Sex, Sin and Samhain: The Sexualisation of the “Wicked”
It’s time to prepare for the next spin around the Wheel of the Year, with Samhain, AKA All Souls Night, the Feast of the Dead, Pagan New Year, and more commonly, Halloween, falling on Saturday. Samhain sees us entering the dark part of the cycle, as we head towards Yule and the rebirth of the Sun King upon the Winter Solstice. No matter how, or if, you celebrate the date, I wish you all many blessings for the season.
There is an undeniable sexual frisson around Halloween, arguably more so than at any other Pagan Festival (with the exception of the Spring-time festival of fertility, Beltane/ May Day, perhaps). It’s dark, and we all know that lots of sexy shenanigans take place under cover of darkness. It’s a festival of the dead, and as far as imagery goes, sex and death go together like dark chocolate on ripe cherries. And many of the classic Halloween “monsters” that are so prevalent in popular culture at this time of year are based on sexual archetypes.
