November 23, 2024

Samhain Memories
By Pamela Alexander

The Decorated Flame Stone, preparing for evening ritual, Samhain 2024

Samhain at Four Quarters this year was an amazing experience as we came together to connect with the most Ancient Ancestors. We gathered in close Friday night, working in the beautiful North Copse, which was decorated with an amazing petroglyph, gracing the Flame Stone. 

I know it is a mistake for an event organizer to get too emotionally tied to event content. You really need to maintain some sense of objectivity. But, this year, I simply could not be objective. I was emotionally invested in every aspect of Samhain, and all I can humbly say here is that the event delivered everything I could have hoped for.

When I stepped in front of the Flame Stone on Friday night, behind the fire, in front of the flickering torches, and saw the great Stones around me, the people waiting for the ceremony to begin, the steady heartbeat of the drum under it all, and the haunting, primal sounds of the didgeridoo, I had a moment when instinct took over, and rational thought fled my consciousness. It just was a second when I had that feeling that this must have been very close to what the Ancestors actually did. Every hair on my body stood up, and I had an awareness of the Ancient Spirits gathered among us.

The ancestor altar, opened for reliquary use and remebrances. Samhain 2024

Such moments don't last long, and it is foolish to try to grasp them and cling...I let the feeling wash over me for a moment, then it was gone, and I was back where I belonged. And out of the darkness to my right, a single, beautiful voice began to sing, low-pitched and true. And the song is used at Samhain so often that it is nearly a cliché, but, there, and then, it summed up all that was happening, and all that was to unfold for the entire weekend.

Lo, there do I see my father.
Lo, there do I see my mother,
and my sisters, and my brothers.
Lo, there do I see the line of my people,
Back to the beginning!

Lo, they do call to me.
They bid me take my place among them,
In the halls of Valhalla!
Where the brave may live forever!

The Author in High Preistess mode before the decorated flame stone. Goddess petroglyph by Mary Murphy.