Entering the Shadow

Reflections on the Season of Samhain and All-Hallows

The days are growing shorter at an ever accelerating pace as the nights grow colder. The trees are ablaze in a riotous glory of color. Every passing breeze sends a new shower of leaves whirling like confetti into the clear autumn sky only to fall to earth again where ultimately they will be absorbed into the humus, ending the cycle, so it can begin again. And this aspect of the autumnal season becomes a metaphor for its esoteric meaning. This is the end of the cycle, and a necessary preparation for its renewal. 

In the ancient conception of time which formerly prevailed among most of the world's people, time was cyclical, a view which sprang from the observation of the seasons, the motions of the heavens, and the life of plants and animals. The observations of the natural world became the model for cosmology. Every cycle has a beginning phase, an…