Full Transcript for 15: Autumn Equinox

feed off of other people's energy. 00:03:15.239 --> 00:03:24.599 And um, so me being able to really like enjoy and embody something while others are doing it too feels really wonderful. 00:03:24.919 --> 00:03:41.479 And I also just love the theme of falling leaves and this idea of letting go and watching nature really just release and let go what's no longer serving her with such ease and grace, and like how much we get to learn from that process. 00:03:41.639 --> 00:03:51.079 Um, so Maben is the celebration, the sabat uh in the pagan wheel of the year for the fall equinox. 00:03:51.239 --> 00:04:11.799 So the wheel of the year has eight festivals, otherwise known as Sabbaths, and there's four of them that fall on the equinoxes and solstices, and then there are kind of middle celebrations, which are called cross-quarter festivals, which usually celebrate the peak of that season. 00:04:11.879 --> 00:04:23.240 So you have the celebration of the transition, so autumn equinox, also known as Mabin, is the example, is the is the one that we're going with right now. 00:04:23.480 --> 00:04:44.360 And then you have the like cross-cultural or the cross um quarter festival, which celebrates the peak of that season, which for the autumn is um Sawin, which happens uh on and around Halloween, which we will do another episode on, and I am so excited about that episode as well. 00:04:44.680 --> 00:05:08.120 And I will be honest with you, I this is my first year being aware of Maben as it's held in the pagan year of Wheel of the Year, because I was recently invited to a Lunisaw celebration, and Lunisaw is the cross um quarter festival that celebrates the start of harvest season, but also the peak of summer. 00:05:08.279 --> 00:05:21.800 Um, and so that took place in August, and it was the first time that I was invited to a Sabbath or a like pagan Wheel of the Year festival celebration, and I just loved it. 00:05:21.879 --> 00:05:33.319 We made corn husk dolls, we ate like all of the food, so that's that celebration really focuses on grains because that was is what's traditionally harvested first. 00:05:33.639 --> 00:05:36.199 So corn, barley, things like that. 00:05:36.360 --> 00:05:41.800 And we had barley tea and we had all sorts of corn and we made corn husk dolls. 00:05:41.879 --> 00:05:47.639 It was just like really fun, and I felt really connected to that. 00:05:47.800 --> 00:06:05.079 And you know, I've been practicing witchcraft for seven years at this point, and I have yet to really dive into the pagan wheel of the year, and so I'm taking it upon myself for this next year to really dive into each Sabbath and find ways to celebrate, find ways to acknowledge. 00:06:05.159 --> 00:06:09.800 And so Mabin is the next one, which again falls on the autumn equinox. 00:06:10.039 --> 00:06:19.240 And I have been learning all about the Sabbath in the Sabbath's almanac, which is uh Llewellyn's um Sabbath almanac. 00:06:19.399 --> 00:06:28.759 She makes very they actually, I'm not quite sure what their identity is, make all sorts of great calendars and um planners. 00:06:28.920 --> 00:06:40.599 Anyway, the Sabbath's almanac has been really, really great and has all sorts of recipes, and I will um link it in the show notes for you so that you can get one yourself. 00:06:40.759 --> 00:07:05.560 Um, so ultimately, something interesting that I was reading in The Sabbath's almanac was this idea that the harvest festivals really have started to fall off because people are not as dependent on harvests and people are not as dependent on local farmers. 00:07:05.800 --> 00:07:13.079 And because we can walk into a grocery store and get pretty much whatever we want, whenever we want, and any time of year. 00:07:13.399 --> 00:07:38.519 And so the writer who was writing about this um specific celebration of the harvest was writing about how people have really shifted away from harvest festivals and towards Christmas, uh Yule, also known as Yule in the pagan Wheel of the Year, but really shifting to um celebrations like that instead. 00:07:38.839 --> 00:07:41.479 And that kind of like made me sad a little bit. 00:07:41.560 --> 00:07:54.120 Like this colonial individual way of living that all of us have been really forced into has had us fall off from some of my favorite things to celebrate. 00:07:54.279 --> 00:07:59.399 And so we're gonna dive deep and in honor of going against that idea. 00:07:59.639 --> 00:08:02.680 Um, we are going to get into that. 00:08:03.000 --> 00:08:12.199 First and foremost, the autumn equinox and Maben celebrates the equilibrium and balance of light. 00:08:12.439 --> 00:08:20.199 So on the autumn equinox, we have the same amount of light from the sun as we do darkness from the night, right? 00:08:20.360 --> 00:08:24.680 So that is what's really being emphasized and celebrated during this time of year. 00:08:24.839 --> 00:08:40.680 Not only is it the time where the harvest is plentiful and it's time to like, you know, store and make preserves and get ready for the winter, but there's also this like very even balance of daytime and nighttime. 00:08:40.920 --> 00:08:49.240 And so those two things are really only in balance twice a year and finding equilibrium between giving and receiving, right? 00:08:49.320 --> 00:09:02.360 When we're celebrating the harvest and when we're looking at, you know, pulling the last of the veggies from the veggie garden and making herbal remedies for the winter, like firesider and things like that. 00:09:02.520 --> 00:09:21.720 When we're doing all of these things at these traditional festivals and celebrations and Sabbaths, we are in relationship with community and we're giving whatever medicines we're making in exchange for whatever medicines and foods and preserves and whatever other people are making. 00:09:21.960 --> 00:09:56.920 So there really is this like giving and receiving, and this being in community and celebrating bounty and being able to share that

with each other, especially, I think, right now, where we're all looking at how unevenly distributed resources are and how scary that can be for marginalized communities and for anyone who is trying to survive in this world, as we're looking at having to pay more for rent and having to do all of these things because of inflation and all of that. 00:09:57.480 --> 00:10:10.680 Can we come back to some of these practices in order to find that like soul nourishing being in community space again and have that like kind of balance between giving and receiving? 00:10:10.840 --> 00:10:15.879 What can I give to my community while I am receiving nourishment from my community? 00:10:16.440 --> 00:10:21.879 And so this can be done in a lot of different ways. 00:10:22.040 --> 00:10:27.800 Um, so like I said before, Maben is the second celebration of harvest, right? 00:10:27.879 --> 00:10:34.840 So the first harvest celebration is Lunisaw in August, um, and this is the second of those. 00:10:35.160 --> 00:10:44.680 And it's also a really beautiful time to think about and be present with what are you reaping right now? 00:10:44.840 --> 00:10:50.680 What kind of benefits are you reaping from the healing work that you have already done? 00:10:51.000 --> 00:10:55.800 Like, can we slow down for a moment during seasonal transitions? 00:10:55.879 --> 00:11:10.920 And I I like to do this for any seasonal transition, but I think this one in particular, A, because it's the one that's coming up next, and B, because it's a really powerful time, just because summer and fall is a bit of a harsher transition, right? 00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:26.680 We're going from like really hot weather to like cool and crisp weather, and having that moment to pause, to take a deep breath, to sit at your altar or to pull out your journal and to say, like, what am I doing now? 00:11:26.920 --> 00:11:33.720 And what kind of healing have I been able to gain from the work that I have done? 00:11:33.960 --> 00:11:36.440 Maybe you're setting boundaries better. 00:11:36.680 --> 00:11:49.720 Maybe you've made different decisions for how you're gonna celebrate the holidays that feel more nourishing to you than what you felt like you've quote unquote had to do in the past in order to people please or whatever. 00:11:49.960 --> 00:11:50.280 Right? 00:11:50.360 --> 00:11:57.879 So, what kind of benefits from your healing journey are you really present with and reaping the benefits of right now? 00:11:58.120 --> 00:12:03.320 I think is a really beautiful thing to reflect on during this time of year. 00:12:03.640 --> 00:12:22.440 So that you can really reflect on your progress and not in a perfectionist way, in a way that's gonna heal that inner perfectionist to say, like, oh, yeah, these are things that I maybe I want to reset better boundaries during the holidays this year. 00:12:22.600 --> 00:12:31.560 Um, but right now I set this other boundary where I'm on the phone less or I'm doing this, and that is

really worth celebrating. 00:12:31.800 --> 00:12:39.560 So, what kinds of things can you celebrate in yourself that you are reaping the benefits of right now? 00:12:39.879 --> 00:12:45.240 So, gratitude rituals are also very abundant during this time of year. 00:12:45.480 --> 00:12:55.960 I like to, you know, I don't really love the idea of celebrating Thanksgiving anymore for obvious reasons, which is one of the celebrations that we have in the autumn. 00:12:56.200 --> 00:13:17.480 Um, and I like to call it gratitude day at this point in my life, where I'm gonna look at the things that I am grateful for and the privileges that I hold and how I can leverage those privileges to support people who don't have the same privilege, um, while also acknowledging the hardship that a day like Thanksgiving represents. 00:13:17.800 --> 00:13:22.520 And we can be grateful for all of the things that we have, right? 00:13:22.600 --> 00:13:34.040 So creating a gratitude list for the ways in which you have healed, like things that you were like, oh, if I could heal this or if I could really get past this behavior, that would be so wonderful. 00:13:34.200 --> 00:13:46.040 Um, sharing appreciation for your chosen family and and your family of origin, if you have really good connections with those people and that's something that you're grateful for. 00:13:46.280 --> 00:13:52.040 Yes, and but also the people that you choose to have in your life, can you show appreciation for them? 00:13:52.280 --> 00:14:03.480 Lately, I've been doing that by making essential oil rollers for people, or I will blend up an herbal tea blend for someone and give that away. 00:14:03.640 --> 00:14:13.080 These are not like super, super, super expensive ways for me to nourish my community because I have these things in my home already. 00:14:13.160 --> 00:14:25.879 I use them for myself, and so it's like, okay, I'm just gonna take some of the herbs that I have for my own herbal tea blends in the morning, and I'm gonna use that for um making something for a friend or something like that. 00:14:26.200 --> 00:14:33.640 Can you do something really simple like that to support and show gratitude for the people that you choose to have in your life? 00:14:33.879 --> 00:14:37.720 You can also bless your living space for the next season, right? 00:14:37.800 --> 00:14:57.000 Like I like to redo my altar during seasonal transitions, I like to um like take the whole thing apart and clean it and bless it, and then put out a new altar cloth, put out new crystals, set new intentions, kind of do all of those things for the next season. 00:14:57.160 --> 00:15:08.840 And then this season, one of my favorite things to do in terms of my home is decorate for Halloween and for just the autumn in general. 00:15:09.000 --> 00:15:11.640 Uh Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. 00:15:11.800 --> 00:15:17.720 Um, and so I really like to put out all of the Halloween decorations. 00:15:17.960 --> 00:15:34.200 In fact, my wife and I were discussing recently using Maben, the day of the Autumn Equinox Maben, to decorate and you know, transition our living space from the summer season to the fall season in that way. 00:15:34.600 --> 00:15:38.920 Um, you can also tap into some seasonal foods. 00:15:39.080 --> 00:15:43.560 This is another really beautiful way to celebrate the season. 00:15:43.720 --> 00:15:48.280 So that could be using apples or squash or root vegetables or cinnamon. 00:15:48.440 --> 00:16:00.120 I love to go to Trader Shows and get one of those cinnamon brooms and put it out front so that when you walk into the house you smell cinnamon and you can preserve and can foods. 00:16:00.360 --> 00:16:04.200 If you're into that, that's not something that I particularly love to do. 00:16:04.520 --> 00:16:07.000 I'm not one who likes to make jam. 00:16:07.160 --> 00:16:16.600 Um, but you know, if you're into that kind of thing, maybe you want to think about a seasonal one that you could make, and maybe you want to make an extra big batch and you can share it with your community. 00:16:16.920 --> 00:16:19.160 And you could also have a potluck. 00:16:19.320 --> 00:16:28.280 You could have a community dinner with the the Maben theme, the hot autumn equinox theme, um, allowing everyone to contribute. 00:16:28.360 --> 00:16:43.320 So you're really celebrating that giving and receiving that I was talking about earlier, and you're in community, you're telling stories, you're connecting with people, and you're connecting with the food and you're connecting with the earth as it transitions from one season to another. 00:16:43.640 --> 00:16:51.879 Um, some other ideas that you could use to celebrate the idea of balance, right? 00:16:52.040 --> 00:16:59.879 If you're into yoga, you could do a yoga practice that has more um balancing poses on the autumn equinox. 00:16:59.960 --> 00:17:11.160 So, can you kind of celebrate the balance of dark and light through your body through a yoga practice that uses more um balancing poses? 00:17:11.640 --> 00:17:15.079 And can you start to look at your wardrobe? 00:17:15.240 --> 00:17:26.119 This is another one that I love to do is to look at my wardrobe and kind of is there a piece, a new piece in my wardrobe that I want to get, or what kind of outfits do I want to think about wearing? 00:17:26.200 --> 00:17:28.600 What kind of colors do I want to think about wearing? 00:17:28.759 --> 00:17:55.480 There's lots of great colors for the fall season, obviously, like the dark hunter greens and the um like mustard orange and things like that that um can be really fun to kind of transition how you can celebrate the autumn fall season through what you're wearing, and then creating cozy spaces obviously for introspection. 00:17:55.559 --> 00:18:01.480 Like, do you want to put some new pillows out in where you like to read your books? 00:18:01.640 --> 00:18:12.840 Do you want to um get more like squishy, cozy blankets rather than you

know, the thin or no blankets that we're using in the summertime because we're hot? 00:18:13.160 --> 00:18:16.600 Um some ideas. 00:18:16.759 --> 00:18:27.080 Um and then if you are redoing your altar, which is again one of my favorite things to do, what kind what pieces of nature can you use for your altar? 00:18:27.400 --> 00:18:30.039 Leaves, acorns, apples, candles. 00:18:30.279 --> 00:18:35.080 Um, you could put a representation of scales for the theme of balance. 00:18:35.480 --> 00:18:39.720 Um or you could again use some of those colors. 00:18:39.799 --> 00:18:40.600 I really like it. 00:18:40.680 --> 00:18:52.920 I have this really beautiful altar cloth that I like to use um in the fall, and it has bats on it, and it has like a really pretty gold color and black and this like really deep purple. 00:18:53.000 --> 00:19:01.720 Um, and it has like, you know, pomegranates and squashes and like some of those seasonal foods on there. 00:19:02.200 --> 00:19:10.120 Um, so there's all sorts of ways that you can kind of represent this in the work that you're doing or in the like way that you're transitioning. 00:19:10.920 --> 00:19:30.759 And of course, one of my very favorite rituals, a fire ceremony ritual, um, where you can write down what you're letting go of as you're watching the leaves start to fall, as you're watching nature so beautifully display how to let go, right? 00:19:30.920 --> 00:19:45.480 Because not only do the trees release their leaves, but those leaves go down, fall onto the ground, and they turn into really nourishing soil for that tree to continue to pull from the nutrients of its own dead leaves, right? 00:19:45.559 --> 00:19:51.559 So there's this very like cyclical aspect, and so how can we look at that as an internal process as well? 00:19:51.799 --> 00:20:01.480 So writing down some of the things that you want to let go of and being able to burn those and watch them release. 00:20:01.640 --> 00:20:18.680 I like to bury my ashes in the dirt in my backyard while expressing gratitude and saying some sort of mantra for being able to release and let go and some ways to support your nervous system as well, right? 00:20:18.759 --> 00:20:31.640 Like this writing ritual is super, super helpful, especially if you are feeling like some of that pent-up energy around some of the things that you want to let go of or need to let go of. 00:20:31.960 --> 00:20:40.519 Um, and let's pair that with some more really beautiful nervous system practices, such as like grounding scents. 00:20:41.000 --> 00:20:46.120 Oh, the fall diffuser blends are my favorite. 00:20:46.840 --> 00:20:49.000 Cinnamon, pine, apple. 00:20:49.160 --> 00:20:52.360 I mean, apple is not an essential oil, but you get my point. 00:20:52.519 --> 00:20:57.400 Um, clove, nutmeg, like all of those scents are super, super fun. 00:20:57.720 --> 00:21:07.640 And you know, sh finding practices to support your body, to support your mind, whether that's yoga or just gentle stretching or somatic intuitive movement. 00:21:07.720 --> 00:21:14.200 You can go back to that episode if you want to revisit what that means and how you can start practicing it today. 00:21:14.519 --> 00:21:20.920 But yeah, there are all sorts of simple preparations that you can make as well. 00:21:21.160 --> 00:21:28.200 So here are some journal prompts that you can try, which I will put these in the show notes as well. 00:21:28.519 --> 00:21:36.920 As you're preparing for this season, what do you need in order to navigate the changes of this seal season while feeling nourished? 00:21:38.279 --> 00:21:43.000 What herbs, what oils, what medicines do you want to work with this season? 00:21:44.200 --> 00:21:48.759 What foods and creative projects do you want to focus on? 00:21:50.120 --> 00:21:55.960 And how do you want to be supported by yourself and by others in your community during this time of year? 00:21:56.440 --> 00:22:08.200 So some daily practices you can try, morning gratitude as the sun rises, um, lighting a candle as the darkness comes at night, and like nature walks. 00:22:08.440 --> 00:22:13.640 I love really witnessing nature in its process in all of the seasons. 00:22:13.720 --> 00:22:15.559 This is something I do in all of the seasons. 00:22:15.720 --> 00:22:44.039 Like what for me, it's it's one or two places locally that I go to often, like more than once a week, and I really love to watch the plants and and the the life and how it transitions, what dies, what comes to life, what falls away during each season, and that's something that you can do during the fall too, if you're somewhere where you get to watch all of the leaves change, which I am not. 00:22:44.200 --> 00:22:53.720 I mean, we have some trees in Santa Barbara that um the leaves change, but it's not like Vermont, which I got to visit last year and was absolutely stunning. 00:22:53.960 --> 00:23:04.440 But yeah, there's all sorts of little ways that you can tap into the magic with herbal teas and all sorts of uh kitchen items too. 00:23:04.680 --> 00:23:10.440 Like I love transitioning into soup season and starting to make more soups. 00:23:10.600 --> 00:23:17.240 I think I might try my hand at making like a bone broth or making um sourdough. 00:23:17.480 --> 00:23:23.880 I've been kind of starting to feel the call to try to make sourdough, so maybe I'll try that this year. 00:23:24.200 --> 00:23:29.559 And I think I will leave you with that because that is a lot of options. 00:23:30.920 --> 00:23:40.759 And I just hope that you can find some really beautiful ways to celebrate this seasonal transition and this season. 00:23:40.920 --> 00:23:51.480 And I am really looking forward to this podcast really becoming more of a seasonal approach, meaning like earth seasonal. 00:23:52.200 --> 00:23:57.160 So you'll get a certain amount of episodes in each season as we get into the winter. 00:23:57.559 --> 00:24:05.799 Um, and gonna try to play around with the idea of those happening on some of these holidays or sabbats, sabbath. 00:24:06.039 --> 00:24:09.880 Um, I never know if I'm pronouncing that correctly or not. 00:24:10.039 --> 00:24:18.440 Um but really looking forward to this seasonal transition, and I hope you are too. 00:24:18.920 --> 00:24:27.319 So thank you so much, as always, for uh tuning in to another episode of Healing on the Fringe. 00:24:27.640 --> 00:24:39.480 Please remember that healing isn't linear, just like in nature cycles, there are all sorts of ways that we our healing journeys are reflected in nature. 00:24:39.640 --> 00:24:48.759 And so take the time to slow down, find ways to celebrate in your home, in your kitchen, with your community. 00:24:49.160 --> 00:24:51.799 And thank you so much for being here. 00:24:52.039 --> 00:24:55.480 Please don't forget to rate, review, and follow the podcast. 00:24:55.559 --> 00:24:59.799 It really is the best way for you to support this queer and neurodivergent creator. 00:24:59.960 --> 00:25:02.360 And until next time, stay magical.