Fall.
Autumn.
The season of change.
And it has arrived. IT’S HERE!
I get oddly excited about this time of year. I was born in October, and have always had an unspoken connection to this season, which for me has always marked a time of anticipatory joy and transition, leading up to the dim-lit joyous holidays and birth of a new year (and snow . . . I like snow).
As a quick side, I should note that some of the best stories I’ve read in my life perfectly capture the essence of Autumn: namely Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle, and, certainly more notably, Ray Bradbury’s The October Country. Bradbury spoke my language when it came to October and the Autumn season, let alone being among my favorite authors of all time. The poetry in his prose has a universal element to it. It’s simple, mosaic, hard-hitting.
But I’m getting ahead of myself and certainly off track here. Let’s get back to September, the fall equinox, and the essence of change.
Last Friday, Sept. 22, marked the beginning of the fall season. And as the date came to be, I came upon two pieces online that spoke of this year’s equinox. Both pieces take a bit of an open mind to read, admittedly, but they both hone in on one truth: change is inevitable and as we enter this autumn in particular, the energy is ripe for us to make the changes we most seek in ourselves and our lives.
The first piece, September 22 Will Bring a Major Energetic Shift with the Autumn Equinox, talks about how this particular equinox is bringing about a universal energy shift. It lays out the idea that the energy brought about by this season “will be more focused on allowing our goals to meet their full potential.” It’s an interesting thing to think about, certainly an encouraging read, and I found it to be fitting for a season that is most notably associated with change (few places is this more evident than in the fall foliage, and being a native New Englander, I’ve bled foliage my entire life, so that image alone hits close to home).
Likewise, The Power Path’s September 2017 Monthly Forecast really digs deep into the importance of this season of change, specifically the idea of adjustment, how to maneuver through it and welcome the discomfort as things adjust. Discomfort is an inevitable part of change and rebirth, of course.
Quick note here that The Power Path website is associated with Jose Stevens, who wrote a book called Transforming Your Dragons: How to Turn Fear Patterns into Personal Power. I learned about this book earlier this year from Lauren Sapala, who spoke about it during Jacob Nordby’s Creative UnBootcamp workshop (he’s got another workshop coming up, by the way, and it’s revamped and looks awesome).
The ideas presented in Transform Your Dragons are mind blowing. It offers the idea of seven types of “dragons” that afflict us, all different based on our nature and lives. My primary dragon, I’ve come to realize, is the Self-Deprecation Dragon, which, not surprisingly, echoes in stark clarity the essence of what Steven Pressfield calls Resistance in The War of Art (Pressfield, probably not coincidentally, often refers to Resistance as a dragon in his work).
Transform Your Dragons is a veritable manual for rectifying your soul (I haven’t yet read the full book but have dug deep on the Self-Deprecation Dragon section because it has hit me so hard). I picked the book back up this past week and dove back into the essence of my dragon, how to battle this beast, why one must battle it, and what the true benefits of such a battle are (I plan to continue to use this as a guide along my own path). I was blown away; it’s like Stevens perfectly described the inner conflict of resistance I deal with on a daily basis, and have for a long time.
And so after coming across these recent elements on change and coming to terms with our biggest inner demons, I’ve come to further realize the importance of the idea that we are the artists and architects of our own lives. There’s a lot of spirituality in these pieces and in what I’m referring to here, of course, and honestly I have some serious beliefs about fate and where we come from and where we are going, but that’s beyond such a blog post. What is not beyond it is the idea what we can look at the Autumn season as a welcome rustic wooden door, one that’s always unlocked but often shut by our own hands, and is always ready for us to open it once again.
After weeks and months of the heaviest battle of resistance I’ve ever faced, I’m essentially on the cusp of opening that door, and as such have been arming my mind with the knowledge that what lies on the other side is a journey, the length of which is unknown, but also irrelevant. What’s relevant is knowing ahead of time that the journey will not be without pain, without discomfort, without the shedding of the mindset that has been around for a long time. There’s also this dragon on the other side, a shape-shifting beast that deceives at every turn.
What’s also relevant is knowing that the destination, the beacon, the source of the deep-down hum, will be visible and audible the entire way, reminding us that what we see as possible is possible. And that the destination is not an end, but simply another turning point.
But first, the door.
Photo courtesy PGIoutnay via Pixabay.
