Autumn Equinox: Light and Shadow (by Tara Masery Miller)

This is the third piece of the three-part collaborative series.

The Wheel of the Year in the Northern Hemisphere turns slowly over three hundred and sixty five days. It rotates through different shades of light and dark. The Winter Solstice is the longest night of the year, but it is celebrated as a holiday of lights by many as a reminder that the darkness will not last forever. It is also a time for planning the New Year. What a better time than in the dark where you can dream of the things to come. The Summer Solstice is the height of the sun and we experience the longest day of the year. Between these extremes are the two Equinoxes which balance light and dark. Each have some elements of shadow but the Autumn Equinox is even more so for its placement on the wheel before Samhain.

The Fall Equinox is the last harvest festival. We gather what we need to prepare for the winter. Though we may no longer live in a strictly agricultural society, we still prepare with emergency kits and plans. At least we need to store extra canned goods, water, put warm blankets in our cars and be ready for winter or torrential storms. Spiritually we prepare ourselves for Samhain when we ceremoniously remember our beloved and honored dead.
The shadow gives us time to adjust mentally and spiritually along the Wheel of the Year as we move toward the darkest months. While we offer thanks one last time the tree sap is moving slowly below ground, animals are storing up food for the winter. All of nature changes. We are constantly changing sometimes simply and sometimes dramatically.

This is the time to reflect on your own shadow. Explore the deeper more serious aspect of your soul and consciousness.There are many ways to look at yourself. How you see yourself. How others see you. How you think others see you. Also look at your reflection on a shiny surface and your shadow on the ground or wall. Like Peter Pan we would be lost without our shadow.

I do my trance and spirit contact work in the shadow. Either wrapped fully in my cloak covering my face, under the moon, or in my home with candles lit. Shadow to me represents the veil but with The Wheel at the end of summer and not in the full darkness of winter, there is a light of joy that transforms any work I may do.

Dear reader. What does the Autumn Equinox mean to you?