Dancing With The Dead.

(narrated by The Lord of Misrule)

Descending down through the layers of consciousness
Into the vast empty catacombs imagination has carved,
There where the memories made before birth are stored
There in the infinite space of your mind
In a ballroom lighted by ten billion galaxies
There's an orchestra playing the music of spheres
The dancers are waiting to begin their waltz again;
Waiting for you, all the people you have ever been

The ghosts of your past lives whirl all around you
Revealing experience you cannot quite reach,
These shadows of figures who have now become dust
are libraries of all that you ever have been.
They haunted your nights, populated your worst fears
Whispering in dark hours and watching by day.
Only when dreams free you from chains of mortality
As you dance with the dead you can touch what you are

There are ghosts you once loved and some that you hated
They know all you ran from and what you tried to hide
And the dream dance goes spiralling down ever downward
And the stars whirl around like a crazed carousel.
You eyes are deceived by kaleidoscope images
Your feet, like a marionette, not yours to command
But if you find a way to see beyond vision
The secrets of future and past are revealed

And when the door opens between this and other worlds
And the dead all dance out of the places they dwelt
To walk on this green earth, once more like living things
Then the oneness of all things shall be understood.
Then you will rise up through the layers of consciousness,
By knowing yourself all things become known,
You may find your place beyond living and dying
Only when you dare to Dance With The Dead.

Halloween (All Hallows) Eve is an early Christian overlay for Samhuin (alt. spellings Samhuain, Samhuinn) the Pagan celebration of The Days On The Year when the normal laws of the Universe were suspended, the portals between the phsical world and the world of spirits opened and chaos reigned. The celebration lasted from October 28th to November 2nd and the revellry was overseen by the Lord of Misrule. Watch out for a more complete article on the origins of Halloween in a few days, when I post my really really gruesome Halloween poem. - Ian Thorpe, 04/10/26