September 12th ~ 19th
“Mnemosyne” by Dante Gabriel Rosetti
You shall ask What good are dead leaves And I will tell you They nourish the sore earth. You shall ask What reason is there for winter And I will tell you To bring about new leaves. You shall ask Why are the leaves so green And I will tell you Because they are rich with life. You shall ask Why must summer end And I will tell you So that the leaves can die. ~ Nancy Wood
Reach down, deep down into Persephone’s Lair, where the fair maid descends beneath the veil, where the rivers of memory and forgetfulness flow, and where we find both the inception and the end of all things earthly. Forgetfulness combines with sacrificial loss when the eclipses fall in Virgo and Pisces. But they also prepare us for enlightenment, by gathering the essence of all of our experiences, memories and life events. And so in the after-life the initiated were instructed to drink from the River of Mnemosyne, named for the goddess of Memory, in order to be released from he necessity of rebirth.
But as Persephone descends into the underworld at this time of year, Demeter wanders the earth in mourning, rending her garments and laying the lands barren of vegetation as she grieves in her sorrow. It is the Crone, Hecate, the Goddess of Winter, who finally comes to tell Demeter what came of her child. And it is after Mabon, and the Autumnal Equinox that we celebrate the season of the emerging Crone.
On the 21st-22nd the Autumnal Equinox stands at the balance between darkness and light. This year the Solar Eclipse occurs just before the Sun enters Libra giving this period extra significance as a turning point in our lives. This week we stand betwixt and between the two eclipses. In the veil between the worlds, all we can do is walk through to the other side.
And so between the Pisces and Virgo eclipses we are asked to also celebrate the emerging Crone. The Crones were the elders who carried the wisdom of the ages on their shoulders, which had been gathered and honed through sheer experience. In ancient times they served as story tellers, the teachers, the healers and guides who lead the way. And for each of us, there is this recognition that we are entering this dark time of year in order to go within, and meet our own inner Crone. We do this to assimilate all that we have gained, all that we have learned, not only so that we can better plan for the year ahead, but to be able to connect with spirit, so that we may never lose sight of what really matters in the end.
As I sit here at my husband’s bedside, I realize the lessons we can learn from the process of dying. The grief. The sacrifice. But also the sacred ritual of transition, including the need to withdraw from the outer world in order to commune inwardly with spirit. Gathering the experience of lifetimes and lifetimes, we can then carry that pure essence forward. There can be beauty in liminal spaces, in the pauses in breaths, in the gradual withdrawal from what was, in order to then face what is yet to come. May we never lose sight of the things that truly matter, for that is what we will bring with us in the end. And so may it be.
Sink down, sink down, sink deeper and deep
Into eternal and primordial sleep.
Sink down, forget, be still and draw apart
Into the inner earth’s most secret heart.
Drink of the waters of Persephone
The secret well beside the sacred tree.
I am the secret queen, Persephone.
All tides are mine, and answer unto me.
Tides of the airs, tides of the inner earth,
the silent secret tides of death and birth-
Tides of men’s souls and dreams, and destiny-
Isis veiled and Rhea, Binah, Ge.
~Dion Fortune