Wintering

Wintering

The silver birches’ cascades of golden leaves reflect the oblique light of this autumn’s sunshine. Red berries are abundant and the birds look happy. There is beauty everywhere and yet there is also an acute loss when autumn equinox (21/09) arrives. The light filled, carefree days of summer are gone and many of us find it difficult to remain active, energised and positive during the dark, cold months to come.

We stand at a threshold and start to prepare to enter the darker, quieter half of the year.  First we stand with gratitude for nature’s abundance, the golden grain and fruit harvest. We stand and observe as the leaves turn colour and flutter to the ground. Equinoxes are a time of balance in nature, light and dark are balanced although we know that the  growing season is finishing and we see more the dance of opposites in nature, death and decay but also the beauty and wholeness of seeds, seedpods and seed heads and their promise of wholeness and return. This is the theme of the season, the mystery and balance of opposites. It is a good time to scavenge for mushrooms and herbs and learn herb potions to keep healthy in the winter. 

Some feel acutely the loss of light and warmth. I find that it is helpful to go into the winter with the images brought by the year’s festivals. Michaelmas (29/09) announces the change and asks us to face our dragons with courage and resilience. Then comes All Saints day (32/10). I like to commemorate All Saints not as Halloween night, but in the Mexican way, honouring our dead and remembering our ancestors. When we imagine a line of people behind us, all from the same bloodline, we can visualise where we come from, which qualities and problems we have inherited, which we have brought ourselves. There is great force and resilience within a bloodline. We could light a candle for the ancestors and invoke their help to face the darkness ahead.

Martimas (11/11) happens about the same time as Diwali and teaches us to light a small lantern. The light shines from within the lantern. Can we temporarily bring within the light from outside? The golden light of a candle shows something about the quality of being contained and able to glow with warmth. Every little light we bring to the onset of the year’s darkness will help to bring warmth and light to the dark that promises to engulf us.

After Martimas the festivals will always bring light. 

Advent announces Christmas. It teaches about preparing and waiting and if we enter in its most spiritual quality, we learn to make, prepare and expect. Some people make the Christmas cake at this period, or the Christmas pudding for next year. My neighbour, Louise, makes her wonderful Christmas puddings. She lets them mature for a whole year and I know that next year I will be given a Christmas pudding to take with me to Brazil and give to my mother who loves it. I meet with friends to make paper stars and lanterns or dip bee’s wax candles. Often someone announces that knitting season has started and we knit Christmas presents in the evenings, hats and scarves. We prepare for a family gathering, we get together with precious friends. We gather light around us and face the frosty weather outside.

When Christmas comes I find myself resenting the commercial overtones that our modern times put on it. I want to find simplicity and warmth, togetherness and love. But it is not easy in a very materialistic world. So we try to include some spiritual gatherings in our days and perhaps service to others. 

I spoke about the Christian festivals as they are easily available in the culture of the country I live in, but lately I try to skip the religious content and concentrate in the spiritual truth that each festival of the year contains. Always linked to the natural world, this spiritual truth is what nourishes our souls. 

The autumn as the entrance to the darker months hold the mystery of light and dark, life and death and its festivals try to teach us the joy and comfort of bringing the light within.

The advent techs us about waiting and preparation. The long wait for the return of the warmth and light of the summer.

The season encourages us to find community and support as our awareness and focus shifts inward.