Autumn Equinox: Balance and Equilibrium

The Wheel of the Year acknowledges the annual cycles of the seasons and the natural rhythm of the earth. Recognizing our connection with earth cycles is key to developing embodied love.

Many earth and land based spirituality and wisdom traditions, such as the practices of the ancient Celtic people, celebrated the Wheel of the Year. Our ancestors experienced their lives intricately woven with earth’s seasons and tides. They held awareness for the everyday ebb and flow of night and day, dusk and dawn. And they acknowledged the slower change of the seasons; verdant summer into fall’s harvest, fall into winter’s regeneration, winter into spring’s germination, and spring’s expansion into summer once more. These turning points were considered strong magical portals. Opportunities to align with the energies of nature and augment those energies mirrored within ourselves.

These natural crossroads, the ‘in between’ periods, were celebrated with colorful customs, rituals, storytelling, songs, music, and special seasonal foods. The wisdom of the Wheel of the Year frees us from our modern linear, driven focus, and reminds us to treasure the physicality of our bodies and the rich sensual gifts of the earth. The Wheel of the Year invites us to pay heed to the unhurried energy of our bodies, and to honor them as the divine within matter, for that is where the Divine Feminine resides. By participating in these natural cycles, we can attune ourselves to the creative forces that flow through us, and learn how to harmonize them with the Earth.

The Celtic Wheel of the Year is marked by eight seasonal turning points. The upcoming seasonal change, the Autumn Equinox, occurs September 23^rd at 2:05 am PDT. The Equinox is the point of the Wheel when there is perfect balance between light and dark, where day and night are in equilibrium. There are equal hours of daylight and night on this day, which expresses the harmony between the energies of outward, physical manifestation and inward, intuitive, creativity. Nature’s sacred union. This symbolic balance of the rational and the intuitive will exist for a moment, and then the forces of winter will slowly rise and take over. Throughout autumn the land shows clear signs of this journey towards winter where the earth directs its energies inward. Leaves turn color and birds migrate. During the Autumn Equinox we can prepare for when we, too, will go into winter’s intuitive, regenerative state of inner contemplation.

The Autumn Equinox is also called the festival of Mabon, named for the ancient Celtic god, the child of light. Mabon is the second harvest, where we take stock of our yield, ready for gathering. This is the Pagan Thanksgiving where we can offer appreciation and enjoy the fruits of our labors. It represents a time to consider which aspects of our life we wish to preserve, and which we would prefer to transform.

Water is the element of Autumn. Water indicates the realm of emotions and relationships. Autumn Equinox and its element of water urge us to go deeper and embrace our emotions and the nourishing dark of our psyche with its mysterious teachings. Autumn asks us to honor the strengths that will sustain us through the cold winter months. L

Suggestions for how to celebrate the Autumn Equinox:

You can commemorate the Autumn Equinox in small ways:

1.     Enjoy seasonal fruits like pears and apples. Roast the fruits whole in a baking pan for 45 minutes at 350 degrees for a delicious autumn treat.

2.     Peel an apple and sprinkle the peel with the balancing herb, thyme. Roll the peel up after you sprinkle the thyme. Bake in a warm oven of 250 degrees for an hour or so, making sure to breathe in the combination of the sweet apple and the fresh, pungent thyme - it will help bring balance to your home and those who live there. Once dried, the peel can be kept to hold in your hand whenever you need a little balance.

(from Cait Johnson, Witch in the Kitchen)

Autumn Equinox Ritual:

3.     Fill a small bowl with water as a way to connect with autumn’s element. Set it on your kitchen counter or on your altar. Gather colorful autumn leaves and surround your bowl with the leaves. Hold your bowl of water and name 3 people you are thankful for in your life. Pick up one of the brightly colored fall leaves, and as you float it in the water, name one thing you have learned or transformed in the past year that has become a strength within you which will sustain you during the winter months ahead.

Happy Autumn Equinox!



Wheel of the Year



The Celtic festival of Lughnasadh

Lughnasadh 
           
This is the name of the ancient Celtic festival of the harvest. It celebrated the season for gathering the fruits of one's labors; the corn, oats, and grains, and planted summer bounty.

The name is derived from Lugh (pronounced 'loo'), a Celtic deity of light and wisdom. At Lughnasadh, bread from the first harvest was eaten in thanks. It is a time for appreciating what has come to

fruition to nourish and sustain you. A time of Thanksgiving. Baking, sharing, and eating bread is a wonderful way to celebrate this holiday. Even though Lughnasadh occurs at the warmest time of the

year, it marks the time at which days become noticeably shorter and thus is considered the starting point of the autumn quarter of the year. So, this can also be a time to consider which aspects of your

life you wish to preserve and which you would prefer to discard.

One of my favorite scholars and authors on things Celtic is Mara Freeman. The following is excerpted and edited from her explanation of the festival of Lughnasadh.

           

The Celtic harvest festival on August 1st takes its name from the Irish god Lugh, one of the chief gods of the Tuatha De Danann, an early Irish race. Lugh dedicated this festival to his foster-mother, Tailtiu, the last queen of the Fir Bolg (an earlier Irish race), who died from exhaustion after clearing a great forest so that the land could be cultivated. When the men of Ireland gathered at her death-bed, she told them to hold funeral games in her honor. As long as they were held, she prophesied Ireland would not be without song. Tailtiu’s name is from Old Celtic Talantiu, "The Great One of the Earth," suggesting she may originally have been a personification of the land itself, like so many Irish goddesses. At this time of year the earth gives birth to her first fruits so that her children might live. In later times, the festival of Lughnasadh was christianized as Lammas, from the Anglo-Saxon, hlaf-mas, "Loaf-Mass."
          
To celebrate Lughnasadh, hugh sporting contests were held on the scale of an early Olympic Games. Artists and entertainers displayed their talents, traders came from far and wide to sell food, farm animals, fine crafts and clothing, and there was much storytelling, music, and high-spirited revelry. In some places, a woman—or an effigy of one—was crowned with summer flowers and seated on a throne, with garlands strewn at her feet. Dancers whirled around her, touching her garlands or pulling off a ribbon for good luck. In this way, perhaps, the ancient goddess of the harvest was still remembered with honor.
            

Throughout the centuries, the grandeur dwindled away, but all over Ireland, right up to the middle of this century, country-people have celebrated the harvest at revels, wakes, and fairs – and some still continue today in the liveliest manner. It was usually celebrated on the nearest Sunday to August 1st, so that a whole day could be set aside from work. Because Lughnasadh is a celebration of the new harvest, people cooked special ritual and festive meals. Below is a traditional recipe you can make  today.

 The  Lughnasadh Bannock:
           
In Scotland, the first fruits were celebrated by the making of a 'bonnach lunastain' or Lunasdál bannock, or cake. In later times, the bannock was dedicated to Mary, whose feastday, La Feill Moire, falls on August 15th, two days later than the date of Lammas according to the old reckoning (and also the feast day of Mother Mary's Assumption in Christianity). A beautiful ceremony, which, no doubt, had pagan origins, attended the cutting of the grain (usually oats or bere.) In the early morning, the whole family, dressed in their best, went out to the fields to gather the grain for the ‘Moilean Moire,’ the ‘fatling of Mary.’ They laid the ears on a sunny rock to dry, husked them by hand, winnowed them in a fan, ground them in a quern, kneaded them on a sheepskin, and formed them into a bannock. A fire was kindled of rowan or another sacred wood to toast the bannock, then it was divided amongst the family, who sang a beautiful paean to Mother Mary while they circled the fire in a sunwise direction.
       
 Here is a modern recipe you can try:

            Pitcaithly Bannock
8 oz flour

4 oz butter
2 oz caster sugar
1oz chopped almonds
1oz mixed candied peel
Set oven to 325F/Gas 3. Grease a baking sheet. Sift the flour into a bowl. Add the sugar and butter and rub in to form a dough. Add the almonds and mix in the peel, making sure they are evenly distributed. Form into a thick round on a lightly floured surface and prick all over with a fork. Place on the sheet and bake for
about 45-60 minutes. Allow to cool and serve sliced thinly and buttered.

From: Country Cookery - Recipes from Wales by Sian Llewellyn.

© Mara Freeman 1998  http://www.chalicecentre.net/

Here is a really fantastic website that talks about all things Lughnasadh.
http://www.mythinglinks.org/Lammas.html