Fall Equinox/Mabon and Compassion

This is an excerpt from a longer work I'm writing about contemplating virtues on our Wheel of the Year.

The Fall Equinox or Mabon is our second harvest holiday and some even call this the Witches Thanksgiving. Equinoxes call us to seek balance in our lives. We stop here to regain our balance again since the Spring equinox. Days are becoming shorter, the air is getting crisper, some of us will see the rain starting. We might find ourselves wanting a warm sweater at night or reveling in the last hot days until next summer. When we think of balance, we think of centering. That which is balanced is on its center, waiting there patiently, moving slightly to maintain that balance. Did you start any balancing practices at the Spring Equinox? Now is a good time to check in on your progress. Have you become lax or lazy? Have you kept it up and deserve a pat on the back? Did you find that what you thought you would like, now seems to not bring you any joy? What new practices are you willing to try?

As you’ve moved through this half of the year since the Spring Equinox, consider your actions and behaviors towards others. Now is the time to contemplate forgiveness. In the Jewish tradition, the time between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is a time of asking for and giving forgiveness, entering the new year with a clear heart. As Pagans, we can also approach our new year, Samhain, with a clear heart. How wonderful to approach our ancestors with a heart cleared to allow our love to shine forth. Maybe forgiveness is needed for a past hurt from a loved one who is no longer in the body. Maybe forgiveness is needed for something we’ve done that hurt another. How can we approach forgiveness as Pagans?

I see compassion as the route to balancing ourselves and finding forgiveness at this time of the year. Compassion for ourselves as growing, living beings and compassion for others. Compassion derives from the latin - compati - to suffer with. Compassion brings empathy into action. Through empathy, we see and attempt to understand another’s feelings. Compassion calls us to suffer with each other, to not only see the pain or hurt of others, but to actively engage in another’s pain and hurt. When we forgive, we shine compassion’s loving attention onto hurts we have caused or those that have caused us hurt. For some of us, only by cultivating compassion can we even consider forgiveness. Forgiveness releases ourselves primarily. It does not excuse bad behavior. Rather forgiveness can open us up to a compassionate understanding of what has harmed us. We may only be able to find compassion for another by seeing them as another hurt human being, not validating their choices, but recognizing that hurt human beings are not at their best. We can also choose not to forgive. If that is our path, compassion for ourselves is crucial. We are not wrong or unexamined or in denial if we do not see a way to forgive. And we need to give ourselves compassion for our own choices, knowing we all are changing, growing beings walking our paths this lifetime.

Compassion and love show us that we can also see that suffering with another demonstrates our profound connection to all other beings on this wondrous planet. “Earth, as well as all other living systems, have a magnetic field and scientists are discovering that these fields connect us all, and actually carry biologically relevant information. This information is suggesting that, not only can your actions affect yourself and others around you as well, but so can your thoughts, feelings and emotions. The way you feel changes the information coded into your magnetic field.”

https://www.collective-evolution.com/2018/11/29/scientists-explain-how-earths-magnetic-field-connects-all-living-systems/?fbclid=IwAR0Otn5cdJZ-9XIrRo_BUIBYKRYtfnqolwsEq0H7kfJx7lF2dSdXSDbQSSQ

When we are compassionate with love we radiate that into our auras and our magnetic field which in turn, affects others near and far from us. Imagine all pagans focusing on compassion with love at the Fall Equinox!