Autumn Equinox

AUTUMN EQUINOX


Autumn is well-named Fall, as it is the time when greens give way to a glorious array of yellows, golds, oranges and reds before the wind takes
the leaves to the ground. Autumn is the season of winds, the harbingers of
the storms of Winter. It is the time of harvest and plenty, when the crops
ripen, before the hardship of Winter.

  Even if we do not tend the land to produce our own food it is a time of harvest. This is the time when we should look to what we have achieved: the tasks and projects we have completed, the successes we have had. Even where not all has turned out as hoped for, there is often much which has been achieved.
As the farmer is setting aside seed for next year, so we too can sort out the seeds of ideas for new things to begin. Much like we did in the Spring this is a time for sorting through our lives, discarding that which is finished and preparing to start afresh.

  Take time to consider and sort through your life. Celebrate your own harvest, whether it is a spring of herb grown on the windowsill or a friend you have helped through abad time, and mark every achievement great and small. For each collect a seed or nut and create a string of them. Sunflower seeds are good for this. Paint each in a color which reminds you of the good things in year and place it in a prominent place where you can remind yourself of the positive aspects of life.
[From Kate West's ""The Real Witches' Year"]

FALL EQUINOX - We'Moon essay

   A momentary state of precise equilibrium mirrors the Spring Equinox, but instead of the
exuberance of spring, we experience a melancholy represented by the crescent-shaped harvest sickle, that ancient female symbol marking women's role in agriculture and the cutting of cord after birth. Harvest time warns us to gather in the fruits and nuts, pick the vegetables from gardens and fields, cut grains, and enter into planning for some surplus to get us through the winter. Mother Earth's abundance could be a metaphor for the 'gift economy', and alternative economic model developed by femininist philosopher, Genevieve Vaughn, reflecting ancient matriarchal values that constrast with the 'exchange exonomy' dominating the world today.

Go into nature (or your backyard), and gather things to make a 'fetish' or 'talisman' from fibers, shells, feathers and found objects. Tie the parts together making prayers with each knot, binding energies in and shaping it into the form of an animal spirit or doll. Let this artifact remind you to turn within yourself and give thanks for what you have harvested this year. How about making a contribution of food or cash to yourn local food bank!

By Vicki Noble copyright Mother Tongue Ink, 2008