Runt
Well-Known Member
The Autumnal Equinox, like the Spring Equinox, is a time of equilibrium. Day and night are equally long no matter where one lives on this planet. However, the Autumnal Equinox, in contrast to the Spring Equinox, marks the time when Day begins to give way to Night, Warmth to Cold, and Life to Death. We are reminded that just as all things rise from the ashes of death and grow to full glory, so must all things decline once again back into death.
While the Spring Equinox marks the time before the day begins growing longer than the night, and thus represents the growth and waxing power of the God, the Autumnal Equinox marks the time right before the balance shifts again toward the dominance of night and represents the decline and waning power of the God. The God in His Sun form has shown brightly all year long, nourishing life on this planet, but now is dying and is about to begin his descent into the Underworld. The God in the form of the Harvest has grown steadily for months toward full strength, but now is sacrificing himself for the people, willingly succumbing to death at the hands of mortal harvesters so that we might continue living.
The Autumnal Equinox is also a period of change, or rather a resting period between changes. Thus, it is a time for preparing for change, and a time for thinking about what changes one wants to occur.
The last sabbat, Lughnasadh, marked the actual gathering of the grain harvest. However, the symbolic, sacrificial theme of the harvest is celebrated at the Autumnal Equinox. The Autumnal Equinox, often called Mabon in honor of a Welsh God who descended briefly into the Underworld only to be reborn again in full strength, focuses more heavily on themes of death, the mysteries of the Otherworld or Underworld, and the promise of rebirth than did Lughnasadh.
The Autumnal Equinox is also called the Second Harvest, not because it marks a second grain harvest but because of the strong connection to the grape harvest occurring in various culturesespecially the Greek cultureat that time of year. It is not surprising then that this was the time that Dionysus, sometimes jokingly called the Greek God of wine and drunken revelry, was worshipped.
Unlike many of the other sabbats, the Autumnal Equinox is a holiday that is celebrated in almost every culture rather than simply in the ancient Western European pagan traditions from which modern pagans draw much of our inspiration. For example, the Slavic holiday of Zaziuki was a harvest festival in which the spirit of the harvest was believed to precede reapers and hide in the grain, a willing sacrifice who, upon death, descended into the earth only to return later in the form of the new harvest. This had a similar theme to the ancient Celtic rites, in which the celebrants conducted a mock sacrifice of a large wicker-work figure which represented the vegetation spirit.
Many other holidays, if not directly focused on the Equinox itself, manifested many of the themes found in the Equinox, such as the journey to the Otherworld and the theme of sacrifice. The ancient Greeks celebrated the descent of the hero Theseus into the Labyrinth, where he encountered the Minotaur and received wisdom about the mysteries of the unknown from Princess Ariadne. In Japan the six-day celebration of Higan-e, meaning other shore, is a time of meditation upon the journey from this shore of samsara to the further shore of nirvana, and the six perfections needed to get there. On September 25th the Greek Eleusinian Mysteries were celebrated, and the rituals were clearly associated with the corn harvest.
While the Spring Equinox marks the time before the day begins growing longer than the night, and thus represents the growth and waxing power of the God, the Autumnal Equinox marks the time right before the balance shifts again toward the dominance of night and represents the decline and waning power of the God. The God in His Sun form has shown brightly all year long, nourishing life on this planet, but now is dying and is about to begin his descent into the Underworld. The God in the form of the Harvest has grown steadily for months toward full strength, but now is sacrificing himself for the people, willingly succumbing to death at the hands of mortal harvesters so that we might continue living.
The Autumnal Equinox is also a period of change, or rather a resting period between changes. Thus, it is a time for preparing for change, and a time for thinking about what changes one wants to occur.
The last sabbat, Lughnasadh, marked the actual gathering of the grain harvest. However, the symbolic, sacrificial theme of the harvest is celebrated at the Autumnal Equinox. The Autumnal Equinox, often called Mabon in honor of a Welsh God who descended briefly into the Underworld only to be reborn again in full strength, focuses more heavily on themes of death, the mysteries of the Otherworld or Underworld, and the promise of rebirth than did Lughnasadh.
The Autumnal Equinox is also called the Second Harvest, not because it marks a second grain harvest but because of the strong connection to the grape harvest occurring in various culturesespecially the Greek cultureat that time of year. It is not surprising then that this was the time that Dionysus, sometimes jokingly called the Greek God of wine and drunken revelry, was worshipped.
Unlike many of the other sabbats, the Autumnal Equinox is a holiday that is celebrated in almost every culture rather than simply in the ancient Western European pagan traditions from which modern pagans draw much of our inspiration. For example, the Slavic holiday of Zaziuki was a harvest festival in which the spirit of the harvest was believed to precede reapers and hide in the grain, a willing sacrifice who, upon death, descended into the earth only to return later in the form of the new harvest. This had a similar theme to the ancient Celtic rites, in which the celebrants conducted a mock sacrifice of a large wicker-work figure which represented the vegetation spirit.
Many other holidays, if not directly focused on the Equinox itself, manifested many of the themes found in the Equinox, such as the journey to the Otherworld and the theme of sacrifice. The ancient Greeks celebrated the descent of the hero Theseus into the Labyrinth, where he encountered the Minotaur and received wisdom about the mysteries of the unknown from Princess Ariadne. In Japan the six-day celebration of Higan-e, meaning other shore, is a time of meditation upon the journey from this shore of samsara to the further shore of nirvana, and the six perfections needed to get there. On September 25th the Greek Eleusinian Mysteries were celebrated, and the rituals were clearly associated with the corn harvest.