Autumn Equinox Blessings
“And I can hear it in the wind, hear it rise and descend
Through the many colored trees, forms a many colored breeze
Made of many colored leaves
Departing ever so gracefully"
~ from Ring Around the Moon by Elephant Revival
I can hear it too, the sound of Autumn. I feel the coming of the coolness, and the dryness, and the darkness. It is time again to descend into the informing wisdom of Sophia. She is also Pachamama, Mother of the Universe, or Mother of Time and Space in the language of the Peruvian Andes, Quechua, often translated simply as mother earth.
In Sri Vidya Tantra, she is Shakti (who is Shiva), but also, Shiva is consciousness, and Shakti is energy and matter. Shakti is everything manifest, and the way to reach the father is through the mother (thought they are not separate). In Hebrew she is Shekinah, the feminine face of god, and is again how to reach the unreachable ultimate.
In the image above is a wonderful yantra (instrument of support) that I learned from Tom Altgelt in the Anthroposophical tradition of biodynamics. It is a lemniscate, a figure 8, or infinity symbol.
Here we are looking at the rhythm of the breathing process of the earth, the seasons as the rhythm of the life of the seed.
This is a simple version of the image and it can be much more detailed and complex, like Tom Alteglt's version here. It shows the seed at this season of autumn, beginning to move down into the darkness of the 'informing wisdom of Mother Earth, or Sophia'. At the time of Winter Solstice, the seed begins to reach towards the light again and we move towards spring equinox, and then of course, crossing the lemniscate, the seed moves up towards receiving the cosmic forces and the wisdom of father sky and the light. All is necessary and a part of the process. Darkness is not bad and light good. One might ponder this with an internal meditation on the thought; 'There is no opposite to Love'.
This is also the description of shamanic ceremony; death, purification, rebirth, integration, repeat.
Traditionally in Ayurveda this is the time to undertake a seasonal cleanse, as many of you have done with me in years past. It is the season of vata, of air and ether, the most refined of the elements, the closest to formlessness. It is the season of the ancestors.
In Anthroposophy, it is the time to celebrate St Michael and his defeat of the dragon, symbolizing our own capacity to defeat our inner demons and cultivate our own inner light even in times of darkness.Below is an image of St Michael from a church in Kailua-Kona on the big island of Hawaii. Below that are some beautiful mandalas the children offered to the earth to celebrate the descent from Autumn Equinox to Winter Solstice in my gardening classes this week at Waldorf.
If you would like to learn more about seasonal cleansing or how to support balance in the Autumn season, please come and see me for an Integrative Holistic Health Counseling session. I can take you on an individual Ayurvedic cleanse and help support you with herbs, nutrition, and dinacharya, daily rhythms, for balance and a sense of groundedness in the season of air and ether, when the vayus, the winds, blow and stir things up.
Blessings to you on your descent into the darkness, may you return bearing fist-fulls of jewels. (Here is a link to a wonderful song, Jewels, by Barbara McAfee which has been a powerful mantra for me in times of darkness. May it serve you also.)
With Love,
~Liz
