Falling on Sunday 22nd September 2024, the Autumn Equinox marks the second time in the year when day and night are of roughly equal duration. The energies bring a pause, a transitional moment between the light of spring and summer and the darkening half of the year.
Colours change in nature from vibrant yellow and green to the more mellow shades of autumn. Oranges, reds and golds abound and bring their peculiar warmth as the temperatures drop away. It truly is the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.
Mabon
Our ancestors celebrated this season of Autumn Equinox, or Mabon, as the second harvest celebration of the year. Lughnasadh was the first and Samhain the third and final harvest. Mabon marked the harvest of apples, grapes, root vegetables, berries and rosehips.
The harvest which started at Lammas, or Lughnasadh, has continued and we look at the fruits of our labours and acknowledge all our achievements and the growth in our lives. The intentions we set at Samhain last year as seeds to overwinter are brought to fruition in the seasons of harvest. It’s time to take stock of our lives and begin to contemplate our successes and, yes, our failures too. We can look with gratitude to all the lessons we have learned and the progress we have made, celebrate new partnerships forged over the year and cleanse the ground for the coming year.
Just as the vines that supported the ripening fruits wither away and nourish the ground for next year’s growth, it is time to consider what no longer serves our own growth and discard it. Let it fall away like an autumn leaf, filled with the spent energies of the past seasons and leaving the embryonic bud of next year’s new growth still hidden, protected from the harsh winter weather to come.
Balance & Cleanse Meditation
Carrying out a simple meditation to balance and cleanse your energies and prepare for the fallow period ahead, where we rest and let our intentions sit beneath the surface to lie dormant until the spring awakening comes around again can be a simple but effective way to honour the transition that the turning of the wheel brings in.
The next significant event in the Wheel of the Year is Samhain, where we began this journey. We have come full circle with the changing seasons, the rotation of the Earth that is our home, and the energetic wonders of our human lives lived out on this amazing planet. As our ancestors have done for countless generations, we now have the chance to honour the special times where one season crosses over to the next. Fill your home and your heart with the bountiful goodness that has been given to you to nourish you and take you forward in your life. The cornucopia is the symbol of abundance that we have achieved a successful harvest, literally and spiritually.
Thank you for taking this journey through the Wheel of the Year with me. I hope that you will journey safely, as the Wheel turns once more.
With blessings and hope for the future,
Posted: 20/09/2024
Related Category: Spiritual Holidays
