Page 16 - Autumn 12

The Never Ending Circle – Jane Keogh, BAHVS Junior Vice President
The gap between writing and publica- tion can be an inter- esting challenge when considering the seasons. A bit like packing for a holiday in the sunshine on a cold rainy day. So as I
write, the late summer is just dipping its toe into the thought of Autumn and by the time you are reading this, the Winter Solstice will be upon us once more.
Each season has it’s own definitive smell. It is the change in the scent of the land that alerts me more than anything else to the cycle of the year. The greatest shift seems to be Winter to Spring and Summer to Autumn. At this moment it is as if the Earth hovers on the cusp of that change from the scent of late Summer, of hay and flowers and a background warmth even in the rain, to the first hint of Autumn. It’s not quite here yet, that smell of dampness and the cool
moment your shadow side. We live in a society that shies away from what are perceived as negative attributes. We may be very good at observing such ‘faults’ in others – anger, jeal- ousy, resentment, laziness, greed – and the list goes on. But we prefer to turn a blind eye to the possibility of these characteristics within our- selves. Yet, if I have learnt one thing in this jour- ney through life, it is that the failing I have criticised in another, I will very rapidly be pre- sented with in myself. Perhaps the Equinox, that time of balance and reflection is an opportunity to really look at this side of ourselves and to offer ourselves some of the compassion, we are encouraged to give to others. It is a chance to look at ourselves honestly and with love rather than harsh judgement. We need to recognise that we need both sides of ourselves to achieve a balance, light and dark, death and rebirth, materialism and spirituality, our young self and our old self. If we can accept our darker side, come to understand that the shadow is as important as the light, then we can honour our-
neys and connecting to the ancestral wisdom within ourselves. Now Winter has truly begun, and the darkness is increasing, this is a moment to accept the death of the old in the knowledge that there will be rebirth and the cycle of life will continue.
To the Celts darkness was as important as the light. Darkness and death were not feared. Samhain represented the death of the old with only the promise as yet of rebirth at the Winter Solstice. This start to the Winter, with the descent into the Underworld represented by this festival, can be seen as a journey into the unconscious and the spirit realms within each of us. Here renewal can be found through rest and meditation. The seeds of our ideas and future direction in life are incubated in our unconscious in the Winter months, ready for rebirth in the Spring. Each ending and death of the old brings the opportunity for a new start, just as each beginning holds within it an end. So the endless cycle of change and life contin-
feel to the air, but it will be any day now. It will be here long before the Autumn Equinox announces the official start of Autumn on 22nd September.
The Equinox will bring in the cooler weather and the shorter days. Of course, the days have been shortening since the Solstice in June but for a while, we have been able to deceive our- selves that it is not noticeable and in a normal year, the lazy hot days of July and August would have distracted us. By early September the days are undeniably ending earlier and follow- ing the Equinox, there will be no escaping the rapidly shortening daylight hours.
For the Autumn Equinox is when day and night are once again in balance for a brief moment, before we move forward into the long dark nights of winter. As always, the Equinoxes are an opportunity to stop and adjust. The two Equinoxes and the two Solstices are the quarter points in the cycle of the year. They represent changes in the Earth’s energy changes, which affect us all. This Equinox is a time to reconcile opposites within ourselves as much as in our wider world and see them as a part of the whole. It is a chance to bring different aspects of ourselves in to balance, to balance our inner and outer worlds...
Whenever you read this, consider for a
selves as a whole and reflect on the changing season, which brings the chance to start again. Remember, a picture without shadows is two- dimensional.
Before we know it, September will have passed and October too and the most misun- derstood of our festivals will have returned. Halloween, All Hallows Eve, Samhain. This cross quarter festival carries with it more fear, more superstition and more ignorance than any other celebration. Yet, as practitioners of homeopathy perhaps we can appreciate a truth below the surface and recognise the parallels with the reaction engendered by our own path of heal- ing. This festival is also known as ‘The Feast of The Dead’, which may explain some of the fear it provokes and perhaps the gross Americanisation of a deeply spiritual time.
It is the end and the beginning of the Celtic year, affirming rebirth in the midst of death and darkness. Death and darkness are important and necessary, as a period of rest and regener- ation before rebirth and an echo of the rebal- ancing of the Equinox and the darker part of ourselves. This is traditionally a time for com- munication with our Ancestors, when the divi- sion between the world of matter and the world of spirit is thinnest and our connection to the past is strong. It is an opportunity for inner jour-
ues, bringing the renewal of ourselves, our understanding and our ideas. Thus there are always new opportunities to start again, to let go of stuck energy patterns and of hanging-on to the past that creates so much illness on a physical plane.
Samhain offers us the chance to face our shadow side, a process started at the Autumn Equinox, to confront our fear of the dark and those parts of ourselves that we would rather push away. Fear is one of our greatest teachers. It is also an opportunity to consider our past and to be brave enough to recognise the lessons presented to us.
So use this time for inner exploration and start a practice of regular meditation. Look at your fears and the understanding this brings. Find the Divine within. Review and assimilate what you have learnt in the earlier
part of the year’s cycle. Nurture
visions and dreams, ideas and
direction in these dark winter
months, ready for the return of
the light. And in this
time of closeness
to our past and
our Ancestors,
remember that
we are tomor-
rows Ancestors.
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