Guided Meditations and Writing Prompts as Fall Equinox Rituals
The Autumnal Equinox is on Sunday, September 22, 2024, 5:43 a.m. PST, and here are some creative writing prompts to meditate on
The act of contemplating the gradual return of Yin can function as a collection of Fall Equinox rituals done privately or as a group.
Fundamentally, the approaching Autumn Equinox is a time for goodbyes. We say goodbye to the warm sunsets, to the green canopy of leaves above our heads, to nectar dripping down our arms as we bite into overripe peaches. The early weeks of fall may speak of harvests, yet we know there is an inevitable slow descent into frosty days, darker skies, and eating from what we’ve stored from times of plenty. (We’ll be gathering to celebrate the Autumn Equinox - join us!)
In many ways, what’s in storage is psychosomatic. Memory has a way of revealing what is important to us, highlighting what we love, and all the stories that hold both light and shadow. And in a season where the land shows itself as increasingly darker and shaded, it’s also a natural time to sit with figurative and literal deaths, grief, and sorrow. Within Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the fall season corresponds with the Metal element and the lungs, the organ that holds grief and sadness.
In the Ugly Words series, a recorded online creative writing workshop series that delves into the shadowy aspects of Yin, we focus on themes like ugliness, endings, emotional healing, and pain. The series encourages participants to use writing as a ritual for personal transformation and creative expression. Through ritualized writing practices, participants are guided in an embodied way to embrace imperfection, navigate life's challenges, and reconnect with both the Seen and Unseen realms, ultimately preparing for renewal and growth.
For anyone who desires to sit with some shadowy thoughts this Autumn Equinox, here are some new writing prompts that can gently guide meditations on integrating shadows:
What are the inherent ‘worths’ of shadow?
If shade is as natural as light, how do we welcome it? How do we give room for whatever we deem ‘difficult' to belong within ourselves and one another?
At the core of shadows is the idea of loneliness or separation, which is arguably the deepest of griefs. As animists, can we talk to Loneliness as a being? And by doing so, realize that we are not in fact alone?
If you were to invite Loneliness or Separation to a tea sit, what would it say to you?
Extending the thoughts from above, how does animacy open the door to connection? How does being in relation with the Unseen and more-than-human become a normalized and sacred way of addressing the experience of separation? If you’re already an animist, who else can you be receptive to?
Psychotherapist Miriam Greenspan uses the word ‘intervulnerability’ to describe the need for mutually held spaces in shadows, grief, sorrow, and pain. How do we do our individual and collective parts in fostering intervulnerability? What are we personally willing and have capacity to do / be today? Each day?
What happens when we have prolonged absences of shadows?
What have you discarded out of the light that you are ready to call back? What parts of you that you deem strange or a ‘stranger’ that you now feel ready to invite back in?
What parts of yourself - energetically, emotionally, somatically- longs and is ready to known love?
Blame also dwells in shadows. If you were to sit with Blame, how do you create some spaciousness for compassion and new agreements?
Theologan, philosopher, and mystic Meister Eckhart from the 11th century wrote, “What is this darkness? What is its name? Call it an aptitude for sensitivity which will make you whole.” Sit with this quote.
Perhaps we can be changed by this Fall Equinox ritual of sitting with Yin (which literally translates to Shade or Shadow). Perhaps through shared feeling of intervulnerability, that we can recognize each other more deeply, more wholly. So much of this world needs our attention.
If you find these guided spiritual meditation / prompt in writing relating to the Fall Equinox (and shadow and grief in general), consider Ugly Words.
It’s now 50% OFF for the month of September (single payment only). Use promocode DECAYISNOURISHMENT