Reflections on Halloween from the archives of IASP:

When it comes to a toss up between ghosts and God, the concept of God may seem quaint and outmoded. But the possibility of transcendence still haunts human consciousness and pops to the surface particularly at this time of year.

https://inaspaciousplace.wordpress.com/2015/10/31/ghosts-replace-god/

Halloween is about facing the darkness.

https://inaspaciousplace.wordpress.com/2015/01/24/cynthia-bourgeault-making-the-all-saints-passage-1999-1/

There is nothing in Halloween to fear. We can use everything that happens out there in the world as a sign pointing to the beauty and truth of God’s presence and action in our lives.

We do not need to feel defeated by those forces that seem to be working against the light and beauty in life.

https://inaspaciousplace.wordpress.com/2012/10/29/halloween-comes-to-church/

What does your celebration of this curious festival say about you? What are you communicating to your children by your family practice of Halloween?

https://inaspaciousplace.wordpress.com/2012/10/28/halloween-perspectives/

The beauty of All Saints’ Day is that it emphasizes that those who are no longer visible, are not completely gone. All of life is a holy unity. We are all connected. There are no degrees of separation.  The visible realm is permeated by the invisible; the invisible transcendent dimension of the spirit seeps always into the visible tangible realm of sense and time.

Perhaps it is this deep intuition of the reality of other realms even more than the allure of candy that gives Halloween something of its power in our culture. It is possible that, at least once a year, some intuition towards mystery stirs in our being and it becomes acceptable to give expression to that part of our being that yearns for the reality of spirit.

Whatever hold Halloween has over us, it is worthwhile to open to the promise of community connection that this celebration seems to hold. We are always enriched by opening more deeply to the power that links us with one another and joins us in a community that spills over beyond all those artificial parameters, boundaries, and distinctions we so often maintain with such force.

Halloween invites us into a vast community that embraces all of life, visible and invisible. It encourages us to honour the hallowed reality of the bond that unites all creation in one eternal realm of goodness and light. This seems worth preserving, even if the sugar highs and dental dangers make us cautious about too much indulgence in this annual festival of the spirit.

https://inaspaciousplace.wordpress.com/2012/10/25/halloween-yearning-of-the-spirit/