Salmon Fest

The Autumnal Equinox marks a moment of balance between light and dark, a turning point in the seasons. The days are growing steadily shorter; light is fading; tree leaves are turning; the harvest is being gathered in.  The turning of the year invites us to journey inward, to reflect, and to renew our faith, hope, and courage as the world of nature appears to be dying away and as darkness grows day by day.

Festivals in many cultures are practised at this time of year, perhaps little known and seldom celebrated by some in our modern world.  What is it about this time of year that has importance and relevance for our modern world?

We celebrate the central message of this time of year locally through honoring the running of the salmon and the active meteor showers which both represent a force that is highly relevant to the challenges of our age.  We are being called upon to summon courage and inner strength of will to meet the forces of destruction. Fear and evil are represented mythologically through story characters so as to give them a shape which can be visible and readily confronted.  Such stories and enactments encourage humanity to rally, with the aid of spiritual help, to defeat the embodiment of our challenges, thereby subduing evil.  Our modern world has become so much more complex than the ancient times from which many traditional stories emerged; the negative and destructive impulses now often travel in disguised and subtle forms.

Moral ambiguity abounds; it is not always easy to distinguish forces of good from forces of evil. Through our sophisticated development of technology, the boundaries of reality and fantasy have become blurred. We are weary from wars that have no clear outcome and no apparent point of victory.  Living within this modern reality, stories that offer a clear image of good vs. evil (through developing characters that endow each concept with its own shape and form) are therapeutic for children because issues become more manageable, infusing the foundation of morality with more clarity.

More than ever before, we need our inner practices, the anchor and support of the spiritual world, and the strength of true community. As the world of nature dies away and darkness wraps us in a mysterious blanket of wonder, facing our fears offers us the ability to illuminate what is awaiting us.  Confronting our self, recognizing the work that we are being called to do, and exerting our efforts in order for it to take form, channels our immense power into action for the good.  The balance of autumn equinox prepares us for the turning into the darkness, inviting us to awaken out of the dreaminess of summer and to bring full consciousness to ourselves and to the world around us. With the inspiration of the salmon we recall that, although our senses are attuned to the struggle that can accompany the dying away of the world around us, a cycle of new life is beginning which is yet to be revealed.

Original article by Liz Beavon, Dean of Program Development at the Fair Oaks Waldorf School

Adapted for Mother Earth School’s place-based programming by Kelly Hogan