November Eve begets the chaotic time of Samhain, the season of death revels. The incantory narrative of Celtic storytelling took place from Samhain to Beltaine and the folk customs and stories of the Celts did not seek to assuage the bite of death. No life was mediocre in passing, no person lessened in nobility in death. As Samhain nears, so does the Otherworld.
Much has been written on the varieties of ghosts and shades who share our earthly plane and which for many reasons appear now and again to the living. Many of us have seen a "ghost" and generally find the experience highly charged and unforgettable. Often ties such an experience will launch an individual into a journey of self discovery, initiating them into a relationship with their inner self and bridging the distance between personal and universal experience.
Although close examination of these tales might lead some to scoff, these stories and their fantastic occupants both instruct and allow us a fleeting connection to a natural world from which our modern society is divorced.
Some spectres serve to lessen the shock of an impending event, illness or death, either of oneself or a loved one. The "Fetch" is the image of a man or woman which may appear in one place as the physical body actually lies in another. This double (or "doppleganger") may presage an impending split of the soul with its body, and is seen by friends or the subject themselves.
The Celtic death messenger, the Banshee appears to and is heard only by family and friends. Her mournful wails hasten their attendance at a loved one's sickbed. The only harm attributed to the Banshee is that which she deals upon men of uncivil nature who accost her in her nighly keening. From this, we can deduce it is unwise to harass women or travel in the dead of night - both admonitions which hold well today.
While serving to inform (and entertain), these stange creatures of the Otherworld join the gap between the known and unknown worlds, thus providing some comfort and even predictability to a universe which can not be otherwise controlled.
These spirits still exist today, not as inventions, but as extensions of the mind. The ghosts, guides and angels we see and hear serve to reconnect us with our forgotten nature and the soul's journey. They beckon us from the twilight of our consciousness, with some unremembered, slightly frightening familiarity, to join them for a spell in their darkly splendid world.