“Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.”
-- Robert Fulghum
Sermon Part 1 - “Celebrations of the Autumnal Equinox” by Pam Blosser
This Friday, September 23rd, is the autumnal or fall equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. An equinox occurs twice a year, when the tilt of the Earth's axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun. From the Earth’s perspective it appears the Sun is directly over the equator. The name "equinox" is derived from the Latin aequus (equal) and nox (night), because around the equinox, night and day have approximately equal length.
Through time and space the equinox has been observed and celebrated by many cultures on the planet. It marks not only the passage of time, but more importantly, the turning of the seasons representing cycles of growth and unfoldment. It is a time to honor as well as forgive what has come before and to allow ourselves to move into the next cycle of our learning.
The autumnal equinox is a time of reaping what we have sown, whether productive or non-productive. It is a time to observe the light and darkness with equanimity and in balance, seeing both as a beautiful dance of yin and yang, not only balancing but completing the other. For how can we truly come to see and know the light if there are no shadows? Yes, there is a time and a season for both.
To the astrologer, on the day of the fall equinox, the sun enters the sign of Libra -- the constellation which according to Roman mythology, depicts the scales held by the goddess of justice. Libra is also considered the goddess of balance and truth.
Ancient cultures were fascinated with the equinox and built huge structures honoring the movement of light through the heavens as it shown on the Earth.
In ancient Ireland the spring and fall equinoxes were celebrated. A cluster of megalithic cairns are scattered through the hills northwest of Dublin. One of them was designed so that the light from the rising sun on the spring and fall equinoxes penetrates a long corridor illuminating a backstone decorated with astronomical symbols.
In Britain, Stonehenge and other stone structures were aligned so that the solstices and equinoxes could be determined. At this time of the year, the ancient Druids also conducted a mock sacrifice of a large wicker-work figure which represented the vegetation spirit.
Here on this side of the Atlantic, there is a 4,000 year old megalithic site located on Mystery Hill in Salem, New Hampshire. Researchers have concluded that this site, called “America’s Stonehenge” was erected either by Native Americans or an unknown migrant European population. The site contains five standing stones and one fallen one in a linear alignment which point to both the sunrise and sunset at the spring and fall equinoxes.
From NATIVE AMERICAN SPIRITUALITY there are countless other stone structures created in the past and still standing in North America. One, called Calendar One by its modern-day finder, is in a 20-acre natural amphitheatre in Vermont. From a stone enclosure in the center, one can see a number of vertical rocks and other markers around the edge of the bowl. These markers indicated the sunrise and sunset at the both equinoxes and the winter and summer solstices.
Similarly, the ancient Mayans constructed a pyramid at Chichen Itza which displayed different patterns of triangles of light at the time of the solstices and equinoxes, the dates signaling the start of a harvest, planting, or a religious ceremony. On the fall equinox, seven triangles become visible on the pyramid's staircase.
During medieval times the Christian Church replaced earlier Pagan solstice and equinox celebrations with Christianized observances. Replacing the fall equinox is Michaelmas, the feast of the Archangel Michael, on September 29. By Michaelmas the harvest had to be completed and the new cycle of farming would begin. It was a time for beginning new leases, rendering accounts and paying the annual dues. Michaelmas was celebrated with a traditional well-fattened goose which had fed on the stubble of the fields after the harvest. In many places, there was also a tradition of special large loaves of bread baked only for that day.
NEOPAGANISM is a group of religions which are attempted re-creations of ancient Pagan religions. The most popular of these, Wicca, is loosely based on ancient Celtic beliefs, symbols and practices, with the addition of some more recent rituals. On the autumnal equinox, many Wiccans observe Mabon, celebrating the second harvest and the beginning of winter preparations. It is the time to respect the impending dark while giving thanks to the sunlight. It is a time for feasting together with family and friends. In the past when most were farmers, this festival mainly celebrated the harvest of food crops; in the present day, it can also apply to the “seeds of dreams and wishes” that were planted earlier in the year.
In JAPAN the spring and autumn equinoxes are observed as a six-day celebration: the Higan-e, celebrated for three days before and after each equinox. The ritual for the Higan-e includes repentance of past sins and prayers for enlightenment in the next life. It also includes remembrance of the dead with visits to family graves, which are cleaned and decorated and with offerings of Buddhist prayers and food. It is thought that the spring and autumn equinoxes, being the most temperate times of the year, are ideal moments to reflect on the meaning of life.
In China the Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, dates back more than 3000 years and is celebrated around the time of the full moon nearest the September equinox. It celebrates the abundance of the summer's harvest and one of the main foods is the mooncake filled with lotus, sesame seeds, a duck egg or dried fruit. The mooncake originated from the ancient tradition of making offerings to the sun in the spring and to the moon in the autumn. The Moon Festival is also a time for families to get together and people often travel long distances to be with their loved ones. The streets are decorated with lanterns, incenses are burned and fire dragon dances take place.
The CHUMASH, a Native American tribe from southern California, celebrate their fall equinox sun ceremony during their month of Hutash (September). It takes place after the harvest is picked, processed and stored. At this time the spiritual thoughts of the tribe would become focused on the importance of unity in the face of winter confinement, death and rebirth.
Finally, in the Jewish traditions two important holidays fall around the time of the autumnal equinox. One of these, Rosh Hashanah, is commonly known as the Jewish New Year. The Jewish New Year is a time to begin introspection, looking back at the mistakes of the past year and planning the changes to make in the new year. No work is permitted on Rosh Hashanah and much of the day is spent in synagogue.
A popular observance during this holiday is eating apples dipped in honey, a symbol of the wish for a sweet new year. Another practice of the holiday is Tashlikh (“casting off”). Observers walk to flowing water, such as a creek or river, and empty their pockets into the river, symbolically casting off their sins. Small pieces of bread are commonly put in the pocket to be cast off.
The second holiday is Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur is about balancing light and dark: seeking to illuminate our deeds, yet acknowledging the mystery of our human fraility. The autumn equinox, which marks when the days begin to grow shorter than the nights, is a time of going into darkness. So, too, on Yom Kippur we probe what we have covered over or forgotten, taking a journey into our own dark places (both good and bad memories) to remember who we truly are, and who we want to be.
As the nights grow longer, time is spent telling the stories of ancestors and remembering traditions. From this, the listener may learn who he or she might become. Yom Kippur is a time to connect with the ancestors through prayer, remembering loved ones, and telling the stories of ancient patriarchs and matriarchs, in order to seek role models for the future.
The autumn equinox calls to mind the harvest, the renewal of life, and the wonders of creation and many cultures celebrate it as a day to be grateful for the Earth’s bounty. Both Yom Kippur and the equinox are days to acknowledge the creative, healing potential of the Earth. May Yom Kippur and the equinox bring us balance, humility, gratitude and the wisdom of our ancestors.
Sermon Part 2 - “A More Balanced Life” by Barbara Jauhola
“Time is a holy thing. It is mysterious and elusive while being practical and substantial. Because of the ways we measure time and because we coordinate our lives by the passage of time, we can sometimes have an artificial sense of managing time. The truth is that none of us can manage time any more than we can manage a hurricane or manage the seasons. … We can’t control time, but we can mark it.” So say Lonni Collins Pratt and Father Daniel Homan, in “Benedict’s Way: An Ancient Monk’s Insights for a Balanced Life.”
Observing and honoring the changing of the seasons as we are doing today is one way we can mark time. At the autumnal equinox the hours of daytime sunlight and nighttime darkness are nearly equal, and this fact was the seed thought for a worship service that incorporated the concepts of time, seasons, and balance. It immediately brought to my mind this morning’s opening words from Ecclesiastes: “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”
When I phoned our church administrator, Janis Hooper, minutes before the deadline for the Uniter with this Sunday’s topic/title, “Time for Everything,” I had no idea how ironic those words would later sound. The past seven days since I returned from vacationing in Vermont have been a blur of meetings, special events, appointments, and due dates, not just at my work place but also for church, political, and personal activities. It seemed as though the universe was doing its best to disprove Einstein’s statement that “the only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.” Of course, everything wasn’t happening at once … and I knew that. It just was one of those times in life when achieving a balance was very difficult, nearly in possible, in fact.
Much has been written about the importance to our physical and emotional health and well being of maintaining a balance between our work and our personal lives. But our lives are much more complicated than simply a division into work and non-work. As Hillary Clinton observes, “Our lives are a mixture of different roles. Most of us are doing the best we can to find whatever the right balance is.” Many of us have multiple roles: there is our “work” or “job” or “profession” which can take up a very large portion of our time and sometime overflows into what could be our personal or private time. Technology, which was supposed to make our lives easier and less stressful, has in some ways made us slaves to it, allowing work to follow us home at night, into the weekends, and even to tag along with us when we claim to be “on vacation.”
Our personal or private time is taken up with meeting the needs and responsibilities of a variety of roles with family (as spouse/partner, parent, grandparent, aunt/uncle, sister/brother, child of aging parents), friends (as confidant, companion, correspondent), church (as RE teacher, committee or board member, volunteer), and community (as volunteers, activists, campaigners). With all these roles, there is always someone or something to answer to. There are so many things that we must do, but there are also many things that we want to do. Finding a way to balance what we need to do with what we enjoy is a challenge – it is not easily accomplished.
St. Benedict, the founder of Western monasticism, was born more than a millennium and a half ago, in 480 A.D., into a culture in some respects as turbulent as the present day. The Roman Empire had just collapsed and many formerly stable cultural institutions were in a state of upheaval and change, splintering into different factions.
Amidst the chaos of this time Benedict brought forth a simple plan for living in order, sense, and peace – known now as The Rule of St. Benedict. He was careful to articulate in his rule that there must be time for everything: Work. Sleep. Food. Companionship. Solitude. Noise. Silence. Reading.
Most of us accept as a given that spending too much time on work will eventually lead us to burn out. But we can get out of balance when we spend too much of ourselves in any one activity. Too much solitude can make us self-absorbed. Too much sleep and we can become lazy. Too much play and we risk becoming pleasure-seeking fools. Too much mindless activity and our souls become starved. A balanced life has moderate portions of all things needed to nourish and sustain the mind, body, heart, and soul.
Balance does not mean spending equal time on everything. A first step toward a more balanced life is to establish what our priorities are – based on what we value, what is most important to us? Those are the areas of our lives to which we should devote the most time and energy. These priorities likely will shift and change over time, depending on our age and stage in life. No matter what our highest priorities are, we should try not to juggle too many big projects or plans at once.
Of course, this is not always something that we can control – as the saying goes “stuff happens.” There will always be unexpected problems, roadblocks and crises – some trivial which we can let pass without undue stress and some serious and life-altering. When the major family or career crisis happens, it may require devoting the major part of our time and energy to dealing with it and balance may have to wait until things are more settled. When life is back to more normal flow, it is important to take time for rest and activities that support healing and rejuvenation. Even during the crisis period, whenever possible, we should try to take time each day for activities which are enjoyable, even if it is just for a few minutes at a time.
The importance of this became clear to me during my recent vacation time on the family farm in Vermont. While certainly not a crisis, that week had the potential to be very stressful and far from a relaxing respite from work. My brother-in-law had a list of “things to do” that he expected my sister and me to assist him in accomplishing. Leisure activities were nowhere on his list, but such things as digging a trench around the house, cutting and removing brush, hauling away downed trees, and spraying mold retardant on the damp basement ceiling beams were. My sister and I helped him complete all those tasks and more, but we also managed to squeeze in some pleasurable activities: gazing at the stars and the Milky Way late at night, having dinner with our 93 year old neighbor and his family, visiting his 94 year old wife at the rehabilitation center, pruning the hydrangea bushes and apple trees, and making a big batch of apple sauce. Probably most important for helping maintain my own emotional balance was the half-mile hike up Turkey Hill that I took early every morning. It provided physical activity, some needed solitude, and a chance to enjoy the beauty and solace of being out in nature.
In part 1 of today’s sermon, we heard of many different rituals and customs that people have for celebrating the equinox and I would like to close with one more – one which may already be familiar to you. This is the “balancing egg” ritual – many eggs are brought out on the autumnal and spring equinoxes to be carefully balanced upright. But while it is indeed possible to get an egg to stand upright on the autumnal and spring equinoxes, it is also possible to do this on any other day of the year. It just takes a bit of practice and a large amount of patience. The same is true for achieving a more balanced life – it may require us to make a turn and break some old habits (and practice some new ones), but it certainly is possible and it surely is a goal to strive toward.
So let us live balanced lives – learning some and thinking some and drawing and singing and dancing and playing and working some every day!
