A short  Myth followed by commentary:

She loved his companionship, but it was now time for the wheel to turn. It was time for self sacrifice. Such had been the way since time eternal.

She kissed him then. They danced one final dance, Her leaves vibrating with His energy, revealing the blossoms within. The creeks and rivers filled with salmon, all of Her was awake, waiting and ready for this final moment. She was alive,holding him, receiving his love.

The time arrived.

She removed her arms from around Him, freeing Him so that she could bring life. And death.

Released from Her loving embrace, He exploded into an abundance of light. His energy free and blazing.

She stood and braced Herself gracefully.

The intense heat from the  rupture caused  fruits to ripen and the wheat to stand tall in the fields.

She spun, slowly, gently, moving away from his light. Tired now, her fruit fell, feeding the creatures that were her charge. Sleep would come, Darkness would soon cover her in his cold blanket. The Shadow of the King. Empty and without life.

She took comfort knowing she would see her King again and dance the sacred dance. Then she began her decent into darkness, smiling at her King’s reflection in her moon.

The perfect union of the Mother and Father is so intertwined, it’s hard to see where one ends and the other begins. In Autumn, we start to see the effects of that relationship. Flower has turned  to fruit.

Death is a necessary part of the cycle. For the Mother to provide the harvest, she must die. She is humankind, she is the natural world. She is our mortal selves.

The Father is formless. The moving, vital energy that flows through all. Never dying, but constantly bringing change.  However, without a vessel for that energy, without a receptive well to pour himself into, He has no effect.

The Mother, without that flow of energy moving through her, would be nothing. Just a lifeless carcass.

He is the lightening. She is the earth, drawing him down to her.

They need each other.

What is our harvest right now? At any given time of year?  If we are just the vessel, going through the motions, filling ourselves with nothing, we will never have a harvest. When we sleep, it will be the sleep of death. We will not awaken.  We have to dance the sacred dance. We have to unite our inner Sacred Feminine and Divine Masculine. We can encourage that by bearing witness to it in the world around us. The Natural world of the Mother Natura, and the formless existence of the Father Divinus.

The Outer and Inner. The Dark and the Light. From and Formless.

Being aware of that will help us to recognize it in ourselves.

We also have to find time, and space to allow that relationship to take place. In order to sow a field, one needs earth, and seed.  We need to allow dialogue between ourselves and Divinus Natura. We need to create enough silence within our thoughts to allow the union of the Two to occur.

We are the altar.

Our bodies and our souls.

We are the temple.

We are the field.

So now, at this time of balance, we are in a position to ground ourselves. Glean whatever we can from what we have learned. Take the fruits of our experience, examine our harvest  and draw sustenance from it, and see what sorts of seeds we can take for future plantings .

What have you learned? Take a look at your year so far, the good, the not so good. The harvest is not always about the material things we receive, in fact, it is the inner gifts that are the most important.

If you have not been living up to your own expectations, why? Have you learned lessons about your limitations, or lack of motivation? Have you found habits that have been holding you back, or perhaps learned of new methods to cope more easily? All these things are your seeds. Each learning experience is something to take forward with you, and sometimes that motion forward means that you will need to decide what is to be left behind. Separate the useful from the useless in your life.

Soon the time will come to dance into darkness, leaving our seeds to root in the earth. This is a great time to make preparations for the year ahead, because this wheel, it keeps on turning!

Blessings!

*updated September 22nd 2013