Harvesting Hope

Photo by Neven Krcmarek via Unsplash

Tomorrow starts Mabon and the Autumn equinox on the pagan wheel of the year. It’s traditionally a time to honour the harvest, offer spiritual sacrifice and is a thanksgiving celebration of survival. In these challenging pandemic times, this ritual opportunity to prepare for winter and darkening days, takes on even more poignancy. It’s a week to gather all our magic resources in abundance, reflect on our bounty, be grateful for blessings reaped, pick and preserve for the shift in season and embrace nature. In the northern hemisphere there’s a chill in the Fall air, crisp and cool, leafy underfoot. Here in Singapore no leaves fall, yet we can still find a way to mark it with rites of rich mellow fruitfulness.

For right now we’ve harmonious balance between the light and dark. Time is equally day and night and the earth’s soil is still fresh. But winter is coming, garden your treasures now to ritually prepare. Protect health, hearth and home this Harvest Moon. I give thanks for our wellbeing and resilience.

In this spirit of abundance, celebration, ceremony, gratitude & blessing –in between the September Saints days of St. Cyprian and St. Michael – here’s eight inspiring quotes to uplift the resilient soul.

Photo by Nathalie Jolie via Unsplash

“I have found the one whom my soul loves” – Song of Solomon 3.4

“I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, in secret, between the shadow and the soul” – Pablo Neruda

“The Warrior of the Light views life with tenderness and determination. He stands before a mystery, whose solution he will one day find. Every so often, he says to himself: ‘This life is absolutely insane’” – Paulo Coelho, Warrior of the Light

“The great awareness comes slowly, piece by piece. The path of spiritual growth is a path of lifelong learning. The experience of spiritual power is basically a joyful one.” – M. Scott Peck

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“Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, old Time is still a-flying. And this same flower that smiles today, tomorrow will be dying.” – Robert Herrick

“It is only through mystery and madness that the soul is revealed.” – Thomas Moore, Care of the Soul

“Who do I think I am? I’ll tell you who I am: I am a child of God, just like anyone else. I am a constituent of this Universe. I have a right to collaborate with creativity, because I myself am a product and a consequence of creation.” – Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic

“ “You old sorcerer”, the boy shouted up to the sky, “You knew the whole story”… “If I had told you, you wouldn’t have seen the pyramids. They’re beautiful, aren’t they?” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

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Glory be. May we plant Resilience Magic. May we tend to seeds of self and soul with care. May we root our hearts in rituals and remedies for healing. May we sweep clean this Spring & Summer gone. With courage, may we harvest our resources and secure our thresholds for winter. May we prevent a virus from breaching our domestic defenses in our living rooms and shopfronts. Before the approach of Mid-Autumn Moon festival on Oct 1st (here in Asia) before Halloween/All Hallows, All Souls and All Saints, before Winter solstice, Saturnalia, Yule and Christmas, before the end of year… may we harvest the collective hope needed to heal a fractured COVID world.

Photo by Ganapathy Kuumar via Unsplash