Today those of us residing in Earth’s northern hemisphere crossed the threshold from Summer to Autumn. While Spring into Summer and Autumn into Winter are certainly transitions, they’re really just expansions of a trend already underway. Winter into Spring and Summer into Autumn represent transitional moments that result in profound shifts.
There’s little doubt that human psychology is hugely affected by the seasons. While the season change goes almost unnoticed in our modern culture, the ancients took note of, celebrated, and revered these rites of passage.
If you think about it, Spring and Summer with their growing warmth, expanding light, and blooming of life represent the outer world and our external life. The six months that began today, comprised of a gathering darkness, a pronounced chill, and the symbolic death in the natural world around us, are a metaphor for the inner journey.
In mythology, darkness often represents the night of the soul where the traveler dies to his old self and finds rebirth as a hero, ready to emerge back into the sunlight of the outside world. It is from darkness that light emerges. It is from the depths that the greatest heights are reached. It is in “the belly of the beast” that our true mettle is tested,
I’ve always found it important to connect with these cycles and metaphors. In the darkness, there is opportunity. It’s hard to argue that human life, culture, and psychology can be divorced from the natural forces that shape us.
So, let us embrace the darkness. Let us use this metaphor as a reason to go deep within, touch what’s real, and come back stronger for the experience.
We all walk this inner journey. It’s a journey we must travel alone. There it’s just you and the universe, you and your emotions, you and your thoughts. Not even the closest people in your life can walk that road with you.
We can walk it consciously or unconsciously. That is our choice. This time of the year, nature is leading you in the direction of walking it consciously. Let’s do ourselves a favor and answer that call.
Thanks for spending a few more minutes with me. If you’re taking something away, please share it with s friend.
Ray
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