Fall Harvest and Cleaning

By Stephanie M.

The crossroads in life will always make you choose to go the easy or hard route, but there nothing wrong with standing betwixt them both and reflecting for a moment. For it is never where you'll be afterwards, but when will you make it happen.

We have now passed the Autumnal Equinox which is the first official day of fall. It is the time of harvest. Sometimes the harvest is literal—bringing in vegetables, corn, etc. from home gardens and gathering herbs for drying for use. But sometimes the harvest is figurative- bringing projects into fruition or getting your house and household ready for the colder months. It is a time of contemplation before the dark of winter. Everyone talks about spring cleaning, but I think that maybe a better time to clear out the things that you don’t need is in the fall. This makes time and space for new projects, new growth, and new excitement in the springtime.

This would include spiritual cleansing as well as physical. Looking at the past year and letting go of emotions that you don’t want to take into the dark months. Because isn’t it better to have what light you can in your life when the night comes earlier and earlier? Negativity, hate, sorrow. All of these can be disposed of and let go at this time of year.

Something that you might do is light a candle. Visualize those negative emotions going into that candle and being turned into a light that you will take into the new year. Or incense—having that negativity turned into smoke and be blown away in the wind. Or a stone that can hold all of those feelings and then be buried away from your property to allow for them to be cleansed and transformed over the course of the winter.

As the days become shorter, it is easier to let the darkness within take hold as well. But if you take the time to transform the internal darkness into light then, when the Sun is reborn at the Winter Solstice, you will be ready to help grow the light into the coming New Year.