An autumn like no other, the equinox falls on Wednesday 22 September and marks the centre point between the longest and shortest day of the year. The reverse is true in the Southern hemisphere. Traditionally celebrated as one of the eight wheel of the year festivals, and in many religions and cultures as a festival of harvest and gratitude. Sophie Lutz, our Woman of Wisdom delves deeper into this autumn equinox.
It feels strange to be writing about autumn again, time having been both compressed and elongated by the pandemic. That disorientation that sometimes happens when you’re on holiday. Except that rather than not knowing which day it is, I’m not sure of the month, if I’m honest I’m not sure of anything.
Here we are then, Back to School, back to work, back to life pre-Covid. Except that there is no way of pretending the truth of that. Wildfire smoke billows from California to Greece, floods in Germany and Raynes Park, the return of the Taliban crushes air out of the lungs of women everywhere as we watch the fate of our sisters in Afghanistan. And all of us have personal challenges we are facing, none of us unscathed by the last two years. We reap what we, and those who rule us, sow.
Equinox review
Equinox is traditionally a time for review, as we look back at the summer, and feel the bite in the air that reminds us of the winter to come. It can also be a time of second sowing. A much more appropriate time to set intentions and make resolutions than in the quiet darkness of January. Maybe not this year though. This year rather than inhabiting our minds, making lists and organising, a more grounded strategy might be in order.
Inhabiting the body
Autumn is always a time of change, the wind gets up and reminds us that nothing stays the same. It’s always a time to ground, to slow down, to breathe. When we feel helpless, disorientated, like we’ve skipped a summer, maybe a year, we need to ground. When the world is burning and there’s seemingly nothing we can do. The simple act of inhaling and exhaling. Of pressing a bare foot to the ground. Of noticing the body. This is what helps. Whenever I start a tarot session I invite my clients to breathe into the belly and take their attention down the body to their feet. I do the same. This simple act of embodiment allows us both to draw towards the present. We are in our bodies together in a space we have co-created. Take a deep breath right now. Feel your feet. Inhabit your body and the present moment. It helps. Always. Getting present is the first step. Feeling grateful is the second.
Harvest, a moment of gratitude
Remember harvest festival? Shoeboxes with tins of beans and packets of Angel Delight? We plough the fields and scatter? Somewhere in that very English ritual there was an awareness that we might be living alongside people who needed those basic foods going spare from our mum’s cupboards. And with that a realisation in a child’s heart of their own good fortune. And there it is. This equinox, breath in deep, and feel that gratitude, for your body which in this present moment can feed you oxygen. For a home that is not flooded. For the Common and Richmond Park, green and gold and safe from fire. For your feet on the ground. Whatever the challenges, however helpless, hopeless or joyful life for you is, in this moment of balance, between the peak and trough of the year, you have your breath. This Autumn, in this turbulent and destabilised world, I wish you a moment of peace and grounding. Blessed Autumn Equinox to you and yours.
Read more of Sophie’s beautiful, soulful blogs here. Or go to Women’s Wisdom.
www.sophielutz.com @sophietarot
