I love the fall – chilly weather, cashmere sweaters, pumpkin spice lattes, my birthday, bugs have returned to hell where they belong and we have the fall equinox! The fall equinox September 22, 2018, has been celebrated since the time of the Egyptians who built the great Sphinx to point towards the sun on this special day. While many of us have moved away from celebrating this time like our ancestors, it is an important time of balance. During this time of equal parts of sun and moon, we are being asked to find the balance happening in our exterior world, and also what is occurring within ourselves. Knowing that the duality of light and dark exists in us, the equinox calls us to discover a balance between the two. After the great light of summer, we must learn to welcome the depth and the mystery of fall.

The autumnal equinox is the time when the sun makes its golden path across the equator from North to South, and it is this occurrence that causes our day and our night to be equal. The word equinox comes from the Latin, aequi, meaning “equal,” and nox meaning “night.”

At the spring equinox, we were asked to plant seeds, both literally and figuratively, for what we want to reap in the autumn. Now is the time to contemplate and see if we have tended those seeds. Are we able to reap what we have sown with bounty and fruitfulness? Or have we neglected those seeds and are we now looking at how we can make amends?

Although it can be disappointing if we realize the latter is true, equinox makes it easy for us to once again plant the seeds of desire so that they may flourish in the coming months. Because the equinox isn’t only about balance, but also about endings that have to occur to make way for new beginnings. This is actually a wonderful time to start something new, whether it’s a job, educational pursuit, creative endeavor, project or even a relationship. During the coming months we will have long nights and quiet moments with which to nurture these new beginnings so that, come spring, they can bloom radiantly.

While many often see spring as a time of new beginnings, there is something even more extraordinary about starting something new in the fall. It is during this season and the coming winter that we have more time to concentrate and give our hearts to whatever we want to see grow and strengthen over the coming months. I find that there is beauty in new beginnings that start quietly under the darkness of colder months.

So while we are all searching for that balance in our own lives, know that it is never too late to plant new seeds. Because life is a circle, and nothing can truly grow unless it first dies. This doesn’t mean complete and utter endings, but embracing the evolution of change within our hearts, our lives and us. It’s letting go of old ways of thinking and living. It’s reassessing the way in which we look at life so that we can feel free to take on new approaches that would better serve our highest self and the life that we want.
Nothing stays the same forever, what comes next is often times better than we can possibly imagine.

Celebrate the equinox by heading out to the desert or out into the woods for a warming bonfire. I am traveling to Mount Shasta, California with my friends Laurel and Tim. We are using this equinox as the opening of a portal to the next stage of our lives. Join us as we raise a glass, build a fire, write a list of all that we have been blessed with, burn words we would like to let go of, and finally, cleanse with hot Epsom salt baths, a grounding earth element which has a strong quality of cohesion. At this sacred celestial time connect the dark and light; the yin and the yang; the masculine and feminine, because if we allow it, life can truly begin all over again in the fall.