Finding The River by Sally Topham

Chapter 16

Harvest and Light

Summer draws to a final close with the advent of the Autumn Equinox around the 22nd or 23rd September. Almost imperceptibly, the days begin getting shorter and the nights gradually cooler from the moment we pass the Summer Solstice. By the Autumn Equinox, Nature has begun to withdraw her energies and turn inwards for a period of rest and reflection in the coming months.

Autumn

Autumn is the time for harvesting the crops which were planted in Spring and Harvest Festivals are celebrated all over the world by many different cultures with songs and prayers of gratitude for the fruits of the earth. In the old Celtic religion, gifts were offered and sacrifices made over a course of three different Harvest Festivals. These were: Lammas for the harvest of grain on August 1st, Mabon at the time of the Autumn Equinox in September for the harvest of fruit, and Samhain (pronounced Sow’in and meaning Summer’s End), on October 31st, for the harvest of meat.

Aside from the Harvest, our distant ancestors recognised the dying back of the leaves, flowers and plants as a time to remember the dead. Samhain, therefore, became an important time for honouring the ancestors. On that night, the Gods of the Otherworlds and the spirits of the dead were believed to mingle with men. In later years, as Christianity spread, the old traditions were suppressed and transformed into more acceptable Christian ones. This is how Samhain eventually became Halloween which, as we all know, is the night when ghouls and ghosties are supposed to walk the earth!

It’s easy to see the relevance of Harvest Festivals to our personal growth. Reaping your very own harvest is about remembering your connection to the planet and your physical need for nutrition. It’s about looking to see what you’ve learnt and understood and the knowledge you’ve gathered over the past months. And it’s also about celebrating that sense of completion that comes when anything you planted consciously in Spring has come into being; e.g., a desired goal, a problem overcome, new attitudes or more skilful coping mechanisms. Above all, it’s about feeling a sense of gratitude for the things which you have and the blessings you’ve received.

Developing Gratitude

I touched on the subject of gratitude briefly in the last chapter, but it’s such a relevant subject for Autumn, I want tell you more about how it can help you make real transformations in your life.

Scientific research has shown that practising the attitude of gratitude can raise your happiness “set-point”. A new field of psychology called Positive Psychology came into being in 1998 through the work of American Psychologist Martin Seligman, who researched what effects feeling good could have on people. He discovered that relationships and friendships were better, that people were more focussed, more creative and had a higher productivity, and that happy people coped better when things got bad. He also found that positive thoughts can undo the harmful effects that negative emotions can have on our state of well-being. (Believe me—you can’t feel gratitude when you’re feeling negative!) But most importantly, it was found that gratitude is the best way of raising happiness levels.

It’s really helpful if you can learn to accept things the way they are. This doesn’t mean that you’re going to become a doormat and be walked over or allow yourself to get mowed down by difficulties, you’re simply accepting that this is how it is at this moment in time. You can learn from every situation—good or bad—so it’s good to be grateful for that. It’s also important to accept your share of responsibility for what’s happening in your life without either beating yourself up or going into denial. It helps to remember that if you’re partly responsible for any currently undesirable situation in your life, you’re also capable of transforming it into something more positive. The good news is, whatever caused your problems, you now have techniques to transform them! And you can be very grateful for that!!

It’s important also to remember to express gratitude verbally and not just think about it. The 13th-century German philosopher and theologian, Meister Eckhart said, “If the only prayer you said in your whole life was ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.” Remembering to thank everybody for both the large and the small acts of kindness and consideration you receive fosters good relationships and better communication. And it helps you to stop taking people for granted—which nobody likes. Folk will always respond well to appreciation for something they’ve done or said. It makes them happy, and it’s very good to spread some happiness around! Giving to others what you seek for yourself is a great way of bringing more of that thing into your life.

As you learn to develop and maintain a sense of gratitude for everything, so your whole energy system begins vibrating at a higher frequency. If you think this sounds flaky, remember how much your thoughts can affect the chemistry of your body, and the even flow of your subtle energy! You’re essentially an electromagnetic being, so this means that when your energy vibrations are raised, you naturally begin to resonate and align yourself with the higher vibrations humming in the Universe. So, if you’re constantly “transmitting” positive vibes and thoughts, you’re automatically able to attract and receive more beneficial events and circumstances into your life.

I’ve personally worked to eradicate an awful lot of negativity from my life and can promise you that practising gratitude can be enormously transforming and beneficial. So why not give it a try and spend a bit of time and energy getting into the habit of it?

Exercise 46 can help you to bring more gratitude into your everyday life:

Exercise 46: Gratitude Lists

Gratitude is a reminder that the small things in life are often the most precious. Appreciating these things makes it easier to change pessimistic attitudes towards challenges and setbacks.

• As you go through each day, make a note of anything that might have happened for which you feel gratitude. It might have been finding a seat on the train to work instead of having to stand all the way, a welcome phone call or email from a friend, feeling grateful that the sun was shining, a little bit of kindness or understanding from a work colleague, or delighting in the sight of some pretty flowers in somebody’s front garden. The more you think in terms of gratitude, abundance of every kind is drawn towards you.

• Keep a notebook and a pen beside your bed, and before you go to sleep each night, write down five things which have happened during the day and for which you are grateful.

Beside each of the five things, write a few words about how they’ve benefitted you.

Once gratitude lists become easier to compile, you can start making mental ones instead at bedtime. I find that mentally going through the day and feeling gratitude for the smallest things which have happened is a great way of falling asleep. It takes you into a more positive frame of mind and frequently results in feeling better about yourself and the world when you wake up.

Other things you could do to help you feel gratitude:

• Practise the Inner Smile guided meditation (Exercise 5: The Inner Smile). It’s an easy way to send gratitude to your body and any endorphinating exercise is good for your health!

• Take better care of your body. It’s done a really good job of carrying you around from A to B all this time and deserves some TLC and appreciation! Check back through Chapter 3, Body Basics.

• If you wake up in the middle of the night with your mind churning over various things that are causing you anxiety, switch modes and start thinking of all the things you appreciate in your life instead.

Balancing Your Life

The Autumn Equinox is a time when the lengths of night and day are more or less equal, and we can use this as a reminder to bring more balance into our lives. All our daily activities—such as going to work, relaxing, socialising, having relationships or spending time in quiet contemplation—take up most of the waking day and it’s important to ensure that some of these activities don’t exclude the existence of others. Now is therefore a good time to check out where you might need to re-balance things in your life.

Exercise 47 is a very simple way of bringing balance into your life by drawing what is known as a “Life Pie”.

Exercise 47: Drawing a Life Pie

Take a clean piece of paper and on it draw a circle of about 2 to 3 inches in diameter. This is your “pie”. Then look at the following headings which are the main areas of focus and activity for the average person:

• Work

• Exercise

• Family

• Friends/Social Life

• Adventure (i.e., new activities)

• Play

• Romance

• Spirituality

Using these headings, allocate a segment of your pie to each of them, but make each segment proportional to the amount of focus you give to each area. You’ll almost certainly discover that your “portions” will be of varying sizes. For example, “work” might be a very large portion and “play” might be very small.

This gives you a very graphic overview of which areas of your life are taking up most space and where you may need to find ways of balancing things up.

Look to see what you might do to let go of particular things that are causing an imbalance in your life.

Coping With Change

As the trees become bare and the evenings become darker, we have to face the fact that all things must pass. Nature reveals endless sequences of change and Autumn expresses this very clearly. It’s very much a time of transition which often brings up a sense of impending loss and melancholy in people.

But life is about change! Nothing ever stays the same. We’re born, we grow, we live and we die. Everything goes through this cycle—the fruit, the vegetables, the crops, the animals, the birds and the fish. Even mountains and rocks are subject to change, for they too grow, erode and decay. There are also mini-cycles of birthing and dying within each of our lives. We see this in the ending of relationships and other attachments, in things that manifest into our lives only to disappear once again, and in the way the physical body changes over time.

Change is the only constant in life. Nothing grows without going through changes.

Wanting to change is the first step towards making that change. But, if you’ve found in the past that your attempts at change have often come to naught, it usually means there’s some deep resistance inside you that is preventing it. In order to make change, we need to find ways of letting go of the things that hold us back.

Before we proceed any further, let me reassure you that it’s OK to be anxious about making changes! It’s a perfectly normal human reaction. So you’re not weak or hopeless or useless if you feel this way.

Resistance to change is frequently linked to fear, which is often about not feeling safe. And if you don’t feel safe about doing something, no matter how much you (or other people) say you’ve got to do it, you’re unlikely to take any action towards trying to alter the situation. There may also be a nagging uncertainty that even if you can make this change, things aren’t necessarily going to be any better. You might even be afraid that you’re not going to be able to cope with any changes after you’ve made them.

Sometimes people find themselves in two minds about wanting to change. A part of you wants to and another part of you doesn’t. This brings stalemate. No movement and no change. It’s also possible to become so firmly attached to problems, that they become a protection against having to do anything about them! Again, you stay stuck.

If feeling unsafe is a big factor in you not making a much-needed or desired change, it’s incredibly important to find a way through that fear before you attempt to make any changes at all!

So how can you help yourself in that situation?

Well, remember that any resistance or anxiety you feel around the idea of making changes is going to be lodged somewhere in your body. So energy work is clearly indicated and my suggestion is to use EmoTrance in the first instance. It’s such a gentle way of shifting energy and always allows you to work at your own pace. This is important because you need to be very kind to yourself when trying to open up to the possibility of change, particularly if you’ve been stuck in this area for some time. If you can accept that safety issues are preventing you from letting go and moving on, and you’re willing to work slowly and carefully on that, then you can begin.

Exercise 48 will help you gain skill in making changes. Notice that you’re not trying to make any specific change, you’re just moving towards a point where it feels less scary to even contemplate making a change.

Exercise 48: Approaching Change

Ask yourself, “When I think about how unsafe it feels to change, where do I feel that in my body?”

Put your hands on your body exactly where you feel this energy of “unsafe-ness”. Ask yourself where this energy wants to flow. Encourage it to move by stroking it in its chosen direction. Soften and flow and allow it to move.

Keep going till it feels as though it’s gone.

Take a big breath and then go back inside your body to check whether you feel more at ease with the idea of making some change(s).

If there’s still a feeling in your body around that anxiety, where do you feel it? Take yourself through the EmoTrance process again until you feel more at ease with the idea of going into this at a deeper level.

It’s unrealistic at this stage to imagine that you can let go of all your anxiety about change. But, if you can get to a point where it’s subsided enough for you to feel a lot safer, then it’s OK to proceed further—if you feel ready.

Once you’re feeling safer about the idea of change you could then try shifting into another gear with this way of working. Let’s suppose, for example, that you’re thinking of selling up (or leaving) where you live at the moment and moving out to a particular place in the country. You could now begin to explore some of the feelings and emotions which are underlying that fear. Try completing the statements below:

• The downside to making these changes is ______ (by “downside”, I mean how might making this change cause you further problems?)

• Thinking about making these changes reminds me of ____ .

• Rather than making these changes, what I really want is ____ .

• I’d be more willing to make these changes if ____ .

This should give you some clarity on what’s going on for you beneath the surface.

You could also explore anything that came up when you completed these statements by using a mixture of EmoTrance and EFT. (Both these techniques work seamlessly together and are an amazingly good combination to use when relevant.) Exercise 49 guides you through how to do this.

Exercise 49: Making Changes Using EmoTrance and/or EFT

Suppose the thought of moving to the country brings up painful childhood memories of leaving your familiar home and moving to a strange place that felt lonely and uncomfortable. Identify where you feel the pain of this memory in your body and EmoTrance it.

If you should find the energy doesn’t move, you may need to be more focused on precisely what’s coming up for you, in which case, you should try using EFT on it as follows:

First, calibrate the intensity

Example Setup: “Even though the thought of making this move reminds me of ____, I deeply and completely accept myself” (say this three times while tapping on the Karate Chop).

Example Reminder Phrase: “It reminds me of ____ ”(tapping twice through all the other points in the EFT sequence)

Breathe and re-calibrate

Keep going through the Setups and Rounds till you’ve got to zero

If any other aspects around this issue come up, work through each of them until you get the intensity down to zero. To help you really nail the core of the problem, you might find it useful to ask yourself the following questions and use EFT or EmoTrance on what comes to mind:

• Who might be jealous or upset if I make this change?

• What will people expect of me if I make this change?

• What will I do if this change doesn’t make things any better?

Remember: If you can’t shift stuff with EmoTrance, then switch to EFT.

As you can see, dealing with resistance and making changes needs to be approached with great care and patience and a willingness to spend as much time on this as you need. However, if you find it’s too difficult to handle on your own, do seek out a qualified EmoTrance or EFT practitioner in your area to help you. Remember that Energy Therapy doesn’t tie you up for weeks, months and years but can help you to make effective positive shifts, often very quickly. You may only need a few sessions to get you over the initial difficulties and then find you’re able to continue doing further work on your own.

Additional insights about the situation may arise from journaling and writing out how you’re feeling, so you could also use a combination of this with EFT and EmoTrance.

Autumn Traditions

There are many things that can help you prepare for Autumn, but here are two I’ve found very helpful:

• Clear out clutter: letting go of stuff you don’t need on an outer level encourages the same process on an inner one (Chapter 9).

• Do some Space Clearing: it creates supportive energies in your home to help with any transition (see Chapter 10).

For the ancient Celts, the drawing in of the autumnal nights brought to mind the forces of darkness and the evils of men. This caused them to begin focusing more on the Light as an antidote and a reminder that good can triumph over evil. They wove these concepts into rituals and revelry and this gave birth to the many Festivals of Light which are celebrated at this time of year. These festivals are still observed today in many different cultures around the world making this period a truly magical time, full of intensely building spiritual vibrations which continue throughout Autumn and into Winter.

A Festival of Light is about cleansing and washing away the sins and misdeeds of mankind. It’s also about banishing evil, starting afresh, rejoicing in the family, appreciating friendships, and, often, about the giving and receiving of gifts. The most well known of the Light Festivals is of course the Christian tradition of Christmas, with all its emphasis on lights (cleansing) and bells (clearing), the giving of gifts and, of course, not forgetting the birth of the Christian Saviour of Mankind, Jesus Christ. Other notable Light Festivals include Diwali (sometimes known as the Hindu Christmas) where people light candles and lamps to symbolise the victory of light over darkness. There’s also a Jewish Festival of Lights called Hanukah where the lamps which are lit symbolise good overcoming evil.

All the major religions traditionally use candles and lamps as symbols to represent their spirit or soul being cleansed and purified and you’ll find that Light is used in this context in temples, mosques and churches all over the world. Candles are lit for invocations and worship. Light is also used to signify the summoning of higher energies and as such is very powerful.

Exercise 50 is a lovely meditation I learnt many years ago that invokes the spirit of Light and is an excellent way of cleansing your Chakras or energy centres.

Exercise 50: The Flame

Sit in a comfortable meditation position with your back straight. Close your eyes and come into your breath. Spend time following your breath (Exercise 4: The Power of Thought) until the chatter in your mind is quieter.

Then imagine that deep, down inside you at the base of your torso (Base Chakra), a small flame is burning. Imagine it like the small flame given off by a votive candle. There it is, burning and glowing softly, deep down inside of you.

Bring all of your attention to this small flame and visualise it flickering gently with a small aura surrounding it. Now, imagine that as you watch it the flame grows taller, and as it does, the light around it expands and grows larger and wider. Imagine the tip of the flame extending up towards your belly button (Second Chakra), the bright light fills your lower torso and abdomen, your legs, and your feet.

Now, as you gaze upon the flame, it continues to grow taller, and the tip of the flame extends upwards towards your diaphragm area. As it does, the light in your lower torso expands upwards to fill your body to just underneath the breast line (Third Chakra).

And still the flame grows taller. Now the tip of the flame extends up towards your heart (Heart Chakra), and as it does so, the light expands even more and fills your entire chest area.

The whole of your torso is now filled with light.

And the tip of the flame continues to grow, reaching up now towards your throat (Throat Chakra), filling your throat with its light. As it reaches your throat, the light also fills up your arms and your hands.

The flame continues to grow higher. Now it extends up to that place between your eyebrows (Brow Chakra) which is known as the eye centre. As it does, it fills your head with its light.

The flame climbs higher still, now reaching up to the crown of your head (Crown Chakra). When it reaches this point, the light within you expands and stretches out beyond the confines of your body, filtering out into your aura, filling it with light.

Your entire body and aura is now filled with light. You’re surrounded by a bubble of healing light. Let the light fill every part of you—your bones, muscles, organs, cells—and bathe in it. Nothing can harm you. All is well.

Enjoy being in this place for as long as you wish.

When you’re ready, come back into the room slowly and open your eyes.

Rest a while in the afterglow of this experience.

Autumn Celebration

I can’t close this chapter without offering you a ritual for celebrating the Autumn Equinox! Remember to check the date as it changes from year to year. Doing these rituals is very helpful for evoking the energy of the time and complements the work you can do on yourself at each season. (As before, feel free to create your own interpretation of it if you prefer.)

Before doing this ritual, it’s particularly important to have prepared some good food for eating afterwards, because it so completely symbolises the sense of Autumnal plenty and abundance. Try to use some seasonal produce in whatever dishes you prepare. This would be another time when you could invite some like-minded friends along to join you and make it more of a celebration. Or do the ritual on your own first and then invite good friends—like-minded or not—to come and join you afterwards!

Exercise 51 is my version.

Exercise 51: A Ritual for the Autumnal Equinox

A few days beforehand, start looking for some beautiful natural things to use as offerings for this ritual. You might choose some spectacular autumn leaves or fabulous pine cones, or some interesting pebbles or shells.

The night before the Equinox, spend time journaling about your harvest and making a list of the following:

• All the things you’re grateful for.

• All the things you’d like to manifest in your life.

• All the negative things you’d like to release.

• All the areas in your life where you need to achieve a better balance.

On the day of the Equinox, create an altar. Spread your altar with fabric in the autumnal colours of red, orange, gold and brown. If you like, put a joss stick and holder on the altar with your favourite aroma. Perhaps place a vase of flowers there together with red, orange or gold candles, as well as a bowl or basket of autumn produce containing apples, squash, gourds, grapes, pomegranates, and nuts, etc. Add a fine loaf of bread. If you can find them, add some corn dollies.

Place all the things you’ve chosen for your offering on a small tray together with a glass of wine or cider. Add a few votive candles and scatter some flower heads around the objects. Keep this tray to the side of the altar until you need it.

When you’re ready to begin, take off your shoes and light all the candles and the joss sticks, including the votive candles on the tray you’ve prepared with your offerings.

Pick up the tray and stand with it in front of your altar.

Centre yourself well by connecting to your Hara and breathe into the Hara area (Exercise 32: Hara Breathing). This will help you to ground and connect to the Earth. Stay with this for a few moments.

When you’re ready, raise the tray of offerings aloft and give thanks out loud for your personal harvest, blessings and abundance. You could say something like:

Dear Mother Earth/Universe/Mother–Father God/Divine Spirit/God
(or use whatever form of address feels right for you),
I give thanks for all the blessings and abundance I’ve received this year.
I give thanks for all the blessings and abundance which are to come.
Please receive these offerings with all my gratitude and appreciation.”

Place the tray of offerings and votive candles on the altar with great reverence. Then sit down to meditate.

As you turn your mind inwards, recall those areas of yourself that don’t serve you well (like behaviours or attitudes) and that you’d like to let go of or change. Imagine they’re just lots of little pieces of energy which are shaped like leaves. And as you sit there in meditation, visualize them gently releasing themselves from the branches of the trees and falling down to the ground where they’ll become compost for the earth and make it a fertile place for new things to grow.

Stay with this image for as long as you wish. Then, when you feel ready, come back, open your eyes and take your time to stand up.

Now, reach for that glass of wine or cider which was on your tray of offerings. If you have a garden, take it outside and pour it on the earth as a final offering. If you don’t have a garden, sip it yourself and give thanks once more!

Then enjoy your feast!

Let the Light lift you up!

Wonderful gifts and blessings

to each and every one of you!