Halloween & its mysterious origins
BY LMR
Related Articles: Religion - The Jesus Myth, The Illuminati, The Rothschild Family
I am not a religious person, I am not trying to steer anyone toward, or away from, any religious beliefs. This is a study of the origins of Halloween which takes us down a variety of different paths and inadvertently stumbles upon the origins of Christmas, among other modern traditions, which come from rather unexpected and mysterious parts of history.
The Origin of Halloween
It is widely accepted that what we know as Halloween began among the Celts and the Druids in Britain, Ireland, and Gaul (France), and likely other parts of Celtic Europe and Galatia during the Iron Age. The Druids and Celts took part in a festival called Samhain, (sometimes Anglicised as Sawin, Sowin, or similar).
Samhain marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter and was held on or around 31 October–1 November - halfway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice, essentially, it was the time when cattle were brought back down from the summer pastures and when livestock were slaughtered for the winter. Bonfires were lit and various ‘cleansing’ rituals were performed during Samhain, Druids and Celts would take livestock and walk between two bonfires and the bones of slaughtered animals were cast into the flames, (this is where the word bonfire originates - bone-fire). Samhain is balanced by the corresponding seasonal day of celebration called Beltain (Bealtaine, Beltaine), which signals the start of summer 6 months later (around May 1st or May Day). These are both fire festivals.
Divination was said to be common practice at Samhain, this is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultist process or ritual. It is considered that the origins of games such as bobbing for apples originates in these rituals. The game dates to when the Romans conquered Britain, bringing with them the apple tree - the apple was considered a representation of the goddess of fruit trees, Pomona. The belief that the pentagram was a fertility symbol allegedly began the origins of the game, (when an apple is sliced in half, the seeds form a pentagram), and the druids thought that the manifestation of such a symbol meant that the apple could be used to determine marriages during this time of year. Although this is commonly credited to the Druids, if the Romans introduced the apple tree, then one assumes this ‘ritual’ didn’t exist until they introduced it, suggesting it’s likely not a Druidic practise at all.
Samhain was also seen as a time when the 'door' to the ‘otherworld’ opened enough for the souls of the dead, and other beings, to come into our world. The souls of the dead were said to revisit their homes where feasts would be held, at which the souls of dead kin were beckoned to attend, and places would be set at the table for them. However, it was believed harmful spirits were also thought to be active at Samhain and to escape the persecution of the demons they would offer them food or disguise themselves as one of them believing they would be left alone. Turnip lanterns with faces carved into them were also made, later replaced by pumpkins as we know today, the purpose of these lanterns was said to be to protect oneself and one's home from evil spirits and demons.
That is, as best as we can understand today, the origins of Halloween, or at least the festival itself.
Christianity Named & Popularised Halloween
The name Halloween derived from Christianity’s attempts to merge with what became considered ‘pagan’ religions. Pagan is a somewhat vague term derived from the Latin word paganus. The term refers to a variety of different religions ranging from Wicca to ancient Egypt and even Hinduism, among others. A common feature of Pagan religions is that they tend to be nature oriented.
It is said Samhain remained popular until St. Patrick and other Christian missionaries arrived in the area. As the population began to convert to Christianity (by bloody force) instead of eradicating Druidic/Celtic practices such as Samhain, the church instead adopted these holidays with a Christian twist. In 837 Pope Gregory IV ordered the general observance of All Hallows to take place on 1st November. October 31 is the evening before All Hallows Day, known as either all hallows evening or all hallows een and eventually as we have it today, Halloween. That's where the name came from, it has nothing to do with Christian faith and never did.
Haloween is popular as a satanic festival where rituals and blood sacrifices are performed, in many cases human. In modern culture the whole theme of Halloween is one of evil, death, fear, and threats. Children dress up as devils, witches, ghosts, and monsters and go out into the street to ‘trick or treat’. There will be pumpkin carving, apple bobbing, fortune telling, haunted houses and more. While it may be seen by many as a bit of fun, it is the re-enactment of what we are told is an old Druidic ritualistic practice, (in fact we will see its origin is much older than the Druids).
Why are we still re-enacting these ‘rituals’ today?
Who were the Druids?
According to Manly P. Hall in ‘The Secret Teachings of All Ages’:
"The Druids were initiates of a secret school that existed in their midst. This school, which closely resembled the Bacchic and Eleusinian Mysteries of Greece or the Egyptian rites of Isis and Osiris, is justly designated the Druidic Mysteries. There has been much speculation concerning the secret wisdom that the Druids claim to possess. Their teachings were never written, but were communicated orally to specially prepared candidates. Robert Brown, (a 32nd degree freemason), is of the opinion that the British priests secured their information from Tyrian and Phoenician navigators who, thousands of years before the Christian era, established colonies in Britain and Gaul while searching for tin… Others are of the opinion that the mysteries as celebrated by the Druids were of Oriental origin, possibly Buddhistic.
The proximity of the British Isles to the lost Atlantis may account for the sun worship which plays and important part in the rituals of Druidism. According to Artemidorus, Ceres and Persephone were worshipped on an island close to Britain with rites and ceremonies similar to those of Samothrace. There is no doubt that the Druidic Pantheon includes a large number of Greek and Roman deities. This greatly amazed Caesar during his conquest of Britain and Gaul and caused him to affirm that these tribes adored Mercury, Apollo, Mars, and Jupiter, in a manner similar to that of the Latin countries. It is almost certain that the Druidic Mysteries were not indigenous to Britain or Gaul but migrated from one of the more ancient civilizations.
The secret teachings of the Druids are said by some to be tinctured with Pythagorean philosophy. The Druids had a Madonna, or Virgin Mother, with a Child in her arms, who was sacred to their Mysteries; and their Sun God was resurrected at the time of the year corresponding to that at which modern Christians celebrate Easter.
Both the cross and the Serpent were sacred to the Druids, who made the former by cutting off all the branches of an oak tree and fastening one of them to the main trunk in the form of the letter T. This oaken cross became a symbol of their superior deity. They also worshipped the sun, moon, and stars."
Charles Heckethorn, The Secret Societies of All Ages & Countries:
"Their temples wherein the sacred fire was preserved were generally situate on eminences and in dense groves of oak, and assumed various forms; circular, because a circle was the emblem of the universe; oval, in allusion to the mundane egg, from which issued, according to the traditions of many nations, the universe, or, according to others, our first parents; serpentine, because a serpent was the symbol of Hu, the Druidic Osiris; cruciform, because a cross is an emblem of regeneration; or winged, to represent the motion of the Divine Spirit."
Manly P. Hall in ‘The Secret Teachings of All Ages’:
"The Druids were priests and physicians, curing by magnetism and charging amylets with their fluidic influence. Their universal remedies were mistletoe and serpents’ eggs because these substances attract astral light in a special manner. The solemnity with which mistletoe was cut down drew upon this plant the popular confidence and rendered it powerfully magnetic…
Not only was mistletoe sacred as symbolic of the universal medicine, or panacea, but also because of the fact that it grew upon the oak tree. Through the symbol of the oak, the Druids worshipped the Supreme Deity; therefore, anything growing upon that tree was sacred to him. At certain seasons, according to the position of the sun, moon, and stars, the Arch-Druid climbed the oak tree and cut the mistletoe with a golden sickle consecrated for that service."
Julius Caesar records that he encountered the Druids during his conquest of Gaul from 58 to 49 BC, claiming they were the only group powerful enough to organise opposition to Roman rule throughout the Celtic tribes. After the Roman conquest of Britain in 43 AD, the Druids were outlawed. In 60 AD the Roman general Gaius Suetonius Paulinus crossed the Menai Strait, to attack the druids who had rallied in their stronghold of the Island of Mona off the mainland of North Wales (Anglesey) where they made a last stand against the conquering legions of Rome. The Romans took victory at the battle of Mona, and in the aftermath many of the druids were massacred. The Roman government suppressed druidism following the invasion of Gaul and it’s said to have disappeared from the written record by the 2nd century.
In several Roman and Greek writings, it is mentioned that Druids performed the execution of criminals and prisoners of war in religious ceremonies. Other writings give specific details about rituals performed by Druids such as probably the most famous of a burning wicker man, another alleged Druidic tradition that still continues today, but again, the main evidence for this as a Druidic practice is one sentence in Julius Caesar's Commentary on the Gallic war, which modern scholarship has linked to an earlier Greek writer by the name of Poseidonius. Given the disdain for the Druids by Roman and Greek cultures, none of the accounts can be considered neutral.
Above: The Wicker Man, an allegedly Druidic practice that has survived to this day
We do however have documented accounts of the Romans taking part in both human and animal sacrifice, among other rituals, the best example being how slaves and criminals were used in the Gladiator contests and sacrificed to the “manes,” or the souls of the dead, but there are also other accounts of sacrifice and ritual. In fact, the entire Roman custom was extremely ritualistic, not at all unlike the ruling elite of today, and not at all coincidentally.
When you eliminate the Roman propaganda, the picture that emerges of a Druid, is one of a thoughtful philosopher, a knower of truth, schooled in the lore of the traditions, and in charge of the education of the chieftains as well as those who sought esoteric knowledge. However, given the lack of unbiased accounts of the Druids, it is very hard to come to any firm conclusions about them, which therefor calls into question the detail that we have about the origins of Halloween; How did this practice and tradition survive when the rest of the Druidic knowledge and tradition all but disappeared? The Druids were outlawed in 43AD, defeated at Mona in 60AD, and it wasn’t until 837AD Pope Gregory IV ordered the general observance of All Hallows, which, as we have already explored, was adopted in response to the continued popularity of Samhain. How did Samhain remain popular for almost 800 years after the Druids were outlawed?
Oddly enough the Romans also celebrated festivals like Samhain and Beltain. Ferālia was an ancient Roman public festival celebrating the Manes (Roman spirits of the dead) which fell on 21 February as recorded by Ovid in Book II of his Fasti. This day marked the end of a nine-day festival honouring the dead ancestors. Roman citizens were instructed to bring offerings of food, wine, and violets to the tombs of their dead ancestors. Ovid tells of a time when the Romans, in the midst of war, neglected Feralia, which prompted the spirits of the departed to rise from their graves in anger, howling and roaming the streets. Another festival, the Lemuralia or Lemuria, was a feast held on 9, 11, and 13 May during which the Romans performed rites to exorcise the malevolent and fearful ghosts of the dead from their homes with rituals and offerings of fava beans.
These bear remarkable similarity to the apparently Druidic tradition of Samhain.
There is no real explanation as to how Samhain apparently merged with these Roman traditions and then became Halloween as we know it today.
After the fall of the Roman Empire, these festivals honouring the dead were said to have been incorporated into Christian tradition. But it wasn’t until 609 AD, Pope Boniface IV established All Saints’ Day, honouring the Catholic saints who did not have their own individual day, celebrated on May 13 (The Roman date of Lemuria). The festival was later moved to Nov. 1 and Pope Gregory IV blessed All Saint’s Day as a sacred ‘day of obligation’, consequently on that day, the Catholic Church officially ordained Halloween/All Hallows eve.
So, Halloween in popular culture owes its very life and breath to the "blessing" of the Catholic Church. Rather than extinguishing old customs like Samhain, Ferālia, and Lemuria, the church leaders provided Christian versions of them and claimed these as their own. What seems to be the case, is that thanks to the Romans and the Christians, the true identity of the Druids is unknown, and the true meaning of Samhain has been obscured.
Our belief that Halloween is rooted in Druidic practices is questionable as it seems to be potentially far older in origin, and while the church may claim not to support Halloween, the fact remains that the Church is responsible for the very creation of it as a mainstream ‘celebration’. Worship of the snake/serpent is one of the most commonly occurring themes in all religions and forms of worship.
Why?
I believe the reason for this is simple, at its very core, the Roman Catholic Church is a satanic cult that worship the serpent. I believe the Roman ‘Gods’ (who were also the Greek ‘Gods’ and others before them) were part of that cult, or part of their belief system, symbolic to their cult. The theme of the snake/serpent is one of the most commonly occurring in all religions and forms of worship.
"Serpent worship in some form has permeated nearly all parts of the Earth. The serpent mounds of the American Indian; the carved-stone snakes of Central and South America; the hooded cobras of India; Python, the great snake of the Greeks; the sacred serpents of the Druids; the Midgard snake of Scandinavia; the Nagas of Burma, Siam, and Cambodia; the brazen serpent of the Jews; the mystic serpent of Orpheus; the snakes at the oracle of Delphi; the sacred serpents preserved in the Egyptian temples; the Uraeus coiled upon the foreheads of the Pharaohs and priests; all these, (and more), bear witness to the universal veneration in which the snake was held." - Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages
Above: The Paul VI Audience Hall in Rome, Vatican City - A prime example of modern Christian serpent worship
It is also documented that the Celts and the Druids themselves worshipped the Serpent god Hu. Could this be where the word human originates?
Hu-man – Serpent man/Serpent people.
Considering the recurring themes of ‘serpent gods interbreeding with the native populations’, which is even the basis of the Adam and Eve story in Christianity, among others, this would make sense. This would also explain certain mystery and occult symbols such as the caduceus.
The caduceus is the staff carried by Hermes in Greek mythology and consequently by Hermes Trismegistus in Greco-Egyptian mythology. The same staff was also borne by heralds in general, for example by Iris, the messenger of Hera. It is a short staff entwined by two serpents, sometimes surmounted by wings.
It is also the international medical symbol
And not dissimilar in appearance to human DNA
It is an ancient symbol that represents the interbreeding of ‘serpent gods’ with people of Earth.
Not coincidentally, it is also a Satanic symbol as seen on Baphomet’s lap.
Today worship of the serpent/snake is still quite apparent in major religions and many modern cultures.
Even Christmas owes its existence to ancient serpent worship.
Christmas is A Festival of Saturn/Satan
In 45 BC, Julius Caesar reorganised the Roman calendar. This reshuffling of dates shifted the date of the winter solstice, so the 25th of December became the date of the Brumalia; the festival celebrated by the Romans as the mark of midwinter- and the end of Saturnalia.
Saturnalia was the most popular holiday on the ancient Roman calendar, said to have derived from older farming-related rituals of midwinter and the winter solstice. The holiday was celebrated with a sacrifice at the Temple of Saturn, a public banquet, and the offering of gifts. For the Romans it was seen as a restoration of the ancient Golden Age, when the world was ruled by Saturn. Saturn was the Roman god of Capitol, wealth, agriculture, liberation, and time, he was also the former king and father of the Roman gods Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, Juno, Ceres, and Vesta.
During Saturnalia, work and business came to a halt, schools and courts of law closed, and the normal social patterns were suspended. People decorated their homes with wreaths and other greenery and shed their traditional togas in favour of colourful clothes known as synthesis. Instead of working, Romans spent Saturnalia gambling, singing, playing music, feasting, socialising, and giving each other gifts. Even slaves did not have to work during Saturnalia. If this sounds familiar to you, that is because this is what we know today as Christmas.
So, Christmas, as we know it, appears to have its origins in a Roman Festival dedicated to Saturn. Of course, it’s true origins will go back further because the Romans didn’t do original, they just copied what had gone before, their ‘Gods’ were the Greek ‘Gods’, who were again interpretations of others before them.
Saturn of Rome was Kronos (or Cronus) of Ancient Greece, the leader of the Titans and the god of time. He had a taste for eating his own children – that brings a whole new meaning to the term ‘Yuletide’, (Yuletide comes from the Mesopotamian for Child’s Day).
During antiquity, Kronus/Cronus was occasionally interpreted as Chronos, the personification of time, although historian’s opinions vary on this fact, Roman philosopher Cicero (1st century BCE) confirmed this by saying that the Greek name Cronus is synonymous to Chronos. And, if you make the comparison, it’s clear to see they were one and the same; essentially Greek mythology had many different phases of belief that over time were replaced by new ones. So, when I’m referring to Kronos, I mean all the above, not just one interpretation.
Kronos was depicted as an old, bearded man, with either a harp, scythe or sickle and he was symbolised by the snake. To the orphic Greeks he was the ‘primordial god of time’ and was depicted as a serpent with three heads, one man, one bull and one lion. (Serpent/Snake theme repeats again).
Kronus was rebranded as ‘the Angel of Death’ and the ‘Grim Reaper’ in the Judeo-Christian version of events years later, regardless, this is still a symbol of Saturn. The Greek word for Saturn today is Κρόνος, pronounced Kronos. It is also where we get English words like Chronology for example, which is the science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time. The astrological symbol for Saturn is a scythe or sickle.
Saturn is commonly linked to occult practices and is popular in Satanism. Saturn is the planet the Edomite Judeans associated with their “god”, now called “Satan”. The Edomites themselves were descendants of the tribe of Esau, who mated with Canaanites, worshippers of Moloch. Moloch is a “Minotaur” demon, half-man, half bull, to which the Canaanites made sacrifices to.
Moloch’s sign is the Hexagram star - as such the Hexagram is a symbol of Canaanite origin in Biblical times, (“Canaanite” is a derivation of the progenitor “Cain”), which is why it is used in the occult. It is also why it is used on the modern flag of “Israel”, (there is no such thing as a “Star of David” in the Talmud, the Torah, the New Testament, etc.), it is the Rothschild family symbol, and they are deeply satanic. This is also why world leaders gather at Bohemian Grove dressed in robes making sacrifices to a burning effigy of an owl - the owl is another representation of Moloch.
To save this article from turning into a book, I have covered some of this very briefly, but the point is that almost all these stories are essentially the same. Kronos is Chronos who is also Aion, Saturn, Moloch, and Satan and many other religious figures, including Jesus. They are all the same person/interpretation, as with all religion and mythology it has gone through different phases of belief and interpretation, but the themes are so closely matched that they are clearly from the same source. The same themes can also be traced to Egypt, Mesopotamia, and others.
If Christmas is a celebration of Saturn, then it is a celebration of Satan. Is Father Christmas, or Santa, which is an anagram of Satan, actually ‘Old Father Time’/Saturn?
There is a striking resemblance
What does all this mean? Well, fuck knows, if you were able to tie all that together and fill in the gaps then well done… All I do know is that these festivals are not what they seem. There is some far deeper meaning and history to them than we have ever been told. Christmas certainly has nothing to do with the Birth of a man named Jesus, and Halloween most likely has very little to do with the Druids. The same can be said about most, (if not all), festivals that we celebrate today. Some people have done marvellous work to bring different religions together in terms of identifying the symbolism and themes, but due to the overwhelming number of different religions, beliefs, and factions thereof, it is impossible to be able to study and correctly interpret them all.
One thing that is clear, if there’s one religion that binds them all, it seems to be Satanism and the serpent.
Related Articles: Religion - The Jesus Myth, The Illuminati, The Rothschild Family