Happy Halloween! And to my neopagans, Happy Samhain! 

As I write this, it is actually October 31. In week 20, I talked some about this ancient Earth holiday and how much I love the notion of Samhain representing the turn of the new year—that regeneration begins just as the foliage is dying and we go inside for winter before rebirth in spring. 

Death and life are inextricably linked, and during this time of Samhain, they say the veil between the worlds, between life and death, are thinnest. Hence, the secularization into Halloween, witches, ghosts, and all things spooky.

For this week’s collage, I knew I wanted to focus on Halloween, so I chose a New Yorker issue from exactly one year ago featuring cover art by Liniers (@porliniers). “Leaf Peepers” became my springboard. 

I wanted to conjure walking through an autumnal forest, where the spookiness-factor is high. 

I am also contemplating this thinning of the veil. What am I haunted by? Hauntings always conjure things from the past, don’t they? What ghosts from my past are revisiting me today? Can I face these ghosts without fear? Can I actually get along with them? Can I recognize what they have given me? Can I find gratitude for them? Do I still need them in my life? Can I make peace with them and let them go on their merry way? 

Now is a great time to really take inventory, to clean house and start a new year by releasing the old, that which no longer serves me. To go into the hibernation of winter pondering what it is I want to plant next in my life.

And since Halloween turns into my birthday at midnight, I am giving myself the gift of a short and sweet (I hope) post this week.

Speaking of sweets, I hope you collect as many treats as you want this Halloween. 

THIS WEEK’S FEATURED CARTOON

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