Holding Light in the Darker Season

 

This weekend, a friend and I wandered through the Forest—happily roaming, getting lost and finding our way again. The air smelt crisp and clear. Streams ran through the valleys, adding a moist and mossy scent to the woods. We met such abundance: delicious mushrooms to take home, multitudes of toadstools left in their place. The majestic trees created canopies and pathways, arches like temple entrances, magic places. Their roots wove visible patterns of interconnectedness beneath our feet.

 

I can struggle with the transition from summer's energy to this cooler, moister, darker season. But being out in nature? It helps me immensely. As the outer light fades, I must find my inner light—not by pretending the darkness doesn't exist, but by standing upright within it.

 

Today is Michaelmas, September 29th—a festival that's held significance for me since I worked in a community with children with additional needs when I was 20. I love its teaching for this threshold time: St Michael faces the dragon with great courage and contains it, but doesn't kill it. He remains standing in the light, acknowledging that the dragon-energy—our desires, our struggles, our instincts—continues to live within us and the world. It cannot be destroyed, only seen, acknowledged, engaged with, and held in right relationship.

 

This is the courage I witness when someone comes for healing: the courage to lie naked on the table, to invite touch after living with trauma, disconnection, or overwhelm for so long. Not to slay these parts of ourselves, but to meet them. To feel the roots of our own interconnectedness—light and shadow woven together—and to find our upright stance within it all.

 

What takes courage for you right now?