Happy Autumnal Equinox!

Autumnal Equinox — this is the time of the year when the hours of sunlight come to a balance before preparing to decrease, and much of nature dies away as winter approaches.

It is a time of looking into the faces of the skeletons and goblins, trying on masks and costumes, and harvesting as much as we can before winter. Death is honored; the trees signal a time for letting go in a final burst of color. It is the season of the pagan new year.

There are a lot of messages we can take from this particular change in season. While many people dread fall due to the fact that it precedes winter (some years, this is me), others embrace this time of year; fall is a very common “favorite” season.

Any new season brings a chance for new beginnings, and the autumnal equinox suggests a time of embracing the life-death-life cycle. It’s a good time to decide if there is something in your life that needs to die: harvest your summer fields and decide what needs to fall away, to dry up, to be held out to the wind, to be set ablaze in a bonfire. Winter is not a time for expending unnecessary energy on those things in our lives that are not making us happy or healthy.

Fall is one of the times of the year I go on a warpath against the junk in my house I don’t need. I repurpose, I reorganize, I reuse, I donate — and then, when my energy has waned, the cold has settled in, and the trees stand bare, I simply discard. It all must go. Any little piece of something — what is this? — it’s gone, and soon, I march around with a trash bag — what are these? — gone! — where did this come from?? — into the pit! — what was I saving this scrap for?! — out, out, out!

Then, for a brief time, there is balance.

We can do this kind of personal harvest ritual with our stuff, our behaviors, our relationships, and our thoughts — gather it up then figure out what needs to go!