Notes from the Counselor on the Law of Effect

Dr. Muriel Redman McKenney on the Law of Effect

Dr. Muriel always loved Halloween. She loved the opportunity to do things for children.

For her own children she would help expand there minds with ideas of people they could be. She would help them make a costume based on their own idea of who they would like to be.

Not having much in the way of economic resources she would transform old time worn clothes and bed sheets into new looking garments and capes complete with double stitching.

Through the decades she created princesses, princes, pirates, bishops, super heroes, robots and secret agents just to name a few. Each of her eight children got his or her own unique costume every year.

Often the costume came with a lesson in selecting the right material; in dying a material to hide catsup stains; in sewing buttons and edging; in patternmaking; and in repairing imperfections. By involving the child each year her children grew more independent and skilled in creating their own costumes.

Usually by the time they were old enough to stop “Trick or Treating” they had all the skills need to make any costume they wanted and many other skills.

These are the notes of Dr. Muriel R. McKenney, the Counselor, on the Law of Effect:

“Halloween is rapidly approaching; the hallowed evening before All Saints Day when supposedly all hell is roaming loose. Our Halloween customs, games and pranks with ghosts and other scary costumes are relics of ancient pagan days. Long before Christian times, the Romans celebrated the Druid autumn festival of Romana, goddess of gardens.

In Western Europe and in England, Roman customs were added to the Druid observances, and have perpetuated to this day. In England and elsewhere the witches still gather on the eve of All Saints Day, All Hallow’s Eve, and stir their cauldrons of brew while chanting spirits.

We may wonder why we have continued to participate in such an unusual custom for hundreds of years, a custom that focuses on the underworld, rather than the saints. What do we gain? What do we find rewarding enough to continue this behavior year after year?