Re-imagining the Wheel: Autumn Thresholds
There comes a point in September when the shift from summer into autumn becomes unmistakable. The darkness arrives quickly in the evenings, you feel a chill in the air in mornings or at night but might still feel the heat of summer on your skin during the day, trees are laden with fruit and you witness the first falling leaves. The landscape shifts from the fullness of summer, and if we pay attention, we realise that our inner landscapes are calling for the same adjustments.
The Wheel of the Year
The Wheel of the Year gives us a way to mark and celebrate Earth's cyclic flow by dividing the year into eight divisions. Eight festivals to honour the changing seasons and the shifting energies of Earth's ebb and flow. These patterns go beyond the marking of seasons, they set the pace of our lives. When we offer our attention to Earth cycles, it can be an act of Devotion. We have a chance to be in harmony with the whole process.
But last Week the Autumn Equinox happened, and I didn't perform a ritual.
The Full Harvest Moon lit up the sky at the weekend, and I didn't perform a ritual for that either.
The internet was full of instructions to harness the energy of the powerful energy of these cosmic passings to harmonise your life.
Does the fact that I didn't perform, make me any less Spiritual, or devotional than someone who marked these moments with ceremony? Does it mean I missed out on a cosmic hand in rebalancing my life. Did I miss the chance to get my shit together (finally) because I didn't pray to the right deity, or because I didn't light a candle for the moon?
There has been a revival in honouring the Wheel in contemporary folk culture over the last while. Community and public events have popped up all over the country. People have joined circles, gathered for events, and more people seem interested in private rituals to honour the moments. What a beautiful thing. There is no doubt that there is a growing, and I will go so far as to say, urgent need within our culture to mark life-changing moments.
We need more ceremony. We need more ways to celebrate what holds us together, and ways to relate to each other and ourselves more deeply, and there is no doubt in my mind that to do this in relationship with the world itself is not only powerful, but also life-affirming.
This is what I belive as someone who concidered themselves an Animist, and has been in some capacity or other been honouring the wheel of the year for over a decade. Yet I dont belive that there is one way to be in relationship with the cycles.
Sometimes I align rituals with the seasonal thresholds. Sometimes I charge my divination practice with the rhythmm of the cosmos.
Sometimes, I don't, and I think that's powerful too.
The Equinox Made me do it
The equinoxes (that mark Spring and Autumn) are less dramatic than the Solstices. Quieter somehow. The energy is of balancing both sides, rather than the dramatic turnaround the sun makes at the peak of a Solstice. I pretty much always, if I can like to witness the Sunrise and Sunsets of the Solstices. Theres something about it that makes me feel truly connected, and I would be gutted to miss those.
An Equinox takes us through a seasonal threshold and invites us to hold the tension between opposites.
The harvest is complete and we are invited to celebrate abundance of the season, and give thanks for it. At the same time, we are called to release things, and prepare for what is ahead, to pull our energy inwards once again and dream a little as we enter into the darker half of the year.
This is a softer command than a complete turnaround.
The Equinox is a cosmic moment when the light and dark balances. It is a powerful image. But I think as soon as we try and impose this idea of balance on ourselves, we get trapped in something I am trying to avoid within my own practice.
Balance really isn't about equalising. It isn't about celebrating the one moment things were the same on both sides.
If you want to honour the Equinox but missed the date, or if you didn't do it “properly” with a fancy ritual or with enough gratitude for that matter, I actually think congratulations is in order. You have begun the process of reclaiming your natural rhythm and honouring your own needs!
Rhythm is movement, not a static point so you actually can't miss it. We embrace the rhythm of the cycles and find balance in momentum.
When we honour natural rhythms, in the cosmos or our own bodies, we embrace the rhythms of the goddess which operates within divine timing. The Goddess, the Earth Mother, the cosmos, the divine life force energy doesn't run with linear time, so the way you honour it doesn't have to either.
How to settle the balance in the threshold of Autumn
This ancient framework for relating to the world can fall apart when viewed through the lens of modernity. Without making space for our own roles and capacity within the tangled, interconnected, complex whole, the experience of universal love and acceptance that should be at the centre can get away from us.
The seasonal threshold honoured through this lens invites us to be with whatever tension is present – until it's resolved. No timescale. It doesn't mean we don't take stock of what has been, or dream into the future. It just expands the threshold to exist beyond this perfectly balanced moment.
We are still in it.
You don't need to catch the exact moment when the light and dark are equal in order to enter into relationship with the season.
It is enough to notice the first cold morning, and greet it like an old friend.
It is enough to gather the last flowers from the garden and spread seeds for the future.
It is enough to swim in the sea and ask the Great Mother to take some of the weight.
It is enough to hear the call to turn inwards, and follow without a fight.
It is enough to sit with something that hasn't resolved yet.
Find ways to reclaim your attention, so you have the capacity to notice what is here, what is asking to leave and what is emerging.
This autumn, I'm exploring this through two different in person experiences at The Good Space in Dawlish, Devon. Both are invitations to step out of ordinary time and explore your creative edge. One of them is a full day retreat, with lots of lovely reasonalbly priced accomodation closeby if you want to make a weekend of it.
A L T A R I N G members get access to a special "secret" booking page with a decent discount for both events. If you are a member keep going... youve nearly reached the threshold!
If you are not a subscriber, you can find out more about both events and book full price tickets here.
Or Subscribe to get aceess to liberate your practice (and get in on the discount and free rituals) Its free to join.
Your special secret members links
Botanical Incense Making is an evening of wildcrafting and ritual with plants from the local landscape. We'll spend time with them learning how to select, prepare, blend and bind them into botanical incense blends that are allys for the season shift. The making itself becomes a sensory practice of relationship — with the plants, the landscape, the season and the unseen world.
Emerging Landscapes is a full-day textile retreat exploring slow stitch, eco print, nature and seasonal ritual. Rather than trying to arrive at a particular outcome, we'll work with natural fibres, botanical colour and plants from the local landscape, allowing the materials and the process to participate in what emerges.
Thanks for reading. I'd love for you to join me for one of the events. If you want to find access to the secret link again, you can log into the members site any time using just your email and go to the events page.
Until next time, Ill be finding balance in momentum, I hope you will too
Jen x
