As the Hunter’s Supermoon rises, the clear skies and lush smells of an autumn stew rich with mushrooms, carrots, chicken, spinach, Maricopa beans, corn, and chicken fills the air. The sunshine-filled days, sparkling blue skies, and the wave of warmth remind me of why early October is one of the best times to travel with the ancestors. One of my favorite memories of my father was the habit of just taking off to wherever we could go for half an hour or so. These mini-detours, even on our way to the grocery store were tiny bursts of adventure, allowing all to clear their heads while just being in the moment.
The Sun – Pamela Colman Smith, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
This year has been a challenging one for most people I’ve met, friends and strangers alike. As a species, I believe humans are built to explore, discover, and to engage what lies before us with courage, honesty, and faith. Even as a symbolic darkness envelops many around us, we are survivors. We carry within us the light that we use to take much needed detours and step boldly into our truth. The Harvest Moon encourages us to own our needs even if it means confronting norms which no longer serve our best interests.
In many ways, October travels with the ancestors are the sweetest because at this time of the year we expect to hear from our beloved ones whose memories warm our hearts. We embrace aspects of the tarot card, The Sun, within as we navigate the unconscious, our shadow selves.
We walk side by side with our ancestors at this time of the year.
The Sun from the Piedmontese tarot deck, F. F. Solesio, 1865 [public domain]
The Sun in tarot reminds us how energy, power, and vitality appears in our lives every day: we see the cycle of life with how we plant seeds, water them, nourish them, see them grow, grab their harvest, and watch them die.
Our ancestors watch us live, grow, and complete the cycle. During this time of the Black Sun, they hold our hands as we take our own side trips. When we spend time with them, we are reminded of our mistakes, our flaws, our successes, and how we have dealt with life in the past. We face our shadows more easily with the assistance of our ancestors, for they have engaged in similar battles during their lifetimes. They have nothing to lose by sharing. As living descendants, we have everything to gain in knowledge, wisdom, and purification.
One practice that embraces this process is celebrating the birthday or death anniversary of a given ancestor.
I honor my father’s death anniversary each year by taking small side trips, noticing something new in nature, and throwing leftovers into the crockpot to craft a simple meal that smells delicious. My father enjoyed entertaining us in the kitchen, where we would sit around the table, talking about our dreams, the day’s events, and how we were doing. Before you knew it, steaming plates of rockfish (Striped bass), corn and Brussel sprouts appeared on the table. My father loved making cornbread or flour and water biscuits with cheese that melted in your mouth. To this day, I still remember how he somehow always made liver with onions appear to be lightly breaded (it wasn’t) and taste amazing even though I did not like liver at all.
Food compliments the human experience. Enjoying a meal in honor of and with the ancestors can make the process of confronting the chaos, darkness, and decay that exists within our shadow selves that much easier.
When we travel with the ancestors, we are not alone. As humans, we need this reminder. In our current times, our sorrows appear many, and what uplifts us might seem scarce. Connecting in some manner with our ancestors will assist in the journey each of us takes during the transition between the onset of fall at the September autumnal equinox into the darkness that increases as we progress towards winter.
The shadows exist to remind us that the cost for our spiritual joy and awareness is the necessary act to confront that which we fear or those lessons that we deliberately try to avoid: our shadows.
Just as there is power in the obvious light side of the Sun as we see it in the sky each day, there is immense strength in the Black Sun, the dark side of the sun, where the unknown power resides in what we do not know about ourselves and what we do not wish to address in ourselves.
At this time of the year, our journeys with ancestors allow us to explore the chthonic aspects that we do not recognize or just do not know. These are our loved ones, our family who existed before we were born, and relatives who provide comfort in granting wisdom that assists us in navigating the destructive aspects of humankind.
While the positive of the Sun reveals itself through vitality, success, and spiritual contentment through illumination, our connection with the ancestors allows us to consider both sides of the path: the outward positive, light, and energetic versus the inward necessity to descend through our individual internal darkness, our human tendency towards egoistic behavior, and our willingness to destroy others and ourselves at times.
We have many examples in current events of the human tendency towards destructive behavior, be it towards the self or other humans. Sometimes, I am glad that many of my relatives whom I have lost during my lifetime are not here to see the horror and the truly inhumane behavior that passes for normal. I am glad that what my parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents fought for lasted long enough for them to be proud at the time of their deaths. Sadly, my generation and the generations that follow will need to call upon the collective wisdom of our ancestors to survive.
In the path of the tarot, one of the easiest cards to visually interpret is the Sun. Whether it is a child frolicking with the sunflower, children (two) innocently playing, or just the image of the sun itself, the energetic representation is positive and strong.
The sun’s rays nurture with some warmth; however, too much sunlight for too long a period of time brings drought and cracks the lovely surface of our planet.
Too much positivity can remain equally detrimental on a spiritual level. No matter how upbeat one tries to approach a situation, rational thought and practicality will need to balance out the harms done by excess zeal. Often this appears as pride or arrogance, rather than acceptance and humility.
(Motorcycles Caravan Following – a last picture by my father and so typical of being out on the road. [C. Ajana]
During this time, allow the ancestors to take our hands, travel with us on side trips, be they short or long, and show us how to navigate safely through the chaos to a stage of enlightenment. The whispers we hear in the daytime are just as valid as when the ancestors appear in our dreams.
I find that simple rituals are more meaningful at this time because they allow me to connect with my loved ones. These might include lighting a candle, burning a familiar incense whose scent reminds me of previous good times with the ancestor, the scent of that person’s body or their favorite perfume or cologne. Although I can barely remember it now, whenever I smell some variation of Polo for Men, I feel my father’s arms around me and just past the edge of the sunlight, I see his face.
My father loved cooking, travel, reading, people, and finding something new to explore – every day. From him, I inherited a love of travel, reading, people, finding something new to explore, and occasionally – cooking. We will take a lot of trips this month, and I will enjoy each one.
Overall, I see my father and all of my ancestors as a powerful source of light, providing energy for spiritual growth, even as they remind me to slow down and to see both sides of the sun: the light and the dark.
Spiritually, the Sun represents our journey towards understanding as it contains the light (visible) and the dark (shadow) to achieve the whole being. We are privileged to have not only the time each year to reflect upon this process, but to have those who have undergone the same – our ancestors – join us on the journey. The path into the dark and return to the light encourages us to embrace where we are lacking, including in the area of self-confidence, in order to achieve the vibrant vitality of human wholeness.
The ancestors are our cheering section, which is why when we travel with them, we are whole, we are blessed, and we are loved.
The Wild Hunt is not responsible for links to external content.
To join a conversation on this post:
Visit our The Wild Hunt subreddit! Point your favorite browser to https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Wild_Hunt_News/, then click “JOIN”. Make sure to click the bell, too, to be notified of new articles posted to our subreddit.