Skip to content
Blessings Ritual Readers!
Cosmic Lady Six here to give you a ritual and tarot spread for this years Autumn Equinox!
On Saturday September 22nd we will celebrate our Autumn Equinox as well as the Sun making its way into the Cardinal Air sign of Libra at 6:55 PM PST and 9:55 PM EST.
The pagan holiday that is celebrated during this time is called Mabon. Mabon was celebrated in ancient times to give thanks and celebrate the second harvest of food for the year.
This time also marks the in between period between Summer and Winter where we are acknowledging both the balance between the light and the dark, the inner and the outer worlds.
Libra represents harmony and balance and rules the 7th house of the zodiac. The 7th house represents relationships, whether romantic, or friendship, or business partnership. We tend to associate the 7th house primarily with romantic relationships as its planetary ruler is Venus.
Besides harmony and love, Libra also represents justice and balance. Keeping the scales even. Our balance between light and dark is a part of this balance and Libra season beginning at the Autumn Equinox helps us to focus on keeping that balance within.
We can look at “light and dark” in literal terms as we move from longer days of sunshine into longer nights with Winter approaching, but we can also look at the symbolic significance of the light and dark in a spiritual sense. Light representing our outer expression and activity in the world, and dark representing our inner expression and retreat from the world.
When we reach the Autumn Equinox, and Libra season, we are smack dab in the middle of this time, and a lot of us begin to feel seasonal depression creep in. We feel slow, and sluggish, while also feeling the need to capture the energy we had maybe at the end of Spring or beginning of Summer. The year is coming to a close and we may feel the need to grasp onto the self we feel we are moving away from.
Some of us welcome change, and are ok logically with the idea of moving into a new self, but not all of us know how to use the Winter period in a constructive way. So although we can recognize this is a time to accept change, our ideas of wanting to maintain momentum and the same sense of self interfere with the cyclic nature of Winter, which is a time for letting go. It gets darker out, colder out, and slower. We begin to want to eat comfort foods and nest in our cocoon. For some this is a time when weight gain and over sleeping is inevitable. And this alone can cause depression or like we are not keeping up with our momentum we had from Summer.
In Ayurvedic health, moving with the seasons is acknowledged as something we must do to stay healthy. Our diet should change with the seasons, as well as our habits. To put a heavy expectation on ourselves that we need to stay in the same consistent routine year round is unrealistic to the way the natural process of things in this planet takes place. Nothing stays the same forever, and acknowledging this balance as a part of the cycle is crucial to living a fulfilling life.
In following the celestial energies of the planets, we also can see what energy is helping or hurting us throughout the year and decipher between whether we should be nurturing ourselves or pushing ourselves.
Following shortly after the equinox, we will have a full moon in Aries on Monday September 24th at 7:52 PM PST and 10:52 PM EST.
Aries energy is the opposite in the zodiac to Libra. Aries also is the first sign of the zodiac that represents the activation of all life, and Springtime. Aries season begins at the end of March and is the astrological new year.
If we can look at this polarity happening celestially at this time of year, we can see that there is a balance already taking place. Aries represents the activation and birth of the self, where Libra represents that self joining with another to celebrate life and love and to achieve balance with another.
We can see that Spring and Summer tend to be times of the year that are very self focused, we are setting goals, going on trips, taking time off, indulging in what we want to do. When Fall and Winter come we are beginning to enter a period where all of our holidays begin to be focused around other people or giving thanks to the world around us. School is back in and we are applying ourselves to learning something that we can do to benefit the world or others at some point, and we also begin to feel like we are letting go of things in our life that may not be serving us any more.
Although Libra is the peacekeeper, it also rules the 3 of Swords in the Tarot which is the card of conflict and heartbreak. The 3 of Swords has been a great teacher card in my life, as I have seen it come up in a myriad of circumstances.
The lesson I have learned from this card and energy is that sometimes the only way to achieve true justice or harmony is through conflict.
It is a typical Libra trait to avoid conflict in fear of disrupting harmony. But a lot of times for Libra, this avoidance ends up causing more conflict in the long run.
A lot of Libra dominant people ( meaning if you have a lot of Libra in your Natal Chart) have a difficult time understanding why their love and peacekeeping ways have caused so many failed relationships and friendships.
The reason for this is that Libra will avoid talking about things or making decisions. Which is sometimes just as disruptful as disagreeing or speaking your mind truthfully. What we learn in Libra is how to have fair and honest communication.
We learn that through conflict, and speaking our truth to those we love, we actually in turn create more balance, and through learning how to hear someones opposing views and validate them we are able to see all sides and find validity in their truth as well.
Venus being the ruler of Libra, and Mars being the ruler of Aries, we can see how these energies being opposite of each other can bring a lot to the table. Love, harmony, feminine intuition, with Venus and masculine assertive, direct, and action oriented energy with Mars.
We possess all of these qualities within us regardless of our physical gender, and learning how to see the benefit of these energies and create a balance within is key.
With Venus in Scorpio over the rest of the year and going retrograde, we will be asked to focus on the Venusian aspects of ourselves and how our past, or deep self is processing how we give and receive love.
In this Autumn Equinox, we want to stop and pause, and take time to be grateful for this journey. To see what the darkness of Winter has to offer us on a deeper level. For those who rejoice in the Darkness, we may need to work on keeping some light aspects to balance us out and not throwing the baby out with the bath water. For those still clinging onto Summer, your lesson may be in letting go and learning to focus more on having gratitude, rather than holding on to the past.
Autumn Equinox
Sun in Libra Tarot Spread
Card 1: Energy of Libra in my life
Card 2: The light in my life
Card 3: The dark in my life
Card 4: How I can achieve balance in my life
Card 5: What I have to be grateful for
Card 6: What part of my life am I putting too much focus in
Card 7: What part of my life I need to put more focus in
Card 8:How to honor this next cycle
Mabon Ritual
Supplies:
Black Candle - represents the dark/ inner
White Candle - represents the light/outer
Orange or Yellow spell candles - represents Autumn and the harvest, abundance and bounty.
Frankincense or Sandalwood Incense
Citrine and or Tigers eye crystals
Labradorite and Clear Quartz
Copper offering- can use pennies
Apples
Blackberries or Blackberry juice for chalice - or you can substitute wine if you prefer
Nuts for an offering
Tarot Cards
Journal or Paper for writing
Rosemary Basil and Thyme for rolling spell candles in
Juniper for garnish on Altar
Step 1:
Set up Altar and cut apples. You will want to have an apple showing the star on the inside so you cut the apple horizontally rather than vertically. You also will want to hollow out some apples to put your spell candles in.
Make sure to roll your spell candles in the herbs you have chosen for your ritual. You can also place herbs in your apple and candle holders.
You can put the orange or yellow candle in the apple and the black and white candles in regular candle holders. You can sage your space before beginning, and also light all of your candles and incense.
Step 2:
Open your circle and use Demeter, Ceres, Brigid, or Cerridwyn as your Goddess for the harvest if you are sticking with traditional pagan goddesses.
Step 3:
Do tarot spread included with this ritual and record your reading, reflect on how you can achieve more balance in your life and include some of these key points in your gratitude list that you will write in the next step.
Step 4:
Write a list of everything in your life you are grateful for. When you are done read this list aloud and thank your spirit guides and the cosmos for blessing these things into your life. This is not a time to ask for more, but to be thankful and honor what you have acquired in your life thus far. Place your gratitude list under your orange or yellow spell candle.
Step 5:
You may do a meditation and drink your juice/wine and eat your food after the main part of the ritual and meditation.
Use this time to reflect on everything in your life you are grateful for.
Step 6:
When you feel full and content close your circle and thank your guides once again.
The Autumn Equinox in ancient times was a time for celebration and sharing your abundance with your neighbor.
Do this ritual with friends or loved ones and focus on gratitude and abundance.
There is always more we could be doing or obtaining, but we need to stop and pause and be grateful for it all now just the way that it is.
I hope you all enjoy this seasons blessing, and I wish you all a bountiful rest of your year!
Analisa Six
Analisa Six is an intuitive Tarot reader and Astrologer. She lives in Oakland, CA with her husband and two dogs. You can follow her on IG @cosmicladysix and check out her wide range of services at cosmicladysix.com
