Autumn Equinox Balance

Haddon Acre — 24th September — Yurt and Stone Circle

Light and dark, held in equal measure

 We gathered at the stone circle at the turning point of the year, where the Michael and Mary ley lines cross nearby — as the light hours and dark hours stood in equal measure. It felt fitting. Five days later would be Michaelmas, the last safe day for blackberrying — the point at which even the hedgerows know when enough is giving is enough. And that was the thread we followed all evening: balance, and the quiet cost of over-giving.

Under the incense and the fading light, we lit two candles — one white, one purple — for the two halves of the year, right then in perfect balance. We shared cacao, and I asked the group to hold a simple question as they drank: in what areas of our lives have we been over-giving? Where do we feel burnt out? How can we put more balance back in?

We spoke of Persephone and Demeter — of Persephone's yearly disappearance into the underworld, and Demeter's grief until spring brings her home again — and how the equinox is our own small step over that same threshold, before the shadow work of Samhain begins. The heart of the evening was a visualisation: an old set of scales, resting in front of each woman, one plate for everything she gives, one for everything she lets herself receive. No one decided in advance what belonged where — we simply let it arrive, and sat with what we found.

Afterwards, some worked through the Wheel of Balance — eight areas of a life: health, career, love, spirituality, family, leisure, money, friends — asking honestly, for each, am I giving more here than I'm letting myself receive? Others already knew exactly what they needed to write, and went straight to the journaling page.

We closed with thanks to the light half of the year for everything it gave us this summer, and to the dark half for the stillness it's about to offer — rest, receiving, and permission to stop giving so much for a while.

The twin candles we made to take home — to contemplate what we want to leave behind in the light part of the year, and what we want to carry into the dark half.