Letter from Cressida Pryor
October 29, 2020
Samhain Letter 2020
Dear Friends,
I think we can all agree that 2020 is delivering a very unusual, different and difficult Samhain...
One of the challenges is to remain emotionally and socially connected despite remaining physically apart...and maybe at this time of year ‘when the veil between the worlds’ is at its thinnest these paradoxical ‘distant connections’ are especially relevant...
Some of us have lost loved ones recently, maybe to Covid or other causes so the separation feels particularly raw...for others it is a reminder of the cumulative grief that stalks in all of our lives. We love and the cost of loving is to hurt when we are separated and now that inevitability resonates with the Celtic festival at this time, the Mexican Day of the Dead and the Christian All Souls...
So how do we honour and connect with those who have gone before? It seems to be easier when the relationship was one we valued and was close, when many would think that that would be harder to lose...another of life’s paradoxes seems to be that the better the relationship is, the easier it is to grieve its loss and move on but even in a difficult relationship this can be repaired. A prayer I use every morning has this line:
‘May I use the gifts I have received and pass on the love I have been given...’
Love that is freely given to us can then be shared and enriches the world to become a better place.
This is what I envisage at Samhain...the love that pours through the generations, that has been freely given despite hardship and difficulty. It is like the gold that is used to mend broken pots which then become even more beautiful and take on a new life...here is a wonderful example by Natsuyo Watanabe:
So the beauty of this trans-generational love, the flowing gold that holds the repair is hope exemplified.
