During late October every year, the Sun in Scorpio blesses us with a time to honor our Eternal connection with those who have died before us. This period, known many places as "Dia de los Muertos," or "Day of the Dead," is dedicated to celebrating life and "all our relations."

Seven years ago this Day was mainly about remembering, celebrating, and memorializing two of my greatest dead Cat Teachers. Ten years ago I was away from home with a Spiritual Scorpio Brother at one of the bloodiest battlefields in American history. It was a remarkable experience which I wrote about after I got back.

Looking back on the past, this Day of the Dead I am remembering many friends who died across the years, including the death two years ago of one who was with me at the beginning of my journey into Astrology and the imminent death of another friend from that era who was part of our team which founded several co-ops in the early 70s in Austin. Because of my 2018 trip to Florida, I am still reminded from time to time how many of my high school friends have died. Then we add the memory of my very old father who died during the 9/11 2017 Florida hurricane, and the death of the hope we would ever connect.

As with last year, this year I’m wondering how much longer some very old friends have, remembering friends from the distant past who I just found out died this past year, facing the death of old relationships which have been on autopilot, and even the hope that certain things would be different by now with some people I once was close to. Unless we show up to be genuinely loving and honest, then at some point there will be a gulf as wide as an ocean with limited cell service.

I also recently revisited the hopes and dreams I had before my second Saturn return in 2009-2010 which died a hard death between 2010-2016. I chose to be fully aware as each hope and dream died, trying to let go and move lovingly through that underworld. As we show up to honor the dead, it naturally removes our fear and opens us to new chapters of our odyssey on Earth.

Last year death again loomed large, as my professional community four great ones, including the founder and publisher of The Mountain Astrologer. In the publishing world, Astrology has lost two giants. Quicksilver Productions closed, meaning no more calendars and planners, and we saw the end of the flagship publication of the craft for almost 100 years. Yes, the March-April 2020 issue of Horoscope magazine was the last. It seems Gutenberg’s 580 year run is winding down.

In the past year, obviously we’re all living with death at our elbow, due to the pandemic killing over a million people so far, with the prospect of another million dead before the run is done. It’s certainly been the death of a way of life, as there are things I can no longer do, while other things require planning and precision if I am to do them. Death has been a constant in the news this year, given the unbelievable quantity of people of color killed by cops.

I am happy to say that there was one “death” which was welcome to me and my friends involving the end of a brutal regime in an organization I’m in, and I’m sure that this year’s presidential election will mark the end of an old way of conducting elections, the death of the total control of our government by traitors and fascists, and hopefully, the death of the insanity we’ve all lived with for four years.

From moving in and out of the underworld of death and rebirth across the decades, I know that “and when I die, and when I’m gone, there’ll be one child born, in this world, to carry on, to carry on.” Each void created naturally attracts that which will fill it in some manifested form. Right here and now I can state I am truly grateful for where I’m at and all the good people and dreams I have in my life, since some years are "better" than others….

It is because I have known so much death for so many years that I value, as often as I can, my ability to honor the living hopes and dreams and loved ones that I still have. In honoring the dead, we honor the life we have and the love which surrounds us. Honoring the dead brings us to a greater appreciation for the living, and how life and death are the inbreathing and outbreathing of our Eternal Nature.

Honoring the dead brings us closer to the Eternal NOW, if we enter fully into the Mystery. While I am fully experiencing the now "gone-ness" of people I loved and touched not that long ago, I can also appreciate the ability to remain witness to the love we shared. They may be "gone," but the love remains.

Because I've had a string of significant deaths between the Day of the Dead and mid-January over the years, this begins a season in my life each year where I try to be conscious in honoring my dead, and that which has passed and is passing, since that also allows me to honor that which lives. And I appreciate being vertical and breathing, since it beats the alternative.

So today we revisit some things I've written in years past about this very special day.

This is about "sacred mythology." Here we are offered a chance to reconnect with all that is sacred in Nature and ourselves. This is the time to cultivate deep connectedness with the magnetism of Life itself, with our specific Way revealed through our recurring experiences with death.

This time of Scorpio, showing the light of ever deeper feeling connections with others and our deepest Self, vitalizes our ability to commune with both the dead and living. Being Water, we can feel and remember our Eternal nature and connectedness with "All-That-Is." This time, consecrated to honoring those who have passed before us, is truly a celebration of life.

It is an awe-inspiring and deeply transformative experience to enter into, and helps our inner nature remember that it's okay to celebrate the dead as well as those of us in a body. I was first exposed to it in the years I lived in Texas, where it is one of the most powerful celebrations of the year. As it's already started many places, take a moment to honor and thank your dead for being there for you to love.

This is one of the more profound times of the year. The ancient Chinese thought this was the season of "cutting and destroying," where the leaves fall, the fruits are available, and the life force begins to go dormant for its Winter rest in the Northern Hemisphere. (Perhaps the "Day of the Dead" in the Southern Hemisphere should be observed at the end of April and beginning of May?)

So however you are moved to do so, please open to how you can honor the dead. This "Day of the Dead" is not just one more commercial holiday. It is a period of depth communion with those who have passed away before us. It is a time to honor our connectedness with our departed but not forgotten loved ones.

The original intent of this sacred time had absolutely nothing to do with giving the candy industry a boost between Columbus Day and Thanksgiving. As an aside, I've always felt these last two were very peculiar "holidays," since the former celebrates the beginning of enslavement and disease of the original inhabitants of this continent, and for almost a century Thanksgiving marked a distorted excess complete with Aggie and Longhorn football for many years. (Spoken as one who lived in the midst of that peculiar ritual for decades!)

This time also has zero to do with fear of ghosts, real or imagined. We inherited Halloween, All Saints Day, and all Soul's Day (often forgotten) from our ancestors, but their true meaning has been ignored by our market-driven culture. In the year cycle of light and dark, manifestation and rest, this is a time of love and celebration WITH the Spirits of those no longer in a body, our loved ones across space and time.

When I first learned of this profound time in Texas many years ago, I was taught that it is a celebration of community, a time of the year to light candles, create altars and shrines to honor the dead, and celebrate the omnipresent power of the Eternal Life.

I learned to feel the universal reality that we all do eventually drop the body and re-join our loved ones, and as we honor the dead we enter a timeless stream of being remembered and honored in future "Dias de los Muertos" by those we leave behind. It is a time to celebrate continuity and connectedness of life.

Though many feel sorrow, it is not a morbid time. It certainly should not be a time to create fear in children through "scary" horror stories or the bizarre associations with deviltry and ghosts and haunted places. The deeper meaning of this time of year we enter a collective zone where we can honor our timeless bond of love with those who have departed this Earth. It is a time to grieve AND celebrate.

We can open to experiencing more fully our eternal nature in a profound on-going moment of connectedness with where we came from and where we're going, and the life and love we all are together. It's a great time to re-experience that we are Eternals, having human experiences. We have a body, we have feelings, we have a mind, but we ARE Souls, and our nature is Light-Love-Life.

So over the next few days, while others are eating candy, shopping, or talking about the white noise of life in this 4 dimensional reality, take a moment (or three) to light a candle, remember your loved ones, and celebrate the eternity of life, light, and love. It'll help you feel that you're very, very alive, and always will be!

Many blessings on all our loved ones and all our relations. May those who have passed over never be forgotten, and may they rest easy in the frequencies of Devachan and the Heaven world, secure in the lap of Divine Mother. Aum Namah Shivaya!

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