A Balancing Act

The wheel turns once more, and with the harvest, comes the falling temperatures and leaves, the end of September is upon us, and the winter months beckon. This time of harvest is known by many names; Autumn Equinox, or the increasingly unpopular term of Mabon, Albon Elfod in the Druid Path, Harvest Home or In Gathering in traditional folklore and Michaelmas in the old church calendar. In fact today, the  29th September is St Michaels Day or Michaelmas. 

In fact a lovely little bit of folklore tells us that Michaelmas is when St Michael kicked the devil out of heaven and he landed somewhat unceremoniously on a blackberry bush. With not just his dignity smarting, every year he remembers and kicks, spits or even piddles on those luscious purply-black fruits, so legend tells us not to pick them after this day. I had a look at mine belatedly today, to see if there were anymore left to go with my apples, but nope, the devil has definitely got to them, and however arty the late afternoon light makes them look, there's no way I'm eating them!

Whatever term sits best with you, the significance of the season remain pretty much the same; harvest, a time of equal light and balance before the onset of winter and the fading of the light. So this biannual celestial balance of light and dark, of day and night brings harmony to us, or so we hope. Sometimes however, I suspect that it serves to show us what is not quite totally in balance, sometimes the season also serves to show us what is a bit wobbly, askew, completely off kilter or plain upside down, not just in our own lives, but in the world around us.

The sharp nip in the air and the dew on this spider's web this morning, so precariously and masterfully created between a garden chair and himself's Lambretta, could have been woven by Arachnae herself. In a moment of reflection, well wrapped up on the patio, along with a lazy morning cuppa, in my own personal bid for balance and sanity, it occurred to me to be a perfect symbol of the delicate state of everything around us right now, brave, beautiful and fragile beyond measure. This multi stranded and complex equilibrium of the world right now, which seems so shaky, unbalanced and uncertain, and try as we might, we can't seem to set it right, let alone balance or stabilise however hard we try, however loud we shout and protest, or hard we manifest or cast our quiet everyday magic. But the world somehow keeps spinning it's magic, and so must we, in whatever way we can.

Whether quietly and calmly, or loudly and bravely, we must continue to light our candles to illuminate the stealthily approaching darkness and hold those lanterns up high into the darkening corners of our rooms and our communities, to keep the fear and monsters at bay and chase the lengthening shadows away, whatever or whoever they may be. We have to allow ourselves to trust the freefall into Autumn with the leaves that dance around us, in their descent to carpeting the ground with their array of reds, oranges and yellows, before becoming one with the earth again. 

We have to remind ourselves that the decay of the autumn and winter comes with the promise of rejuvenation and regeneration, and it is a time to hunker down and restore our tired and sad hearts, souls and minds, to rebalance and recalibrate all that we need to, to explore and navigate the many things that the future holds for us, and that we can and we will spin our path to balance.

                                       Blessings of Balance To You All x x