Giving Up The Ghost

Hope you had a suitably spooky Samhaim and happy 'Day Of The Dead!'

I love the magic and the madness of Halloween - the thrill of a horror film and the dreamlike images that fill the streets as party-goers spill from masked balls and costumed soirées. But this festival season also provides the opportunity for reflection and memorial. It is the time of year when the membrane between this world and the next thins. When we can reach out to our dearly departed and cradle fond memories. When we can celebrate their lives and consider what we have gained from our knowledge of them.

Recently I read a wonderful article from author and graphic novelist, Nimue Brown, that added another dimension to the potential of this festival. She writes "This is also a good time to think about what dies within us as part of our own cycles of growing and stripping back. Inner deaths can be a gift as much as a loss and either way they create the room for new starts and fresh opportunities. Without the dying, there could be no new things." [Nimue Brown, 'Samhain And The Dead' from 'Druid Life']

Just as any other new year celebration, Samhain is a time for fresh starts and new approaches. I began to ponder those personal demons that haunt me... The guilt I carry on my back for pursuing a life as an artist. The depression that waits patiently at my heals, ready to curl onto my lap on darker days. The anxieties I've caught in small gilded cages about me and the ever-present fear that, at any moment, those cage doors could spring open, engulfing me in a whirlwind of madness and panic.

Today is 'Día de los Muertos', The Day Of The Dead. It is a time to both recall and relinquish those that haunt us.

Today, I hope you will join me in giving up the ghosts.