, baby sacrificing evil doers set against society’s moral decay.   Nothing could be further from the truth.  Bashaw, from RIP Academy and holder of a Doctorates in Divinity reveals, “Many people have an inaccurate perception of the occult, the paranormal, and paganism which has been propagated through inaccuracies in the media as well as hate mongering from the ignorant.”  Bashaw goes on to say, “Take for instance the term occult.  Many, if asked, associate the term with black magic.  What occult really means is ‘hidden’; more specifically knowledge hidden from the general populous and safe guarded by a few who retained it and carefully passed it along. Occult is not scary at all, but more so a sacred knowledge often dealing with sacred spirituality and it occurs in all faiths, even the mainstream.”   

Bashaw went on to explain the definition of Pagan, “Pagan or Paganism has a broad definition and varies from person to person, but if I were to define it simplistically I would define Pagan as a non-Christian who follows the older spiritual practices that incorporate nature and earth-based practices. Their core tenets are similar to many popular religions and are compassion, love, and to harm none. Pagans of today are not the stereotype of the old crone and witch casting evil spells; instead they are your doctor, lawyer, and plumber.  People get hung up on the stereotypes and refuse to actually recognize anything they don’t understand, and more so choose not to understand anything they feel is different from them.  For instance the word spell is synonymous with chant, prayer, and meditation… it depends on the belief of the individual using the term and are in fact the same concept.  If people would just see the similarities and not the differences, the people of the world might actually be more tolerant of each other and the world might actually not be in such a crisis.”

Pagans are around us every day, in every setting like sitting next to you at the coffee shop and across the row from your work cubical.  There is even a Pagan organization for martial artists known as PMAC http://pmac.yolasite.com/ which was unable to be reached for comment at the time of printing. With that said, take this autumn season to understand the essence of your pagan neighbors beyond the stereotypical hype in the name of tolerance.  Bashaw finished his dialogue by adding, “Get to know a Pagan and ask them about their faith; be tolerant as they share what they believe and remember they don’t want to convert you, only to be understood and to be accepted like any religious faith.  If you can’t find a Pagan come on our ‘Paranormal Providence’ ghost tour and ask me any questions as I share with you the non-frightening truth about ghosts on our walking tours.”

Enjoy the fall harvest and be well.

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