“Walking with the Ancestors: A Fall Equinox Ritual for Renewal”
Autumn is the season of truth-telling, where the earth teaches us how to take stock and let go with love. It’s the time where Nature reveals the same lesson over and over as the tree is stripped bare, the fields rest, and the forest floor turns endings into nourishment.
These are lessons that are easy to miss as we live and move through a culture that resists endings, clings to perfection, and applauds control. And yet, the truth of impermanence is the real medicine because when we loosen our grip and let go, our lives breathe, our anxiety disappears, and sustainability arrives.
The Three Harvests: Autumn Spiritual Practices & Letting Go Rituals
The Ancestors of the Western Isles moved through this season by acknowledging three harvests, and the three stages of letting go.
The first harvest is Lughnasadh at the beginning of August. This is a celebration after months of labour planting, tending, and gathering. It is the time of abundance where we truly look at all that life has laid at our feet. It’s a good time to practice gratitude as a way of moving our spirit into the energetic field of abundance and out of scarcity.
The second harvest arrives with Fall Equinox where the earth teaches us about balancing, sifting, and sorting. This is the time where the night and day are of equal length and where the energies of the receptive and active (feminine and masculine) are balanced. The Fall Equinox is a great time for taking stock of our lives – through both the lens of our heart and our logic.
When we do this, we find clarity about the paths, relationships, and projects that ignite and beckon our energy toward them, and those that do not. We also face our human limitations related to time and energy. Sometimes we want to do it all, and yet in reality, it’s not possible. When we take stock, we face the truth and free ourselves to step into truth and greater authenticity.
The third harvest is the threshold of Samhain in the first week of November. This is the gateway of death and the beginning of Winter, the season of rest. Samhain is the time of year where Mother Earth supports us to lay things down to rest. The fields lie still as they rest and restore strength. This is the time to allow some things to die completely (an old pattern, a relationship, a career path).
It’s also the time to lean into trusting the impermanence of life and bring consciousness to the endings we must face. Samhain is the time to surrender into stillness so our body and soul get to sigh and rest, knowing that new beginnings will come in their own time.
The Three Harvests Fall Ritual
Here’s a three-part ritual to celebrate your harvest, bring clarity by taking stock, and honour what needs to be laid to rest.
I like my rituals to be simple and deep, so they hold lots of meaning without too much fuss. I know this is the case here. You can practice this ritual in three sittings or take time to do it all at once. You may like to do it on your own or with a close friend.
You will need:
Fresh flowers or a store-bought bunch,
A candle and matches,
Paper and pen,
A small trowel or spoon,
A bowl of water (optional).
Gratitude and Celebration
Go outside. Remove the stems from the flowers and create a circle, mandala, or spiral of the flowers or petals on the earth. Make it beautiful.
As you place each flower or petal, name something you are grateful for. Include the tough gifts too.
When you’re finished, breathe. Let your chest soften and open to the expansiveness and abundance of all life has given you. Say thank you for everything that has grown and all you are celebrating. Leave the offering of beauty as a beautiful meal for Mother Earth and a gift of gratitude to life.
Balance and Clarity
Light a candle. Speak your intention. “I choose a balanced, honest inventory of my life where I courageously look at it all.”
On a large page draw headings that reflect your life: e.g. relationships, patterns, work, health, home, career.
Under each, jot three lines: What’s working. What’s not. Lessons learned.
Put a star beside those items you wish to carry forward and those you wish to lay to rest.
Choose one simple action for each star and schedule it in your calendar.
Let Go and Lay It to Rest
When you are clear about what is complete and what you wish to lay to rest, write each situation on a small piece of plain paper.
Go outside. Choose a living place such as a garden bed or the base of a tree.
For each paper, speak a short blessing of release, then bury it in its own small hole.
If you cannot dig, dissolve the papers in a bowl of water and pour the water onto the earth or into your compost.
As you finish say, “I give this back to the Mother. May it return as new life when the time is right.”
Eco note: Use uncoated paper and avoid plastic or glitter
Ancestral Wisdom for Living the Second Half of the Year
Our elders knew how to cross this season. They gathered the harvest, prepared for the rest of Winter, and tended the hearth. They told stories of remembering and trusted the long night to nourish what could not be rushed.
This is the ancestral wisdom we need in our modern lives. Tuning into the Earth and the teachings of Shamanism remind us that our soul needs space, time, and attention for letting go. This sometimes includes the exploration of soul loss and soul retrieval work. Not to purge, or cut and run, but to bless in reverence and gratitude.
Remember this Fall, that when you practice these letting go rituals and move consciously and peacefully to lay things to rest, you will experience greater relaxation and regulation in your body. You will move out of forcing and protecting, and into trusting and connecting.
This will naturally allow the soil of your life to replenish so the new seeds and shoots will open in their own time.
Trust the process. Trust yourself. Trust Nature.
About Angela
Angela Prider is a Spiritual Teacher, Animist healer, Somatic Counsellor, and Ceremonialist based in Vancouver, BC. She has been leading transformational gatherings around the world for 25 years supporting thousands of people to find spiritual resilience and Ancestral connection through a unique weaving of global earth medicine (Shamanism) and neuropsychology. Work with Angela through her Sacred 1:1 Monthly Container or The Essential Revolution 12 Month Journey.
