Being a student of history, I am very often offended by those persons who dementedly insist that Halloween is Satanic; it most decidedly is not. Although it has traditions which predate modern ideas, is a mix of dark, arcane symbolism and practices, and probably, as such, has been a thorn in the side of modern conventional religions mainly because it comes from a time when spirituality was a combination of religion, superstition and myth.
Working on this precept, I decided to come up with a display/activity which would teach about this history, and also involve educating people a bit about the traditions and history of Halloween.
If we look at the main traditions of the holiday, we see that the pumpkins, the dark, scary aspects all are derived from the Celtic and Druid relationship to the holiday: pumpkin carving, for example, is a descent from the tradition of protecting the community areas with the heads of enemies, over time, rather than burying your enemy’s skull at the entryway to a sacred spot, community hall or home, a representative head, in the shape of a turnip–or as we do, a pumpkin–was placed at the step of the house or space, lighted with a small candle or ember to give the head "life" and show it’s visage in the dark.
So, too, is the idea that "All Hallow’s Eve" is the juncture between the world of the living, and the world of the dead, as represented by masks, costumes and the gifts and use of such things as apples, candies in the shape of ghosts, black cats; black cats were actually seen as humans who were being punished for sins made during life, which is why they were run off at Samhain, or Halloween, when they could influence rituals, primarily carried out by women, as it was the Druid women who wore black capes and kept black cats as tokens of earth worship (black was the ritual color of earth, and not evil, as many believe). Even in terms we use today, there is that derision of Druidic pre-Christian ideas; the term Celtic is derived from the Goddess of Earth, Cel, which was the use in Western Europe, just as Hel was the name used in Eastern religions, Goddess Hellena was the original Earth Goddess for Greek areas, and this was modified to antagonize Eastern Religions by association of Earth Religions to worshippers of evil by relegating earth worship to worshippers of Hell, so that today, Celtic is viewed as a group of people, and not a religion; and Hell is a derisive term for the place of punishment and torment, rather than places where the population was Earth-worshippers, and not wholly Christianized. It’s possible that the idea of "Hell" was created to mean areas "below" or south of Western Europe, where pagans were present, and this later came to represent what is viewed as hades, now.
Since this Druidic origin was the source of these early traditions, it seems a good idea to use, as the representative of the people living in this age, the character of Merlin, the Wizard who has come to represent the times and age when Druids were being replaced by Christian ideas, and to also represent a bit of the spirituality, which used the "language of the trees" as an alphabet, with each stylized character representing a sacred tree, and words having both sacred and common use as communication. This duality of language, the words themselves representing higher ideas in the spiritual nature of things, and suggesting mystical meanings, also opens up another aspect of that far-off period, and that is the origin of the idea of mazes to be used as ritualized "Journeys" or meditation tools to work in self-improvement and to further the understanding of life as a journey which enfolds upon the person, a means of representing the path of life as a "tree of life" representation, as a quest for betterment of the soul as well as the person. In this way, education and study were seen as honorable achievements, as were journeys made to visit sacred sites, an act which was adopted in the Middle Ages as Pilgrimmages to help a person achieve a more sacred state of being. In fact, the maze is one of the oldest spiritual symbols, which is seen represented as spirals, and maze patters in all Paleolithihic spheres, from Native American to Egyptian and even European and Mediterranean cultures. The design of mazes is viewed as a connection and a journey representative of the secular and the sacred.
Mazes became so common, in Medieval times, that they were installed in Cathedrals, in gardens and many sacred sites, which made the transition of being considered sacred as holy spots to the Christians as sacred walks, or mazes, while "below" they were still viewed, and had been viewed as sacred places and "hollow" caverns of sacred energy by Druid and other groups. Such things as "Merlin’s Grove" were associated with sacred groves of trees, or places protected by association with ancient or holy trees, and in the same manner; places such as Stonehenge which also could be seen as a "grove" of stones which joined the upper world to a more sacred, earth path below. Christian principles, rather than viewing the lower, dark elements as sacred, relegated them to magic, sorcery, and condemned the idea that lower, "hollow" places of sacred spiritualty were viewed as evil, and not elements to be tolerated or studied.
So, how do we achieve this fusion? By associating the parts we envision, such as pumpkins, the character of Merlin and arcane symbolism, through runes, alchemical symbolism and representation of the sacred underpinnings of names and symbols having a union and yielding a protective and spiritual meaning in the participation of a maze, it is just left to place the center, or object of the maze as a representative place to find enlightenment, and this by using a simple Druidic cermonial similar to a summoning, to place a sacred circle at the center of the hoop with all the representative names and symbols, all of which call upon the names of God and the Archangels to protect and display the control over elements into a site which visitors will navigate a maze, and then find the area, surrounded by Jack O’Lanterns facing out, which stand as the outer ring of a sacred circle to call upon Merlin. The date of such should be upon the 31st of October, and with the sacred circle, shown in this drawing, surrounded by symbols and lighted, grinning jack O’lanterns burning, with incense burning in an iron pot, or cauldron, and a copy of the grave marker on Newhill, near Carmarthen.
The grave of a nun’s son on Newais Mountain, Lord of Battle, Chief Magician, Merlin.
It is usually believed that repeating this three times whilst inside the circle on All Hallow’s Eve would summon the spirit of Merlin to answer three questions, but used as an educational display, this exhibit would join the spirituality of past times to practices of modern.
