Feast of the Dead, the Autumn Season

 Autumn has started to come into full, as we make our way through the year. The three feasts of the end of summer and start of autumn have been the Feast of Regeneration, the Feast of Divine Life, and finally the Feast of the Dead, or Simwene. The greater Filianic community does use the name Tamala, though since I am in the process of shifting my practice (more on this later), I have turned towards what original Madrian terms I can uncover. 

I do believe that 'Tamala' is derived from a Madrian tale called West of the Sunset and East of the Dawn, where the main character named Tama takes an underworld and allegorical journey. This comes from the periodical The Coming Age, issue no. 4. I do still admire the Madrian takes on fairy tales, as I to this day look into fairy tales as a recollection of old folklore and moral teaching that, although a long game of telephone, contains older folk memory. As such, I do re-read this tale during this portion of the year and other tales of katabasis. Autumn is the ending of summer, the trending down of the year into the death of winter. The triplicity of the autumn feasts of Regeneration, Divine Life, and Death are reflecting both the human path of rebirth, spiritual knowledge and living, and death, and also the Dark Mother. The Dark Mother is the Ground of All Being, She who breathed out all of existence and who will draw to a close all being with her in-breathing. 

Simwene is a fire festival and feast to mark this great transition of all of our lives, where we honor the dead who have gone before us and meditate on our own mortality. All of life is this; birth and growth to decay and death, transformation between one form to another. Fire too is transformative, and hence why it is incorporated into the festival. Though to be fair, I haven't the ability to have a great bonfire safely and light candles instead! I find a fire meditation to be something appropriate, and say prayers before.

Speaking of transformation, I am going to circle back to my note from the start on shifting my practice. Over the years, I have become more aware that I am less in sync with a focus on the Daughter, as Filianism is practiced. I find myself struggling to align with a separation of the Daughter and Mother, and a full death of the Daughter. Instead, through my inner work and intuition over time, I am coming to instead see a triplicity of Deity as both illusion and not; transcendent, immanent and beyond, but not distinct. A focus instead on the Mother. In the wider community, this would be termed just 'Deanist', or 'Deanism', however I still am preferring Madrian. From my long research and careful reading, after the schism between the original Madrians one group went underground (more or less) and just became dubbed the 'secret Madrian order' but held to the same view as I am coming to. Unfortunately I cannot seem to find a trace of this group anywhere online or a way to contact any member, so I have to assume they have either moved on or do not wish to be contacted and therefore need to figure this out on my own, regrettable as it is I am still steadfast in my faith and will happily continue to explore my path. 

As such, if you are a reader of my site you may have noticed some changes on my pages defining beliefs and celebrations. Please expect to see more of this, and further posts elucidating my thoughts and systems. Certainly a shift in how the wheel of the year is observed will happen, but I realize also it will impact how I study Scriptures. Also, I as of yet do not wish to coin any new name for my forked path of Madrian faith, but instead stick to calling myself Madrian. I do welcome questions as I move forward however, either by comments or email.

I'll end with a fragment that is apt for this time of the year:

What art thou, maid, but a bright wave? Thy matter is

a wave upon the sea, and thy spirit is a sun-beam piercing

through it and filling it with brightness. And truly, each ray

of that Sun is eternal, even as She Herself; yet a wave shall last

but for a moment ere she return to the sea. So shall thy flesh

return to the earth that bare it and thy mind decompose into

air; but the ray of thy spirit shall have no end, for the ray is the

sun herself, and so is thy spirit the Spirit Herself.