Dear reader,
The wheel of the year is turning. Here in the Northern Hemisphere, summer is giving way to fall. It’s a special moment in the Sun’s yearly journey across our sky, and a great time to go outside and let our senses take in the seasonal changes.
✎ What are you noticing around you right now?
✎ How is this time of year feeling to you?
Guided by the Fall Equinox
When the Sun enters Libra on September 23rd at 2:05 am CEST, it marks a major turning point in our yearly cycle. Since the Summer Solstice, the Sun has been traveling south across the sky, rising later and setting earlier each day. At this Equinox, it stands directly above the equator, with day and night settling into near-perfect balance. It’s fitting, then, that the word equinox means “equal night.”
Fall Equinox is the “Last Quarter Moon” and “dusk” of the year, when the light softens and darkness sets in. It’s a time when nature is slowing down and beginning to retreat, and we’re asked to guide ourselves away from the activity of summer into deeper connection and introspection. To allow our bodies to unwind, to restore balance to our lives, and to trust we’ve done enough.
Look for signs that summer is gone and fall is here. Notice the arc of the Sun across the sky shifting southward, and where it rises and sets on your horizon. Around the Equinox, it rises almost exactly due east and sets almost exactly due west. Notice, too, how quickly the length of daylight is changing now — more quickly than it does around the solstices.
From here, we’re tipping over into the dark half of the year, with nights growing longer than days, building toward the longest night of the year at the Winter Solstice. Fall Equinox marks the beginning of the end of the year: the air cools, birds and butterflies migrate south along with the Sun, leaves visibly let go.
The Fall Equinox & you
We’re entering the fourth and final quarter of our solar year — a cycle that started at the December Solstice, reached its first quarter at the March Equinox, and peaked at the June Solstice. Nine months have passed since we planted our vision for what this year could be.
This is a moment to pause and notice what has grown and is ready for harvest, gather the lessons we’ve learned, celebrate and appreciate all that we have, compost what is ready to be released, and contemplate how we want to move through the rest of the year.
✎ How are you arriving in the fall?
✎ What are you bringing with you from the season past?
✎ What has fruited over the summer?
✎ What have you outgrown?
✎ What do you need in the season to come?
Until next time...
I’m very much looking forward to writing to you again as we draw closer to the next station on the wheel of the year, the Scorpio Cross-Quarter on November 7th at 10:52 am CET. It marks the halfway point between the Fall Equinox and the Winter Solstice and brings us to the heart of fall.
In the meantime, you can take the questions from this post with you on your walk, into your journal, or wherever else feels right. I hope they tickle you and help you weave yourself into the mystery of this Libra Equinox.
You can also find the dates and energetic signatures for all eight stations of the solar year here — something to return to throughout the year to help you stay in step with the sacred rhythms of our home planet and our home star.
Note: Every date is in Central European (Summer) Time, so depending on where you are in the world, it could be a day earlier or later. You can use each link to find your local time.