MABON – Autumn Equinox
Celebration Evaluation Preparation
Mabon, the Autumn Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, is a time to celebrate the year’s abundance, evaluate your reality, and prepare for the coming winter season.
2020 has been a year like no other that any of us have ever lived through. You may have experienced more intense highs and lows than ever before. Coronavirus has shaken everything up and life will never be the same again.
Mabon presents us with an invitation to acknowledge and celebrate all that we’ve achieved this year. From the seeds of intention you planted at Ostara, notice what has come to fruition for you. Celebrate the good you’ve created, the little things you’ve done – however small or insignificant they seem. This time of year invites a grounding in gratitude practice. To really become aware of the riches you have received, to take time to acknowledge the small successes and to notice the gifts that you’ve both accumulated and shared with others. Noticing, bringing these gifts into your awareness, helps to magnetise them and attract more of the same to you. If you are someone who keeps receiving more and more of what you don’t want in life, try switching your awareness to the things you do want to welcome in. Even the small things count, and starting small is where it all begins.
Whatever challenges you have faced this year, there will have been some successes too. Perhaps you’ve been prompted to make a subtle shift to your diet that has had a positive impact on your overall health. Maybe you’ve found the space – or the necessity – to take up a creative hobby or go to more online yoga classes. Recognise those deeper aspects of yourself that have come to the surface for you this year – it could be that your inner self is finding space through the cracks of this year to shine through. That the hard outer layers are peeling away – all the layers of protection you’ve needed in this world that’s been so hostile to someone as sensitive as you. As the layers peel away and the cracks appear, it may feel painful and overwhelming, but you may also notice the softer, quieter, juicier parts of yourself emerging.
Lots will have fallen away this year, and that may be a blessing in itself. Perhaps you’ve been shedding and releasing those parts of yourself that no longer serve.
Now is the time to take stock of your new reality. Where do you find yourself right now – however unexpectedly – and where will you go from here? To get where you are going, you first need to know exactly where you are. Equinoxes invite us into stillness, to go within and reconnect with the deeper parts of ourselves that speak in silence. To root and ground into the foundations of your life. To be real about where you are, so that you can set clear intentions for where you are going.
As we in the northern hemisphere collectively prepare for our descent into the darker months of winter, into the deep inner world, it’s a good time to remember that what we create in the external world requires deep roots in our own inner world. And what we manifest from the inner world requires firm foundations in the outer world. This is the balance of Autumn Equinox. As within, so without. At this time, we are invited to take the wisdom and experience we have gained through the seasons into our inner world for deep cultivation. Harvesting from our own experiences, we plant our intentions with deep roots in the inner world, for fruitful and purposeful abundance next year. Mabon is the first stage of this process, which will deepen through Samhain and Yule. At the Equinox, we celebrate our successes, evaluate our situation, and prepare for what’s to come.
This winter may see an increased deepening, a deeper drawing within as we experience further lockdown restrictions and we are called to continue the work we’ve been doing on our roots and foundations. It may also feel darker and colder than ever before, with isolation and withdrawal becoming more significant factors and with the prospect of death creeping ever closer to our door.
What will you need to do to prepare? If you know that you are affected by the darker months, consider getting yourself a SAD lamp to help you stay connected to the light. If you know you will feel the disconnection of isolation, be ready to stay connected to your friends, family and online communities in whichever ways you can. Take stock of yourself and your reality, and ready yourself to create firm foundations for new growth in your own life.
How Luna Rhythms Yoga can support you during Mabon:
At Luna Rhythms, our unique system of yoga integrated with the lunar cycles and solar seasons teaches techniques from the ancient yogic practices of asana, pranayama, mudra, bandha and mantra in alignment with the energies of the day, season and cycle. Mabon is the perfect time to rebalance your energies through celebration, evaluation and preparation.
DHYANA: SPACE BETWEEN BREATHS
Meditation master Sally Kempton refers to the meditation on the space between the breaths as “one of the all-time golden meditation practices.” This meditation has the power to take you as deep as you want to go. It creates profound stillness within, which becomes the gateway to the Heart. The space between breaths is where we meet our inner Self as God/Goddess, Source, and the Divine.
Tantric traditions teach that any activity, thought, breath, is always flowing in and out from a still point that is its source. If we can find that still point and abide in it, it opens up the energy of Source Itself.
One of the most accessible ways to understand and experience this is by meditating on the space between breaths.
PRACTICE:
· Begin in a comfortable meditation position.
· Root your pelvis passively down towards the earth.
· Lift and lengthen up through the spine.
· Close your eyes and breathe naturally.
· Observe the breath moving in and out of your body.
· After a few moments, shift your attention to notice as you breathe in, there is a tiny pause at the top of the inhalation before the breath turns to move out.
· Similarly, notice the momentary stillness at the end of the exhalation.
· Refrain from trying to grab hold of this space. Just observe it.
· If your mind wanders, first draw it back to the breath, and then to the space between breaths.
· As you passively focus on this space without trying to grab hold of it, you will find that the space naturally expands.
You can use this practice to deepen your connection with stillness, self and Source this Mabon. Listening within to strengthen your inner foundations and return to balance and wholeness through the breath.
Be well.
Love,
Diana
To deepen your practice with Luna Rhythms Yoga, you are invited to join my online membership group, Luna Rhythms Wisdom, where we meet together and practice with the five phases of the moon each month: New Moon, Waxing Moon, Full Moon, Waning Moon and Dark Moon. Membership of the group is £29.99 per month for all your Luna Rhythms Yoga practices.