Happy Autumn Equinox! In tropical astrology, the 12 signs reflect the journey of the Earth around the Sun and the 12 lunar months that make the seasons.
Today the Sun enters Libra marking the official beginning of autumn – the sunset season of the year. And in fact, Libra’s glyph resembles a sunset.
And Libra’s energy is about balance.
Equinox means equal night, Nox being the Latin word for night. When day and night are equal, and light and darkness are in balance – just before one of them takes over the other.
Autumn equinox is time to celebrate the beginning of the autumn, a season of gradually letting go in preparation for the stillness of the winter – when darkness has taken over so we can rest. Just like it is thanks to the Sun setting every day that the night can come and we can sleep.
During this season, trees lose their leaves and show their bare branches so they can grow new ones in the spring. I have often wondered what the trees would say if they thought like humans and how they would respond to losing all of their leaves and feeling naked.
Would they be horrified by how they look?
Would they trust that they will grow new leaves by the time the spring comes?
Even though it is a cycle that happens every year…
Would they still resist to trust it will happen again? Or would they worry that maybe this year it won’t happen?
We know those thoughts are futile because the changes reflect the natural cycle of the seasons, which works like clockwork. Yet we do not always accept our own cycles.
We are also affected by the natural cycles. Living in awareness and alignment with those cycles brings flow and ease into our lives.
After the fullness of summer, autumn is the third quarter of the cycle before the Dark Moon of the winter.
It is time to reflect on what leaves we need to lose. Unlike trees, we can consciously decide which ones we lose and which ones we keep. But without letting go, there is no space for new ones to grow.
Letting go is a temporary loss for greater gain. Resisting that temporary loss keeps us stuck in our comfort zone. What is comfortable and familiar is not always good. However painful change might feel, it is necessary for evolution and growth.
Mabon is the pagan festival that celebrates the end of the harvest season at the Autumn Equinox – reflecting on the past summer and preparing for the coming winter. It is time to bring in the colours of the autumn and prepare a bounty meal using seasonal foods – especially apples, a symbol of the divine, wisdom and guidance.
Give thanks for everything you have done, and that has been given.
Take care,
Ester.