Into The Scary - Perspective on Halloween

All Hallow’s Eve—a non-religious holiday that has become quite celebrated in our American culture. Doing a quick search as to the roots of the holiday, one explanation by the History Channel that I found connects it to the All Soul’s Day’s parades in England, a time period in the past when people thought that ghosts of the dead could cross back into the land of the living and be observed by those who had not yet passed on. This made me think about Azelle, the planet that I have been exploring since I was twelve, and wonder what they would think about the concept of ghosts. Are there ghosts on Azelle? If so, do they interact with the living? As always when I have questions, I went back to Merran Corina, character in my book and my contact for all things Azellian and asked. 

Sara: It’s Halloween. The time when ghosts and ghouls come out to scare us all. I know Azellians don’t celebrate the holiday, but do you believe in ghosts? Zombies? Vampires?

Merran (raises an eyebrow): There is an element of truth in all legends and myths. Particularly when it echoes so strongly that it becomes part of a cultural dialogue. It doesn’t always look like you might expect it to, but there is a reason that everyone resonates so strongly with the concept of ghosts, zombies, vampires, the undead of any aspect. To quote your famous playwright, Shakespeare in Hamlet: “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio/Than are dreamt of in your philosophy”. We as living beings filter through what we perceive, allowing ourselves to only receive what we consider “acceptable”, as defined by our cultural assumptions. Human or Azellian, we are alike in that regards. 

Sara: Is that a yes? 

Merran (with a mischievous smile): It’s an “it depends”. As the quote goes, there are more possibilities out there than we allow ourselves to see, much less celebrate. Are there ghosts? Considering that we Azellians live with a benign, non-corporeal race that most of us cannot perceive unless they choose to show themselves, Azellians aren’t afraid of “ghosts”. The half sensed presence in the room is always there to communicate, to open and to guide. Those who have passed on are guides. If they have something to say, and we can listen, then we will perceive them. If not, then we don’t. Either way, they are not harmful; they are simply there to show us the way. Any darkness we see is nothing more than a reflection of our own darkness, not inherent in them. And once we learn to accept ourselves as beings of light, we stop perceiving darkness in anything.     

Sara: So do you think they even exist? Ghosts, zombies and vampires? 

Merran: Yes, they do, but they are reflections of our own inner process of evolution. Zombies are nothing more than people who are too afraid to live so they deaden their senses and live in a world that is nothing more than phantoms and imagination, vampires are people who are desperately trying to live but are so afraid of it they attach themselves to anyone they think is alive in order to suck them dry. Many people are both. We wake up out of the world of the undead when we decide to embrace the truth of the luminous light beings we really are, and as we do that, we also start to perceive something very, very different. 

Sara: More things in heaven and Earth, indeed. Do all Azellians think like you? 

Merran (with a grin): No. But more and more people are waking up to who they really are both here and on Earth, so my perspective is not as uncommon as it once was. As for the holiday of Halloween itself, although we Azellians don’t celebrate Halloween, we have Kyarinal, which is also known as Festival, a time when we play with possibility and see what we will bring into our waking lives. The word Kyarinal means “possibilities” and that is how I see your Halloween, too. As a time to celebrate creativity and the possibilities that come from it. 

Sara: I never thought of it that way. I like it. Thank you, Merran. Happy Halloween!

Merran: Happy Halloween, Sara. 

Possibilities. Halloween is a time for us to explore, to have fun and to express our creativity. We are here, after all, to experience all we are and everything there is to feel—and that includes “scary” stuff. Whatever the historical roots of this holiday, we can open ourselves to possibilities we might not have otherwise entertained. From that perspective, whether ghosts, zombies and vampires are a frightening aspect of reality or a mythical shadow of human evolution, we can celebrate the holiday knowing that we are all in this together—waking up from the world of the unconscious to a world of awareness.

Happy Halloween!