"I love Dia de los Muertos, because it feels...I don't know...reverent or scared somehow. But I hate Halloween; it seems the only purpose of it is to scare people and eat candy."
This comment came up in a conversation I had this weekend with a young woman I met at a retreat. Like me, she is a European-descended white American. And also like me, she grew up feeling disconnected from her own cultural lineages. For me that disconnection caused me to feel drawn to rich traditions from non-European cultures. It seemed my conversation partner had the same experience.
"Have you heard of Samhain [pronounced Sau-wain]?"
She hadn't ever heard of the Celtic celebration of the cross-quarter between Fall Equinox and Winter Solstice, which falls on October 31. And so she definitely didn't know that every aspect of what became secularized and monetized as Halloween--from pumpkins and candles, to candy and costumes--actually holds special and reverent meaning within the European spiritual traditions surrounding the seasonal wheel.
The "melting pot" of American culture often disconnects us from our cultural roots, which can cause us to feel lonely and lost, and also to grasp onto traditions that are not our own in the desire to feel rooted in ceremony and meaning, as is our human need. This grasping without relationship can cause a lot of cultural appropriation, and weird blending of disparate cultural traditions in ways that dishonor those traditions.
It's long been my observation that this is how western Reiki came to be the wild mash-up of cultures that I first encountered a dozen years ago, and have spent the past ten years unraveling. The question of how to be in good, right relationship with the system of Reiki in it's authentic form, while also bringing in other traditions and lineages that are meaningful to me, is one I have lived and walked with for many years.
It is an important question for all of us western Reiki practitioners and Reiki-curious folks who seek to be lineage-bearers of this tradition to spend serious time with.
I was recently invited to share my journey with these questions on the Recovering Wholeness Together podcast, where we explored strategies Reiki folks can use to come into and maintain integrity with the system of Reiki while also weaving in aspects of our own lineages and passions. Find it above, and join the conversation!
Blessed Samhain, Friends!
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