Fall Equinox -Reflection and Intention: Inviting Ritual and Cyclical Living Back to Our Lives
Today is the Fall Equinox a day of equal dark and light, of reflection and of intention. A day of balance. As I was doing some of my own reflection last night in preparation for the celebration part of this day for myself and my family, I couldn’t help but think about how rituals have brought me a deeper connection with my family, my community and myself and how the larger we have really lost touch with deep meaningful ritual.
I want to spend some time reflecting on rituals, as well as sharing my own plans for what this looks like in my own life today.
Rituals are grounding points, connection points to others, ourselves and nature. To the cycles of our life internal and external. Rituals were honored points of recognition for most of human history. We have knowledge of Roman bath houses, Native American Rite of Passage Ceremonies, Pagan seasonal celebrations and SO MANY MORE. There were always great celebrations to both honor what has come before and to make space to step into the new. Rituals were/are a physical representation of an internal experience and/or a celebration of a natural event. They were honored and integrated into culture. Culture in many ways was passed down through ritual and of course sometimes rituals were harmful and well oppressive.
I would say that we have slowly forgotten to honor our sign posts. We no longer honor our connection points to the phases of life as we cross them; birthday parties, baby showers and the like are all about gifts and external things rather than a celebration or even an initiation into the new phase or person we are stepping into.
The passage of time is celebrated in Holidays that have become stressful and in many ways focused on external things rather than deeper values and presence.
Rituals of the past involved more internal experience, oftentimes a physical challenge and always a space held by the community, a recognition of where you have been and what is to come. There is a value in this process: a deeper sense of evolution, a deeper connection to your internal world and really a deeper connection to life!
RItuals are a way for us to step into and honor our cyclical nature. We are part of the natural cycle of life and as we culturally have shifted from a reverence of that to more of what could be argued a fear of that we have gotten more superficial in this celebration, we have become more linear without an acknowledge that the ultimate finish line is death and now this is to be feared. Rather than a full embracing of the natural CYCLE of life that is mirrored around us in so many places. We are given a beautiful map that mirrors back to us our existence and the interconnection to all that is via the cycles of our moons, the rise and fall of the tides, the menstrual cycles, the natural rhythms of our daily hormones, the rise and setting of the sun, the seasons and on and on.
I wholeheartedly believe that rituals are one giant way that we can connect to ourselves and allow ourselves to evolve, to allow humanity to evolve and to become more interconnected with each other and the natural world.
Rituals are part of REWILDING! They are part of the way we refocus our attention to our interconnection to others and nature! Rituals are a huge part of our realignment and our coming home to ourselves and others!
To let go of SO MUCH CONTROL and truly step into the ease of flow and simplicity; to get out of life’s way. To be in the boat on the river and not fight against the stream. To be in the moment of our life and know that the cycle will unfold; that we don’t need to get somewhere or be somewhere else that it will naturally unfold just as the sun will rise and set. This is a REVOLUTIONARY idea, I am aware. I always laugh when I think about the fact that living more in alignment with the natural world and it’s natural laws is revolutionary but indeed in these times it is. We have let technology evolve faster than we can keep up with (naturally and biologically speaking). We have let the consumer culture become our source of fulfillment for some and our goal and/or guide that we base many life choices on for many others.
Today as I write this it is the Fall Equinox. I will be celebrating this season in quiet reflection and visioning with myself and later with my family in a ritual of our own creation. There is nothing fancy that needs to be done, just to BE with what energy is around and hold space for that. Here is what my honoring and ritual around this day will be.
As a family we started our day taking down our Summer Nature table and putting up our Fall one. It is filled with leaves that are changing, acorns from years past and current that we have picked up, as well as candles, fall art projects the kids have done to paint the mood of the season and some sculptures they have done. We changed our tablecloth to a fall themed one and our special animal fall totem sites on our table (a squirrel). The kids are off for a nature hike with their dad.
Tonight will be having a feast celebration. We will be making a fall themed dinner and a dessert (dessert in my family is only something we have on an equinox or solstice and it is always a pie based on the fruits of the season.)
At dinner we will reflect on our summer and our journeys together. On the Joy that we created (this was our Summer intention). We will share gratitude and after dinner we will go around and write our Fall intentions on a piece of paper that we will put into a cornucopia that we made together some years back.
For my own ritual I will be sitting in a journey and will ask to receive any guidance and focus for the fall season. Each year this ritual is different and it has become very easy over the years for me to feel the energy and see what is needed for me in this time. Tonight I will be lighting a candle and reflecting over what I wrote about for the summer season. Feeling the gratitude and joy for what was done in this season, what was learned and reflecting what I had stated as my focal points. I will also be reflecting upon what feels out of balance; the light and the dark. I will then burn my summer intentions and take down my Oracle cards for summer. I will then be doing a journey to receive guidance and focus of my energy for the fall season. I will channel the information onto a piece of paper and pull a card to place with the paper on my altar as a focal point in my daily devotion practice. This is one simple way that I can stay grounded in my energy and what I am being led to for this season.
This is just a snippet of how I bring ritual into my and my family's life. How it helps us stay connected and grounded. Your ritual can look like HOWEVER you want and if this isn’t something you have been doing but want to start, then start small! Simply talk about the season and honor it in some way.