Transitions: Autumn Equinox
Summer/Fall 2024
The Autumn Equinox occurred this past Sunday, September 22. Day and night were nearly equal in length. In fact, the word “equinox” comes from Latin for “equal night.” Two days each year we have equal amounts of daylight and darkness as the earth’s axis changes between tilting toward the sun and away from the sun. From anywhere on the planet, sunrise will be due east and sunset due west. The rest of the year, sunrise and sunset are slightly more northerly or southerly and not actually due east or west.
On an email listserv I’m on for a local yoga studio, the equinox is described as “an ideal time for a reset, to let go of the old and make space for the new. It’s your invitation to tweak those daily rituals, kick-start new habits, and make moves toward the life (and peace) you want.” It left me curious and wanting to explore why it’s an ideal time. The equinox is a transitional time, in and of itself. It marks the end of one season and the beginning of the next. Much like New Year’s Eve/Day, it makes for a great transition marker if you need to “let go of the old and make space for the new” without having to wait for New Year’s.
I also read an opinion article recently exploring whether September is a summer month or a fall month for those of us in the northern hemisphere. We often say that Labor Day marks the end of summer in the U.S. Yet the equinox coming three weeks into the month, after approximately seventy-five percent of the month is over, would suggest that September should be in the summer category instead. Either way, one thing is for sure, September is a transitional month. It does not fall neatly in one category, instead being an in-between time.
One word for transitional and in-between is liminal. Liminal comes from the Latin word, limin, which means threshold. Yet instead of being a synonym for transitional, liminal is most often used to mean subtle, just barely perceptible, right over the threshold. The equinox is the threshold between the sun being slightly northerly or southernly. It is barely distinguishable from the day before or the day after. After all, the times of sunrise and sunset change slightly every day. The transition that occurs on the equinox is liminal; it’s hardly noticeable.
Many transitions are gradual and slow-moving where it can be hard to pinpoint the exact moment something changed. Yet we tend to want to be able to identify that moment, especially if we missed it when it was happening. We find ourselves asking, “When did that happen?” about a shift that was so subtle, we noticed after it occurred but not during the transition itself.
The equinox is a regular transition, every six months, spring and fall, as the earth changes its tilt toward the sun and away from the sun. It’s measurable; it’s noticeable. Other changes are not; they are more liminal, with a subtler threshold that you might miss even if you’re paying attention. God works the same way: sometimes more noticeably and we’re aware in the moment; other times in the background, slowly, subtly effecting transformation in creation.
Whether you are in the midst of obvious transitions or ones you won’t notice until afterward, may you have some peace of mind about them, knowing that life, and September, are full of changes.