The Feast Of All Souls
by Bernie Bell - 15:18 on 02 November 2025
The Feast Of All Souls
I was thinking - considering all the rain we’ve had - there might be water in the ditch round Maes Howe…..
https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/a-natural-cursus-water-walls-and-walking-the-ness/
Then I happened to read this…
“We are entering into a trio of days that I have loved for a long time: Halloween, the Feast of All Saints, and the Feast of All Souls, that thin place in the year—also known as a thin time—that acknowledges how close the worlds are, even when they seem horribly far apart.
I am thinking especially of those who have lost beloved ones since this time last year, and whose grief is new and raw. And I am thinking always of those who have carried their grief for a long time.
These days invite us into memory and hope—and sorrow and joy and, most of all, love. In everything we carry, may we keep figuring out what it means to live fully and wholeheartedly here and now, in this world and in this life. Wherever these days find you, may they hold solace and mysterious grace. This blessing is for you.
ATTENDED
We are attended.
We are accompanied.
We are asked to open
our eyes, our hearts,
to the grace of it,
that we might bear witness
not only to the fall of the sparrow
but also to what follows it:
the aching mystery that
comes to sing in our bones,
the presence that releases us
into this living and into this world
but also,
with wondrous strangeness,
goes with us still,
making a nest in us
and helping us
find our way
home.
—Jan Richardson
from Sparrow: A Book of Life and Death and Life”
I thought about my view of what happens in Maes Howe. The human remains would have been placed there through the year. At mid-winter, a shaft of light penetrates the darkness. The spirits could then go through the portal of light to…………….?
Connections.
So, we went to see what’s happening around Maes Howe on All Soul’s Day….…..
The ditch wasn’t holding water…
....but it was still a good place to be – a very good place to be, today.
We then went to the Stenness Stones, which also had no pools of water, but did have more Magic Mushrooms than either of us had ever seen!…..
Also, a couple of cheery painted rocks left there by someone from Northumberland….
All part of life, through time.
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