Samhain

November 1, 2022

The photo below was taken just this morning. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect setting and atmosphere to photograph the Samhain quilt, which I finished late last night. It's been damp lately, with foggy mornings. The leaf change has peaked, though I'm still enjoying a tiny bit of Fall color every time I drive down the road. 

Samhain (pronounced SAA-win) is probably the Celtic 'cross quarter festival that is most familiar to us. Other names from the European Christian tradition are All Saints Day, Hallomas, or All Hallows -- yesterday was All Hallows Eve, aka Halloween. I was listening to a radio interview about the history of Halloween, and the guest speaker mentioned the revival of interest in All Hallows during the Victorian Era & post-Industrial Revolution. These folks were drawn to mystery and superstition, perhaps as an antidote to their experience of modernity. A desire for spirit in the face of mechanization. I thought it was interesting, and I feel like there is something similar happening now. There is something attractive about the illogical, the fantastical, the irrational.

This is the time when the veil between the visible and invisible world is thin. The time when you're most likely to encounter or communicate with ghost or spirits. We make Jack-O-Lanterns to ward them off (or to show them where to go?) It's an opportunity to confront fear and themes of death & decay with public ritual. 

mystery - death - decay - the past
letting go - turning inward
The Otherworld

Samhain is about the necessity of endings.

In my little neck of the woods, we're slowing down a little. The garden is going to sleep. We've been moving & stacking firewood for the Winter. The first frost has come, and we've started burning fires in the wood stove again. I've noticed that people & places from my past keep popping up in my dreams. My family has started planning our upcoming holiday gatherings. All signs of the time. I find it comforting to circle back around to these rituals that mark the passing of time. There is a feeling of loss, but also a reminder that endings can also herald the beginning of another cycle.

The Bealtaine Quilt was a reference point for the design of the Samhain quilt. Bealtaine is exactly opposite the Wheel of the Year (May 1). That quilt was about experiencing the effects of increasing light, and it had a kaleidoscope quality. A variation on the kaleidoscope seemed appropriate for peering into the darkness and for thinning veils of space between worlds. 

All of the fabrics in this quilt are naturally dyed: indigo, osage orange, madder, and an old experiment with goldenrod and indigo over-dying for the teal/green. Intersecting pinwheels frame the void in the center. No more light; we're sinking into the darkness now. Remember, this is part of the dark 'feminine' half of the year in Celtic mythology. 

Concentric circles have been part of past quilts, but this time they a part of an abstracted web. Spiders are a totem for weavers & artists, and spider/spider web symbolism has cropped up in my work before. I think I want to make a huge quilt with nothing but spider web stitching...