Recently I've been giving a lot of thought to our
concepts of the Dead. A seasonal musing each year around this
time.
I don't know how many other Craft traditions have these concepts,
but both of mine do. Surely everyone has Beloved Dead, meaning
those we've loved who've passed on from this realm. We celebrate
these ancestors every year at Samhain. We grieve together and
we often communicate directly with them, as well. The Mighty Dead
are a bit different. The Mighty Dead are said to be those practitioners
of our religion who are on the Other Side now, but who still take
great interest in the activities of Witches on this side of the
Veil. They have pledged to watch, to help and to teach. It is
those Mighty Dead who stand behind us, or with us, in circle so
frequently.
In some cases, the Beloved Dead and the Mighty Dead may be the
same people. For instance, two late friends of mine, Raven Moonshadow
and Judy (Calypso Iris) Foster, now are revered as Mighty Dead
amongst many Reclaiming Witches. Raven was a powerful priest and
a talented teacher, complex and possessing of human foibles like
all of us are. Judy is also among the Mighty Dead of NROOGD tradition,
although I'm not certain that NROOGD uses this concept. The point
being that Judy was a priestess, and a very influential one, one
deeply involved in our work and our evolution as a faith tradition,
of both traditions.
Another recent example - one no one would quarrel with - is
the late Victor H. Anderson (May 21, 1917 - September 20, 2001)
, oldest known practitioner of Faery/Feri tradition Craft. I have
no doubt, and neither do the many other Witches he's trained,
influenced or who've descended from him, that Victor's over there,
and that he'll come dance with us in the Marin Headlands on Halloween.
In past years, at Samhain, I've called specific Mighty Dead
into our circles. In general, I don't make a distinction between
which particular tradition "own" individual Mighty Dead.
So I've called Grandma Julie (Tower Family tradition out of the
San Jose area, now having two lines) and Gwydion Penderwen (Faery
tradition), for example, to Reclaiming Samhain rituals.
One year at a Reclaiming's Women's Samhain, after the Quarters
had been called, I faced each Quarter and called one of the four
women of the Golden Dawn - Moina Mathers, Annie Horniman, Florence
Farr and Maud Gonne - into the circle. Although I don't consider
them technically to be Mighty Dead of the Craft, I do indeed consider
them to be prominent among our magical foremothers. It was for
this reason I called them.
At this ritual, we had set up a central tiered dining table
set with beautiful plates, silver service, seasonal vegetation
(pumpkins, squash, Indian corn, grapevines, Autumn leaves). Women
wrote on place cards and put their place cards at the settings
on the table. So I wrote the names of each of these magical foremothers
on place cards so that they had an honored place at our table.
I believe it behooves us to honor such people. And what better
time than at Samhain, when we honor our ancestors and mourn our
Beloved Dead.
