A Beautiful Fulcrum
The Fall Equinox Solar Downbeat
The expansion of all that I am, into
all that I see
and it is Love
and Love sees me.
In this issue:
Song: The Origin
A Beautiful Fulcrum: The Fall Equinox Solar Downbeat
Listen in on my conversation with
on the Inner Dive podcast Episode 6: Tapping into the Essence with Emma Liles
The Origin
Paid Subscribers can access the audio file download here.
Fall Equinox 2023 - September 23rd, 1:49 a.m. CST
This upcoming Sunday, in the wee hours of the morning, the equinox solar downbeat will reverberate everywhere, through everything and everyone on this beautiful planet. For us in the northern hemisphere, this is our autumn turning - the shift from the yang-dominant energy of spring and summer, to the yin-dominant, inward return of autumn and winter1. For everyone in the southern hemisphere, this upcoming equinox marks the shift into spring. As we in the north prepare to let-go, the southern world begins its reawakening. Together at the equinox, we all live a day and night of equal measure.
The Eight Great Solar Downbeats of the Year are: Spring Equinox, Beltane (May Day), Summer Solstice, Lughnasadh (Beginning of the Harvest), Fall Equinox, Samhain (Halloween), Winter Solstice, Imbolc (Return of the Light). These days fall approximately every six weeks, and are also known as “cross-quarter days.” The names for these days come from the Celtic tradition.
I love the equinoxes for the special energy and opportunity that they offer. I see them as fulcrum points, brief moments of supreme equanimity that the entire earth-matrix shares. I like using the equinox opportunity to increase my consciousness of our collective, interconnected experience. When I am fully present and focused during an equinox moment, I feel ripples of resonant energy move through me. A reset on the level of my electrical system. A grounding of my energy to the field of the earth. A helpful reorientation into the present, where I sync up with the pulse of Nature and my own wildness.
Being present for the equinox moment means that I am pausing within the flow of my day, and taking time to be intentional and focused while the peak energies of the seasonal shift wash over and through me. Some years this looks like being out in a special place in nature, other times it is me simply sitting still and closing my eyes for a few minutes. I think that how we observe something is less important than the inner meaning we bring to moment. Ritual can sure be beautiful, but its true marrow is the heart of presence.
One of the other reasons I love the fall equinox, is its heralding of the inward (what I like to call the yinward) time of the year. I enjoy seeing that our natural world in balance includes ebbs and flows in the external proliferation of life. Even places without a harsh, cold winter, still experience seasonal pattern shifts that mark changes in the overall design. I like considering this, because I find invitations to slow down, relax, and release to be helpful. Many of us feel that “being productive” is how we prove our worthiness, feel deserving of good things, and allow ourselves to rest. Sometimes, without realizing it, we tie how we feel about ourselves with what we accomplish in the world that others can see. It is joyously fun to create and share with others, but needing to always produce something in order to feel good about ourselves is a stumbling block that only creates tension, tiredness, and lack of inspiration. The fall equinox is a soothing reminder that not only are we allowed, but encouraged to relax and let go. And this dropping away of action and busyness is an important part of the overall cycle of fertility and fruiting. We all need periods of quiescence and the replenishment of stillness - the trees, plants, animals, mushrooms, microorganisms…and us. Our nightly sleep is important to our overall health and well-being, and I consider the yinward time of year to be a similar period of rest and rejuvenation. I think approaching the beginning of autumn with an understanding that this begins our special season of inner tending, can help us open to the gifts that the darkness brings. Rather than feeling the lack of the outward, activating, yang, solar energy - we can choose to feel the deep nourishment of peace, beneath the light of the winter stars.
As a forager, the autumnal equinox strikes right in the heart of fall mushroom season. Victor has an uncanny sense of when the mushrooms are popping in the forest. Out of the blue, he will suddenly feel a powerful draw to the woods…and come back with his arms full - of delicious fungi like maitake (Grifola frondosa), honey mushrooms (Armillaria), and chicken of the woods (Laetiporus). We also gather more medicinal mushrooms during this season, such as turkey tail (Trametes versicolor), birch polypore (Piptoporus betulinus), and reishi (Ganoderma tsugae), to dry for use in the nourishing bone broths that warm us from the inside out all winter long.
In the realm of the plants, fall is the final flowering. I like to gather bunches of goldenrod flowers and dry them for tea, or to infuse in honey. Goldenrod (solidago canadensis) is often mistakenly seen as the culprit of fall allergies - when actually it is usually the pollen flying from ragweed. Goldenrod is pollenated by insects, not the wind - and offers astringent properties that assist us in clearing the sneezy, drippy allergic response. For this purpose, I like to pair equal parts Goldenrod and Nettles in a tincture formula.2 I have found that seven drops under my tongue, repeated a few times within a half hour, will consistently soothe an allergic response. In working with this formula over the years, my allergic response to pollen in the air has lessened significantly, to the point of almost disappearing entirely.
I consider the fall equinox to be a holiday. A time when I can call in a new personal cycle and harmonize with the greater whole. It can be a powerful, shared moment in time, when we, together with every particle on the planet, pass through a vortex of shared effect. For an entire cycle of day and night, all of us receive and experience the same ratio of activating yang and nourishing yin. At the apex, a moment the length of a hairs breadth, the gap between cultivating and letting-go is stilled. As I imagine it: the passage of time drops away into the quantum space of pure awareness, and we have a chance to meet together within ancient heart of us all. In the next instant, we flow forward into a new life segment and a new season. The underlying energy momentum shifts and the steps of the dance take a different turn. As the seasons change, finding harmony and alignment with the greater elemental flow can be a homecoming to the dynamism of ourselves and the wild life we live here on earth.
I’d love to hear your plans for the equinox and the fall turning ~ Love, Emma
Yin and Yang are considered opposite yet interrelated forces present in all things. This concept originated in China in the 3rd century BCE, and is present in Chinese philosophy, medicine, and culture.
A tincture is an alcohol extract of a medicine herb. For fresh plants, like goldenrod or nettles, I use the ratio of 1:2 - one part plant to 2 parts alcohol. I use the highest quality spirits I can find. My favorites are organic heirloom WI apple brandy from The Cider Farm, or organic vodka. I typically let my tincture macerate in a sealed mason jar for a few weeks or more, shaking it every day. Once the extract is ready, I strain the liquid from the plant material and bottle for future use. Typically, 1-4oz of tincture will be plenty for a year or two of my family’s needs.
The YINWARD dive!! ;) love these reminders, and the shift I feel that is already underway... also the new harmonies in that Origin recording are 🔥