Nature’s Healing Guide for Autumn Equinox

The autumn equinox is the time of year where the sun lies above the equator, which means there is equal light as there is dark. It’s a time of balance, where the season guides us gently inward, through its colder winds and slowly darkening days. It’s hard to resist the call and pull of our inner life. The fall is about harvest, a time where the seeds planted in the spring show us what has come to fruition. This threshold invites us to pause for a moment and to take stock of all the hard work we have done, and the blessings received. The bounty is plentiful, and we have only to observe and give gratitude.

Autumn Equinox

It is a time where the leaves start falling, as well as when that which no longer serves us can be let go. This can be painful as letting go can look like loss or heartbreak, or even a change in who we are. However, this season gives us the time to rest as we turn inward, to reconnect and return home, as we rebalance and nurture ourselves. The pull inward connects us to our own inner compass of truth, to our subconscious where unknown possibilities lie dormant. The seeds of this journey are what will sprout strong in the spring, and our consciousness will arise with new truths from lessons having been learned.

A Valley of Death and Rebirth

Like the Greek goddess Persephone who spends half of the year in the underworld because of the six pomegranate seeds she ate from Hades, she symbolically eats of her own poison. Her poison is none other than her journey inward in this time of darkness and finding her own medicine. It’s an opportunity to feel, which is where the healing lies, and we can begin our reawakened essence. We are all so used to pushing the pain away, our shadow, our darkness, for fear of not understanding it or being consumed by it.

It’s a natural trauma response to keep pain, shame, and fear at bay. When we are with our feelings, we create spaciousness to feel our wounds. The pomegranate as a flower essence guides us to opening our heart as we travel this inward valley between the inner and outer realms of our soul and body. Her beautiful jewels draw us inward, for the truth can only be found in the seed that lies amidst the chaos and darkness. It takes courage to be with the darkness of our vulnerability, and yet this is where the most transformative work lies.

A Time of Transformation

Nature, the cosmos, myth, and philosophy hold the magic to encompass vast layers of interpretation. The activities and tools we choose to nurture our own self-care hold in them a personal compass of transformation. They connect us to the web of all life and death. When we take the time to go inward, we can listen through our sensitivity to what our soul and body are asking us to rebalance and recalibrate.

In this way, the myth of Persephone reminds us that this is a time of going inward, down into our subconscious. Persephone’s mother, Demeter, is broken-hearted because her daughter has been stolen into the underworld by Hades. She has lost her daughter and her bond is broken, which reminds us of our own loss or broken heart. In Chinese medicine, autumn is affiliated with the lungs and with grief—as with Demeter. It’s a perfect time of year to start supporting the lungs by taking vitamin C, osha, wild cherry bark, or mullein. Infusions, teas, and hot cocoa are welcomed naturally back on the menu, blended with medicinal plants (like rose hips or a hot cocoa) that opens the heart. Our immune system is being cared for as our heart is opening.

Healing Nature

Warm soups and stews, cozy sweaters, routine, slower days… everything is pulling us inward to tend and care for our heart and well-being in preparation for the winter. Our lungs and immune system during this time of year can be nurtured through different medicinal plants. Hecate is the guardian of the crossroads, and elderberry is associated with her as a plant medicine that helps our immune system.

Elderberry as a flower essence represents the elders, the wise, the part in us that is guided by the cosmos and the knowledge deep within that we are all supported. Her meanings are many but are often tied to transformation; regeneration; life, death, and rebirth; endings; and fate. Much like Persephone and the pomegranate, a fruit that is harvested in the fall, Hecate and elderberry remind us that it’s time to go inward and pause. Autumn equinox is a time to journey down into our shadows and learn from our own medicine.