“Exit light/Enter night/Take my hand/Off to never never land” – Metallica
As you may know, Autumn officially begins at 11:44am Eastern Time today. The center of the Sun will spend a nearly equal amount of time above and below the horizon at every location on Earth and night and day will be of nearly the same length. Yeah!
Definition of the word 'autumn'
Beware: The Fall Equinox is also known as Alban Elfed, Autumn Equinox, Autumnal Equinox, Cornucopia, Feast of Avilon, Festival of Dionysus, Harvest Home, Harvest Tide, Mabon, Night of the Hunter, Second Harvest Festival, Wine Harvest, Witch’s Thanksgiving, and the first day of autumn. Personally, I’m partial to Night of the Hunter. Mabon reminds me too much of Gabon and Witch’s Thanksgiving conjures up images of Bette Midler in Hocus Pocus.
Anyway, fall is traditionally known as a time of the harvest. Personifications of autumn are usually pretty, well-fed females adorned with fruits, vegetables and grains and wheat. Literary types are more likely to lament the loss of summer and focus on the mental preparation for the relative inwardness of winter. Others, including myself, see crisp days with vibrant leaves, culminating with Thanksgiving and fresh snow.
Of course there is more to the fall season than initially meets the eye. Especially today’s Autumnal Equinox.
If you are a pagan, you’d better get ready to celebrate. A pagan living in Louisiana recently expressed her excitement to a local news outlet:
Happy Mabon! Once again, the Wheel of the Year turns, as we Pagans celebrate the Autumnal Equinox in September, with the passing of the second period of equal day and night, before we march into Samhain, and winter’s sleep.
It is the celebration of the Autumn Harvest, when the cornucopia brings forth such items as stews, meat pies (from where?), hams, roasts, cheeses, corn breads, and new wine. The huge golden Full Moon of September has been well-named the “Harvest Moon,” as those who work the fields have used its light to finish the Autumn harvest over the centuries.
We pagans consider this holiday as a reminder of the harvest of our efforts this year, and the bounty it is, weighted against our life’s experience. These past experiences take seed, regenerate into wisdom, which is reborn within. It is also a time to ponder the necessity for fallow periods, for it is the fallow periods which allow us to assimilate, regenerate, and incorporate that which we have progressed through the year. Just as fields need to lay fallow to better support new growth, so do we!
So, how to celebrate Mabon? Go on a nature walk and enjoy the scenery. The light from the sun is as golden as it ever will be. (Remember “Fields of Gold” by the musician Sting?) The feasting is a sumptuous buffet with wine and good company. Give thanks to the gods for the special people in your life, because they, as well as these other things, are your modern day “harvest”.
Blessed Be!
Meat pie and wine would go well with Sting. For others, however, fall marks the start of the hunting season. News writer Tommy Garner, over in Searcy, Arkansas feels that Autumn is one of the best times to be alive. He also adds:
The squirrels have launched a major assault on the hickory nuts, making me wish there was an easy way to adjust the trigger on my Ruger 10/22 without having to pull the stock trigger and replace it with an aftermarket unit that breaks cleanly at two pounds. Bagging a limit of squirrels with a rimfire rifle is a great challenge and will greatly help you fine-tune your shooting techniques for the upcoming deer season. Besides that, a platter of Southern fried squirrel is hard to beat.
I wonder how Northern fried squirrel would taste. Maybe it goes well in a meat pie with some Sting playing in the background. More explicit is the Society for Sacred Sexuality’s Sacred Sex Ritual (quite the tongue-twister):
Sacred sex, like the seasons, moves in cycles. Each season represents a different value of fullness of the wave of sacred sex ecstasy. Autumn, marking the time of harvest, represents rejoicing in a fully matured wave of sacred sex ecstasy. The Society for Sacred Sexuality celebrates this ripened wave with its annual event.
Equinox Day, the time when the sun is in perfect balance over the northern & southern hemispheres, is an ideal day for sacred sex practice. The balance in nature is highly conducive to enjoying the balanced state of Sacred Sexual Union.
Equinox Day is also a day of transition between the sun’s northerly path and its southerly one. This makes Equinox Day ideal for transitioning to higher states of being.
You can participate in the event alone or with a lover by creating a personal sacred sex ritual according to your own desire, using the lessons in the Sacred Sex Lesson Forum, or your own sacred sex practice. In your ritual, emphasize rejoicing in your sacred sex waves, as though you are harvesting ecstasy. For ancient flavor, add food to your ritual and/or enjoy oral pleasures with your sacred sex rite. He can also nurse at her breast to honor the copious stream of nature. If weather and local law/custom permits in your area, you may even enjoy your ritual outside in a field to celebrate the Harvest Season.
Or just do as a Seattle photo sharing site instructs: “To honor the divine balance of nature, we suggest starting your day with coffee and ending it with beer. It is the way of our people, after all.”
...she'd be exposed if this were today - the leaves haven't fallen yet!
