Notes from Susan – About the holidays and their meanings
Some holidays will be familiar to you, others may not. In October we have Halloween, technically not a Holiday, November has Thanksgiving, Veterans Day and December brings Christmas and Hanukkah. But what about Samhain, All Saints day, Day of the Dead and Yule? There are many more throughout the year that may be unfamiliar to most. I’m going to cover some, not all of the various celebrations…my apologies in advance and if I missed one you celebrate, please tell us about it.
For additional information on any of these holidays you can look them up on Wikipedia, Google them or maybe start a dialog with friends and family and see what they know. I’m only going to give a brief overview of a few of them.
Let’s start with Samhain and the celebrations around the date.
To Wiccans, Pagans and Celts it marks the end of the year and the beginning of the next. A time when the final harvest was brought into the barns and cellars and the livestock that wouldn’t or couldn’t make it through the winter were slaughtered and stored. It is a time to celebrate the lives of those who passed on in the previous year. When the veil between this world and the next is the thinnest. Other belief systems incorporated some of their own celebrations, hence we have the Day of the Dead and All Saints Day. Trick or Treat, the pumpkin and dressing up for Halloween are all aspects of Pagan/Celtic celebrations incorporated into today’s society.
November celebrations
We’re all familiar with Thanksgiving, the US one that is. In Canada they Celebrate Thanksgiving in October. It’s a time to gather with friends and family, eat too much and tell tall tales. There’s also All Saints Day and All Souls Day celebrated in the beginning of November right after Halloween. This is a way to honor people that have passed over during the past year.
Our next newsletter will cover a fascinating and little known fact; Santa was once a shaman.
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- NextStage Expanded Awareness Society Happenings for Nov 2016
- Webinars – We’re offering 1 hour long free introductory webinars and you get first pick! (and feel free to invite your friends by sharing the registration link)
These webinars provide a general introduction to NSEAS and help people differentiate our approach from other methodologies/trainings. Specifics areas of discussion are wide open but typically include: The differences between Lucid Dreaming, Guided Imagery, Astral-Projection/Out-of-Body Travel, Trance Channeling, Channeling, and Shamanic Journeying, Different methods of journeying, and Shamanic work as a method of self-awareness and -healing. Have you read Empty Sky? It’s the story of a young boy and his dog who are asked to save the world’s dreams, but to do so they must each make a sacrifice. What would you sacrifice to keep hope alive?
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- Webinars – We’re offering 1 hour long free introductory webinars and you get first pick! (and feel free to invite your friends by sharing the registration link)