Creating in Gold - Autumnal Paradox

"THIS MONTH, NOW, HAS TWO FACES. YOUTH AND AGE DANCE TOGETHER."

Under a September full moon these past few nights, the duality of autumn’s energy has become apparent. Even as I think about the glorious release and white-light cleansing bath of the perfectly round moon, I am reminded about what remains.

We are also called to match our vibrations with things that grow ever green, season-less and enduring. This is a month to begin appreciating the warm, mature hues of reddening maples and at the same moment marvel at the fern captured in amber, preserved forever in a fan of youth.

Comings and Goings

This week, I attended the visitation for a beautiful and vibrant young woman taken too soon. In the midst of darkness, there was light. In the hospital, I felt sadness from her soul. Beside her casket, I sensed only joy. As tears – our holy water of devotion – flowed around her, a golden-white light of joy beamed above her casket. She had come full circle, this lovely woman, who parted from us in a season when it seems that spring will last forever, until the morning that it’s gone.

September 23rd is the one-year anniversary of the passing into Light of our sweet dog-child Oscar. His beautiful body has gone a year from the Earth, even though one day his sacred ashes will be returned to her bosom. His gentle companionship and soft touch at my side is missing, but our love and beautiful memories endure.

Even so, even now, Oscar is more than memories. He changed the people he brushed against in life, leaving Oscar-shaped spaces filled with his echoes and imprinted with his nature. He is both a legacy and a continuation, my beloved dog who, like each of us, dances to the turns of the wheel, burrowing and flying, going out and coming in – all at once.

"YOU ARE ON THIS EARTH TO THRIVE, FLOURISH, AND BLOOM..."

Burgeoning and Receding

A psychic medium, I did a card reading for September, throwing a little late summer light across the page for my clients. The cards could have been turned over for the Spring Equinox with their pictures of mossy green stones and lush climbing roses. It was a message that this month, now, has two faces. Youth and age dance together.

“Our Angel card shows that the full fruits of creation are offered this season. Keeping the faith, holding positive visions, and believing our collective efforts make a difference - these are like water for the orchards of our manifesting. As we approach Autumn, the time of bringing in the sheaves and being thankful for an abundant harvest, keep your dreams of abundance in sight.”

As the tree outside my library window began to blush faintly with coral and peach, and squirrels filled their larders for winter, the Angels spoke of flowers opening. “You are on this Earth, in this place now, to thrive, flourish, and bloom with the unselfconscious beauty of lilies of the field. Open your arms with joy, and claim your share of all good things.”

The Lovely Paradox

As we approach the time of battening hatches, laying in wood for the fire, and gathering in the fruitful harvest that’s ripened under the summer sun, we sit and think of people and places long past, prepare for the blanketed quiet of winter. We celebrate our successes, completions, and acquisitions. We gather close about ourselves and our loved ones the warm wrappings of accomplished goals and full pantries.

And yet, for those who partake of Bear Medicine, the storing away for winter’s hibernation is like an artist replenishing his pigments, laying in a stock of new canvases, and polishing the windows that will let in the pale cold light. Autumn colors are the harbinger of great plans being laid, new dreams begun, thick-husked seeds being buried in the good soil that ultimately will breach all barriers.

Creation happens in every season, but all the more poignantly when seen and felt against a backdrop of endings. But what really ends that is remembered forever? The crimson glory of a September maple grove may fire a lifetime of inspiration. The whispers of falling leaves and clattering of acorns on stones are as much a song of promise as a lyric of farewells.

Picking up the threads of a book I began to write four years ago, planning a course on crystals and minerals for my November students, thinking already of next year’s gardens, I know what I’m beginning to gestate in my autumnal womb of creation. I have a glimpse of what I will have made, to be revealed when I throw open the curtains upon the first spring day.

And so, my friends, as you rake the leaves and prune back the roses, think not only of what is passing but of what is being born. Allow yourselves the first imaginings of newness, now when you approach a season of early dark and indoor hours, when time and space are provided for experiments and dreams. Autumn blessings to you all!