Autumn Equinox
Season to Thrive …. Pleased to be Alive
By Donna DeNomme, MA, RScP
This is a prime time to take a personal and planetary assessment, sit in conscious contemplation, engage the energies of the natural world, and effectively influence your trajectory moving forward. The Autumn Equinox is a catalyst to up-level. September 22nd at 1:20 pm, as we pass into the new season, letting go of long, hot summer days and moving into the crisper time of Autumn, this is the perfect time to contemplate the equilibrium of day and night, light and shadow, what is and what might be.
As a conscious energy teacher, shamanic healer, and ceremonial leader, I’ve engaged directly with the Equinox for the past thirty years. The results I’ve observed have been remarkable. Taking a bit of time for yourself during the prime window for working with the natural energies of this shift will serve you by rippling forward into the next quarter and the next year. What you place into intention and conscious action now will continue to influence your life for many days to come. It is well worth the effort!
Let’s look at five key points:
First, Review. This is the Harvest, a powerful time to honor yourself for what you have experienced and what you have accomplished over the past three months or even the past year.
- Set a special place in a way that’s meaningful to you; perhaps, lighting a white candle and gazing at the flame or simply sitting in your coziest chair with a favorite cup of tea.
- Take at least ten minutes in contemplation with your journal and record the highlights of the past quarter. No need to write an essay with attention to form or grammar. Jot a list or whatever works for you. You are focusing on the energy of what you’ve lived.
- Pause and honor each experience. Note what you are grateful for in what transpired. Note what you might choose to do differently moving forward.
- Pause and honor how you showed up. Note how you are grateful for yourself.
- The Autumn Equinox is prime time to acknowledge your emotional work and ways you have grown. Record thoughts around this.
- This is a time for celebration and thanksgiving, so even regarding the most challenging situations, find what was useful and hold a positive lens. There is meaning and purpose in all of our experiences, even the most challenging.
- As you take a look back, reflect as an impartial observer. Coming from a place of neutrality, open to the highest awareness as you ask, “What was I trying to learn?” or “What was the opportunity in that situation?” “How can I grow from having had that experience?” Record your thoughts with an acute receptiveness, willing and able to understand the meaning and purpose of all you’ve encountered during this time, so you might highlight and reinforce your lessons.
- Recognize and reaffirm that life is happening for you, not against you. All you do is, ultimately, perfect for your growth.
#2 is about the Shedding or Release of what no longer serves you. The leaves are beginning to change and will drop from the trees, and you, too, can purge what has lived its time, served its purpose, or no longer serves you. Harvest the energy of you, as you let go of what may be weighing you down and draw forward the best and the highest.
- Sit down with your journal again or simply contemplate the idea of shedding excess weight.
- Assess what you are taking into your mind and choose what you may need to let go of – is there an influence that is causing static or toxicity on a mental level?
- Assess and consider what you are putting into your body. Make a commitment to minimize what depletes you and maximize what supports you.
- Consider clearing your environmental field of what no longer serves you or contributes to your life. Objects, situations, even individuals. Recognize what is a mismatch for you, what is not harmonious to you and what causes static or even toxicity. Now please note that sometimes people challenge us with different opinions or other perspectives and we may need that to grow. This is not about all being the same. The point is to clear what is truly destructive from your life, so your personal vibration can be enhanced as it rises.
- And before you make a broad sweep to “clean house,” entertain the idea that you may need to “let go” of your approach, reaction, or way of dealing with certain people, certain situations. It may be your own reaction that is destructive or toxic.
- Select and work with an appropriate crystal to help you with this clearing process. I suggest you consider black tourmaline or obsidian, citrine, selenite, adventurine, or amethyst. Of course, the best way to look for a crystal is to browse a good shop (like For Heaven’s Sake) and see what you resonate with for this purpose.
#3 As close to the Autumn Equinox as possible, ideally within two days prior or two days after, get in Nature!!!
- Go to a special place in nature or discover a new place. When weather, time or circumstance won’t allow you to do so, think about the natural spots you’ve been to or look at the pictures you’ve taken on vacations and focus on gratitude for the natural world.
- As you contemplate the abundance of the stars in the night sky or the strong waves in the ocean surf, the richness of the warm red rocks in the noonday sun or the eagle’s call from high above, contemplate your own richness. In what ways have you been abundant? Love? Money? Contentment? What do you want to keep? How can you enhance or draw in newness in this area? Keep it simple. Narrow it down to one focal point.
- Filter out and neutralize any thoughts of not being good enough or not deserving, so you might let go of fear-based living and embrace expecting and accepting the goodness coming your way
- Realize your gifts and amplify them. Strive to become the best version of yourself.
- Give yourself permission to be happy
- Open to receive the many gifts that are available to you in this coming quarter. Record your intentions … but leave an open space. The Universe often gifts us even more than we can imagine!
#4 What needs to shift? Where do you need healing? You may already know, or you might need to let this one simmer for a few hours.
- Trust yourself. This is not about how someone else thinks you need to change!
- On the other hand, this is not about defensiveness either. Be honest with yourself. Your honesty can be the greatest gift.
- Engage your intuition and see what surfaces. Ask, “What do I need to shift?” “How do I need to heal?”
- You can sit with your back leaning against a tree trunk and ask the tree to help you clear through her roots and teach you how to be nourished from the energy of the earth beneath you. Trust me. This one can be powerful.
- Call forth what you need to heal.
#5 Remember your words are powerful and your steps are creative. So make them conscious; make them purposeful.
- Notice what you say and do. Now that may sound silly, but many of us are sleepwalking through life, not really very aware of what we’re doing or how that is impacting the world around us.
- Turn up the volume on your awareness! Notice in the moment if something you really didn’t mean escapes your mouth. Reel it back in or neutralize its sting. Practice saying what you mean and meaning what you say.
- Be purposeful in the choices you make regarding your time, your focus, your way of being. Recognize that you have power to impact those around you.
- Micro-shifts can create great change. Realizing you are drifting off when a friend confides in you and asking her to repeat what she just said or to clarify what you heard can be a strong message to your friend, yourself, and the forces of life itself. These small acts create ripples that move far beyond the moment they occur in.
- Choose kindness in every situation. Try to understand others and be compassionate when someone makes a mistake (even you.)
What you put out there, really does return to you, so be aware of the seeds you plant. We’ll look at that concept more fully during the Spring Equinox! Until then, be gentle with yourself. You are a work in process … a grand masterpiece being illustrated through time. Let this Autumn Equinox provide purposeful and powerful strokes of depth and hue, bringing forth the very best of this time.
Many blessings to you and yours,
Donna
Donna DeNomme is a conscious energy teacher, shamanic healer, and ceremonial facilitator. As a Master Success Coach, Donna has assisted clients since 1987 and was voted Colorado’s “Spiritual Health Guru” by the prestigious 5280 magazine for her innovative healing practices.
Donna offers psychic readings and empowerment sessions through For Heaven’s Sake. She is the award-winning, internationally published author of Turtle Wisdom: Coming Home to Yourself (series), Ophelia’s Oracle, 8 Keys to Wholeness, and As You Feel, So You Heal: A Write of Passage available at For Heaven’s Sake bookstore.