Here in the southern hemisphere the season of fall does not coincide with the spooky celebrations around halloween. Even so, I find this to be a very enchanted time of celebration and magick making.
More than anything the last weeks of the harvest season are a time I like to dedicate to my matron dieties of Demeter and Brigid. Demeter especiallly represents the harvests of fruits in summer and grains and fall. Ever since Brigids day the two have been sharing an altar in my witchy cabinet that is decorated with dried flowers and now corn dollies.
But, I am certainly not spending all my time indoors. By around 10 in the morning the sun in up and spreading his rays all around the yard, fields and garden. I celebrate out there as much as I do indoors. For the most part I am just letting the last flowers be on the plant and giving the pollinators a chance to drink to their hearts content while those blooms last.
Fall is the season of harvesting roots like burdock and echinacea. Here I have a couple of photos of my recent echinacea harvest. I focused mainly on gathering up the roots that have been growing for three years in my herbal garden but did include a few leaves and one flower as each adds a bit of healing to this tincture.
All to often I find myself taking the harvests indoors for processing but this day I decided to do my work under the autumn sun and right next to the bed of echinacea plants. Everything was thouroughly cleaned before hand and, as I grow everything organically, a little bit of dirt just adds to the medicine and story magic of this herb.
A omen of good fortune has been visiting me during my daily work around the land. Seeing butterflies flitting around is a common occurance but I feel that spotting a Monarch when I am in the process of my magical crafts is a sign that I am on the right path, and hopefully a omen of good to come as well. At least, that is how I choose to see it and belief is a huge factor is how magick works to change the mundane.
How are you celebrating the season, whichever season it may be?