A Crunchy Life - October 2023 Newsletter

Think of this as a letter from a friend with a deeper look into this month's post. I share more thoughts and resources for tapping into a simple, intentional life filled with Earth-based practices.

Hello friends!

The October blog post is up and it is all about fears and the growing darkness. It’s October so I am planting and tending to spinach and kale in the greenhouse. Getting my hands in the dirt and nurturing new growth. Grounding me during the darkness.

The seasonal changes are all around. Falling leaves. Squirrels bustling around with nuts. Temperatures dropping. Geese are migrating. Days getting shorter. I think a lot about the seasonal changes as well as the coming darkness, death, life, ancestors, and what I hope will be at the other end of the dark season. I especially find myself pondering my journey with fear, most notably the fear of death.

This blog post talks about how I am using my hand, head, and heart during this dark season to alchemize and release fear into something new when the sun re-emerges in the Spring.

Here is what I am exploring this month.

Hand…

I’m traveling to Troncones, Mexico this month for a beach retreat with my teacher, Britt Steele. I was scheduled to go on retreat with her in March 2020 and then the COVID shut down began. I am finally going this month! A week of daily yoga practices, traditional yogic teachings, community meals, and activities including horseback riding on the beach, a natural jungle hot spring, and time to reflect and to pay attention. I look forward to seeing what unfolds and am certain I will be sharing it with you next month.

This month’s blog post mentions Sunday community yoga with Britt and Asana Rebel, an app for yoga. Another resource to explore is Yoga Nidra. Yoga Nidra is complete physical, emotional, and mental relaxation. It occurs in an awake state that looks like sleeping. Sleep is not the goal but Yoga Nidra tools can also be used to support sleep. I practice yoga nidra both, during the daytime and before sleep.

Head…

This journey into the death practices of my Irish and Kashubian ancestors has been very powerful for me.

Google Maps. Ireland to Kashubia

As alluded to in this month’s blog post, the similarities between the Irish and Kashubian traditions are striking for two communities so distant geographically, 2000+ km.

• People died at home where the body was also prepared.

• A sacred space was created within the home where the person was laid out.

• Mirrors were covered.

• There was a wake where guests came to the house of the deceased. 

• Food and drink were offered to attendees.

• Wakes lasted beyond one day  - 3 days in Ireland in the 1800s and four days in Kashubia.

• During the wake, there were prayers and singing that lasted well into the night.

• The morning of the funeral there was a procession from the home to the cemetery.

While both the keen and Empty Night are ways of saying goodbye to the deceased, they also seem to be ways of bringing the community together to be with death, to spend time confronting the reality of death and the deceased, and to begin to create space for true celebration, communication, and mourning. They are ritual mechanisms to begin to work through grief, publicly and personally. They both take the time with the deceased, not rushing through the process the way I experienced it with my father.

My father once told me the following about his grandfather’s death. His grandfather had died and was laid out in the living room for days. His grandmother was the daughter of Irish immigrants who most likely brought Irish death practices with them when they arrived in the USA in the 1830s and 1840s. I suspect she had experienced wakes and keening while growing up and it would have been natural for her to continue those practices when her husband died. It would also have been natural for her to find community and strength in those practices.

My father was only 9 years old at the time of his grandfather’s death. He didn’t understand the purpose of his grandfather being laid out in the living room nor of the wake being held in the home. No one explained it to him. He told me it greatly disturbed him. When I discussed it with him and tried to find out more, he didn’t have any family knowledge to share. This was the only death he experienced where the deceased and the wake were in the home. It left him confused and scared.

It makes me wonder, if I had experienced traditions such as these while growing up, and if elders had taken the time to process it with me, would I have been better prepared to navigate the process of my father’s death and my response to it? I suspect I would have been.

For more information about Irish funeral practices and keening, see: 

• Mooney, James. The Funeral Customs of Ireland. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 25, no. 128, 1888, pp. 243–96.

• Croker, Crofton, Thomas (1844) The Keen of the South of Ireland : Percy Society, London available at archive.org

• McLaughlin, Mary Mary’s website includes academic resources and sound recordings.

For more information Empty Night, see: 

• Perszon, J. Empty Night: Kashubian “Home Liturgy” in the Context of Death. Religions 2021, 12, 136.

• Guštin, Maša. “The Empty Night Ritual in Literature, Film and the Life of Modern Kashubians.” BETWEEN THE WORLDS: MAGIC, MIRACLES, AND MYSTICISM 2 (2020): 325–343.

Heart…

As mentioned in the blog post I will be making Soul Cakes to enjoy during the Week of October 31st. One will be placed on the altar in case an ancestor passes through and needs a bite of something to eat and a rest in their travels. What are Soul Cakes? A quick Google search will find all sorts of origin stories for Soul Cakes:

• Given to those that went throughout the village singing and offering prayers to each household, then receiving a soul cake in return. They were known as ‘soulers’.

• A rather morbid theory is that the cakes were used as part of a lottery. If you drew the one burnt cake in the pile, you got to be the human sacrifice for the coming year!

• Others say that the cakes were scattered around to mollify evil spirits condemned to exist in the form of animals.

• Some say in Ireland, peasants would beg door-to-door on All Hallows' Eve for food. If the family had soul cakes to give them the household would be free from a prank and the cake recipients would then offer prayers for them to help them get into heaven.

• By the 8th century soul cakes were used to pay the beggars who came around on All Souls' Eve and offered to say prayers for the family's departed. One cake given, one soul saved.

Regardless of the origin, they are a tasty treat for this season. Over the years I have made both vegan and non-vegan. Here are the ones I am making this year:

Soul Cakes - Vegan

• 3.5 cups flour

• 1.5 teaspoons baking powder

• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

• 7/8 teaspoon salt

• 7/8 cup sugar

• 12 tablespoons non-dairy stick butter

• 1 teaspoon vanila

• 1/4 cup plain non-dairy yogurt

• 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon non-dairy milk

• 1/2 cup raisins

Add flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, and salt to a medium-sized mixing bowl. Whisk together. Cut the non-dairy butter into small cubes and add them to a medium-sized mixing bowl with the sugar and vanilla. Cream together for three minutes on medium speed. Add the yogurt, then beat it into the sugar mixture.

Add one third of the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, then stir it in by hand. Add half of the milk, then mix.

Mix in half of the remaining dry ingredients, then the rest of the milk.

Add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix them in.

Add the dried fruit and mix.

Place the dough in the freezer for 20 minutes to chill. Then, turn it out onto a floured work surface. Press the dough out with flat hands until it is 3/4″ thick.

Use a large biscuit cutter (2 3/4″) cut out as many soul cakes as you can. Be sure to push the cutter straight down without twisting.

Place the cakes on a baking sheet lined with parchment and score the top of each one. Make the cuts between 1/8 and 1/4 inch deep. Brush the tops with non-dairy milk, then sprinkle with coarse sugar.

Place the pan in the freezer for twenty minutes while preheating the oven to 425 degrees F. After the soul cakes have chilled, bake them for 23 to 26 minutes. They should be crunchy and golden brown on the tops. Transfer soul cakes to a rack to cool, then serve them with butter and tea or coffee.

What I’m looking forward to…….

I will return home from the retreat in Mexico in time for a full moon on October 28th. I am looking forward to the ritual too greet the full moon that has been created with our youngest. Both of us barefoot, no coats or scarves or hats or mittens, staring at the sky with big grins on our faces. Talking about all of the stars that are visible in the night sky. Then back inside it is time to make a cup of tea and look back at my journal to see what was happening on the new moon and reflect on what progress I have made on the intention I set back then. Thank you beautiful moon, for always reminding me that I am all right as is, and there are always new opportunities to grow.

Then on to all of the celebrations of the week of October 31st - Halloween, All Souls Night, and Samhain! All of our juicy family rituals for these days will kick in. I am looking forward to this week being supercharged after attending the retreat in Mexico.

from: Stone Lake, Kashubia, Wikimedia Commons

In place of a poem this month, I am sharing a story from Kashubia. Purtk is a demon/devil known for being a prankster. I’m not sure where I originally found this story. I hope you enjoy it.

The Legend of Purtk

Once upon a time there was a good-natured fisherman named Mirach. His wife had died and he had one daughter whom he raised alone.

This daughter was beautiful and hardworking. She took care of her father as best she could. Her father was a bit of a challenge though. He often visited the inn, where he drank too much and bragged about his beautiful and good daughter.

Many wanted to marry her, but the owner of the inn was determined to be the one to marry her.

One day the innkeeper was giving free liquor to the guests. He made sure Mirach got drunk and then made a bet with him. He would build a bridge overnight for Mirach to use to cross the lake to get back home faster. If he was able to build the bridge overnight, then he would marry Mirach's daughter. If not, he would give Mirach the inn. Mirach agreed.

What Mirach did not know was that the innkeeper had made a pact with the devil. In exchange for the building the bridge, the devil would receive his soul. Just before dawn, Mirach realized he had been the victim of a plot.

Mirach ran to a nearby chicken coop to wake up the birds. The sudden crowing of the rooster scared the devil, who was carrying the last stone to complete the construction of the road. The devil dropped the stone and he fell into the lake. The Devil's Stone, also known as the Great or Broken Stone, lies to this day on the shore of the lake, which took its name from it - Stone Lake.

Love,

Karen