Autumn is the season of harvest.
The Autumn Equinox marks the earth’s relationship with the sun. It is when the earth’s two hemispheres are receiving the sun’s rays equally. Equinox is derived from the Latin words aequus (equal) and nox (night) – day and night are of equal length. It occurs around the 20th March each year in Australia.
But, since the earth never stops moving around the sun, these days of equal sunlight and night will change quickly. Therefore, it’s a time where we can honour a moment of balance, express gratitude and complete projects. We can “reap what we sow” both literally and figuratively. The key highlights are to count our blessings, feast and share food, meditate on balance and bring it into our lives at this marker in time.
This point in the cycle of the year invites us to look back not just on the past year, but also our current life, consider and make plans for the future. In the rhythm of the year, it is a time to rest and celebrate, after the hard work of summer, gathering the crops to store for the coming of winter. Warm autumn days are followed by cold chilly nights and we begin to prepare for winter.
Autumn Equinox is a miraculous moment in the year where we have the chance to create anew in our body/mind and our lives. It offers us a chance to achieve inner balance, to let go and go deeply within in our life and in our consciousness. We can utilise this gateway to be aware of the harvests in our own life and how we contribute these to our family and the greater community.
It is a time to reflect; to deepen our meditation practice and connect to ourselves – yet also a time for action – to remove what we no longer need in our relationships or in our lives. It is a time to release negativity to prepare us to enter the darker nights of winter’s dream-time without the weight of any drama, unnecessary burdens, or faulty beliefs. All these hold us back from connecting to our True Essence, our gifts, our purpose, our connection to nature and others, and our access to our inner wisdom.
As the air is cooling down, autumn is the perfect season to get outdoors and appreciate nature. Observe how the flowers and leaves are falling to the ground to re-unite and replenish the earth as a slow shedding occurs and enjoy the colour’s of autumn.
Turn off your phone, unplug, write a few words in a journal and breathe in the beauty of this amazing season. Watch the sunset and observe the end of summer and the beginning of autumn.
If you’ve set goals for the season ahead, there’s no better time to start than now. The theme of autumn is discernment and refinement, reflection and growth. Let go of what is no longer needed, inspire – literally take a deeper breath, a deeper perspective to feel free.
If we move with nature’s cycles and feel them deeply and symbolically we can adjust our perspective and foster new connections between our daily life and the rhythms and cycles that exist in the cosmos.