Autumn has always been my favorite season.  As a child it meant apple picking, apple cider doughnuts, and pumpkins!  Pumpkin selecting, pumpkin carving, pumpkin seeds, and pumpkin pie.  Every year we made a little trek into "the country" to pick out our pumpkins at a farm stand.  We hauled them home to the suburbs for all the ways we enjoyed them.  It was looked forward to, even as teens, and served as a sure sign of the season.

While there's plenty of country, farms, and farm stands to be found in Washington, Little N and I are urban dwellers these days.  And kiddo doesn't take much delight in long drives to unfamiliar places with unfamiliar people, sounds, and smells.  So we took the city-dwellers' approach and I picked up a couple of orange beauties at the grocery store next door to our apartment.  We invited a friend over and commenced carving.  

Little N wanted a "happy" pumpkin, so Miss A delighted him by carving exactly what he had drawn for her.  I went for a spookier approach, which also allows allows a lot of candle light to shine through, and cut a cyclops from my pumpkin.  Kiddo does not like my creepy monster and sequesters it to a different part of our deck, away from his happy creation. 

From a Pagan perspective this season, like each season, holds sacred meaning.  By now we've noticed the days getting shorter, the darkness enfolding us, and in Seattle the cold and rain have started.  We inhabit more time indoors.  We reach for creature comforts of hot beverages and hardy foods.  We are embracing the darkness as best we can and listening for the messages it offers.  It's a time for composting that which doesn't serve us, as well as the dreams that have not come to fruition in the time we granted them.  New life will be cultivated from their detritus in another season.  It's a time for giving thanks for what we have received and that which we have learned.  Our lives are stronger and more vibrant for these things.  It's a time for drawing near to the folks we love.  We are all connected.  

Little N doesn't really understand seasons yet.  He is puzzled by our dark mornings as I rustle him up for school.  He plays out on the deck in dark evenings within the glow of the overhead lights.  I don't know if that's due to being a child who hasn't seen as many seasons change as I have, or if it's related to his Autism and not perceiving sequences.  I'm hopeful that his comprehension and appreciation will develop as he grows up.  To that end, I have the job and the joy of sharing what I perceive in each season.  I'm trying to become more intentional in my parenting around this topic and Autumn calls me to it more than any other season.  I string little twinkle lights up in our apartment to warm the darkness of our evenings.  I make a place on my altar to host the photos of our Beloved Dead, his grandfathers.  They have a special place in our hearts and minds at this time of year (more on that and Samhain coming soon).

I want Little N to perceive the turning of our little blue planet in our solar system, in our galaxy, in our universe!  Our lives are tiny, precious, and changing with our own seasons in this magnificent space.  We humans are all connected to each other in various ways and I wonder how to teach him about that as well.  I want Little N to experience connection to traditions I grew up with as a link to a family he is part of, a family that loves him, but who he barely knows, rarely sees.  I want Little N to be familiar with the emotional and material meanings of entering the dark.  We needn't fear or dread the darkness.  We can work with and within this season.  I want Little N to deeply know all of these things and have fun living with it!

So I drag home the pumpkins from the grocery store.  We carve them and giggle over the slimy orange goo we pull out of them.  We light them and watch the candlelight flicker inside of them.  I plug in the twinkle lights.  I make room on my altar for the grandfathers.  And I try to draw Little N's little-boy-attention to the darkness and what it can offer.  

On Sunday afternoon my Pagan circle celebrated Mabon, the holiday of the Autumn Equinox.  Mabon is the second harvest festival we recognize, this one for later crops like squash and apples.  We gathered to give thanks for the light that has sustained us and the bounty of the land, and to prepare ourselves for the coming darkness and cold.  Already we observe darker evenings and cooler temperatures. 

This new season we are entering is referred to as the time of the Dark Mother.  She is the Crone aspect of the Triple Goddess. Marked by her sickle and scythe, she comes to reap what has been sown, in the land and in our lives.  She has many names in many cultures including: Demeter, Inanna, Kali, Tiamet, Hecate, Nemesis, and Morrighan. 

The story of Demeter and Persephone is particularly relevant to Mabon.  Demeter, the goddess of grain and harvest, loses her lovely daughter Persephone to Hades, the god of the underworld.  Either abducted or perhaps descending voluntarily, Persephone is resigned to six months of each year with Hades.  Demeter grieves the absence of her daughter and the land is barren.  That change, from lush to loss, begins at Mabon.

For our ritual, we decorated the altar with garden fresh vegetables and fruit.  Bright Mums and Oak leaves stood out in a vase.  We crafted candle holders from apples and placed them on the altar to note the four directions and god and goddess at the center.  Our meditation focused on seasons of our lives – which season are you entering and how are you preparing for it?  We used a Talking Circle to shape the individual sharing and later group discussion around our altar. 

I’m entering a season of partner-less among the partnered.  Now, more than ever, I feel like our culture places heavy expectations on us to have a partner.  The expectation peppers our popular culture in music, television programs, and even commercials. The love-interest.  The love unrequited.  The love lost. 

I started dating when I was 13, and while interspersed with solo phases, have usually had a partner or some love interest in my little sphere.  Even in those times when there wasn’t a partner, and they were good for me once I adjusted to them, I assumed that there would be again.  I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve drawn some (a lot?) of my sense of worth from being partnered and possessing partner potential.  Not so these days.  Who wants to date an overweight, 40-year old, divorced mother of a child with special needs?  The culture tells me the options aren’t good.  So I look ahead and assume a long season of singleness.  A season of belonging to myself.  I’ve grown to like the idea.  I’m choosing how to live in that season and claim it as my own.

I think it starts with treating myself as I would a good friend, in my thoughts, words, and actions.  I tend my close friendships with time together, authenticity, listening, fun, sharing, patience… and so I will treat myself.  It means developing personal practices for my body, mind, and spirit.  It includes returning to my dreams for 2014: improved health and weight loss, feeling and expressing my emotions in healthy ways, hosting mini-retreats for women, cultivating a good divorce and co-parenting, and returning to my creativity – especially writing.   It stretches to imagine new dreams of confidence, good work, and community. 

So where I previously experienced loss and confusion, facing this season of living partner-less, I now feel excitement and anticipation.  I am a true companion to myself.  Composting the distractions, lies, and cultural hubbub, to tend something true, vibrant, and vitally my own.  This is my season.

***

Note – The Fall Equinox has only recently been named Mabon.  It received the name in the 1970s from Aidan Kelley as he wrote Crafting the Art of Magic.  He deemed it a useful tool in helping modern Pagans to conceptualize Pagan religious ceremonies.  This is interesting to me because it speaks to how contemporary Paganism is both an old religion of ancient myths and symbolism and a young religion that is still being created.  I think about that seeming dichotomy a lot as I imagine all the little circles around the country, or around the world, gathering and recognizing the symbols and seasons of the year in their own unique ways, borrowing from the past and infusing it with their own personalities, creativity, and desires.  I appreciate the malleability and personalization of this religion because it allows each person to honor Spirit in his or her life in his or her own ways. 

ready and waiting for my guests

they're here!

10 of us gathered and played with 13 decks of Tarot and Oracle cards

how auspicious!  
I drew "Risk" 
the 40th card of an Oracle deck
on my 40th birthday

delightful devoured food and drink
(1 piece of cake remains for Little N)

birthday flowers all around

such a lovely little party we all enjoyed!
we sat in a circle in my snug living room and everyone was included
stories shared, connections made, new friendships formed
I am so happy

My last day at the company where I have worked for 7 years.  

Bittersweet farewell to friends & coworkers. 

the drawers are cleaned out and ready for the next occupant

the boxes are packed to be hauled home

the plants will soon be loaded into my car

and I am ready to close this chapter and start anew!

4 days left in my current office… 

The Beloved Therapist loves elephants.  She has a drawing of one framed and hanging on a wall in her office.  I once referred to it as the "elephant in the room."  She startled and paused.  "I never thought of it that way before."  

This morning she told me that today is World Elephant Day.  It's an effort to raise awareness and protection of this species and what elephants mean to so many people. From the World Elephant Day website:

"We admire elephants in part because they demonstrate what we consider the finest human traits: empathy, self-awareness, and social intelligence. But the way we treat them puts on display the very worst of human behavior.”
- Graydon Carter, Editor of Vanity Fair

In honor of the elephants of the world, the Beloved Therapist, and my good work with her, I'm posting this gorgeous Ganesha.  

Ganesha is, originally, a Hindu god worshiped in India, but his acclaim has also been found among Jainists and Buddhists elsewhere.  He is a multi-faceted god of: beginnings, arts, sciences, intellect, wisdom, letters, and learning.  He is the "lord of success" and the "destroyer of evil and obstacles."  His image illustrates messages of wisdom. 

This is what my fresh start looks like.  

I still have a lot of big emotions.  I still feel stuck.  I think it comes from all the changes this path of divorce and single parenting requires.  Changes that I don't always feel in control of or like I'm directing.  Emotions like loss and anxiety.  A stuckness about being in limbo, between married and divorced, and not knowing what the future will be for me and Little N.  Emotions that tend to flood me and wash me off of my chosen course.  

And it's all ok.  I'm learning that I can feel big emotions and take care of myself at the same time.  Taking care of myself maybe the only realm I really have control of right now.  And taking care of myself is good for both me and Little N.  The better I get at feeling my big emotions while continuing to take good care of myself, the more full, real, and healthy I will be for today and for the future we grow into.  

So it's good work that I want to continue.  Good work that is still important to me, despite (or proven by) a two-week setback.     

A few of my favorite photos from last night's potluck.  
Baby-time was enjoyed by all and Little N got some kitty-cat love.