Celebrate the Equinox my friends,
The Fall Equinox is the second of the three major harvest festivals. The Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, begins the night before and signifies a time of forgiveness and new beginnings. September 21st is also the International Day of Peace, which has never been needed more.
On Sept 22nd. at 1:02 pm (PDT) as the Sun enters Libra, the Earth is in equal balance of day and night, of light and dark, of Yin and Yang. I think of the Equinox as the still point; that place where we can choose to be fully present in the moment and simply hold ourselves in readiness for transition. If you feel so moved, the time surrounding the Equinox is a powerful time for meditation, however you choose to enter into present moment and find your center.
We are in a time of re-balancing the energy of the masculine and feminine on this planet. It is also a time when many are challenging the notion that there are proper and agreed upon qualities to be assigned to what is masculine and feminine. It is my sense that much of western psychology continues to promote a skewed approach towards what is considered “normal” or “healthy” for each gender and our cultural biases continue to limit the vast range of human potential. According to author and therapist Terry Real, political patriarchy is just “the ocean we swim in” and it perpetuates the duality along with the preferential valuing of what is masculine while ascribing lesser value to what is feminine.
Blue Equinox - The water calls, Jaya 2017
The imbalance in the percentage of women leaders to males in all aspects of business and public life is one of the many effects of the unequal valuing of qualities that are arbitrarily assigned to ‘feminine.’ Patriarchal cultures hold inherently flawed judgments about women’s abilities and ‘rightful’ roles. The awareness of the divine feminine returning to our consciousness is beginning to create a different narrative of what qualities are part of the vast possibilities of both masculine and feminine and a stronger valuing of what might be deemed feminine as co-equal to what is deemed masculine. The new narrative is that they are both necessary to our culture and to life on Earth.
One of the most fundamental aspects of this re-balancing of masculine and feminine is promoting safe attachments with couples whether same gender or hetero. I have been a great fan of Emotionally Focused Therapy for many years because of the emphasis on creating safe adult attachments. It is a foundational for creating safe communities where diversity is celebrated and acceptance of differences is key in families as well as in the culture at large.
After twelve years of learning Indigenous wisdom, I know it can profoundly shift our perspectives away from duality and towards multifaceted, holistic approaches to the many challenges we face as a planet. There are three strong reasons for my belief: first, because Indigenous practices avoid dogma and external authorities in favor of instilling the wisdom that we are the creators of our own experience and we have a choice about the stories we tell; second, because the intention is to offer tools to create personal stories that are more in harmony with the self; and third, because the meaning making we create comes from a direct experience with the self and nature instead of ‘acquired knowledge’ from sources outside ourselves. This wisdom can move us out of the cultural boxes and into a deeply self-loving place, promoting safe relationships and a ‘do no harm’ philosophy.
Enjoy the still point of the Equinox, and I hope you will find harmony and compassion for your self as well as your loved ones and the world.
Many Blessings, Linda
lindasavagephd@goddesstherapy.com
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