Dear Friends,

So yesterday was the Astronomical Samhain, the cross-quarter day betwixt and between the (Northern Hemisphere’s) Autumnal Equinox and Winter Solstice.  It was a slow night at work, and time and time again my thoughts turned to the song “Memory” from the musical Cats.

I am not normally given to singing, or to musical obsessions.

Now in my youth in the early 1980’s, when I was just becoming aware of things like popular music, this song was one of the inescapable hits on the radio.  The thing is I could only remember a few sentences of the lyrics… I am reminded of my musings about the folk song Tom o’ Bedlam, and how it could be used in ritual… I find myself thinking of how strangely appropriate the song Memory is and will be for observing Samhain and for honoring the Ancestors at other limnal times of year… Walpurgisnacht for example…

Simple heartfelt acts of worship are often the most powerful.  In fact if a Religious or Magickal rite isn’t made up of many small simple sacred moments woven together, then it won’t be either magick or worship.  You have to give yourself over to not just words memorized by rote, but to the meaning of those words and actions; you have to reach into and share the deepest parts of your mind and spirit with not only the other participants but with The Holy Powers, with the wondrous Universe itself.

Pretty words on a page have no power, unless you are willing to give yourself to them and give them voice.