Embracing My Love/Hate Relationship With Autumn
Fall always scrambles my senses.
I like to believe that I love all the seasons equally, but it’s time to ‘fess up: I’ve got a mixed relationship with Autumn. I feel energized by the sharpness in the air, but it’s also the time of year when I’m most prone to ye olde melancholy. I used to chalk this up to some inexplicable weirdness inside me, to adore and also dread the Fall. But it actually makes sense.
There’s so many dualities that accompany this time of year:
Endings and New Starts. Anticipation and Loss. Detachment and Control.
Have you noticed how in mid-August, life begins to feel like it’s speeding up... even as nature herself starts to retract? There’s this reverberating energy associated with both the harvest season and heading back to school that none of us are truly immune to. Despite the fact that I’m neither a farmer nor a student, my system can’t help but be impacted by the strength of those cultural tides!
Our rational minds have a funny way of tricking us into the belief that we’re having an independent experience in life. But the truth is, we’re deeply interconnected.
When many people share the same ideas, beliefs, or rituals, those concepts permeate us at the subconscious level far more than we may be aware of... whether we actually SHARE in that belief or not. (Curious about what I mean by this? Check out this quick 2 minute read on The Concept of Collective Consciousness.)
We’ve certainly learned a lot about this phenomenon during the pandemic, and how both our collective fears and hopes can become contagious. It’s tough to remain grounded when there’s so much uncertainty coming at us from every angle.
If you’re feeling particularly buffeted by those winds right now, please know you are not alone. There are some things we can do to push our roots even more deeply into the soil, to regain our inner steadiness and strength.
This September, it feels more important to me than ever before to hold the tension between the darkness and the light, and discover how to integrate them. But I’m not exactly breaking new ground in doing so! That’s the collective call of this season, really.
As the days grow shorter, the impulse to go inward reverberates from the depths of our blood and bones.
According to cultural anthropologist Angeles Arrien, many societies throughout the world associate Fall with the Teacher archetype. Unsurprisingly, it’s the teacher’s job to help us gather in our experiences, sift through them, harvest the wisdom, and let go of what’s no longer useful to us.
Like the trees that have begun to change their colors, we’re also invited to shift from action to reflection. It's time to pull our resources inward where we can sort and store what we’ll need for wherever life may be taking us next.
To engage my own inner teacher, I’ll often perform special rituals around the time of the Autumn Equinox and throughout the fall. What I love about ritual is that it engages the unconscious mind to help internalize my insights from the year, and carry out any commitments I’d like to make in response to those revelations.
Here’s why that last “commitment” bit is important: even our most brilliant “a-ha’s” aren’t worth very much without action.
Change and growth only come from the practical application of our insights, thoughts, and ideas. And to that end, the simplest of ceremonies really can bring additional momentum to our intentions.
I believe that if we’re going to do the deep inner work, we might as well have some FUN while we’re at it! That’s where the magic of ritual comes in. In the following blog series, I’ve published a set of practical exercises and a tarot spread to help you explore the themes of reflection and release that correspond with the Fall season:
Gathering Your Inner Harvest. In many traditions, the Fall season is a portal for transformation. These months are an ideal time for contemplating what’s taken place over the year, harvesting its lessons, and letting go. In this way, we’re making room to receive the dreams and guidance that can arise and take root over the quiet months of winter. For reflective journal prompts and a tarot spread to support your inner investigations, click here.
Full Moon Ritual for Closure & Release
The full moon can be a particularly resonant time to conduct simple personal rituals for completion and release. If you uncovered habits, patterns, or addictions that you’re ready to let go of, there’s no reason you can’t have some fun with it. To explore how you can make some magic with the moon, read on.
