Turning Inwards

Autumn equinox is fast approaching, leaves are falling, fungi bloom and the world is awash with a sea of fabulous colours, our hearts fill with the glory of the world around us, as we approach the dark half of the year.

Suddenly we find ourselves facing darker days as the nights draw in and we begin the descent into the realm of reflection and inner work. Personally, this is a time I look forward to, perhaps because I'm a September baby, but the turning of the days to darkness fills me with a deep joy, an overpowering glee at the thought of dark evenings curled up, cosy and warm with a good book and my thoughts.

Some might consider that weird, craving the sun and the activity of summer seems far more alluring, but in truth it's an integral part of the Wheel of the Year, a time to wind down and work on the self in the quiet months when all the work is done, even though we no longer live seasonally like our ancestors,  we have the opportunity to look beneath the surface, healing the soul, and aligning ourselves with the slower energy of a sleeping world. 

It always feels to me as though I'm home, safe within the loving arms of a world that celebrates the slower more balanced energy as the pagan year comes to an end. I feel a deep draw to solitude, wandering in nature connected to the Great Mother as she dons out her bounty to the creatures who rely on her generosity, giving them succour for the cold months when nothing grows on the earth, but in the human mind seeds sown during the year take advantage of the slower tempo and begin to germinate ever so slowly until we are able to harvest new beginnings in our soul.

Autumn is the space for releasing the things we no longer need, freeing the space in the consciousness to allow our dreams and wishes to manifest without being squeezed out in the melee of the mind. Have you ever noticed how easily thoughts can become muddied when we try to accomplish too many things at once? How clarity becomes something that sparks but doesn't fully ignite? These are the symptoms of overload, of trying to keep too many things on the go at once, and boy are we guilty of that! Right now my own mind is full to bursting with things I have had planned for months, even years, things that I keep meaning to do but keep putting off, perhaps it's time to thin them out and decide what it is that really draws me, excites me into wanting to drop everything and just do it.

Reflecting on the swirling mass of "pick me" ideas can seem daunting, it requires discipline and honesty. It's hard to remove a dream you had of wanting to achieve success in a specific direction in favour of something new. Yet sometimes removing a big goal allows other smaller ones to manifest, which in turn propel you towards that long held seemingly too difficult end. 

Where to start? I have a system I use to narrow down the piles of ideas that are half started, simply just stop and ask yourself a few questions, grab a journal and write down the key questions we need answers for, not always easy to begin with so here are a few suggestions to get your mind focussed on the task.

• What things do I want to release?
• What ideas do I want to seed for the future?
• What relationships no longer give me joy or have run their course?
• What boundaries do I need to set or strengthen?

Don't rush yourself, take time to think about each question. Maybe write a list of pros and cons for each answer. Really give them some serious thought, allow honesty to rule your head and your heart to back that up with intuition, that, whether we like it or not, provides the ultimate direction for our plans. This is not the time for rash decisions, this is the space to choose where you are heading in the next year, and how you can accomplish that, even if it means taking a different route to achieve the goal. And this is the purpose of the dark half of the year, to give us a space to examine the inner world and sort out those seeds we have had squirreled away that now want to germinate.

We really can't do it properly at any other time of the year, we're too busy doing stuff that needs to be attended to, the dark gives that calm energy which helps us see more clearly, allows the mind to concentrate on the deeper things without the distraction of the mundane. 

As we move toward equinox allow some time to do this important act of release, even the smallest things set free can make the biggest difference in our energetic field and allow the seeds of future joy to feast on the fertile soil that is an uncluttered mind.