Art & Ritual for Autumn Equinox

Walking the Path of the Ancestral Mothers Scotland

A Gesture of Ritual

How are you feeling as the years begins its descent into the deep? Are you looking forward to shorter days and long nights to dream and perhaps to take more time to send doing things you love?

Or perhaps, like me, you're descending with some grief and uncertainty. As the northern hemisphere descends into the dark I feel the worry of all that’s going on in the world, from war to severe weather due to climate break down.

We nestle into the deep with our own worries and concerns. Sometimes we might feel full of them that there’s no more shoving them down into the dark recesses, as we are over flowing.

At some point there is no more ignoring them. And we might try in the deep - turning on all the lights, binging on Netflix and all the shiny, sparkling options we are offered for our overconsumption of everything.

This time of year is also an invitation to speak to all of this through ritual. To consider the grief we carry.

One ritual I look forward to is preparing for the deep, for we have only arrived on the path that will descent into the dark of the year. Just as the women of the Bear prepared the Cave of the Grandmothers for the great She-Bear’s return and her hibernation, I too prepare for the deep.