Last weekend was the Autumn Equinox (or Mabon) and it was a beautifully sunny day.
As you know, TJ and I are very spiritual but we don’t really follow any single religious path. But that doesn’t mean we don’t celebrate our own individual faith within the family. One of the ways we do this is to honour nature and the world around us as sacred, and so this year we decided it was high time we tried to celebrate the Autumn Equinox in a way that was special to us.
As our herb garden has flourished this past year, we thought it would be a great idea to make our own smudge sticks, utilising the abundance of growth in our garden rather than just letting it all die off for the winter without being used. I hasten to add here that we left more herbs in the garden than we took out of the garden, but we wanted to use some of it.
TJ (with his aptly coloured hair!) cut some sage, rosemary and lavendar whilst I hung the washing out and wandered around the garden taking photos in the gloriously golden autumn light, and then we headed indoors to make up smudge sticks together whilst Little Man had his afternoon nap.
It took us a while to figure out the best way to put the herbs together and we have yet to discover how well the different combinations of herbs smell together when burned, but we are more than happy with our homemade smudge sticks.
Later that evening, we held our own little celebration using a ritual created for the Solitary Druid Fellowship, adapting it to suit our own needs, missing out bits we didn’t feel reflected us personally and adding our own little touches. Little Man was more interested in the candle than anything else, so that had to be moved to a safe distance away from him, but all in all it was nice to mark the turning of the seasons by remembering all that has happened over the past year and thinking about the months ahead of us.
Autumn is one of my favourite times of year (it always has been) as it is both a time of reflection and gathering things together for the cold winter months ahead. There is something very special about the last few rays of summer sun, the wrapping up in blankets in the evenings, and the preparation for celebrations such as Halloween, Guy Fawkes and Christmas!!
When I was still at school, September was the month in which we returned to school and so it was also a time of new beginnings. And it seems to be this way again now, as I move into my new role with PSS (more on this in a later post, I’m sure!) And before I know it, October will be out and we’ll be on to the next celebration. How exciting.
Tell me, do you love autumn or are someone who dislikes the end of summer?
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