Mystery, Magic, Mayhem and Mysticism

The Lost World of Nostradamus With the absolute explosion of magical thinking, the Wizard's curtain was pulled back to reveal a torrential downpour over the watercolor illustrations of The Lost Book of Nostradamus . 

And there has been a rendering of the veil of illusion and allusion over all of his previous prophephies, Images and Quatrains. How synchronistically does this world line up to also give us Halloween, Samhain, All Saints Day, Day of the Dead and All Souls Day? 

 This is definitely a month where the harmonic convergence of the mystical is aptly expressed by the closest and brightest Full Hunter's Moon of the year. And it provides us with an opportunity to dress up in disguises and participate in metaphorically altered states where we pretend to be ghosts and goblins, scarecrows and witches, black cats and vampires and at the same time, go to Festival of Lights and Hold Back the Night's and various other Harvest Festivals meant to parallel (but more safely reflect) this magical season. In ancient times, this time of rich harvests was the beginning, and not the end, of their calendar year. The Celtic celebration was the welcoming harvest of their New Year and the actual time of transition, from sundown on Samhain, (the original druidic or pagan celebration of Halloween) to sundown, the following day. This was the mysterious and magical "thin place" in the Celtic world. 

This thin place was a place between-the-worlds...where deep insights could pass more easily to those who were open. In addition to mystical inspiration, the portals allowed the passing (from one world to another) of beings of wisdom, fun, and play....and hence, the beginnings of our own All Hollows Eve or Halloween. At the very heart of this burgeoning Celtic Otherworld, there was a belief in an apple tree whose fruit had magical properties. 

Old sagas tell of heroes crossing the western sea to find this wondrous country, known in Ireland as Emhain Abhlach, (Evan Avlach) and in Britain, Avalon. At Samhain, the apple harvest was in, and old hearthside games, such as apple-bobbing, called apple-dookin’ in Scotland, reflected the journey across water to obtain the magic apple. Many of our ancient and unconnected cultures (the Egyptians and pre-Spanish Mexicans, for example) celebrated this thin time and all of is interconnecting mysticism as a festival know as Day of the Dead . 

 The ancient Celtic view of time is a cyclical one. And in this framework, their this New Year's or All Hollow's Eve, represented a point outside of time. This was a state of timelessness, when the natural order of the universe dissolved back into primordial chaos, preparatory to re- establishing itself in a new order. Thus, this night, which we now called Halloween, is a night that exists outside of time and hence it may be used to view any other point in time. At no other holiday is the mystical and unknown, so likely to succeed.... as is evidenced by the magical number of hits over my own research filled posts on The Lost World of Nostradamus and his The Vaticinia Michaelis Nostradami de Futuri Christi Vicarii ad Cesarem Filium....or the Prophecies of Nostradamus. Little did I know that, sitting here in peaceful Salem, Oregon, that even I would be ripping open a seam in my own quilted fabric of time. A time when stitches might snap, ripping the fabric of reality to let in elements of chaos. 

When I opened sitemeter first thing yesterday morning to discover I already had as many hits as the total of an average day, I knew the mayhem of magical thinking was sweeping me up, pulling me through the veil and into the harvest of mysteries. When the final count and reckoning began to come in, I was totally amazed by by the expressed level of interest in all that is unseen and yet to be understood. I knew that I had played with the mystical moonlight, and froliced in the fall air with swirling leaves and the gifts of apples from the center of my own harvest. 

 Now, all I need is a great fire festival to encourage the dimming Sun not to vanish too quickly into the darkness of winter. Time to say blessings for all that is rich and abundant in my world as the fertile harvesting of crops come in and the veil opens to usher in new symbols, meanings abundance and joy. 

  Of 2012 and the end of the world interest: 'Web-bot project' makes prophecy of 2012 apocalypse