The Fall Equinox: Giving and Releasing
The great Wheel turns again and brings us to the Autumn Equinox! If you’re in Colorado with me, you may have noticed our beautiful aspens already beginning to turn, lighting up the mountains and our evergreen forests with splashes of brilliant color like paint on a canvas. What a profound and inspiring metaphor that life can be the most beautiful when we are in our final days!
Balance
On Equinoxes Pagans honor the theme of balance. For just one day, the hours of day and night stand in perfect balance with each other. It is common to look back on this year or on our life and reflect. We reflect on what things may need to be reassessed, re-balanced, or released entirely for our well-being and our sanity.
Honoring Balance in your practice:
What are some things in your life that are taking too much energy?
What are some things in your life that need some more attention?
Is there anything that has become excessive to the point of stress?
What can you do to lessen the time and energy that stressful elements take?
Is there anything practical that may need more focus than you've been giving?
Is it possible to section off times of the day for balance and meditation?
The Autumn Equinox
During the Autumn Equinox our earth stands perpendicular to the Sun before beginning to tilt its Northern pole from it. Here in Colorado and in the Northern Hemisphere this starts our journey away from the Sun and into Winter. But Winter isn’t here yet! We still have the glorious and bountiful final season before the nature sleeps.
Honoring the Equinox in your practice:
Take time to enjoy the changing season. Perhaps take a walk in the mornings or evenings and spend extra time outdoors?
If you enjoy decorating, bring some of the colors outside in.
Natural Crafts. If you are crafty, feel free to bring in leaves, gourds, sticks, etc and make some decor with these items.
Light candles or hang fairy lights in your home to start bringing in the light to keep joy, hope, and comfort alive during the colder darker months of the year. Get creative with your light displays.
The Harvest and Giving Thanks
For most of the Northern Hemisphere, Autumn Equinox also marks the second harvest before the final one in October. This is when we harvest apples, root vegetables, beans, pears, pomegranates, and squash. It’s also the opening of hunting season for big game and fowl. Sound familiar? That’s because the Second Harvest is known as the Pagan/Witch’s Thanksgiving! Now is the time for sowing what we reaped through the year, both figuratively and literally, and take inventory of our results. This leads to both some deep reflection but also giving thanks! Balance remember?
Thanksgiving in your practice:
Reflect on what you are Thankful for. Perhaps write them on a tablecloth, strips of cloth tied to a display, or just spend time sharing verbally with others what you are grateful for. Expressing gratitude balances out the negative and the frustrations we tend to focus on and leaves more space for joy and receiving bounty and gifts in our life.
Write down things that didn’t work out so well and reflect on how you can do better next time.
Release the things that are no longer serving you into a burn bowl. Write them on a slip of paper and (safely) watch them burn away.
Visit some orchards or farms that are offering “pick your own” fruits and vegetables. Bring the family!
Plan a feast! Invite your friends or family! Feasting is a big part of this holiday.
If you drink, share in a toast to friends, family, and whatever deities, source or gods you honor today!