Showing posts with label autumn equinox. Show all posts
Showing posts with label autumn equinox. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Autumn in the Air

Even here in Atlanta, I am starting to feel the pull of the seasons. I didn't intend to be away from this blog for so long, but there are just so many other things going on. We have been making a push to finish the Tumbleweed House so it is 100% inhabitable by next Spring.We are also getting ready for our trip to South Africa, which is feel is being looked after by a very different Goddess.  But I still can't deny the beauty of the Autumn Equinox as the time where Persephone descends once again into the Underworld to be with her husband. 

I thought, to honor the turning of the season I would provide a "Greatest Hits" of the past posts on this topic.

Like the song Meet Me on the Equinox by Death Cab for Cutie. Just pretend it isn't tied into the movie Twilight.


There is also the post I did last year on the Equinox.  I had woven a crude crown of orange flowers and placed them on Persephone to honor her return to the Underworld.

And I always do enjoy a good seasonal recipe from the Greek cookbook.

And, last year I also posted this photo I took of Persephone up at the land in Asheville.

And not to mention, the Autumn Equinox marks the two year anniversary of this blog. 

So, Praise Persephone and this changing season. Rejoice in her descent. I leave you with this poem, my favorite by John Keats; To Autumn.

TO AUTUMN.
                                            1.
    SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
        Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
    Conspiring with him how to load and bless
        With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
    To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
        And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
            To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
    With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
        And still more, later flowers for the bees,
        Until they think warm days will never cease,
            For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.
                                            2.
    Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
        Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
    Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
        Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
    Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,
        Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
            Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
    And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
        Steady thy laden head across a brook;
        Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
            Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.
                                            3.
    Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
        Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
    While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
        And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue;
    Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
        Among the river sallows, borne aloft
            Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
    And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
        Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
        The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
           And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

One Year

Today marks the one year anniversary of this blog.  When I started it, I don't think I was consciously aware that I had begun so close to the Autumn Equinox.  It make sense though, to begin a journey with Persephone at the beginning of Persephone's descent.  I am sure I was subconsciously aware of it, however, because it is impossible to be dedicated to Persephone without feeling the overwhelming draw of seasonal changes. 

It is officially Fall in Atlanta, and temperatures still hover in the 90s.  What I wouldn't give for a good Midwestern fall with crisp autumn air and the symphony of colors in the trees.  We get that eventually, but not until late October. I remind myself that I am taking a trip to Minneapolis this weekend and will get a lovely dose of Autumn there before returning to Atlanta to get a second turn in another month.  But the night of the equinox was breathtaking.  The sky was clear and the full harvest moon magnificent and even though the lights from the city were glaring you could still see Jupiter, Persephone's own father, as the second brightest thing in the universe.  Maybe he was saying goodbye to his daughter as she left him for the dark half of the year. 

Last year, I spent a lot of time exploring the seasonal themes of Persephone's story.  I haven't really thought much about how I want to continue this blog.  Is there anything anyone would like to see me explore? 

I will, however, share again the poem that I posted on the day I created this page.  Honestly, it was a place marker that day.  I had created the account and picked out the page design (which I have since changed) and get things all set up the way I liked it. I was afraid, though, if I left it that day without any content I might not get back to it, so I posted this poem. I wrote it a while back while up in Asheville to honor the glade where we placed her statue and created a space to commune with the Goddess.

"Persephone's Glade"

A soft spring maid picking daffodils
Autumn wife and most dread Queen
A field of white sweet asphodel
A soft spring maid picking daffodils
Olympos high above the rolling hills
Halls of Hades in the world beneath
A soft spring maid picking daffodils
Autumn wife and most dread Queen