Fall Equinox: Celebrate the Cycle of Life
Linda E. Savage, Ph.D. DD is a minister of Spiritual Science and a member of the ESP Lab for nearly 40 years and a member of the board. She is a Licensed Psychologist, Marriage and Family Therapist and AASECT certified sex educator who brings the wisdom of her 35 years of experience treating couples and individuals. As the author of Reclaiming Goddess Sexuality, she blends current clinical knowledge and ancient wisdom and has created a companion CD of guided meditations: Maiden, Mother, Wise Woman: Reclaiming Our Sexuality. Dr. Savage is recognized as a leading seminar leader and speaker. She wrote for the Huffington Post as an expert blogger on Spiritual Sex.
The Fall Equinox is the second of the three major harvest festivals. The Celtic name for it is Mabon: the season of storing food and preserving nature’s bounty for the coming winter months. This year it will be on September 22nd, just as the sun enters Libra, the sign of the balancing scales. The term Equinox refers to this balance of day and night and the cycle of life is evidenced by Nature: Spring (birth) Fall: seeds falling and going underground (death) only to grow again in spring: (rebirth). This cycle has been revered for at least 30,000 years; probably for as long as humans have gathered herbs and plants in familiar places during certain seasons.
A deeper mystery at the Fall Equinox was celebrated for many centuries at Eleusis, a small village in Greece. The rites were sought by thousands of people from all over Greece and beyond because the experience changed their lives. There is still much that is unknown about the Eleusinian mysteries but this much is known. During the night, initiates imbibed a drink, called Kykeon, the contents of which has led to much speculation. Many have suggested that the drink was made of fermented grain which could have contained the fungus Ergot (from which LSD was created). We do know that the brew was psychoactive, thus altering ordinary perception. The research conducted over 12 years by Brian Muraresku, in The Immortality Key offers compelling evidence.
With the rise of so much turmoil such as wars, severe shortages of drinkable water, food insecurity, distrust of those people fear simply because they seem different, promoting hate crimes, and constant fear mongering that makes it difficult to feel safe. There is a surge of folks seeking deeper wisdom with a profound desire for their own meaning; about life, death, transcendence and choosing their own path.
There is a sincere search for belonging because of increased isolation that so many are experiencing. There is a growing interest in Psychedelic Assisted Therapy as folks search for uncovering trauma, healing their hearts, and finding a connection to something more meaningful than the endless consumption of pills and expensive acquisitions. If you would like to learn more about this work, please read The Tell, a memoir by Amy Griffin.
Finding true community, deep wisdom and healing is so important, especially now, as it was centuries ago in Ancient Greece and Crete. How ever you are called to find healing and deep connection, choose your teachers wisely. And above all connect with the Light.
Celebrate the Fall Equinox with dear friends, share foods from your garden if you have one and bake bread together. It is a sacred time when plants and trees are getting ready to let go of their seeds. Soon it will be the time of going within. In just six weeks, the next Celtic Season is Samhain, the time of honoring the ancestors
Happy Mabon friends, Linda