Dear Beautiful Ones,

Welcome to the magical month of October!

.October is full of magic and more change. We begin to see more leaves changing colors and falling to the ground.

October is also a time when we begin to prepare to move into the darker times of the year with less daylight and cooler weather. Our mother earth prepares to go dormant.

.And of course, we spend this month decorating and preparing for the celebration of Halloween. Christians created the celebration of Halloween; however, Halloween’s origins come from the Celtic Pagan holy day of Samhain, pronounced “sah-win”.

.In the 9th century AD, the Western Christian Church, merged All Soul’s Day/All Saint’s Day with the Pagan celebration of Samhain and named it Halloween! Halloween originated from the name All Hallow’s Eve.

.The celebration of Samhain also dates back to ancient times of the Neolithic period in Ireland. The Neolithic period began in 10,500 BC and is the first evidence of humans in Ireland. Samhain is a time to honor the dead, our ancestors, and also a time to give gratitude as it was the last harvest of the year. So, whatever was harvested had to last throughout the winter.

Just as Christianity merged Halloween with the Pagan celebration of Samhain, I am honored to announce that I am officially a Christian Wiccan Priestess through the religion of Wicca! This is a blending of my love of the holy family with my love of magic.

Christianity, Wicca and Yoga all teach that there is a higher power that resides inside of us and we can access this higher power to lead us in love and light.

I was drawn to Wicca from a young age. What I particularly love about Wicca and also the Tantric traditon of yoga is the honoring of the Divine Feminine, the Mother God. If we are made in the image of God, then of course God is both male and female. God/Goddess is all pervading. In 2 Corinthians 3:18, the Bible says,

“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is Spirit.”

In Tantric yoga, it is said that if you take one step to the Divine Mother, she will take 1000 steps to you! We are now in the age of the Devi Consciousness or the Shakti Rising. This is a time of the Divine Feminine, the Creative Force of the Universe coming into balance with the Divine Masculine.

Below is a prayer to the Divine Mother in both English and Sanskrit. This prayer comes a Sacred text over 4000 years old that describes the Goddess as the supreme power and creator of the universe.

DEVI PRAYER

HYMN TO THE DIVINE MOTHER

English text by Julie (Julie Redstone)

The Divine Mother is everywhere.

She is in everything.

She is the Divine Essence that lives within all beings.

Her domain is the field of life, for she gives

to all beings the sustenance that is needed for life.

Her beauty lives in the natural world,

and spans the universes in all their splendor.

She has been called by many names,

for all traditions recognize Her.

Into each consciousness the knowledge is given

of the sacredness of life.

This sacredness IS the Mother.

She is the holy generator of the physical world,

joined to the heart and soul of every living thing.

All of the Earth is one with Her.

All beings of the Earth owe their life to Her,

for she is the Mother of all, the One who bestows

all gifts of life.

Her gifts come to the deserving and to the

non-deserving alike, for the sun does not choose

upon whom to shine.

She is the source of Divine blessing, the part

of the Oneness that bestows the graces that fill life.

We have not seen Her because her being is

cloaked in silence.

She emerges now as part of the Oneness where

she has always resided, blessing all, giving to all.

All who bow before Her are sustained by the life

within them.

All who honor Her are sustained by life’s gifts

both within themselves and beyond.

The purpose of existence is to join with Life that lives

in all dimensions and all realms of being.

It is the Mother that creates this evolving,

this unfolding journey,

for she is the fabric of Time itself,

the means by which all things grow.

She is the template for life that exists within Her —

the substance and form of all that shall ever come to be.

May all be blessed by the blessings of the

Divine Oneness.

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