Interesting Syzygy tonight : it’s Halloween and Diwali. And also, if you’re in Bengal and/or my house, Kālī Pūjā. These latter two being because it’s also an Amāvasyā [Night of No Moon] tonight, as well.

As for what that is, the Amāvasyā of each month [where the Sun and Moon ‘dwell (-vāsya) together (amā-)’] has since Vedic times been a fixture for Ritual performance (c.f. the Roman ‘Kalends’, with which it shares much, esp. via Kuhū / कुहू ).

It has especial salience for the Pitṛs (the spirits of the Ancestral Dead) as the Moon’s relative position during this time makes the metaphysical engagement with Them (in order to ensure They are ‘fed’) more viable.

Each month’s Amāvasyā is also particularly prominent for the worship of Kālī – and this particular Amāvasyā which is tonight, especially so.

A well-known passage from the Skanda Purana [II 4 9 61-68] should appear to speak to both saliencies :

Therein we hear of the Goddess Mahārātri (elsewhere attested as a Devī theonymic / facing) emanating (‘samutpannā’) upon the present month’s fourteenth day (‘caturdaśyāṃ’ – i.e. just before the Amāvasyā) … “Hence those who are devoted to worship of Śakti should celebrate Her festival.” [line 61, quoted is from Tagare translation]

The metaphysical potency of the occasion is also parsed (and as I’m tapping this out during a pause in our ongoing large-scale overnight Operations, you’ll forgive me if I simply quote relevant portions from the Tagare translation directly, here and there):

“After coming to the kingdom of Bali, Yakṣas, Gandharvas, Kinṇaras, medicinal herbs, ghosts, Mantras, magic crystals etc., all of them get delighted. They dance in the early part of the night. There is no doubt about this that those Mantras will be accomplished in the kingdom of Bali. Just as the people coming to the kingdom of Bali are highly delighted, so also on that day the people should be full of delight.” [lines 62-64, Tagare translation]

And, as applies the Pitṛs :

“When the Sun is in Libra, on the nights of Caturdaśī and new-moon day, men should celebrate the festival of “showing the path unto the Pitṛs” with firebrands in their hands. The dead men and ghosts who are in hell see the path, due to this Vrata always. No doubt need be entertained in this respect by leading sages.” [lines 65-66, Tagare translation]

That, as you can see, is us here tonight – with Sūrya (‘sahasrāṃśau’) in the Solar Rāśi of Tulā (‘Libra’ in Western terms, a Rashi being effectively a ‘Zodiac sign’) and the Nakṣatra of Svāti (the Moon, as it happens, is in Citrā – fittingly).

Of course, what matters is not simply the date – but rather, what one does with it.

And in that light, this notion of engaging in ‘Mārgadarśana’ – the ‘illumination of the Right Path’ – in order to aid in homecoming for those close to us who may be ‘Narakastha’ (‘Stuck in the Underworld’) and yet still not lost to us forever …

… well, the mind went instantly to a certain δαιδοῦχε (‘Torch-Bearer’). One Who also happens to have a prominent ‘Amāvasyā’ observance (this being the δεῖπνον (‘Deipnon’), which likewise provided sustenance to the Ghostly Dead) … amidst various other points of pertinence which we might seek to draw from upon this Moonless vigil of ours.

She is, of course, Hekate ( Ἑκάτη ) – quite famously depicted here upon this fine mid-5th century Greek vase by the ‘Persephone Painter’, actively engaged in ‘Mārgadarśana’ for a most especial Revenant : the ἀγαυὴ Περσεφόνεια , the August Persephone, Who is shown ascending up out of the Underworld (an ανάβασις, indeed!) and towards a most Divine reunification (Demeter is the scepter-bearing feminine figure to the right towards which Hekate walks and Persephone gazes) – seemingly, as induced via Hecate’s Torch-Bearing (the Skanda Purana would phrase it as ‘Ulkāhasta’) operation.

And whilst it might seem a little strange to cite a Goddess where the ritual / observance schema had highlighted ‘Pitṛ’ …

One not infrequently encounters a belief in Diwali commemorating the occasion of Lord Rama’s triumphant homecoming to Ayodhya (following a protracted exile … and, more famously, His valorously – and victoriously – prosecuting a most remarkable and intrepid war-effort against a demon-ruled empire whose formidably potent ruler had kidnapped His Wife in order to secure Her Return).

This … would not readily concord with the datings attested for key events in various of the Ramayanas which have come down to us, and that’s OK – because my purpose in invoking Lord Ram here had been an entirely different one.

As attested via the Devi Mahabhagavata Purana’s iteration for the Ramayana (as it happens, one of the few which provides datings which could support Rama returning to Ayodhya upon what would become Diwali), Rama’s victory over Ravana was rendered possible through just such a thing.

That being His utilization (per Devī’s direct instructions) of an Amāvasyā to invoke and propitiate the (War, Victory-Giving) Goddess – as a Pitṛ, rather than ‘directly’ as the (then metaphysically inaccessible) particularly-portfolio’d Goddess (with deference to Halloween … perhaps one could analogize it somewhat via ‘Going In Costume’) ; thus enabling Him to ‘do the impossible’ on several levels, as we have detailed somewhat more capaciously elsewhere.

Amazing what one might accomplish – with the combination of a Moonless Night, some Piety, and some Flame.