The seasons are changing. The Wheel is turning.
Summer is slipping into Fall. The days are still warm and sunny but the evenings are turning cool. There’s dew on everything in the morning.
This summer had a different rhythm for me. I spent a month in moving mode, had visits from all four of my children, and actually went to the beach more in a little over a month than I’d been in the past 2 decades.
I now live between the River and the Ocean. I’m becoming a Water Baby again.
On all different level, I am in my water phase. Besides being enveloped in the arms of water, I am learning once again to ‘go with the flow’ of life. I am also in my Elder years, which are associated with the West and with the great elemental Water.
Water has many qualities that serve us in times of trouble. Change, flexibility, persistence, resilience, and swiftness. It can bring us luck, surprises and travel. Water is to Mother Earth as Blood is to our bodies. Both are in constant motion.
With each year, it’s easier to live a more authentic version of myself. Since COVID, it has been a relief to step out of the flow of cultural expectations, and just ground into watching the waters of life ebb and flow, choosing when to dip my toe in and when to keep my feet on firm ground.
This elder standpoint is available to everyone at this time of year. For the Wheel of the Year keeps turning and we are entering the autumn time (at least in the northern hemisphere/ those of you down South are emerging into the light and renewal). Like the last quarter Moon of the lunar cycle, Autumn is the season to gather in the harvest, that aspect of ourselves that has matured, and then let the rest drop to the ground. We let the plants decompose back into new soil and we gather the seeds to sow next year.
This autumn time comes at the completion of this year’s purpose and energy. It is the harvest time, both literally and symbolically. It is not only the foods we need that are being harvested, but also the psychological, spiritual, emotional and material energies we’ve worked with since last Winter Solstice 2021.
The big energies of that time were Venus going retrograde as she ended her Evening Star phase in Aries, soon to begin her Morning Star phase in Capricorn on January 8, 2022. These energies suggest that we explore wisely what our next step will be – the Evening Star phase brings out the wisdom of a sign and Aries’ wisdom is to let Spirit take the lead and allow your desire to direct your intentions. This Capricorn Morning Star phase, which seems to have been about taking responsibility for what you love and desire, will end when Venus starts her (first in over 200 year) Libra Evening Star phase on October 22, 2022.
This new phase occurs when Venus meets the Sun on its far side, hidden from Earth’s view. It is a sacred marriage that gives rise to a new type of feminine wisdom, one that builds on what we’ve learned before.
The Sabian symbol for the Sun and Venus conjunction at 29* Libra is: Humanity’s vast and enduring effort to reach for knowledge transferable from generation to generation. This is lived knowledge of life, not a textbook example. It’s important to listen to the knowledge that’s been passed down, the common sense knowledge of life rather than what we can pick up on YouTube or TikTok. It is a call for our conscious participation in this cosmic evolution.
Who better than to lead us on this new phase of life’s journey than Venus /Aphrodite, Queen of Heaven and Earth. May the Goddess of Peace, Beauty and Love shine her Wisdom on and within us.
Aphrodite Urania -- Queen of Heaven
The other big energy around Winter Solstice 2021 was the last full Saturn/Uranus square at 12* Aquarius/Taurus. What did you choose? The Old or the New? Can you read the energies of these times we’re living in? Uranus in Taurus can open us to Earth’s evolutionary genius. Will we collaborate with Mother Earth, re-igniting our connection to her bio-sphere, or will we continue to live as if there are no consequences?
Now is the time to look at those consequences. The rise in electricity rates, as well as oil and gas, is the price we have to pay if we want to transform our society and how we use energy. We have to learn to cut back on our own, and higher costs are part of how we’ll do it.
It’s a
time to ‘sacrifice’
some of our old ways if we really want to create a better world in
this time of environmental crisis. Sacrifice means ‘to
make sacred’. Will we choose
to let go of inessentials while the world is transforming, giving our
actions meaning? There are great and good things about ‘the old’
that we can keep, such as the adages,
every little bit helps. And‘don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater’. Keep what is precious and true. Let go of the rest. And be open to what comes. That's the gift of Water -- to go with the flow. Surrender to life and see what comes.
How has your life changed and your garden grown this year? Have you shed an old skin and found more freedom? Or have you retreated in fear of what is becoming?
Autumn Equinox/ Mabon: September 22, 2022
The two Equinoxes, Spring and Autumn, are times of Balance, the balance of light and dark. In Spring, the balance tips over into the light and outer life. In Autumn, the balance tips into the dark and going within. But on those two days, light and dark are equal. It is the time to ground yourself in that balance. Although many people are railing against that binary system, it is an integral part of the cosmos and of our world. Just because ‘we’ don’t like seeing the world as binary, doesn’t mean that the cosmos has to agree with us!
So Light and Dark. Day and Night. Masculine and Feminine. Yang and Yin. On the Equinoxes, these forces are brought into balance.
Onward we go round the Spiral
Touching darkness, touching light.
Twice each year we rest in balance,
Make choices on this night.
The Autumn/Spring Equinox occurs on Thursday, September 22, 2022 at 6:04pm PDT/ 9:04pmnjmmh EDT and on September 23, 2022 at 2:04am GMT.
The chart for Autumn Equinox occurs at the Leo Moon balsamic phase of the lunar cycle that began with the Virgo New Moon. With the upcoming Sun/Mercury conjunction just hours after the Equinox, we are midway through this Mercury retrograde cycle. Since both Virgo and Gemini are ‘Mercury ruled’, this was a month to clean up and clear up the Mind.
That Virgo New Moon made an intense square to Mars in Gemini, which might have made things more confusing, opening us to too many options. It was time to make some choices. Then the Virgo/Pisces Full Moon was conjunct Neptune, either deluding us further or opening us to our creative imagination to deepen our inner focus on what we truly desired.
The Autumn Equinox and upcoming Libra New Moon on September 25th, are a time of letting go – the harvest is in, whether we realize it or not. Look at what you have around you. That’s what you get to play with this autumn.
The Autumn Equinox begins the sign of Libra, just as its opposite gateway, Spring Equinox begins with Aries. Just as Aries begins a drive toward our individual visions, Libra turns our focus to our collective responsibilities. While Virgo is the energy of integration of personality, Libra is the energy of taking that personality and bringing it into relationship with others. How will the balance hold?
The Equinox Sun is conjunct Mercury retrograde, initiating a new cycle of their dance. How are we communicating? The better we ‘know ourselves’/Virgo, the better we are at speaking our truth in a kind and courteous manner. And more importantly, we are centered enough so we can listen to what the other has to say.
The Sabian symbol for the Equinox Sun and Mercury is interesting and telling.
The Sabian symbol for the Sun and Mercury retrograde at 1* Libra is: In a collection of perfect specimens of many biological forms, a butterfly displays the beauty of its wings, its body impaled by a fine dart.
The objective viewpoint of this image brings to mind the archetypal realm, since all the specimens are ‘perfect’. We see the ‘seed’ forms of life. And the butterfly is the symbol of the soul and its transformation through time. This is the time when we see the Sacred in what we’ve harvested. With the Mind aligned with our conscious purpose (the Sun), I know we can bring in a rich harvest.
The Sun and Mercury are opposite Jupiter retrograde in Aries, giving us the courage and optimism to meet what comes, calling on our soul’s vision.
There are two strong T-squares at this Equinox.
The first, fixed, T-square is the approaching (but never touching) Uranus/NN in Taurus square Saturn in Aquarius both aspecting the Leo Moon. With Uranus and Saturn both retrograde, an inner re-structuring of our beliefs and behaviors, as well as our physicality, is possible. The balsamic Leo Moon is open to the wisdom we’ve learned so far, and it can lend us the self-confidence we need to break down and break through any inner blocks.
The second T-square is in mutable signs, suggesting we can make use of these energies in the outer world. With Venus in Virgo opposing Neptune retrograde in Pisces, we might feel the need to be of service to the world. Like the Vestal Virgins of Rome, or the 9 Priestesses guarding Brigid’s sacred fires in Ireland, we might be called to guard and defend what makes life worthwhile, rather than wallow in a deluded sense of evil permeating the world. Yes, there is darkness in the world, but the Light always wins out in the end.
This Venus-Neptune opposition is squared by Mars in Gemini. We can let Mars get us into arguments over ideas, or Mars can help us navigate the issues that are dear to our hearts. There was a Mars/Venus square last week that challenged us to decide what we’re doing. We might have to wait until after Mercury goes direct on October 2 to finally see those decisions through.
Retrograde Neptune sextiling Pluto in Capricorn make a quick YOD with the Leo Moon on Equinox. With the Moon at the tip of the YOD, we might catch a glimpse of what Spirit is calling us to do, there and gone before we get the whole picture, but if we stay open to our dreams and imaginings, perhaps the vision will settle into our bones.
Wheel of the Year: Mabon
The Wheel of the Year is comprised of the two Solstices and two Equinoxes, as well as the four cross-quarter holidays that fall between the Equinoxes and Solstices.
The Autumn Equinox is called Harvest Home, Mabon or the Feast of the Ingathering by modern Pagans, and it is a ritual of thanksgiving for the fruits of the earth and a recognition of the need to share them to secure the blessings of the Goddess and the Gods during the coming winter months. It is the second of three harvests, the first wheat harvest at Lammas (August 1), this second fruit harvest and the third harvest of nuts and berries at Samhain(November 1).
At Autumn Equinox we have to let go of the Light and allow the Dark in again. Now is the time to begin to turn inward and once again dream. It is our dreams now that will bear fruit next year. If you want your soul's take on what dreams will fulfill you, start to pay attention to your dreams.
May your harvest be plentiful – and shared!
Blessed Be,
Cathy
The Wild Geese
Horseback
on Sunday morning,
harvest over, we taste persimmon
and
wild grape, sharp sweet
of summer's end. In time's maze
over
the fall fields, we name names
that went west from here,
names
that rest on graves. We open
a persimmon seed to find
the tree
that stands in promise,
pale, in the seed's
marrow.
Geese appear high over us,
pass, and the sky
closes. Abandon,
as in love or sleep, holds
them to their
way, clear,
in the ancient faith: what we need
is here. And
we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in
heart, and in eye
clear. What we need is here.
~ Wendell Berry ~
(Collected Poems 1957-1982)
