Autumn's Beauty
As the days grow shorter, we tend to acknowledge the changing season without understanding that we, too, are in transition. The birth of autumn is an event missed by many. Autumn reveals itself slowly, hovering on the edges of our consciousness until its crisp breezes are strong enough to pierce our summer clothing, and we notice for the first time the transformations taking place all around us. Autumn is invigorating and a time to gather our thoughts and ushers in a new slowness of being for most of us, as the tone and tempo of our lives change along with Mother Earth and we feel obliged to slow down and take stock of our lives.
My Thoughts:
The word equinox is Latin for "equal night". This is the time that for a few days the earth is almost at a standstill and held in a balance between the summer and the time that is a prelude to winter.
I always maintain that autumn is not allowed to come into force until after my birthday. Unexplainable now, but for some reason as a child it was important that I was born in the summer, in the carefree days of sunshine and endless clear warm nights. As I got older the notion just stuck and that is still how I feel.
Paganism and Wicca refer to the mid-harvest festival as Mabon, (pronounced MAY-bun) celebrating the Goddess aging from mother to crone in preparation for death and re-birth. It is a time of mysteries within the spirit world and symbolises a period of rest and reflection to wind down towards Samhain on the 31st of October, which marks the end of the autumn season.
In the commercial zodiac it falls in the sign of Libra … my birth sign …
Night and day weighed in Libra’s scales, equal awhile but at last the night prevails.
Taken from a poem by Manillius (first ventury B.C.)
Translation by Thomas Creech published 1670)
http://www.jonvran.co.uk/418256195