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Heather Fae at Old Tongore Cemetery in Olivebridge, NY. Photo by Eric Francis for Book of Blue.
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Dear Friend and Reader:
It’s dusk in New York, and on Oct. 31, that means that a year is ending. This, in the Pagan calendar. Since the new year doesn’t begin until daybreak, tonight is the night between the years, or as I call it, the night out of time. Its always one of my favorite nights of the year — the veils are indeed thin, and the ancestors are close by. If you’ve been following Planet Waves this week, you know we are at one of the cross-quarter times — midway between an equinox and a solstice.
These are the true Pagan holy days, or sabbats: the current one is called Samhain (it’s pronounced sahwen, and if you don’t want to get on the bad side of a witch, please don’t say sam-hain). This is opposite Beltane (the May, or Midspring). The smaller ones are Imbolc (Midwinter, which became Candlemas and Ground Hog Day, around Feb. 2) and Lughnasadh (Midsummer, first harvest or second planting, either Aug. 1 or 5).
On the 1st of November, Day of the Dead, I try to get to a cemetery every year and commune with those on the other side. I have a new favorite one in Olivebridge, called the Old Tongore Cemetery, and I plan to arrive tomorrow with some rum and frankincense and other offerings. That is, unless my dad gets back to me fairly soon with the grave locations of my grandparents Sam and Vera Coppolino, his parents, down in Orange County.
The photo above, of Heather Fae, was taken a few weeks ago at Old Tongore. Here is a photo of Heather in more or less normal waking consciousness. As soon as she was undressed and touched the ground, she went into a trance and entered the world of the dead. I know her pretty well, and this was no version of personality that I’ve ever encountered. She was describing what it was like to be in the world on the other side of the veil. She tapped into the sense that most of those around us didn’t know they had crossed over. Talking to her quietly through that portion of the photo shoot, I felt like I was talking to someone who was buried in that old graveyard.