Bridging the physical and spiritual – A HALLOWEEN THOUGHT

I never knew just how much of a hand my British homeland had in shaping Halloween.

“Halloween originated as a pagan festival in parts of Northern Europe, particularly around what is now the United Kingdom. Many European cultural traditions hold that Halloween is a time when magic is most potent and spirits can make contact with the physical world. In Christian times, it became a celebration of the evening before All Saints’ Day. Immigrants from Scotland and Ireland brought the holiday to the United States,” the “Time and Date” website explains.

The rest, as they say, is candy-coated history – which is my descriptor for the version of Halloween exported back to the UK from the USA.

Beyond the frills and thrills of dressing up and chasing a sugar rush, I love the idea of bridging the physical and spiritual.

However, I don’t think of doing so in terms of either saints or spirits. As a Christian Scientist I seek the connection through “…the human and divine coincidence, shown in the man Jesus, as divinity embracing humanity in Life and its demonstration, — reducing to human perception and understanding the Life which is God” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures).

That is, I endeavour to demonstrate the understanding of the divine Spirit, God, that evidences itself in the healing of our human minds and bodies and which proves its practicality by unveiling solutions to other difficulties. I’ve experienced many instances of such restoration to health and wellbeing over the past three decades, as have many others.

To this end, pondering the wise words and healing record of Jesus and reading the writings of Mary Baker Eddy have been instrumental in bringing about such changes for the better in my life. In particular, I love the quote above by the founder of Christian Science. To me, it’s a pointer to the fact that connecting with our spiritual Source is not so much about bringing ever-present Spirit to us, since it is always here anyway.

Rather, it is about pinpointing and overcoming the material sense of ourselves and our environment which seem to alienate us from Spirit, and thereby from one another. Instead, Jesus showed us we are all – uniquely, but equally – sons and daughters of universal, divine Love, forever connected to each other by our unified oneness with the Spirit that is God.

So, this weekend, I wish you and your loved ones a joyous family time of “trick or treating”. And if you knock on my door I’ll gladly hand out sweets and chocolates … which is what we call candy over here.

But beyond that, I wish you, year-round, a deeper and diviner experience of connecting with that “spiritual world” – our divine reality – which “unites us to one another” in healing Love.

Have a Happy Halloween!