Forbidden Knowledge

Exploring the Symbolism of Halloween: Bridging Ancient Rituals with Modern Celebrations

• Nathaniel Heutmaker • Season 2

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Discover the rich symbolism of the bear and its profound impact on ancestral traditions around the world. What ancient secrets do these rituals hold about our connection to nature and the cycles of life and death? Join us as we navigate the fascinating tapestry of customs from hibernation practices, known as "Bear Night", to the mysterious Afablot and the mythological role of the ferryman in celebrating life’s transitions. We take a journey through history, examining how these ancient practices have evolved from the Stone Age to the present, celebrating ancestors with joy and feasting, rather than sorrow.

In our exploration, we delve into the spiritual essence symbolized by the rune Othala, shedding light on the rituals of inheritance, the wild hunt, and the transformational power of mistletoe. We emphasize the importance of creating meaningful celebrations that honor your personal heritage, drawing inspiration from Gaelic, Celtic, and Nordic traditions. Through votive offerings and the insights of Ibn Fadlan, we highlight how these rituals can be interwoven into your own celebrations. Join us in cherishing the memories and legacy of ancestors, fostering a deep, joyful connection with the past.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 1:

So to help answer your question absolutely on Iblis and the Fodlon's account and the Viking varials and that kind of thing, for what's going on there on that particular front. So another part is, obviously this has to do a lot with Alpha Bloat. You have to know alpha bloat. Go rewatch Thor's videos on that if you want to know more details on that particular front With that. This is highly important for what's going on there. You cannot understand these traditions and what possible things you can pull from without having that particular aspect of it as well. One of the things that is recurrent with all this, no matter what, though, is a feast for remembering of one's ancestors and whatnot. It is not a day of sorrow, but a day of joy instead, in terms of bringing them back with it, remember in the mythological terms, for what's going on with it. If you were to cry, you were only to add to the resounding river and whatnot in the various different traditions and make it harder for them to cross rather than not, and be more reliant upon the ferryman than necessary, and that kind of thing. For what's going on. It was a day of celebration, not a day of making it, so that way we would go in and do anything negative and whatnot and bring in any of our sorrow on that particular day. I don't fully understand this aspect yet. But there's another aspect that has to do with bears. So right around this time of year is when the bear enters its lair or cave and it closes it permanently for winter. In the northern hemisphere Our ancestors would have called it I might be butchering this slightly Bjorn Akarvaldr, which would be Bear Night, and then there would be a nine days afterwards, after Halloween is when this usually occurred. You can see this being marked on the Fremstavens. Anyway, the entire understanding of this particular point is that the bear is a huge part of the occult understanding of things with it and we seem to have based our entire understanding of life around the bear and it going into its hibernation time period for this time of year, and all of our holidays are based upon it to a large degree. For what's going on here, as in my estimation? What's going on here is, in my estimation, so and the natural cycle of the bears the she-bear would be impregnated around the summer solstice. She then gives birth to her cubs around the winter solstice, which of course is the actual Yule night for Norse paganism, and according to science, the she-bear can select her embryos which to them excuse me, which of them who will be born and grow up before they are physically born. She can also retain unborn embryos in the womb and give birth a second round.

Speaker 1:

It's very clear that our ancestors followed the cycle of nature and since the bear followed it, very much so and are the best in terms of a creature, that was that way, as well as it being one of those powerful things that there was during that time period and whatnot to be feared and to be venerated. Time period, that time period and whatnot to be feared and to be, uh, venerated, um that you know we've been doing this, some of the stuff that relates to the bear and following its natural cycles, um, all the way from the stone ages, would be most likely the case during this time of year. We would go into the ancient burial mounds and bring out the ancestors and interact with them and whatnot, assuming that they were buried instead of, you know, cremated, and we would also make it so that way, the children who had gone through their teething phase, where they're now teething and they've lost, losing all of their baby teeth and they're gaining their adult teeth. This would mark them entering into their own being and no longer just a child but becoming of adulthood and the beginnings of that, the coming of adulthood and the beginnings of that. That. The people that they were named after because we always named them after the spirit of the deceased and whatnot that we would make it so that way. They would go into there and they would be given the gifts of who they are. Now. This didn't happen on this night. They would begin the process of ritual rebirth and initiation and whatnot, and that would happen around Yul time and Christmas time period and the exchanging of gifts and that kind of stuff. It was an inheritance for what it is, with Freyr being given Alfheim as a teething gift, as it is in the mythology for what's going on there. So there's this that's being played with too.

Speaker 1:

We also see this in other traditions that are going on. With it, not just say the Proto-Indo-Europeans, say the proto-Indo-Europeans, but also the ancient Jewish people. They would take their buried dead, put them into their version of a burial mound. It's different, of course. They would make it so that way. They would put them inside of these ossuaries, these boxes that are just big enough for the thigh bones, femurs to be put out, and across the shape and then the skull on top, and then everything could be fit into that box, or the skeleton and whatnot, once the body had been completely decayed. And so beforehand, they would put it onto a table area that they would lay out, they would let the body decay slowly and whatnot. Then, a year later and a day later, they would come in, they would wash the body, they would wash the bones, they would do all this other stuff that's left with it and they'd put it into this container for it.

Speaker 1:

So this is where the skull and crossbone notion comes from, but it is also the same notion that we get for it in terms of what we did with it. It is shown in certain rituals that we would bring out the head and we would bring out the femur and whatnot, and this goes back even so old that we don't even know exactly how old it is. But Neanderthal man did it and it is believed that the reasoning for this was that the you know thigh bones that was there, the femur and whatnot made it so. That way it represented earth and our needing to be on it, and then the head represented spirituality in the higher plane, and so you have heaven and earth that's represented by these two things that are there, that are going on with that on that particular point in time for what's going on, which then of course, gives us another inkling into things, for what was happening.

Speaker 1:

Thor mentioned this, at least in part, in his most recent video that he did about a I don't know a week ago or something like that, that had to do with the carving of pumpkins here in the United States and that kind of stuff with it. Originally it was turnips that they did instead, and the turnips were done in such a way to make him Jack-o'-lantern, so it would be the head of the person and that kind of stuff, the head of the being, and you would put the candle inside of it. That was going on. They found it easier to do with pumpkins over here, so that's how it became a thing in the united states, uh, and and whatnot, and then that spread to other parts of the world afterwards. So what happens is is that you have the head being represented there and it's supposed to represent again the spiritual realm and whatnot, the higher planes, and then you put the candle in it with the flame that represents the eternity of the soul, the eternity of that particular being and whatnot, and that it's illuminated again, and that's another part of what's going on on these particular days. So you can go and carve one for your father specifically and have his eternal flame make it so that way it is represented in that particular thing with it.

Speaker 1:

So now we have Alpha Bluet. We have some of the Celtic stuff that's coming in that you've talked about, that's going on with it. We have very ancient stuff with the bear rites and rituals that are going on with it. We've talked about the children and them getting certain aspects of this for what's coming in with their spiritual inheritance, assuming that they met certain qualifications. I'm not getting into here now because this is more about the ritualist for the honoring of the dead and whatnot. We have alpha bloat that you need to look into. These are all things that would be great starting points for you, in my opinion.

Speaker 1:

To just touch on the other part briefly, for some of the ritualistic stuff with it it would be the Koryos warriors that would go out. They were considered to be dead and whatnot, because they were not a longer part of the tribe and that kind of thing and they had to go through the initiation rituals and wait until they were reborn again. The women had their own variation of what was going on there for that. This is where we get the dressing up and the various different spirits and the various different monsters and things of this particular nature that were going on with it. Different monsters and things of this particular nature that were going on with it because they were that way. They would go and raid the villages and quotation marks or things would be put out for them where they go on a procession, etc. For what's going on there.

Speaker 1:

Again, I'm not getting into all of that right now because that's not your main focus and your main um point for what's going on here, for for what's good. But just know that a lot of this is also attached to this type of thing. It's not just a death ritual, it's also a rebirth ritual that's going on there for the children that are going to be inheriting the stuff from that which gets into the rune Othala. So Othala was about inheritance. It was not just a physical inheritance, it was a spiritual inheritance that was going on and it had to do with the fact that you know the person that was inside of that burial mound, they would be the ones that's going into it to receive the gifts that was left in the burial mound by them to regain from the person who was literally the new incarnation of that individual from there and the newborn child for it. And on this particular front, we also add in the fact that on top of that that you were supposed to wait a certain amount of time before you could do that.

Speaker 1:

This was varied upon place and tradition and whatnot. Some of them it was a set amount of years, variant upon place and tradition and whatnot. Some of them it was a set amount of years. Some of them it was, you know, half of the age of when the person died. So if the person died at the age 70, 70, you have to wait 35 years before that spirit to call back into the flesh and whatnot. This point doesn't matter quite as much in terms of what you're looking at and whatnot, because you're not trying to call anybody back at this particular point in time period. But I also know that you have a child on the way that's going to be born within the next few months, if my memory serves me correctly, and that kind of stuff. So this could be important to you later on with this and whatnot. So I am sharing some of that and, for anybody who already has this and might be listening to that on that particular front, that I'll be posting here also could be beneficial to them on that. So, anyway, that's that basic part for that. I'm gonna move on to some other.

Speaker 1:

During this time period, food was also put out, usually in the form of porridge and whatnot, in order to make it so. That way, it would be a gift for those spirits and whatnot, and also for the you know, khorias, warriors and for the other people that were doing their things. That needed to be done with that for what's happening here, and so that's a big part of this too, so you could do some sort of food offering. That's going on here. On this particular front. This is the time period when the wild hunt would occur and, according to certain traditions and whatnot, you would go out and kill the winter spirits. This part's true of all of them. It doesn't matter for what's happening, but if you were to kill a bear, then you would become a berserker, and if you were to kill a wolf, you'd become an wolf-heading, and so that would be parts of this that go on with that. There's a whole mythological aspect that can play into this. I'm not saying will that go into this, but that's something else to consider here for what's happening. Anyway, the burial mound aspect also made it so. That way there would be guardians that make it so the only people who were ready and who passed the test that needed to be done were allowed to go into it. And there's lots of symbolic ritual stuff there that most likely occurred and whatnot. We'll not be going into it here because it's not part of the main question that you asked and whatnot.

Speaker 1:

Also, during this time period, mistletoe would be cut from the trees or brought down from the trees. This was prescribed in various different ways the Druidic people. They had to cut it with a gold knife or a silver knife, depending upon the tradition, usually gold, if I remember correctly. And then in the Nordic countries, at least in Sweden, you had to use stones in order to get the mistletoe down from the tree and make that happen that was going on with it and make it fall that way. So there was various different ways that it was prescribed in order to get the mistletoe out from it, for, you know kind of the killing of the winter spirit idea again, until it's time to be revived and whatnot later on. And you keep the mistletoe until Christmas time period, yule, so there's that component as well. That's done around this time period. So you could do something with the mistletoe if you wanted to as well. It also appears that there was a bonfire that was done during this time period. Of course they're done at other times of the year, but this is where offerings would be made in the forms of hay or apples or other things that were being harvested during this time period, in order to make it so that we can give it to, you know, to the spirits of the land and to various different people, in order to make it so that way good harvest would come later on.

Speaker 1:

And again, you know, it's the whole gift-giving circle, reciprocity idea that's been going on there, coming back around to the head idea with the jack-o'-lantern and the skull and all that kind of stuff with it. Odin sacrifices his eye and he makes it so that way. By doing so he is blind in one eye, that eye is dead and the other one is alive. So now he makes it so, that way he has both sight into the world of the dead and into the world of the living in order to make it so. That way he can have total knowledge of things or what's going on, the knowledge of both realms. And where does he do this? He does this at Mimir's Brunner, mimir's well. And who does he talk to? Mimir's head? He carries around with him.

Speaker 1:

Again, the ancestral cult of the skull is very important, for this is what I'm trying to bring up here, and so you know there's something with that as well. I'm not entirely certain exactly how deep it goes, exactly how important it was, but clearly it was very, very important for what it is. So just another note on that. All right, so we've talked a lot about the burial mound and its aspects of things with it, of course, and its aspects of things with it, of course. There's another one, which is the other side, which has to do with the cremation part of things or what's going on there. And, as we can see in the myths that have to do with Balder and him being put on a ship and all that, clearly there's an element there that has to do with the four elements that are going in with this as well. This is not some wiccan revitalization idea and what. This is a very ancient idea that goes back way before any wicca crap happened in any way ship or form honoring the four elements. We can see this with the fact that they did this back in ancient greece and mentioned them 2500 years ago and backwards as well, and some of the philosophy and that kind of stuff. So clearly this is something much older than any new age wicca crap is the point. All right.

Speaker 1:

So the you have here is you have it symbolically in the form of a ship and then it gets burned and all of that. A ship needs sails in order to go. So there's the wind portion of that, and also, when you burn it, it goes into the four winds and scatters I mean, goes into the winds and scatters the four elements everywhere. For what's going on? You burn it, that gives you the fire, the ship's made out of wood and the body is from the earth in and of itself. So you have to where you have the earthen elements right there, and of course, the ship is on water and how it works out, and so you have all four elements that need to be there in order to make this work for that particular point as well.

Speaker 1:

So you can play around with this particular concept if you want to make an altar of some sort to your father with with it. So basically, what you could do here is you can have kind of a uh, you know, the jack-o'-lantern head of the or the skull or whatever in the middle with a candle of it representing things of that particular nature. Then you can make it so. That way you have some sort of food offering, maybe what your father's favorite food, uh, was in some capacity, uh or another and whatnot. You can play around with the rune othala, that has to do with these things, and other runes that have to do with reincarnation and and death, like the? U tree for the and and whatnot, whatnot. So you can play around with these things if you want to. And then on top of that, you can also make it so that you have something that represents the four different directions and the four place each one inside of it.

Speaker 1:

Again, this is not a Wiccan idea. That's bullshit when people come to it. It's a very ancient concept that the Wiccan tradition has kept alive, if you will, and taken from much, much earlier sources, as can be seen even inside of the mythological stuff here for what's going on there. So you can do any and all of these things. You can do none of the things that have been going on with it. Look into Iblen Fadlan's account.

Speaker 1:

The shape of the ship is also a womb. So you're going womb to tomb idea for what's going on there. The great birth mother that we all spring from, that gives life and then takes it all away and we all go back to this is all being played out. It's being played out on the burial mound concept as well. This is the time of total transition from one side to another, from light to darkness and back again, and that kind of thing. This is why it's the day between the worlds that's happening for what's going on.

Speaker 1:

This is just some of the stuff to play around with, some of the ideas that can be looked at. You can do maybe a votive offering of a bear or something like that. You know I'm not saying a real bear, but like some sort of carved bear. Or you know, if you have something like a bear tooth, you could maybe do something like that or a bear skin. Any of these things can go along with it as well. So these are the various different aspects of it this is true for both sides, meaning the Gaelic, celtic side as well as the Nordic side and kind of bringing traditions and combination of things with it there.

Speaker 1:

I hope you found this useful in some way, shape or form, and giving you food for thought in some way, shape or form. I'm going to give you food for thought in some way, shape or form. You can play around with lots of these different concepts for what it is. I would definitely really encourage you to go back and read Edelon's account for sure, and if you can't, then at least video of it that Thor did. That's, on it, very important for that type of stuff. Take the information that I provided here and then take what resonates with you and drop the rest of it and make it your own and just use this as a general outline of things that can be said or done or any of these other things that have been talked about and whatnot.

Speaker 1:

This is my suggestion to all of you that might be listening to this, and obviously rodas is the one that specifically requested this here. So more power to you, specifically, rather, and making it so that way you have a good time with your father and whatnot. And remember. This is a day of celebration, which is the most important concept here. This is not a day for mourning, right? That's the most important thing. I want you to take away from this for what it is. It doesn't mean you can't be emotional about it. I'm just saying that focus on the good memories of him and whatnot. That's what would have been done by our ancestors.