The Magic, Miracles and Joy of an Artist: All Souls' Day

Sunday, November 2, 2014

All Souls' Day

ALL SOULS' DAY (Nov. 2) is a day of prayer for the dead, particularly but not exclusively one's relatives. This annual celebration is held on November 2 and is associated with ALL SAINTS' DAY (November 1) and its vigil, HALLOWEEN (October 31).

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Halloween - "hallow" means holy

"een" means evening

HALLOWEEN (Oct. 31) is the eve of All Hallows, the night before the Christian holy day that honors saintly people of the past. A common custom of Christians was to come together on the eve of the feast of All Hallows Day to ask for God's blessing and protection from evil in the world. Often, they would dress in costumes of saints or evil spirits and act out the battle between good and evil around bonfires. This is the source of the modern observance of Halloween.

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ALL SAINTS' DAY (Nov. 1) is a call to live as saints, to remind us how we are supposed to live. All Saints' Day originates from early Christian celebrations of martyrs. It is a celebration of the communion of saints, those people we believe are in Heaven, through good works and God's grace.

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Dia de los Muertos or "day of the dead", keeps alive some of the tradition of honoring souls of the dead.

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For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come!

I AM A "SEARCHER"

"I am one of the searchers. There are, I believe, millions of us. We are not unhappy, but neither are we really content. We continue to explore life, hoping to uncover its ultimate secret. We continue to explore ourselves, hoping to understand. We like to walk along the beach, we are drawn by the ocean, taken by its power, its unceasing motion, its mystery and unspeakable beauty. We like forests and mountains, deserts and hidden rivers, and the lonely cities as well. Our sadness is as much a part of our lives as is our laughter. To share our sadness with one we love is perhaps as great a joy as we can know - unless it be to share our laughter. We searchers are ambitious only for life itself, for everything beautiful it can provide. Most of all we love and want to be loved. We want to live in a relationship that will not impede our wandering, nor prevent our search, nor lock us in prison walls; that will take us for what little we have to give. We do not want to prove ourselves to another or compete for love.

For wanderers, dreamers, and lovers, for lonely men and women who dare to ask of life everything good and beautiful. It is for those who are too gentle to live among wolves."

~ James Kavanaugh

I am THE LOVERS Tarot Card

Motive, power, and action, arising from Inspiration and Impulse. THE LOVERS represents intuition and inspiration. Very often a choice needs to be made. Originally, this card was just called LOVE. And that's acually more apt than "LOVERS." Love follows in this sequence of growth and maturity. And, coming after the Emperor, who is about control, it is a radical change in perspective. LOVE is a force that makes you choose and decide for reasons you often can't understand; it makes you surrender control to a higher power. And that is what this card is all about. Finding something or someone who is so much a part of yourself, so perfectly attuned to you and you to them, that you cannot, dare not resist. This card indicates that you have or will come across a person, a career, challenge, or thing that you will fall in love with. You will know instinctively that you must have this, even if it means diverging from your chosen path. No matter the difficulties, without it you will never be complete.