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The Autumn Equinox takes place on 22nd / 23rd September. (March 19th in the southern hemisphere) with the energies lasting several weeks.
Since the Summer Solstice, the days have been getting shorter as the Earth’s northern hemisphere slowly tilts away from the Sun.
At the Equinox, the Earth comes into a moment of balance. Neither tilted toward nor away from the Sun – and we approach a threshold where the light and dark are in perfect balance. This brings a wave of nourishing, balancing energy flowing into our lives which can feel welcome after the intensity of summer. The longer days have kept us busy and during that time we may have lost sight of the practices and routines that keep us grounded and nourished in body, mind and spirit.
We are children of the Earth and even if we don’t realise it, summer is a time of activity and growth, both inwardly and outwardly and when summer ends we naturally feel tired!
This time of balance on Earth helps bring equilibrium to the places in your life that need it right now.
As we move into Autumn that hot, fire energy of summer begins to calm. Days become cooler and summer adventures wind down. From within, comes a motivation to reconnect with some of the practices we may have forgotten.
There’s a desire to bring a calm into our lives, to feel more grounded than we have for a while. And the seasonal energy is making a shift to help us.
At the Equinox, the energy is in balance -for a moment.
The Autumn Equinox is this moment - when the energy shifts from more daylight to more darkness. This is where we move from the light half into the dark half of the Wheel of the Year.
With this increasing darkness, the seasonal energy makes a significant shift inward. As we move into Autumn we begin to see signs of nature drawing it’s energy more deeply inward.
The trees draw their sap down into the roots as they prepare to release their leaves; plants draw their energy down into the Earth as the stalks above die away; animals prepare for their winter hibernation. Everything is drawing inward.
As the days get colder and the nights get darker, we humans are also drawing inward – we spend more time inside. Gone are the long evenings spent outside, lingering in the lengthy daylight.
At this time, the seasonal energy is supporting you, helping you to draw back into yourself and focus your attention inward.
As we turn our focus inward, now is a time to reflect on what our inner world, our soul and spirit needs to feel balanced and aligned. There is an invitation to look at the ways we’ve grown, to acknowledge what we’re harvesting from our spring and summer growth, and what we’re ready to let go of.
Whether you realize it or not you have been growing since the beginning of the year. The seasonal energy has been at work in your life. Think back to Imbolc (1st Feb; 1st Aug in the southern hemisphere) – a time when new life begins buzzing deep underground. When the very first seeds of new life begin to awaken within us and in nature.
What was happening in your life then? What were you dreaming about? What seeds were you planting at the Spring Equinox?
It’s powerful, meaningful work right now to spend time exploring how you’ve grown since the beginning of the growing season.
What experiences have you had? How have they shaped you? Pushed you? What are you harvesting from all your work this year.
Because Autumn is harvest season. This is the time to celebrate everything the Earth has brought you: all the amazing fresh fruits and vegetables, all the things you have created in your life, the enjoyable (and even not-so-enjoyable) experiences you have had, and all the ways you’ve grown because of them.
This is the time when we gather our harvests in preparation for the cold, barren winter months ahead. And the way we do that in our personal growth work, is through introspection and meaningful reflection.
There is important self-care to practice this season. It’s important to create time and space in your life for things like meditating and journaling. This will help to reveal how much you’ve grown and in ways that you might not recognise yet.
Begin by reflecting on all the experiences you’ve had over the past season.
What were your favourite Summer moments? What experiences are you most grateful for?
And what experiences really challenged you? Where did you struggle? Can you see what these things have brought you? How you’ve changed? In what ways have you had to stretch and grow because of them?
All of your Summer experiences – even the challenging ones, even the ones that feel negative – were here to teach you. They were here to give you deeper clarity.
Can you find gratitude for all your experiences this Summer – the good and the bad?
Cultivating deep gratitude for your Summer experiences creates rich soil for your Winter dreams to take root.
Reflecting on the ways you’ve grown over the past many months helps you recognize the things you’ve outgrown. Identifying the things that no longer serve you, helps you begin the important autumn work of letting go.
In order for the trees and the plants to continue to grow and evolve, this is the season when they must let go. For the trees, this means dropping old leaves, so next spring it can sprout new leaves – new life, new growth.
We must also do this work in our lives, in order to continue to expand and grow. Autumn is the season for looking inward and doing the work of releasing old stories, false limiting beliefs you’ve held, things that no longer serve you – things that are hindering your personal growth and evolution.
In the coming season you have the opportunity to finally let go of old patterns, destructive habits, limiting beliefs that are holding you back. Just like the Autumn leaves, you’re preparing to release those things that no longer serve you.
This is the season for clearing space within, releasing old ways of being that no longer serve your highest good so they can be composted and new growth can take its place next Spring.
Now is the time to begin the groundwork, to prepare for the deeper shift in the weeks and months ahead. You will not leave Autumn the same person you are going into it.
• Restore balance where you need it.
Where do things currently feel out of balance? Are there routines that were neglected over summer? What can you do to return balance to these parts of your life?
• Create time for introspection.
Energy is shifting inwards throughout autumn. Let this natural inward flow help you to develop a practice of meditation, reflection, journaling, mindfulness and any other moments of inner calm that nourish and support you at this time.
Cultivate gratitude for your summer experiences.
In summer your work is to soak in as much sun and summer expansion as you can. These experiences are fuel for the cold months ahead. They’re here to teach you, to give you clarity. Expressing gratitude for these experiences will help you learn and grow.
• Reflect on what you’ve learned and how you’ve grown over summer.
All your summer experiences, even the negative ones, were here to help you learn, and stretch yourself, and grow. Ask yourself: what lessons did I learn over summer? How did I grow from my experiences? What did I learn from my summer harvests? This work helps you evolve. It nurtures your growth and helps you to recognise what you’ve outgrown and need to release from your life.
An Autumn Equinox sound bath recording featuring the Earth, Venus, Queen, Pluto and chakra gongs is available to order. Only £10 this sound bath and its healing frequencies help to relax and release that which no longer serves your highest good. Email alex@sound-well.co.uk to order yours and you receive an MP3 recording which can be downloaded and listened to again and again and again...
