Shell

Scary stories have been with us, across all times and cultures, throughout all of human history. They are part of our human consciousness - and for good reason.

In ancient Rome, Pliny the Younger wrote a haunted house story in which the ghost of the former owner terrifies all who come near. Thus the house falls into disrepair. Finally one man stays the night. Unafraid of the apparition, he confronts it and learns that it has been trying all along to deliver a message. It leads him to a pile of bones, for which he arranges a proper ritual burial. Along with the bones, the ghost is laid to rest and never appears again. The house is saved and restored.

In this story we find one of the hidden secrets not only of scary stories but also of Halloween, the night in which ghosts roam the streets at will. In order to put our fears to rest, we must deal with them, understand them, learn from them, and begin to laugh again. Only then can we be restored to our natural state of psychoemotional health.

In the Satyricon, another Roman author, Petronius, tells a tale of a man walking on a country road outside Rome on a night of the full moon. A soldier becomes his companion for a time. The man is glad for this protection, but when they stop for a moment at the edge of a cemetery the soldier turns into a werewolf. The man flees for his life and escapes.

In Petronius' story, someone who wore the guise of a protector was really a monster instead. The full moon represents an influence which transforms the protector into a monster. That influence can be alcoholism, drug addiction, bipolar episodes, overwhelming grief, uncontrolled anger, or just pure meanness born of bad character. In such cases the rule is always to find a safe escape first, then come to terms with things later.

We may, of course, choose to think of these stories as mere fairy tales designed to frighten or thrill children - and the child in all of us. Oooh! Monsters! Scary-scary!

Fairy tales don't teach children that monsters exist.
Children already know that monsters exist. Fairy
tales teach children that monsters can be killed. [1]

Sigmund Freud was well aware of the sometimes monstrous acts which can lie behind the smiling masks of those around us, closest to us, friends and family.

Life with loved ones comes with a goodly portion of harsh words, personal betrayals, frightening outbursts of anger, and periods of depression - both theirs and ours.

The same is true when we step into the workplace. There are office ogres, warlocks, and wicked witches everywhere - along with good magicians, gentle healers, and courageous leaders.

Thus it is also among loved ones and coworkers that we find goodness, kindness, support, care and comfort.

Halloween is one night of the year when frightening images take form and come out to dance in the darkness among us all, ogres and healers alike.

On Halloween, they can be seen for what they are: shapes, shadows, spectres that, like scary dreams, wander for a time through our consciousness and then fall away once again.

On Halloween we are allowed to assume these forms and try to scare ourselves and others - and then laugh.

Another hidden message of Halloween is that we must always take the bad along with the good, the trick that comes with the treat. We like to knock on our neighbors' doors and say "Trick or Treat" - meaning if you don't give me a treat then I'll play a trick on you.

But life doesn't work that way. The truth is that in life we usually end up with both a trick and a treat at the same time.

Perhaps instead of thinking "Trick or Treat" when the doors open to us we should chant along with my Scottish forbearers:

That way we can simply accept what is given to us, savoring that which delights us, discarding that which is unwanted and can be left aside, and simply outlasting that which burdens us until, like the ghosts of Halloween, its time passes and we are free of it.

In Mexico, Halloween is associated with the ancient tradition of the Day of the Dead, which stretches back a thousand years or more to the Maya, Olmec, Aztec and other indigenous peoples of the region.

Even the terrifying October wildfires here in San Diego die away and burn no more.

We may need individual therapy as part of that - or marriage counseling, or spiritual renewal, yoga, meditation, or some other mode of self-change.

Or perhaps all we need is to go to the beach and, as I sometimes do, sit for an hour or so at La Jolla Shores in front of what I, as a native San Diegan, call "My Pacific Ocean" and draw deep peace from its very existence.

[2] The Collected Works of G. K.
Chesterton (San Francisco:
Ignatius Press, 1986), v. I, p. 143.

It's easy. Every Wednesday
for a few minutes between
10:00 and Noon sit down and
turn inward - through prayer,
meditation, self-hypnosis or
any modality you choose -
and send out good thoughts
to everyone else in the circle.

J. Kingston Cowart
www.self-change.com
619.561.9012
Post Office Box 19005
San Diego CA 92159

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Keywords: addiction, alcoholism, anger, bipolar, character, counseling, coworkers, escape, fairy tales, family, grief, Halloween, influence, loved ones, marriage counseling, meanness, meditation, Petronius, Pliny, Satyricon, self-change, spiritual renewal, therapy, Trick or Treat, wildfires, yoga.