The Autumn Equinox: Honoring Balance, Release, and Renewal
The Balance of The Autumn Equinox
Twice each year, the Earth pauses in perfect symmetry. At the autumn equinox, day and night are equals, a fleeting balance before darkness begins its gentle reign. In this balance point, there is a quiet invitation: to honor the light that has carried us here and to prepare for the mystery of what comes next.
My birthday falls a few days before the Equinox each year and it always feels like the perfect month for new beginnings, powerful resets, but also, the sense of letting go.
Destruction is the perfect opposite of creation.
Nature teaches us to let go when the trees surrender their leaves not in fear but in brilliance, letting go with a final blaze of beauty. The air cools and crops ripen—a time to reap what we’ve sowed.
The equinox is a threshold, a moment to align our inner world with the rhythm of the cosmos.
Aligning with the Elements of Each Season
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, each season carries an element and an energy that shapes both nature and our bodies.
Late summer (which we just left) is ruled by the Earth element, grounding and nourishing, a time of harvest and stability. It is where we root ourselves before the winds of change.
Autumn belongs to the Metal element, crisp, clarifying, and reflective. Metal is about refinement, distilling what is essential and letting the rest fall away, like breath leaving the lungs.
Winter, which awaits just beyond, holds the Water element. It is stillness and depth, the fertile dark where new beginnings are conceived.
The equinox marks the turning of the wheel from Earth to Metal, late summer to fall. It reminds us that true strength lies not in holding on but in knowing what to release. By releasing, we create space. By entering the quiet, we prepare for renewal.
Grounding Rituals
This season is not only symbolic but deeply embodied. By attuning our daily practices to the rhythms of fall, we strengthen our bodies, calm our minds, and prepare our spirits for the months ahead.
Nutrition
Choose warm, cooked foods that support digestion such as soups, stews, and root vegetables.
Incorporate pears, apples, and daikon radish to moisten and clear the lungs, which are the organ of autumn in TCM.
Use warming spices like ginger, cinnamon, and cardamom to support circulation and immunity.
Breath and Movement
Practice slow, mindful breathing to strengthen the lungs and release grief or heaviness.
Gentle outdoor walks help you connect with the crisp air and shifting light while keeping energy moving.
Try qigong or tai chi to cultivate balance and harmony in the body.
Rituals of Release and Renewal
Declutter your home to mirror nature’s shedding of what is no longer needed.
Journal about what you are ready to release and what you want to carry into the darker months.
Create a gratitude practice that honors the harvest, both literal and symbolic.
The Inner Light and the Shadow
The equinox offers a fleeting balance of light and dark. It is a mirror for our own lives, reminding us to find harmony between effort and ease, movement and stillness, giving and receiving. It asks us to pause and breathe, to honor both our inner light and our shadow.
Balance is not a fixed state but a living practice. Like walking a path, each step is an adjustment, each breath a return.
Though fall leans toward endings, the equinox is also a beginning. In the wisdom of the East, every descent holds the seed of ascent.
Winter will not be an empty void but a deep well where new visions are conceived. To enter that season with clarity, we must release now, give thanks now, and balance now.
In this way, the autumn equinox becomes a sacred hinge. A chance to honor the full circle of life: harvest and release, dark and light, ending and becoming.
The equinox is not only a season. It is a teaching.
That life is cyclical. That letting go is sacred. That balance is possible. And that every ending, when embraced fully, is a new beginning waiting to be born.
