The Convergence Season

You can see it around the edges. It starts with a few yellow leaves, falling lazily on the light breeze. Your flowers reaching their peak, some beginning to brown on the edges. The weather turns to more rain, and perhaps a bit more stormy, but you can feel it now. You can smell it in the air.

This intriguing time on the tail end of summer, and coming up on Halloween or Samhain season is one of my favorites. Not just because it brings about a fervor for my favorite genre of books and movies (beloved Horror!) and not even because this season seems to bring out an acceptance of comfort seeking behaviors; and lord knows I love being comfy.

This time of year is a convergence season. Its a time when the living and the dead start to seep into each other, not quite all one or the other. For many, summer has lost its appeal and they yearn to begin the journey back inside themselves; to hermit themselves for more reflection of the past few months of events.

September is the season to harvest all the things we've been working on over the spring and summer, which can mean different things for different people. Some may have been to frivolous and will now spend this season trying to do one more push to fill their winter coffers. Some may have been hard at work over the summer, and will now use this coming season to celebrate.

There may have been summer romances, summer friendships forged, summer jobs worked that will not stand up to the test of the season, and these will begin to fall away. Its a natural cycle of all things.  To live, grow, and die, and then to live again. This is a sacred time, when life and death join hands and begin to connect as one.

How can we use this season of convergence to our benefit? The modern day Halloween celebrations, if you take away the commercial material standpoint, are made to help lighten to tone of the intense feelings that start to take hold of people during this time. Brevity of parties and treats and light scares can be a sharp but pleasant contrast to the deep, soul searching, attitude shift that accompanies the changes in weather, and in our surroundings. Some may start to feel depressed, and some may revel in it. Seeing as how you can't skip it, how can we harness the growth that is thrust upon us during this time?

The easiest would be to take a look at what in your life has reached the end of its cycle. Is there a friendship that is becoming toxic? A romantic relationship that has fizzled? A part of your home that no longer suits your needs, or supports your energetic desires? A way of living, eating, loving, hating, whatever, that doesn't spark something within you? Become Autumn.

You accept the change of the season within yourself. You can become the Fall, and start to cut off nutrients to the things that you are finished with. Cut off your energy, and offer it no longer to these things, people, relationships, bad habits etc. The universe wants to give you what you want, but it also loves the path of least resistance. If you begin to take the steps to cut things off, the universe will follow with much more efficiency.

One thing this season demands is reverence. It commands respect. All of these things you are "killing" deserve your acceptance, and even your thanks before you dismiss them. After all, they played an important part in in your summer growth. As the veil thins, Samhain becomes the season where its acceptable to remember departed loved ones, even knowing that this will bring up emotions and there will be sadness. Death is not a joke, but there is a healthy maturity that comes with celebrating what, or who, is gone. There is growth there too. Death feeds life; the circle continues.

So as you walk away from the light of summer, and into the converging darkness ahead, look for what can be harvested, what can be pruned, and what can be torn out. Enjoy the process of diving deep inside yourself, getting cozy, and becoming Fall.