As the sun rises on this Equinox, I gaze over my neighbours fence and see the early morning damp evaporating in a steamy haze. The apples are red, ripe and heavy on the trees, the air crisp and fresh.
Big juicy autumn raspberries are ready, mugwort is seeding and huge gauzy webs hang in hedges, dripping in dew. Spiders are everywhere. Big ones, creepy ones are crawling about my house, I found a huge one in my bath this morning.
I like living with spiders, they occupy the corners of my home, curious long legged presences, waiting for some unfortunate insect to make their day. They help me acknowledge the quality of energy that is available to me at this time. I read somewhere that people find them scary and challenging because they carry a quality of death, and to me that makes sense of why they are so prominent this time of year.
It is a time of change, a turning point, a place of equilibrium, a movement from summer into the dying, contracting phase of the year. Death is a transition between one state and another, an equidistant point between this life and the next, between yang and yin.
Autumn Equinox is a portal gateway into the dying times. An opportunity for reflection, for entering the spaces between our thoughts, our breath, an opening into change. A perfect time for deep meditation.
And so the great wheel turns.