Samhain And Why I Am Looking Forward To October!
Photo courtesy of Pinterest
As I’ve mentioned many times before, for the majority of my life I lived under a rock, metaphorically speaking of course. I read a lot of books, had my own ways of viewing things, and wasn’t exposed to a lot of mystical ideas that would have been considered, well, strange in the world I had grown up in. That all changed when my book The Gathering Room - A Tale of Nelly Butler was published. Suddenly I found myself thrust into a world of ideas and concepts that I had never imagined I would be pondering upon let alone watch unfold in my own life!! One of these historically accurate concepts is the ancient festival of Samhain. It’s Celtic if you don’t know, and it has absolutely nothing to do with Satan. Which if you had asked me about it say, oh, 25 years ago, I would have probably told you that’s what I thought it was. I would have been wrong.
I think somewhere in the far reaches of my mind I knew that our modern day Halloween was connected to some pagan festival, but I never paid much attention. With my understanding on the history of Halloween rudimentary at best, I was intrigued last year when the word “Samhain” started popping up on my social media feeds. Funny how algorithms work. When I look at Bud’s social media feed it’s always full of basketball and weight lifting videos! In mine I find folklore, crystals and ghosts! I wonder how that happens?
For those of you who are wondering, Samhain is pronounced “sow-wen”. There, I got that out of the way. This ancient festival time celebrates the end of summer and the time in the season when the earth is heading into it’s dark time. That time of year I dread because our days are the shortest! The ancients believed it to be the start of their new year, which I find odd. Spring has always seemed like a better time for a new year to me. Ancient cultures also believed that during this time of year, the month of October specifically, was when the veil between this world and the next was at it’s thinnest. When communication between the two worlds, earth world and spirit world, was easiest. All of this communication building up to that one night of the year when the spirits from the other world can enter this one and walk among us. And there you have Halloween.
But this idea that the weeks leading up to that night, the weeks in October, are ripe for communication with the spirit realm intrigued me. I began to think of all of the things that have happened to me in October that have seemed “weird”.
Halloween, October 2015 - The night I read A Documentary History of the Nelly Butler Hauntings by Marcus Librizzi. The history captivated me and I can only describe it as I became obsessed. For weeks afterwards I researched and researched and researched. Until that fateful night when I woke up in the middle of the night and made the decision that I would just write what I thought had happened. Me…write a fictional story when I had never written anything before in my life. The idea, so preposterous at the time, but it seemed to be the only way to stop the obsession that had taken over my entire being. The result a woman who has never written anything writes a novel that captivates just about everyone that reads it and then wins four national book awards. Tell me that wasn’t a sign from another world.
October 2021 - I am offered a job at the Maine Tourism Association. Now I know that seems rather mundane but here’s the thing, From the moment I saw that job listed on Indeed, to the first phone interview, to the follow up in person interview I just KNEW that was my job. I was going to work there. I had never been more certain of anything in my life. Yet I had no experience in tourism or hospitality. Logically there was no reason for me to think I had a chance to get that job, let alone KNOW, like deep in my sould KNOW that I was going to get the job. But I did know, an other worldly kind of knowing. It made no sense to me at the time, I had done other job interviews and never been certain I was getting a job, but this one struck differently. I got the job and six months later Jane from Maine Authors Publishing called the Maine Tourism Association to ask about advertising her book festival. I answered the phone. I took that call and learned from Jane that people could self publish their own books. What a great idea because I had written a little story I wanted to have printed up into a book for my family and friends. It was a phone call at a job that changed the course of my life.
October 2022 -
A.) One month after the release of my own book fictionalizing Nelly’s story, my whole world exploded. I never imagined the story to take off like it did. Never imagined I would be appearing at events, signing books or being interviewed. During that time I often said I felt like the book was on a journey of it’s own and I was just following it’s lead. It was clear there was some other entity driving the direction of my life from that moment on.
B.) It was also the month when I would meet Susan Blaisdell, although not any relation at all to Abner and Lydia Blaisdell in my story, she gave me information on how the Blaisdells arrived in Maine. I found it fascinating and I began to research the Blaisdell family further. She told me she had seen a post about my book on Facebook but we never did figure out how she had seen it or who had shared it that we both mutually knew. It was as if Susan had been sent to me.
C.) At a Halloween party I stood and talked history to a man for over two hours only to learn, just as I said my goodbyes, that he was Mark Blaisdell, also a Blaisdell descendant. We later met up and he was able to provide me with more Blaisdell information that would lead me to England.
D.) It was in this month that a huge wind storm would blow through the small village of Bleasdale England and destroy a grove of trees. The grove of trees had been planted in 1903 to protect an ancient Bronze Age Circle that had recently been discovered. For over a century the Bleasdale Circle would be surrounded by trees, but that isn’t how it had looked originally. Like most of the circles in Great Britain, the Bleasdale Circle had been built on an open plain. I wouldn’t learn of the destruction of this grove of trees until April 2023 when I arrived at the site to research it for my next story. It was then that the landowner pointed out to me that I was seeing the Circle as it should be seen, with no trees. “How fortuitous” he said, “that in October all of the trees had been blown down. Almost as if someone, or some thing, wanted you to see it as it should have been!!” Yes, how fortuitous!
October 2022 certainly was full of otherworldly signs and messages, if one was paying attention! But if I thought that was an October to remember I was mistaken. October 2023 would prove to be even more life changing. October 10, 2023 I was able to hold in my hands the actual historical documents, dated 1816, that set in motion everything that became the historical record of the Nelly Butler hauntings. It was a surreal moment to see the names of real people that I had turned into characters in a fiction form. Later that same afternoon I stood in the Blaisdell cemetery in Sullivan Maine next to a man who was a direct descendant of Captain George Butler. I remember not being able to wrap my head around the fact that I was standing on the burial grounds of the Blaisdells with a man who carried Butler DNA! How could this day even be real? But it was real and it turned out to be one of the most memorable October experiences I have had yet.
I say YET for a reason. This year marks my third October since the veil was so obviously thinned for me. I still don’t’ understand why all of this is happening to me. Why at this time in my life I’ve been made aware of another side of understanding. But I have no doubt in my mind at all that something is happening!! I’m much more aware, more in tune with my world and more open to the possibilities of communications from one world to the next. Some one or some thing has a plan and I’m eagerly looking forward to what lies ahead this October!
Stay aware my friends! Look for your own messages!!