Samhain

Samhain is often called the Witches' New Year, but the word "Samhain" more directly means "the end of summer." How can we reconcile these two events into a single festival time? New Year celebrations are about beginnings or renewals. What does the end of a season, especially a season of growth like summer, have to do with those themes? Is there any way to build a coherent vision for Samhain that embraces both perspectives?

I think a solution can be found in the myth most associated with Samhain by Wiccans, The Descent of the Goddess. Now, I'm not aware of any association with a descent myth in the historical observances by the Celts. So if I were a reconstructionalist I'd be approaching this very differently, of course. But reconstruction of just one cultural perspective isn't what I'm up to. As a Wiccan, I'm looking for pan-cultural expressions of spiritual ideas, and The Descent really fits the bill.

It has become common for Wiccans to incorporate some form of The Descent into their celebration of Samhain. An abbreviated version of the story appears in Gardner's published work and we see the theme of Divinity descending in several great mythologies, perhaps the oldest being Sumerian (the land of Sumer = Summerland? hmm...)

Some elements of the story are malleable, but a core of common themes is essentially universal. Divinity descends from the upper or normative world into a chthonic underworld and confronts the ruling power there. The story usually ends in some sort of compromise or integration of powers, and often provides an explanation of the seasonal changes in nature. And there's our clue. The Descent is about how something started.

To put the idea into narrative context, ask yourself what the world could have been like before the seasons existed. The myths don't exactly spell it out, but the before and after descriptions aren't hard to interpret. The pre-seasonal earth resembles nothing more than it does what we experience as summertime.

Before the event that provokes the Descent (details vary) the Goddess had never really withdrawn Herself or Her blessings from the natural world. The myths describe the mourning and withdrawal of the Goddess in ways that are familiar to anyone who has ever seen summer turning to fall. Vegetation dies and withers, the earth grows cold and food sources disappear or become rare. The mythic context of the Descent is the original start of winter. For the first time, the world experiences a seasonal change. Summer ends and we have the first Samhain.

So that's where it ties together. Summer ends, and the seasonal year begins. The underlying lesson is that life cannot grow in stasis, and we need the cycle of death and rebirth to reach our own potential.