traditions

Feeding The Dead

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EarthSpirit LogoThe EarthSpirit Newsletter Autumn 96
Feeding The Dead
by Anne Lafferty

At Samhain many members of the Earthspirit Community come together to honor the dead. Before the ritual begins, participants go to one of several ancestor shrines to speak to those who have died and listen to other people tell their own stories. During the ritual itself, we call out the names of our loved ones who have gone before. We come together to remember the dead and honor them.

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Imbolc A Celebration of the Coming Spring

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EarthSpirit LogoThe EarthSpirit Newsletter Winter 94
Imbolc: A Celebration of the Coming Spring
by Anne Lafferty

The temperature is only a few degrees above zero and the wind chill factor brings it down to twenty below. This morning you had to wait three times as long as usual for your subway train because, somewhere on the line, a switch had frozen shut. A few days ago there was a snowstorm and another one is expected tomorrow night. The sidewalks are covered with several inches of ridged ice and almost every time you cross the street you have to clamber in and out of snowbanks at the sides. All your co-workers are saying that winter will never end and you’re beginning to think that they’re right. So, why, precisely, are you leaving your warm home and travelling all the way across town in the evening to do a ritual?

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