Quiet & Vibrant

The juxtaposition of the turn into winter - Samhain musings & a guided meditation

We are going quiet and coming alive all at once.

That is the heart of this time of the year - the juxtaposition of the quieting of the outer and upper worlds as they move through phases of deep release and slowing down and our inner and subterranean worlds become more vibrantly alive in response.

The veil between layers is at its thinnest over the course of the next couple of weeks as we move from this fixed date of Samhain in the Celtic tradition through the exact midway point between Fall Equinox and Winter Solstice that occurs on November 7th

. Meaning that that which keeps elements of ourselves and our perception of reality compartmentalized, divided and orderly is at its most porous. The boundaries between this world and the Otherworld, between matter and spirit, between layers of our own being are more permeable than at any other time of year. If you pause long enough with keen senses attuned you’ll feel it, that hum and crackle in the air that seems to be more alive than usual even as you witness how dormant the landscape appears to have become. Whatever leaves still cling to branches have gone crisp and still and even the evergreens seem to hold their breath in order to draw our attention from bare branches down to the deep reach of root systems, soil and mycelium that hold the world above ground together through it all.

We need deep roots, both to stabilize and weather tumultuous times as well as to be wholly connected to the wildly joyful times, and this time of year is ready to re-establish our relationship to them by the way it invites us into shedding the old and outmoded, that which has past its own season and needs to return to ground to compost into something new.

Deciduousness is an essential process, a crucial facet of our aliveness and a phase we must pass through regularly. Nature holds open the invitation for us to notice what within ourselves, our lives and our ways of being have gone crisp and still and is ready to be relinquished in order for us to root down into our inner vibrancy with more stability and surety than ever before. In engaging directly with our process of release whether though practice, ritual or ceremony we are then left with a quieter state that draws us back to foundations, to the ground of our being - to our root systems and the soil in which they’re planted. What is it that you’re being asked to or that you are desiring to shed this cycle?

After the fall comes the breakdown, the process of composting that which we’ve let go. So often we want to leap from release straight into new growth, attempting to pivot within that change immediately and then find ourselves unsteady in it. If we can instead observe the template that nature offers here we would shed in layers and then give it all time to settle, we would give ourselves the grace of the in-between time to pause and let dormancy work its slow magic. To compost is to break down the old into its constituent parts in order for them to become ripe soil for new things to grow - eventually. This season is actively reminding us not to rush us past the initiation of letting go. It is asking us to slow down and participate, to move by choice into the liminality of where what is released must be given its time to drop down, decompose and slumber in order for it to become something worth planting in. This too is where we need our deep roots - stabilizing practice, good food, sound community connection - in order to hold us through the pause the winter months invoke and give ample time for the composting to occur.

So now is the time - root down and let go. Like the cyclical being you are find the solid ground that allows you to unwind from what is ready to release and then let that yielding bring you more tangibly back into your roots, to the awakening of the vibrant aliveness of your inner landscape.

Attached is a short guided meditation practice to support your release through the lens of emptying. May it serve your letting go, your deep sense of rooting and the intentional slow down into the days to come.