NOVEMBER, 2009

 November 1 - 9:

 11/1 - 3 (3 days):

 These red days of autumn pass like maple leaves in the stream, and are among the most passionate times of the year for people whose emotional bodies are engaged. Among the other festivals held all over the planet at this point in the year:

 The Celtic New Year feast of Samhain, which actually begins Oct. 31, continues until Nov. 27. The time of increasing darkness from now until February is under the protection of Cailleach (the "veiled woman"). Note the resemblance to "Kali": the Witch at her most severe, the dark side of the Wise Woman aspect of the Triple Goddess.

In the Khemitian calendar, these three days are the Isia, the Feast of Aset (Isis), which commemorates the dismemberment of Ausar (Osiris) by his brother and murderer Set, and the healing and love skills of Aset in collecting and reintegrating the King's body, bringing Ausar back to life a second time -- after having already revived him once after Set first killed Ausar by apparently suffocating him inside a wooden box. The love union of Aset and Asar after this second resurrection produces the solar hero Hor (Horus), who will seek to kill his father's murderer -- the Hamlet plot first appears on Earth -- and to restore balance in the Realm between order and chaos, life and death.

In the Norse calendar, these days are sacred to Baldur, the handsome young Adonis/Attis counterpart in Teutonic myth, as his annual moment for death and disappearance into the Earth approaches.

In Roman Catholic and some other Christian calendars, All Saints' Day on Nov. 1 is followed by All Souls' Day, a time of prayer for departed souls who have not yet achieved sainthood.

In an annual ritual play at the temple of Ra at Heliopolis, the crew of the boat that carries the Sun through the heavens speak on the principles of cosmic and earthly order, thereby reaffirming divine law in a speech contest judged by gods and men. As a teaching piece, this is one of the most important ritual plays in the year.

 In Mexico, where Nov. 2 is the old Aztec Day of the Dead, this is the Dia de los Muertos, celebrated with raucous festivities honoring the dead. Millions of people wear skull hats and skeleton suits, and gather to sing, dance and play the Comedy of the Dead.

11/2 - 9 (8 days):

In the Tibetan Buddhist calendar, the Taurus Full Moon begins Lha Bab Duchen, the autumn festival that celebrates Buddha Shakyamuni's descent from the Tushita Heaven, where he had gone for three months, in a gesture of gratitude to his mother, to teach her, and other gods and goddesses, the secrets of release from samsara, the seemingly endless round of birth and death. This festival climaxes on the 22nd day of the 9th lunar month, when the Buddha finally descended from Heaven, after having first agreed -- in response to entreaties for his return to Earth -- to descend on the 15th. As this feast honors the Buddha's mother, it has the status of Mother's Day in the Tibetan tradition.

Southern Taurid meteor shower peaks in the evening of 11/2 Hawaii Time, in the morning of 11/3 UT. The Moon is waxing (from 10/28), so viewing, even if not perfect, is still generally good.

In the Jain calendar, the day after the Taurus Full Moon is Jnana (or Gyan) Panchami, also called Laabh Paacham. This festival honors learning, especially the spiritual knowledge contained in sacred books. The emphasis here is on the Jnana, transcendent wisdom, that is the fruit of pure spiritual study.

The Irish celebrate this day as the feast of the great prophet and visionary St. Malachy, the "Irish Nostradamus".

11/4 (Wed):

This day is the Baha'i feast honoring the Deity as Qudrat -- Divine Power.

    Remember, remember the fifth of November / Gunpowder, treason and plot. / We know no reason why gunpowder treason / Should ever be forgot.

This day is best known in English-speaking countries as Guy Fawkes Day, which commemorates the arrest and execution of the man who in 1605 led the famous Gunpowder Plot to blow up the British Parliament. This event, marked with fireworks and the burning of "the old Guy" in effigy, superseded an earlier Celtic Samhain rite in which images of the sufferings and evil spirits of the old year were burned to purify the new year. While officially seen as a mentally unfastened incendiary, Fawkes has always been beloved by those who favor increased freedom at almost any cost.

 An important day in  modern spiritual history, as it was on this day in 1993 that the Re-Imagining Conference emphasized the importance of the feminine principles of Holy Wisdom (Sophia) and the sacredness of female spirituality within the mainstream Christian tradition.

In the Roman Catholic calendar, this is the feast of St. Theodore Tyro, hero of one of the most celebrated martyrdom stories from the persecutions of Diocletian in the early 4th century. Theodore, a Christian officer in the Roman army decades before it was healthy to be one, used the leniency of his commander -- who gave Theodore several chances to renounce his faith -- as the vehicle for glowing speeches that inspired new martyrs in the decades before Constantine the Great made Christianity the state religion of the empire (336). It was reported that when Theodore was finally burned, his soul shot up into the sky in a flash of white light.