I have called this talk

I have called this talk “The Evocative Season” because the Autumn Equinox does evoke some very serious subjects. The calendar year is ¾ gone. The pagan-wiccan year is 7/8 gone.The once youthful Goddess had become the wise elder, the crone. There is a melancholy quality to Autumn: the angled sun creating the long shadows. Yet autumn, on the right day, glitters gold like no other season.

The poem is the evocative form of writing. The poet sets the mood by word choice, the connotations of those words, perhaps the rhythm scheme. There is a melancholy in the poem “The Wild Swans at Coole” by William Butler Yeats. Like many of Yeats' poems, it is autobiographical. This was the situation: The year was l917 and Yeats was growing older. He had struck out on the great love of his life, Maude Gonne. He had even proposed to her daughter and been rejected.

Since l897 Yeats had begun spending his summers at Coole Estate and Park,in Ireland, where Lady Gregory, an Irish writer, lived with her husband. Yeats and Lady Gregory had as their principal interests Irish folklore and the Irish theatre. Yeats continued this practice even after his eventual marriage. His own wife, and Lady Gregory's husband were not a big part of this picture. In the poem, Willie feels very strongly the passing of time. The wild swans had always been on the pond at Coole but it was possible that even they could up and find another home. Therefore:Aren't we all torn by the passage of years, in some ways desiring change and in others wanting things to be exactly the same? Also, as Willie wrote this poem, a generation of young Englishmen were being wiped out in W. W. I. Our poet is Irish (Anglo-Irish) so was not caught up in the annhiliation. But still!

The trees are in their autumn beauty,
The woodland paths are dry,
Under the October twilight the water
Mirrors a still sky;
Upon the brimming water among the stones
Are nine-and-fifty Swans.
The nineteenth autumn has come upon me
Since I first made my count;
I saw, before I had well finished,
All suddenly mount
And scatter wheeling in great broken rings
Upon their clamorous wings.
I have looked upon those brilliant creatures,
And now my heart is sore.
All's changed since I, hearing at twilight,
The first time on this shore,
The bell-beat of their wings above my head,
Trod with a lighter tread.
Unwearied still, lover by lover,
They paddle in the cold
Companionable streams or climb the air;
Their hearts have not grown old;
Passion or conquest, wander where they will,
Attend upon them still.
But now they drift on the still water,
Mysterious, beautiful;
Among what rushes will they build,
By what lake's edge or pool
Delight men's eyes when I awake some day
To find they have flown away?

Here is another picture of Fall. Something that we might be more able to relate to:

I remember, a little more than 9 years ago, talking to a friend about the coming millennium friend was very excited about it, focusing on what might happen the the computers. The reason I am telling this story is that the autumn equinox is the time for this kind of reflection. We still had about 6 months to go and I remarked “What if 'something happened to us' before that'”, meaning that we should not be presumptuous about our future. My friend was incredulous: What could happen to us? Things do happen. Things have happened. We're l0 years older. In that l0 years, close friends have passed away.

The Jewish religion has a time called Elul. It is the last month of the Jewish year, and falls roughly around autumn equinox, but before Rosh Hashanah which is the Jewish civil New Year. Elul, like the Autumn Equinox, is a time for taking stock of one's life.Consider this reflection: (I will read it as a meditation, and invite you to shut your eyes and clear your mind- if you want to)

(Poem by Phyllis Sommer (http://blogs.rj.org/reform) The Month of Elul is Here

Each day dawns/beckoning me to/examine/elaborate/consider/remark/pay attention/

I would like to invite you to envision that any worries or anxieties that you have brought into this room, are not now here with you. You have left them outside the door.......go within, .....relax your bodies.....try to imagine, if you wish, that your eyeballs are looking not forward, but inward...to the space in back of the eyeball.....put yourself in a space where you feel very safe.

You have probably heard someone remark that they've seen some sign of the Fall, of the Autumn. Perhaps it is an outside thing, the coloring of the leaves. Or wandering through a market, noting that different vegetables have come in. Or the smell of paper, of new school supplies and books. Or autumn flowers. Or adding a blanket. Or none of these.

While I count slowly down from 10 to zero,, think of yourself on an elevator slowly descending..and as the virtual elevator descends, let your conscious descend, going deeper, .....and deeper.....and deeper...the elevator stops. And you are waiting for the door to open, but you've never come down this particular elevator so you are unsure what lies behind the door.

The door slowly slides open. Walk out the door and behold the season....Open yourselves up to the images.......to the smells...........to the feelings. Take a few minutes to explore any images and sensations that present themselves to you.

And now it is time to realize that this season of Libra, of perfect balance, equal light, equal darkness, asks some serious questions of all of us.

Does your life reflect this seasonal balance? Do you feel that you have a balanced life?

As the wheel turns, do you have the need to sift through what in your life YOU have harvested ?

Are there things that you need to rearrange-- things that are in your control, now.... so that your life is better balanced?

Autumn, like New Year's, is also a time to make resolutions. Can you think of just one resolution that you would like to make, or one change, knowing that sometimes when a person can make a small change, the results of that change could lead to a much bigger change in some good that might come into that person's life.