It is September, and we are approaching our Gaian Equinox festival time once again as summer gives way to autumn in the Northern hemisphere, and winter welcomes spring in the Southern lands. We find ourselves in the fourth festival gateway of the wheel of Gaia’s year, having begun our shared exploration of planetary celebrations in December of 2021. At that time, Freya Secrest and I met together to envision how we could celebrate the Solstices and the Equinoxes in a new planetary, whole Gaian way. We invited our Lorian friends in the Southern hemisphere–Linda Engel from Australia and Ara Swanney from New Zealand–to create Gaian festivals with us, and to share those festivals with members of Lorian’s Commons via Zoom. We looked forward to the challenge of creating festivals that would mirror each other, honoring the diversity and differences of not only the seasons, but the land and ecosystems and climate that each of us were embracing in our co-creative celebrations. That exploration has been a fascinating and joyful endeavor together–one that has generated a growing friendship and partnership between the four of us, while weaving a web of connection and delight with all those who have joined us for these festival times.
In planning the September Equinox celebration, Freya invited the four of us to write our own words or poems this time, rather than share a reading we found that invoked the spirit of the festival gateway. Freya liked the idea of us going back and forth, weaving the hemispheres together with our words, creating a Gaian dance of wholeness, a woven living net of planetary connection and celebration. So we will share our words in our time together in the Commons online, and here in the blog, and we invite all who will be joining us or who are reading this blog, to write or create something of your own that invokes what Equinox means to you.
We also invite everyone to join us in creating an Equinox lemniscate or figure 8 pattern in your garden or in your house which you can decorate and walk in the days leading up to our Gaian Festival online, which is Sunday September 18th at 1 pm Pacific, or on the actual Equinox point, which is Thursday September 22nd in the Northern hemisphere, and Friday, September 23rd in the Southern Hemisphere. We walked the lemniscate together for the March Equinox and wanted to complete that gesture now for September’s Equinox celebration.
The September Equinox is a Doorway/Threshold where Gaia’s breath and light, expanding and widening since the Winter Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere, and contracting and narrowing since the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, meets in the middle, so to speak, at the equator. Our lemniscate festival gesture/movement will be one of “invitation and inclusion.” Picture the lemniscate stretched out horizontally, with the point in its center being the Doorway/Threshold where everyone around the globe stands in Balance and Equilibrium together, no matter what season one is moving from and toward. From that place in the center, we can experience together the pause, the balance and the moving flows of life. As the light lengthens in the Spring, Gaia’s breath and energy widen, expanding into leaf and bud. As the light decreases in the Autumn, Gaia’s energy and breath narrow and focus, concentrating summer growth and life force into seed and bulb. We honor the wholeness of Gaia’s breath and cyclical life when we weave Gaia’s two hemispheres together in one planetary festival of celebration.
As we walk our lemniscates, either physically or meditatively, we can invite and include the spirit of our homes and land, our local nature spirits, house angels, the Sidhe and all unseen allies and companions to join us in weaving our seasons together, and standing at the moment of pause, equilibrium and balance together. (Click the button below for more detailed instructions on creating a lemniscate and ritual for your Equinox celebration.)
In closing, we offer our Gaian creative inspirations to enrich your Equinox celebration, wherever you find yourself. Blessings of Balance, Peace and Equilibrium be yours!
Equinox Poem by Linda Engel
Currawong woke me this morning
Its mournful cry
more full of hope and joy.
Spring is coming!
Spring is coming!
Wake up–it isn’t dark now.
It is Light
The Sun is coming back.
There is a feeling of awakening
Seeds are germinating
Buds are bursting
Signs of new life beginning!
The scent of violets wafts through the air.
The Southern land is awakening
from its cold sleep.
Casuarina–my spirit guide - sways
singing to me softly.
My love! Come join with me,
in celebration of Light returning.
In the North, a slowing down
changes of light and colour
Rich hues of red, orange and gold
fruits ripening
In the South
kookaburras are laughing
at our little foibles.
They laugh in celebration of her wondrous beauty,
Always at dawn and dusk
Be joyful they cry
Celebrate…the Light is returning!
Soon North and South will be One
Balance. Pause.
Time for reflection.
As our beloved mother celebrates her endless journey
of death and renewal.
September Equinox by Lucinda Herring
I wake at dawn,
Gateway between night and day,
Darkness and light.
Barefoot, I walk outside
Down a woodland path,
Green golden in fledgling air.
I come to a steep meadow,
Covered all over with glistening dew,
Where the sun keeps up with me as I climb.
A betwixt and between time,
With the sky a growing brightness of blue,
Promising a hot summer’s day;
Yet the morning air so chill I am shivering in my nightgown,
And my wet feet are numb from traipsing through the dew.
I stand on the hill with the sun’s rays
Casting a long straight shadow of Me across the land.
Spreading my arms and legs wide,
I become a place of equilibrium and balance in the day.
Equinox
Summer’s waning warmth.
Autumn’s promise of presence.
Gaia’s Breath, Her Pause, Her Stillness.
Equinox
When all seasons have a Voice
All sing and dance as One.
Aotearoa/ New Zealand Spring Equinox–First Signs by Ara Swanney
The Tui begin their spring antics, flying and chasing recklessly as they prepare for their new family, wooing and mating, nest building and drinking the sweet, sticky nectar of the Harakeke flowers on their tall Lilly like stems, which also feed the Bellbirds and Kereru as they jostle for positions, not wasting a drop of the free flowing nectar.
The Kowhai trees and their yellow flowers also provide nectar, often seen with the glossy blue/black Tui hanging off the drooping branches like decorations, the white wattle-feathers at their neck glowing in the sun.
The Manuka give the impression of snow as the white flowers cover their branches, attracting the bees to gather the ingredients for the healing honey they will provide.
The sun shines directly along our porch from the West when it sets and again from the East.
The Māori word for Spring is Koanga . . Ko meaning digging tool . . . time to dig and plant in the warming ground.
The Godwits (call Kuaka in Māori) return from Alaska, 80 thousand of them, having flown 12 hundred kilometers non stop for 6 days, and land back in their own appointed estuaries dotted along the East coast of the North and South Islands . . . in Christchurch they ring the bells in welcome. These birds truly weave between the hemispheres.
The magic of the Spring Equinox holds such promise of the new life.
Equinox Weaving by Freya Secrest
(Freya has woven a piece from a poem “Spring” by Eila Savela and her own poem “Fall”)
Spring is an act of Imagination
When all is still grey and dingy white
With snow on the way and
Sidewalks slick with ice
And weariness.
We say, “Welcome Spring!”
In the drip, drip dripping of the eaves
And the first softened breaths of the thaw
In the sloppy wet streets
And damp earth smell.
To you, we say, “Happy Spring!”
May its gentle beauty offer itself to you,
Singing like the Budding trees.
The gift of Fall is renewal
Seed and fruit burst abundant
The promise of growth is fulfilled.
Through the summer
Imagination
Is drawn in and down
Rooting in soil
Committed to stretch and swell and bloom.
Coming to rest at last in its seed.
To you we wish an abundant harvest
May its nourishment fill you,
Centering in its essential presence.