Season of mist, mellow fruitfulness and everyone’s favorite Keats poem. There’s nip in the air and a crunch underfoot, apples and cider and nuts in their shells. The world is a-wash in the colors I can’t wear because they wash me out but I get to enjoy them all around me in autumn. Autumn is a reminder that death is part of life and it can be beautiful.

By the time you read this we will have passed the fall equinox when the days and nights are in balance and the sun moves from Virgo into Libra. The Greek Eleusinian mysteries took place during the weeks around the equinox. Women participated in an underground ritual to recreate the birth/death cycle and the Persephone/ Demeter myth.

Persephone was abducted by Pluto to Hades and was consigned there for six months. Every year during those six months her mother, Demeter, the fertility and harvest goddess, mourns, refusing to let anything grow on the earth. Plants die but life is contained within their seeds. In the spring when Persephone is released, so is the life of the world when seeds begin to grow.

When that fat luminous moon appears in the fall, we call it the Harvest Moon. It’s the occasion of Moon festival in Asian countries and among Asians all over the world. It’s a woman’s celebration –it’s yin thing.

Fast forward to the end of October when, a month out from the balance of the light and dark, a lot of things happen. It’s Samhain (pronounced soween), the beginning of the Celtic new year. We call it Halloween, which is short for All Hallows’ Eve—the evening of all the holy ones.

The next day, November first is All Saints Day, the day for mourning children. November second is All Souls Day, the day for mourning adults. The Mexican traditions of Dias de los Muertos (the Days of the Dead) continue on for a week. When I see jack o’ lanterns, I like to think they are for the dead to find their way home. Home actually being my heart.

I always set up a little altar on Halloween to be left up for a week. I set out pictures or mementoes of people I have loved and who have left this world. I light a candle every night for them and I sing a few private songs for them. I get a huge lump in my throat. Time slows down and the world seems to stop for a while. What’s important to me comes into clear focus. At least until I can’t remember a password or the recycle isn’t picked up.

The Days of the Dead are a good time to let go of things that aren’t so well loved. Things that maybe should be dead: Old emotional stuff, dregs, debris. Grudges (Bad example. I kind of like my grudges, but you get the idea.) Even household junk. Do a fall cleaning, getting rid of what no longer serves.

Live each season as it passes;
Breath the air,
Drink the drink,
Taste the fruit.

Henry David Thoreau 1853