Autumnal Equinox is also known as Mabon, Second Harvest, Cornucopia, Wine Harvest, Harvest Home, Winter Finding.
On the Wuruma Wheel, this festival begins the short mild Autumn (Fall) season but as yet has no name of its own.
In Australia in 2010, Autumnal Equinox fell on the 21st of March, at 4.32AM Sydney time. In the Southern Hemisphere it falls when Vernal Equinox is falling in the Northern Hemisphere. (For information on the Southern Wheel and the Wuruma Wheel, click labels at end of post.)
The equinoxes
Around Autumn Equinox in Australia, the shops are filled with Easter bunnies and eggs and the Christians are preparing for Easter services. In other words, it is Vernal Equinox on the paper calendar and Autumnal Equinox on the natural calendar.
This doesn’t confuse me any more. When I became a Neo-pagan and began celebrating the Southern Wheel, it was very confusing to be bombarded by bunnies and eggs at Autumnal Equinox, by “Happy Halloween” messages from Americans at Beltane, by reindeer and Christmas carols at Summer Solstice and so on. Now I’m a bit more in tune with the natural seasons and I don’t find it confusing any more.
Balance
For me the equinoxes are very important because they symbolise the balance in the divine. I follow both the Goddess and the God, not one or the other, giving both equal weight and importance. They are the earth and the seed, without the earth the seed can’t grow, without the seed the earth is barren.
Equinox means “equal night”. At the equinoxes the night is equal to the day, the moon and the sun spend the same amount of time in the sky, the Goddess and the God are equally represented.
That balance is why I am a Neo-pagan so, in their own quiet way, the equinoxes are the most important festivals on my calendar.
Symbolising that balance is the main part of my equinox rituals. I always make sure my altar is carefully balanced with equal amounts and sizes of candles on both sides. This year I also hung a black-and-white disc over it: white on the left half for the Goddess in the waxing phase on the 21st and black on the right for the God as he is in the dark half at Autumnal Equinox.
Wuruma & Southern
On the Australian secular calendar, the official start of Autumn (Fall) is the 1st of March. On the Southern Wheel, Autumnal Equinox is a harvest festival. On the Wuruma Wheel it marks the beginning of Autumn, which is a 2-month period of pleasant and calm weather.
The local (NSW Central Coast) native species do not show many signs of Winter’s approach. It’s still warm during the day and there are plenty of native flowers blooming, including Sweet Wattle (Acacia suaveolens) and the Spotted Gum tree (Corymbia maculata). Long-nosed bandicoot babies are out of the pouch and Brush-tailed possums are having their first litter of the year.
I am still learning about the local native species and, as time goes on, I’m sure I will find the right native species to symbolise the Autumn Equinox. This year I dealt with the lack by deciding to deal with it next time around.
I focussed instead on the Southern Wheel lore as that is clear. I used the moon-and-sun disc and orange candles on my altar and meditated on the balance in the divine.
Ritual
My rituals are not very formal now but always start with making sacred space, acknowledging the traditional owners of the land and stating who I am (where I was born and who my ancestors were).
I don’t attempt to tap into the Aboriginal lore or bring the Aboriginal gods or spirits into my rituals. I tell them I know they exist, I don’t know very much about them and they are quite welcome in my circle. I tell them I follow the archetypal gods of my own ancestors, who are all European, and venerate my ancestors.
I have been asked, by several people, “Why not just use Aboriginal lore?”
My reasons are pretty simple: cultural differences can lead to confusion and irrelevance, a lot of the lore White Australia thinks is Aboriginal is misunderstood, misinterpreted, incomplete, stolen or just plain made up by white people for various reasons. Using what might be inaccurate or fake lore would make me feel foolish and my conscience won’t allow me to use what may be stolen lore.
Instead, I look for the seasonal changes observable by everyone, black and white, and for the universals of religion: the essentials of the deities that are found in most times and places. These include thunder/warrior gods, mother goddesses and other aspects of the divine.
I am still quite sick so my ritual this Autumn Equinox was very brief. I did the meditation beforehand and in the circle just did the opening (above) and called my own ancestors into the circle with me then said a few words about the balance in the divine and sang “We all come…” then opened the circle.
I let the candles go on burning until the wind put them out then brought them inside and went back to bed.
Next turn of the Wheels
The next festival is Samhain (Southern Wheel) on the April/May dark moon, then Wuruma Samhain (Wuruma Wheel) around the 21st of May.
Southern Wheel of the Year
Wuruma Wheel of the Year
Ancestor Veneration
