Samhain

I can see how someone might look at this picture and see the "spooky" stereotypes that surround what we now call Halloween and, were we to challenge them to interpret it realistically rather than to look at it as holiday kitsch, they'd think of it as pagan blasphemy.

It's heavy on the typical Halloween tropes, notably the heavy use of orange, a grave, candles, a skull, a woman alone in dark woods (which, in western culture, is usually the prelude to something wicked coming our way), the full moon, and, of course, some sort of spirit in the background that looks as if as it's headed toward our worshipper. Most people are culturally conditioned to see this scene in that kind of light (or darkness, as it were), but I think that the young women, kneeling so peacefully and serenely does a great deal to counter all of that.

Even if someone were unfamiliar with the notion that, were she calling forth evil spirits, she would likely have protected herself within a pentagram, we can tell what's obvious is that she has placed herself very deliberately in this position. This is not the stereotypical bimbo in the B movie who opens the closet in the haunted house. This is a young woman who has carefully prepared for this ceremony and is carrying it out, calmly The accoutrements she has brought with her to use in her worship are ones that we might associate with witchcraft and we can assume that she is aware of what they do and, even with her head down, of what she and they have done. But the manner in which she comports herself with such calm tranquility challenges the notion that she is ignorant of her circumstances, and her look, while appropriate for the time, place, and occasion, are not those of a malevolent witch. She's a pretty young woman.

This could easily be dismissed as a piece depicting that Halloween when the banshee ate the soul of my homecoming date, but reading is almost too easy (and lazy). Every mainstream religion has it creeptastic elements. It is no different with smaller religions that fall outside of the mainstream. The woman at worship could be, in another setting and garb, a saint praying before a Christian altar. I think that she and her surroundings are just too tranquil and lovely to be construed as "scary" or "evil," and I would like to think that an attentive viewer would take that away from a careful reading of the painting, too.