Happy Autumnal Equinox and Harvest Moon from my cottage to yours!
Autumn is my favorite time of year and not even because it’s the Season of the Witch. I’m naturally quite enamored with times of change and there is nothing quite as spectacular as the seasonal shift from Summer to Fall here where I live in Southern New England.
Like clockwork, the calendar shifts to “Fall” and I am suddenly finding the first fallen leaves on my daily walks. My summer flowers hold on to their splendor but not for much longer.
Winter is coming.
The year has been especially testy. We’ve been experiencing our tense Saturn in Aquarius square Uranus in Taurus transit for months. Now, all of our outer planets are retrograde. Mercury joins them on Monday. The Season of the Witch came early this year. It felt right to sink deep into this moment.
Outside the squirrels have begun their scurry-hurry and if they are to be believed, it will be a long Winter. I feel it too as I gather the herbs that I have so lovingly let grow in my garden all summer long. I gather together my tender herbs, the babies least likely to tolerate the coming cold nights. All of them go into my dehydrator featured here with its best bug our Instapot.
I weave my magic into the mundane – working spells while I live my life. Everything is meant to be art – an ongoing practice of giving back in gratitude for how much has been given to me. As it is one of the quarter holidays, I spent the morning cleaning and then blessing my kitchen and altar space for the witching that we will do in the season ahead.
I choose to use a mandala to represent the light (moonstone) and dark (hematite) that are in balance but twice a year on the two equinoxes. The rosemary, vervain, and marigold blossoms came from my garden.
Now to charge the working! Here I gave thought to what I wanted more of in my life and after the very solitary 2020, what I crave is connection. So I invited my coven mate Dora to join my partner and me for a collaborative harvest meal. We decided that each of us should cook to our strengths – I would make a butternut squash soup, my partner would make braised short ribs with carrot and mashed potatoes, and Dora would make a fall-themed cake.
(Dora’s partner joined us as well but he brought his jovial Leo self as cooking is not his strength)
It’s been a hard two years. We all need to remember to stop and celebrate our wins where we can find them. In the before times, we used to host meals like this for twenty people. I miss that, but I am thankful that we can do it with four. I am thankful that, due to vaccines, it is safe for me to be inside with my closest humans again.
Today my living space is warm and full of love. I can trace the echoes of our laughter through the late-day sunbeams that shine into my kitchen. I will treasure each one like a seed that may one day be planted to grow more connection, more dinners with the loves of my life, more meaningful conversations, and silly jokes.
This is life. This is it.