The Fall Equinox (2026)
There is a moment each year when Mother Earth pauses between the light & the darkness … That sacred moment is the Fall Equinox.
Day & night stand together in balance, each given equal space in the great turning of the Earth. It is a reminder that life is not meant to remain in one season forever. The leaves must change. The harvest must come. The light begins its gradual journey inward, inviting us to do the same.
For many Indigenous traditions, the changing of the seasons is not simply something that happens around us. It is something we participate in. We are part of the Earth, not separate from her. When she changes, something within us is also being invited to change.
The Fall Equinox asks us to become quiet enough to listen.
A Time of Harvest
Autumn carries the medicine of the harvest.
The seeds that were planted months ago have grown, flowered, & offered their gifts. The Earth gives back what was entrusted to her, reminding us of the sacred relationship between seed, soil, water, sunlight, & human hands.
We can also look at our own lives as a garden ...
What have we planted?
What has grown?
What has nourished us?
What is ready to be gathered?
There are seasons when our work is to plant seeds, seasons when we must tend them carefully, & seasons when we are called to harvest what has grown. But there is also a time when we must recognize what did not grow & allow ourselves to release it.
Not every seed becomes a tree. Not every dream unfolds in the way we imagined. This does not mean that the planting was wasted … Every experience teaches us something about the soil of our lives.
The Wisdom of Letting Go
Watch the trees in autumn. They do not struggle to hold onto every leaf. They understand when it is time to release. The leaf has completed its work. It has received sunlight. It has participated in the life of the tree, & when its season is finished, it returns to the Earth.
There is great wisdom in this.
Sometimes we hold onto old stories, old pain, old expectations, relationships, identities, or ways of being simply because they have been familiar to us. But the Earth teaches us that releasing is not the same as losing.
Sometimes release is an act of love. We make room for what is coming next.
The trees show us that letting go can be beautiful.
Walking Between Light & Darkness
The Equinox brings us into balance between light & darkness.
We often speak of light as something good & darkness as something to fear. But the Earth does not reject either one.
The darkness is where seeds rest.
The darkness is where roots grow.
The darkness is where transformation begins before it can be seen.
We need both. There are parts of ourselves that become visible in the light, & there are parts that can only be understood in the quiet darkness.
Balance does not mean that every moment of life feels equal. Balance means learning how to honor all of it ...
The joy.
The sorrow.
The beginnings.
The endings.
The known.
The unknown.
The light.
The darkness.
All of these are part of the great medicine of being alive.
Returning to the Heart
As the outer world begins to quiet, autumn gives us an invitation to return to the heart.
This season is a time to simplify.
To spend more time outdoors.
To place our hands upon the Earth.
To gather seeds.
To prepare nourishing foods.
To light a candle in the evening.
To sit quietly & listen.
The ancestors understood that the changing seasons offered an opportunity to reconnect with the sacred rhythms of life. We do not need to rush through these transitions.
There is wisdom in slowing down, wisdom in listening, & wisdom in remembering that we belong to something much greater than ourselves.
What Are We Carrying Forward?
At this Equinox, I invite you to look honestly at the garden of your life ...
Give thanks for what has blossomed.
Give thanks for what has nourished you.
Give thanks even for the things that challenged you, because they may have placed roots deeper into the Earth.
Then ask yourself:
What am I ready to release?
What am I ready to harvest?
What seeds do I want to carry into the next season?
We cannot carry everything with us. The new season will ask us to travel lighter.
Let the Earth teach you how.
Let the leaves teach you how.
Let the changing light teach you how.
And above all, let the heart remember that every ending contains the beginning of something we cannot yet see.
A Blessing for the Equinox
May we walk gently upon the Earth.
May we honor the changing of the seasons within ourselves.
May we have courage to release what has completed its purpose.
May we gather the wisdom of what has grown.
May we protect the seeds of what is yet to come.
May we find balance between the light & the darkness.
May our hearts remain open through every season.
And may we remember that we are never separate from Mother Earth.
We are her children.
We are her keepers.
We are part of her great unfolding.
On this Fall Equinox, may we give thanks for the harvest, surrender what is ready to fall away, & step peacefully into the next turning of the wheel.
~ Blessings!
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