AUTUMN EQUINOX MEANING: BALANCE, GROUNDING, GRATITUDE + LETTING GO
Fall is my FAVORITE TIME OF YEAR! It is a magical time of beauty, change + great harvests. You can feel it in the air as soon as you walk outside... the air is a little bit cooler and crisper. You can see it when you look around. All of the leaves on the trees start changing colors because the trees are sending their energy back into the roots in preparation for winter. As the Autumn winds of change blow the leaves off of the trees, the trees teach us that it is a time of letting go to prepare for the darker more internal time of year ahead.
As the days continue to get shorter and we descend into the darkness, we also get to reap the benefits of all the seeds we planted early on in the year. Right?!?! It's harvest season! And with great harvests come great gratitude! The Autumn season always prompts me to carve out some time to reflect upon the many blessings + teachings that this year has brought me. And there have been MANY!!!
A LESSON FROM THE LAND
Here's some food for thought... We are living in an exciting time of great change, and gratitude is the secret sauce to thriving in the darkness. What is it that you are grateful for? What lessons (which are sometimes disguised as challenges) has this year brought you? How can you use this dark internal time to nourish yourself? Expansion + contraction go hand in hand. Growth requires rest. So create some space for yourself to reflect and look inward, acknowledge any uncomfortable feelings that may arise from the changes at hand, and LET IT GO!!! When we can let go of our physical/emotional/mental debris, we can send it back to the Earth to be composted and turned into fertilizer for the next year ahead to grow something bigger, better, and more beautiful! This process allows us to grow into ourselves more fully + be nourished in the process.
I personally feel that there are many lessons we can learn from the trees, but this lesson in Autumn is particularly potent! Ground yourself in gratitude + get down to Earth.
CRYSTALS FOR AUTUMN
BLACK TOURMALINE
- Grounding
- Releasing/Letting Go
- Protection
- Rest, Relaxation + Rejuvenation
LABRADORITE
- Opens Third Eye
- Enhances communication
- Amplifies Intuition
- Protection
- Lucid Dreaming + Journeying
- Stone of the Otherworld- helps connect with Spirit Guides + Ancestors
- Excellent stone to celebrate Samhain/Halloween/Day of the Dead
GARNET
- Named for its similarities to Pomegranate seeds because it holds a connection to the cycle of life + death which is palpable in Autumn!
- Strong grounding + protection stone
- Good for balancing emotions + the Chakra system
- Stone of true love, commitment + trust
HOW TO CELEBRATE AUTUMN EQUINOX
By the time we get to the Autumn Equinox, we can often find ourselves feeling a bit over extended with having done "all the things" during the bright warm summer months. It's time to let go of some of these activities + get ready for winter. Because Equinoxes are the only 2 days of the whole year with equal day + equal night, this is a really great time to focus on balance. Here are some ideas to celebrate the magick of the Autumn Equinox:
- LEAF PEEPING! Enjoy time in nature observing the fleeting beauty of the Autumn landscape. Pretty soon we will be spending the majority of our time indoors! So make the most of it!
- Wear jewelry or meditate with Black Tourmaline + Labradorite crystals for their grounding, protective + intuitive energetic properties
- Clean up your diet + detox
- Eat seasonally: incorporate more root vegetables + warming spices into your diet for their grounding + nourishing effect. (Hello chai tea + pumpkin spice lattes!)
- Go apple or pumpkin picking
- Harvest the crops in your garden
- Hang a cinnamon broom on your door to honor the harvest season + welcome abundance into your home
- Make a spirit plate with your past loved ones favorite foods to honor their memory
- Reflect on this year's harvest + make a gratitude list
- Give yourself some extra time to rest + adapt to the darker days ahead