The Autumnal Equinox occurs each year in the range of March 20-23 in the Southern Hemisphere, and in the range of September 20 -23 in the Northern Hemisphere.
Autumn Equinox is a point of sacred balance: it is the point of balance in the dark part of Earth’s annual cycle. Sun is equidistant between North and South as it was/is at Spring Equinox, but in this dark phase of the cycle, the trend is toward increasing dark. Henceforth the dark part of the day will exceed the light part: thus it is a Moment of certain descent … and a sacred Moment for feeling and contemplating the grief and power of loss, for ceremoniously joining personal and collective grief and loss with the larger Self in whom we are.
Below is the text of the video. It is based on the traditional poetry for PaGaian Autumn Equinox/Mabon ceremony[i].
This is the Moment of the Autumnal Equinox in our Hemisphere – the moment of balance of light and dark in the dark part of the cycle. The light and dark parts of the day in the South and in the North of our planet, are of equal length at this time.
We feel for the balance in this moment – Earth as She is poised in relationship with the Sun … breathing in the light, swelling with it, letting our breath go to the dark, staying with it.
In our part of Earth, the balance is tipping into the dark. We remember the coolness of it.
This is the time when we give thanks for our harvests – all that we have gained. And we remember too the sorrows, losses involved.
The story of Old tells us that Persephone, Beloved Daughter, is given the wheat from Her Mother – the Mystery, knowledge of life and death. She receives it graciously. But she sets forth into the darkness – both Mother and Daughter grieve that it is so.
Demeter, the Mother, says: “You are offered the wheat in every moment … I let you go as Child, most loved of Mine: you descend to Wisdom, to Sovereignty. You will return as Mother, co-Creator with me. You are the Seed in the Fruit, becoming the Fruit in the Seed.
Inner Wisdom guides your path.”
We give thanks for our harvests – our lives they are blessed. We are Daughters and Sons of the Mother. Yet we take our Wisdom and all that we have gained, and remember the sorrows – the losses involved. We remember the grief of the Mother, of mothers and lovers everywhere, our grief.
Persephone descends. The Beloved One is lost.
Persephone goes forth into the darkness to become Queen of that world. She tends the sorrows.
The Seed represents our Persephones, who tends the sorrows – we are the Persephones, who may tend the sorrows. We go out into the night with Her and plant our seeds.
Persephone blesses us with her fertile promise:
“You have waxed into the fullness of life,
And waned into darkness;
May you be renewed in tranquility and wisdom[ii].”
These represent our hope. The Seed of life never fades away. She is always present. Blessed be the Mother of all life. Blessed be the life that comes from Her and returns to Her.
We tie red threads on each other: we participate in the Vision of the Seed – of the continuity of Life, that continues beneath the visible.
The Mother knowledge grows within us. Our hope is in the Sacred Balance of the Cosmos – the Thread of Life, the Seed that never fades away: it is the Balance of Grief and Joy, the Care that we may feel in our Hearts.
NOTES:
[i] Glenys Livingstone, PaGaian Cosmology, p. 239-247.
[ii] Charlene Spretrnak, Lost Goddesses of Early Greece, p. 116.
REFERENCES:
Livingstone, Glenys. PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. NE: iUniverse, 2005.
Spretnak, Charlene. Lost Goddesses of Early Greece: a Collection of Pre-Hellenic Myths. Boston: Beacon Press, 1992/1978.
Thank you Carolyn. the Equinoxes are particularly interesting in terms of the balance between Northern and Southern Hemispheres: on the diagram of the wheel (and the wheel of stones replicating it), the Equinox markers are in the same location for both hemispheres – that is, Spring Equinox in the East, and Autumn Equinox in the West (seen here: https://pagaian.org/pagaian-wheel-of-the-year/).
Also on the horizon, for both Equinoxes Sun is at the same point: thus only three markers for the whole cycle on the horizon: another valency of the sacred Three.
And yes the inter-relationship between the Seasonal Moments in the South and in the North is phenomenal and mind shifting. I was decorating for Autumn Equinox at my place yesterday, and then dressed in Spring Equinox clothes for talking with students in the Northern Hemisphere last night about their Spring Equinox. At times I have been confused! but that is not a bad thing – haha!
Beautiful and inspiring! I have learned so much from your posts about the seasons in the south and I now find I especially love the equinoxes when north and south find balance – we each have equal light and darkness for those few days every year. Keeping in mind that you are entering into winter while we in the north are welcoming the spring greatly expands my understanding of the seasons and how they not only cycle, but inter-relate and are all part of one unity that is our Earth.