The Veil between the Worlds

Khush Raho with Sangeeta

On our first visit to Malacca, the famous trading town on the west coast of Malaysia, we woke up early and stepped out to walk the streets of this ancient town. We noticed that many doors and entrances to homes had food and incense placed on the ground outside them. This was intriguing, and we soon discovered that this is the Hungry Ghost Festival, a traditional Chinese and East Asian celebration held on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month, with very interesting myths and rituals behind it.

As I recently removed my ancestors' photographs from storage for our fortnight of Pitru Paksha, I was reminded of this festival. And I realised that in this season, autumn, the post-monsoon, pre-winter period, the theme of departed souls, ancestors, remembrance, and prayers for their wellbeing is actually common across many ancient cultures of the world. Halloween is one such, believed to come from an old Irish tradition. The ancient nations of North America also have their own distinct traditions, but the themes are common. The primary one is that the veil, the separation between our material world and higher or non-visible realms, becomes more open or easier to cross. It is believed that many souls who still have unfinished business or attachments to our world visit us at this time.

Across the world, many cultures set aside time to welcome back their ancestors. In Japan, Obon brings families together for welcome fires, the Bon Odori dance, and floating lanterns, as ancestral spirits return to visit the living. Across cultures, traditions honour the departed. In China and East Asia, the Hungry Ghost Festival offers food and tea to wandering spirits. Among the Anishinaabe of the Great Lakes, spirit plates containing food and tobacco prayers honour ancestors. Mexico’s Día de los Muertos welcomes the dead with marigolds, sugar skulls and favourite foods. In India, Pitru Paksha remembers ancestors through water, sesame and Pinda Daan, rice balls offered as nourishment for departed souls.

Despite thousands of years of practices, relationships, rituals, mythologies and stories of other realms and departed souls, modern society often dismisses them as superstition. Limiting reality to what our eyes perceive ignores the possibility that existence is energy and consciousness, including unseen energy beings. As Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” As an energy healer, I invoke angels, spirit guides and light beings to support my clients’ and my own healing; they are available to all who ask.

In his book "There's a Ghost in My Room," Sanjoy Roy describes one such encounter. Late one night, he and his wife were driving down a street in Delhi when they witnessed the car in front of them ram into a scooter. The man was thrown from his scooter, his helmet coming off as he struck the road and died almost instantly. That night, Sanjoy Roy and his wife, Punita, noticed a disturbing reddish light on their ceiling. Sensitive to energies beyond the material world, they wondered whether it was the spirit of the accident victim, confused, angry and possibly blaming them. Some believe souls killed suddenly linger, unable to detach and move on.

The other realm, by some accounts, is a rather beautiful place. Many who have left their bodies and returned describe it as such. But whatever unfinished business a soul carries keeps it emotionally bound until it can slowly proceed and move on.

These times of year, these festivals, to me seem gentle reminders of our own mortality. We all come to this earth with a return ticket. The date of return is not visible to us, but it is there. My purpose in sharing these thoughts is the same as I believe these festivals serve, (not to bring a morbid tone), but to remind us lovingly that as souls we may move on to other worlds, some of us may return, and yet nothing is truly final. Just as we remain connected to our ancestors, when we go, we too will continue in this vast web of energy, across the visible planet and the invisible space and other beautiful realms. And hopefully our passing will be smooth and joyous, as will the memories we leave behind for future generations.

Until next time — Khush Raho! Stay happy, stay healthy. 

(Sangeeta Bhalla is an Energy Healer, Instructor, and Therapeutic Aromatherapist. 

She can be reached at www.sangeetabhalla.net )