In a few days I'll be "keeping" the three days of Halloween, All Saints Day, and All Souls Day as a sacred passage and a thin space (Oct 31, Nov 1, and Nov 2nd). 

I bring out photos of ancestors and beloved ones (and beloved pets!) who have passed, and this year I have a few more to add because my circle of beloveds has grown. I also bring out photos of saints and awakened ones. I put them all on a table in my kitchen, where they get lots of gathered attention over the three days and remind me of the inner work before me.

And it's a reciprocal exchange of energies—I give attention and I also receive deep nourishment and assistance from my ancestors and saints and awakened ones. So much help is available to us, and the conscious work that we do and that we offer up on behalf of the whole matters. 

In the christian wisdom tradition, Cynthia Bourgeault calls these three days the "Fall Triduum," and she says that the intention of this passage is to "taste that in ourselves which already lies beyond death in order that we might begin to live from that place now."

Cynthia writes: "The days are shortening, the leaves are fallen, and the earth draws once again into itself. Everything in the natural world confronts us with reminders of our own mortality….In the quiet, brown time of the year, these fall Triduum days are an invitation to do the profound inner work: to face our shadows and deep fears (death being for most people the scariest of all), to taste that in ourselves which already lies beyond death, drink at its fountain, and then to move back into our lives again, both humbled and steadied." (You can read her longer description of the Fall Triduum here.)

However you mark the turning of these days, may you be well and may you find space to remember the mystery of death and those who have gone before us. 

With much care,
Brianna