Why I’m Enthralled in Fall Equinox
It’s time for harvest, ritual revelry, and transition. Celebrate the sun’s realm and moon’s kingdom in equal balance with a fall equinox ritual.
(Berkeley Herbal Center)
Today, we welcome our first day of autumn, we bid adieu to summer’s final golden hour and embrace the early sun sets and the winter solstice to come. The Fall equinox has always brought a sense of magic to me. These few days of transitions through our beloved season reminds me of balance. Hence the name, Equinox comes from the Latin words aequi, which means “equal,” and nox, which means “night.”
Today, of course in different timelines, the sun moving along the ecliptic will cross the celestial equator to move from the Northern hemisphere to the Southern hemisphere. While, in the Southern hemisphere, the sun crosses from the South to the celestial hemisphere of the North. Then, for flat earthers, the sun sits directly in the Earth’s center like a spotlight.
In the very magic of this astronomical event, we have an equal visitation of the sun’s realm and the harvest moon making the day equal to the night; reminding us all of balance.
Autumn Equinox Gentle Message
Last year, after all the crazy things that 2020 brought to my life and the whole wide world, I find myself extraordinarily excited starting an Equinox tradition. My sister Kelly, and I sat above the coffee table, we lighted a chaffing wick fuel which I placed on a matte black saucer, toasted marshmallows on the dancing fire, and fold it in our crackers and chocolate bar. “Oh, a smores tradition” you might say. Yes, it was a smores tradition, but it didn’t feel like it was just 2 sisters eating smores above a coffee table that day. It felt renewal, it felt being warmed by a sister’s company, it felt excitement on change and transformation to come which is gently spoken in the coming days by the foliage of leaves in thousand hues that would readily dance in the touch of the wind, finally laying at rest on the ground.
Fall is the season of control and predictability. However, it is not the control and predictability of things to come, but the control and predictability of owning and acknowledging a transition.
It’s the way we can tell that change is happening. That, for a moment of time, on the day of the Fall Equinox an astronomical balance is here. It’s the transition that leads us from hot, bright, sunny months into the cold, dark nights of winter and the good tidings of Harvest & Christmas it bring. Just like a life with its momentous sunny and dark moments, we must have anticipation in a sense of balance.
Balance is something in our lives that is almost impossible to achieve, but knowing that at certain times in a period of struggle of light and dark in the Equinox, it will eventually visit us. We need to look at our lives and have an honest estimate of how life is going on. Balance may not always be present in our lives because it’s impossible to have a perfect balance 24 hours a day and 365 days a year, and the days ahead. But, like the gentle reminder of the long journey of the Equinox, balance should come for us.
we must have anticipation in a sense of balance.
Period of Light & Dark, what is in Between?
I don’t know if you’re a believer of this, but I believe that our bodies need a state of balance. A balanced schedule, balanced nutrition, balanced mind and being, an equilibrium, a homeostasis. It just amazes me, honestly, how my body functions on its own in a state of homeostasis. It is perfectly designed knowing its own self. While some people may know about balanced living, others have a narrow view of what a living is. For others, our body is just a person’s physical frame, our outer appearance visible to the eyes. But for some, including me, I believe that we are complicated beings consisting of a body, a soul, and a spirit. Tripartite in being, yet wholly one to be truly alive.
The author of 1 Thessalonians 5:23, St. Paul the Apostle, penned:
“And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The only way we will find a balance in our life is when we preserve our body, soul, and spirit completely and fully. Like the struggle between light and dark during an equinox, our body groans on its own. Take care of the body — and just the body. Give all the attention and love it needed while forgetting the other two parts of yourself, not long after, you’ll find your soul’s brokenness ripping the façade of your body you created. A moment later, you’ll find your spirit grieving from hunger and thirst.
The Body, Soul, Spirit
Many of us right now forget we are three-part people: body, soul, and spirit. Our spirit is the innermost part of our being, it is through the spirit that we know the things of God and commune with him. Our soul perceives our psyche, sensations, and aesthetics or aisthetikos, meaning “of sense perception". This is what makes us feel our emotions and grow our reasons. Then, the body. Our connection to tangible things. The most visible of them all, but the vessel that holds our soul as the soul houses our spirit. If we neglect to take care of these tripartite being of our self. We will fail to preserve ourselves completely and fully.
If you feed only the flesh, you starve your spirit and soul.Deprive the spirit and the soul gets weak. Abandon the spiritual nourishment and the body gets sick. Extravagantly soak in with your soul and you will grieve the spirit. Anything that is too much poisons, anything that is lacking kills.
In Sami and Cinder Botanical’s words, “as the bees forage the last drop of nectar, storing the magic summer for the winter ahead, they remind us that there is work still to be done” (Berkeley Herbal Center). The equinox is not an equal hour of darkness and light resulting in a life equally renewed for us. In fact, it is just a reminder to us “for a quiet moment of pause”.
By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
And by the breath of His mouth all their host.
Psalm 33:6
Trancendence in Transition
Seasonal Transition is something I fell in love with right away in the United States. Simply, because aside from the fact that I live more than half of my life in the SouthEast corner of this world where it only either rain or shine, The transition to fall is dramatic not only through multiple transcendent ways I’m able to connect with it but also just seeing how it affects our daily lives. The way the foliage turns to colors, the way people dress differently.
The way the bountiful harvest comes as the bright sun of summer ripens them. The way the golden hours turn sweeter now that they are numbered.
Some people have a certain way, ritual, and belief honoring the Fall and the Equinox. Some offer to the gods and goddess of the harvest, and some design their cornucopia, while others connect with plant spirits. I know this season holds very rich rituals and histories. To me, welcoming Fall encourages me to reflect on what a Great God I serve, “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible” (Hebrews 11:3). It is a promise of order, omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence of Him.
Ah, Lord God! it is you who made heavens and earth.
If you want to look for crops and flowers as we bid adieu to summer, here’s my visit to SOGA with Dickinson’s poetry to end the summer. Click here to see my garden gallery! *link to be updated.
