Sunday, September 23, 2007

Opening Music - Autumn Leaves

Call to Silence and Opening Meditation

"To Autumn" William Blake

O Autumn. Laden with fruit, and stained
With the blood of the grape, pass not, but sit
Beneath my shady roof, there thou may'st rest,
And tune thy jolly voice to my fresh pipe;
And all the daughters of the year shall dance,
Sing now the lusty song of fruits and flowers.

Readings

The Feast of the August Moon, Fall Equinox, Second Harvest Festival, Chusok or 'Moon Festival', Festival of Dionysus, Wine Harvest, Cornucopia, Feast of Avalon, Harvest Home, Festival of Greenery - Every agrarian culture I've read about, past or present, has a way of celebrating the year's harvest. Today's celebrations are the descendants of ancient ones. They mostly happen between Autumn Equinox (Sept. 23 this year) and Halloween or Samhain (pronounced sow-wen), October 31; some a bit earlier. They often link the cycles of death and life, honouring the dead as well as the harvest. In many cultures, these things are intertwined. Harvest is over, winter is coming, and people have both the time and the reason to celebrate and relax. It's a time to enjoy plentiful food while it lasts: winter can be a time of scarcity or at least monotony when it comes to food. First Nations peoples have held harvest festivals in North America for thousands of years. In the United States and Canada, holidays like Thanksgiving came to the New World along with the first Europeans. European harvest festivals originated from pagan celebrations like Mabon, the pagan Celtic festival held on the Equinox.

Fall fairs, another tradition in North America, began in Europe as trading meets held in the days after the harvest. Today's' celebrations find a place for many cops that are historical symbols of autumn: sheaves of corn and wheat, grapes and wine, gourds, dried leaves, rattles, horns of plenty, seeds and nuts, apple cider, squash, and pumpkins.

In Japan, Autumn Equinox Day is a national holiday marking the change of seasons and paying respects to the dead. German peasants at one time broke the first straws of hay harvested and said, "This is food for the dead." Buddhists celebrate equality on the equinox, the time of the year when day and night are of equal length. Moon cakes are the traditional food of harvest, and thanksgiving festivals are held in Korean. The Roman celebration was dedicated to Pomona, goddess of fruits and growing things. In England, the last sheaf of corn harvested represented the 'spirit of the field'. It was made into a doll. Corn dolls were drenched with water representing rain or burned to represent the death of the grain spirit. At other times they were kept until the following spring. The Polish Feast of Greenery involves bringing bouquets and foods for blessing by a priest, then using them for medicine or keeping them until the following years harvest.

A Reading fromThe Gospel of Mary Magdalene (Leloup translation)

'Be in harmony...' If you are out of balance, take inspiration from manifestations of your true nature. Those who have ears, let them hear.

Call to learning - Autumn Quix

Call to Conversation

Closing Meditation

"Autumn Day" by Rainer Maria Rilke

The leaves are falling, falling as from far
Withering gardens in the distant heavens;
They are falling with a gesture of nay-saying.

And in the nights the heavy earth is swaying
To loneliness from serried star on star.

We are all falling. This hand falls no less.
Nor yet this other. Falling all enfoldeath.

Yet is there One who all this falling holdeth
In His strong hands' unending gentleness.