Every culture has it's beliefs, rituals and traditions associated with the seasons. The transition from summer into fall is no exception. As I look around me I see baskets of summer flowers on my neighbors' porches being replaced by mums and pumpkins. In more rural areas, the farmers have been busy bailing hay for the winter, and are beginning to gather the bounty from the summer harvest. Apple picking, of course, is at it's height and abundance.
The Autumnal Equinox, or the holiday Mabon as it is known in Celtic and Pagan cultures, ushers in these seasonal changes and welcomes the second harvest. This is the time of year when the sun shines equally on both hemispheres. The days and nights are of equal length, but we begin to move from the light half of the year to the dark half. The leaves turn, the birds migrate, and we start our cyclical descent into winter.
As I observe everything around me starting to wind down, Mabon, much more then the Thanksgiving holiday, feels like the most natural place in the year to pause and be grateful for all the blessings and experiences that I have had. To re-view it all, in it's entirety on a cyclical but equal basis. This year in particular my personal wheel of life truly has experienced it all. A death, a (soon to be) birth, and a developing creative re-birth. I'm thankful for it all these things. They continue to shape and guide me to be the person I am, and have yet to become.
Enjoy your day ~
diane fergurson
Autumn Hay photo courtesy of Nellie Levine
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