However you like to calculate it, the Autumnal Equinox is here.
Or just past.
Or about to arrive...
Or just past.
Or about to arrive...
The "First Day of Fall" marked on calendars tends to be September 22, which was Saturday. This year, the sky-watching astronomy program I use agrees - the Sun rose due-east and set due-west, a balance-point along the horizon. Hurray, it's autumn! Leaves are changing their colors and putting an evocative scent into the air, a scent that signals change.
Last night, September 23, brought us a gorgeous Full Moon. Although the Moon's cycle isn't tied to determining the Equinox's date, a Full Moon is always profoundly moving for me. Welcome, Moon!
According to my ephemeris, the Sun enters the constellation of Libra today, September 24. My star-watching program won't agree here, because thanks to the Precession of the Equinoxes, the Sun is actually in the early degrees of Virgo, 2ยบ behind and east of Virgo's top-most star, Zavijava. However... Yippee, it's Fall! The temperatures here in Colorado are distinctly cooler (finally!) and the mornings and evenings are pleasantly temperate, even crisp.
Tomorrow, on September 25, we arrive at the light/dark balance point, when day and night are equal. I'm near Denver, and calculated to my location, tomorrow the Sun will rise at 6:50am and set at 6:50pm. Day and night will each be exactly twelve hours long. Yea, it's Autumn! Leaves changing, evocative aromas in the air, crisp evenings, the last of the zucchini blossoms still filled with bright golden intention to transform into vegetables.
In ancient times, this season was tied to the Eleusinian mysteries, which involved the Demeter-Persephone myth: daughter Persephone or Kore (the Maiden) entering the Underworld, while Demeter (the Mother) withheld Earth's bounty until Her daughter re-emerged in the Spring. For many of us, the coming winter months are also an "inward" time of intense dreaming, in-door projects, snuggling, planning, gestating our own inner "seeds" of the future. In the myth, Kore ate several pomegranate seeds while in the Underworld with Hades, and was therefore obliged to return there for an equal number of months. Depictions of Kore sometimes show Her holding a pomegranate.
Pomegranates, filled with seeds. A good ritual-nibble, delicious symbolic seeds for the future.
What dreams am I gestating?
What seeds am I planting in my heart, in my mind?
How can I best bring these to fruition?
Tomorrow, on September 25, we arrive at the light/dark balance point, when day and night are equal. I'm near Denver, and calculated to my location, tomorrow the Sun will rise at 6:50am and set at 6:50pm. Day and night will each be exactly twelve hours long. Yea, it's Autumn! Leaves changing, evocative aromas in the air, crisp evenings, the last of the zucchini blossoms still filled with bright golden intention to transform into vegetables.
In ancient times, this season was tied to the Eleusinian mysteries, which involved the Demeter-Persephone myth: daughter Persephone or Kore (the Maiden) entering the Underworld, while Demeter (the Mother) withheld Earth's bounty until Her daughter re-emerged in the Spring. For many of us, the coming winter months are also an "inward" time of intense dreaming, in-door projects, snuggling, planning, gestating our own inner "seeds" of the future. In the myth, Kore ate several pomegranate seeds while in the Underworld with Hades, and was therefore obliged to return there for an equal number of months. Depictions of Kore sometimes show Her holding a pomegranate.
Pomegranates, filled with seeds. A good ritual-nibble, delicious symbolic seeds for the future.
What dreams am I gestating?
What seeds am I planting in my heart, in my mind?
How can I best bring these to fruition?
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