​As we enter Mabon properly I can’t help but feel excited as the beauty of Autumn envelopes us. Yes, it’s sad to say goodbye to the hazy summer days, but Autumn is just such a lovely season. Crisp mornings, crunchy leaves and the world begins its journey into quiet calm. Not to mention the best season of all (for me), Samhain is quickly approaching.

Ceremony Weavers of the Wheel has had the joy of facilitating ceremonies to celebrate the glorious exciting spring energies, sensuous Beltane, and joyous summer, but autumn’s call to return to deep inner spiritual workings is irresistible.

​A simple thing you can do to open yourself to the changing energies is make a change yourself. So this season we invite you to mix up your routine. This could be something small. Maybe switching off the radio or TV in the morning and looking out of the window or sitting outside in the crisp air. Maybe get off the bus one stop early and walk part of the way home. I for example always do a particular walk on a Wednesday, and I always find myself going around the park the same way round, yet this week I chose to walk round in the other direction.

​The stability of the routine walk is great for body and soul, yet a simple tweak of walking a different or reverse way opens you up to noticing again. So often we are caught up in the business of our minds, by mindfully mixing things up it causes us to take notice, and at this time of year spiritual messages may be coming through that we miss. Awaken your senses and take notice once more before we return to a time of stillness and reflection. Be open to change, be open to receive, what message does the universe want you to receive?

​We invite you to join us at our ceremonies if you can, and journey through the dark half of the year with us!

​They will all be on a Sunday 12-1:30pm

18th September - Mabon
30th October - Samhain
18th December - Yule

​Bristol Goddess Temple has been so happy to call Warmley Clocktower our home for an amazing 5 years. The temple space is so lovely and peaceful and was decorated perfectly for our needs. 

​As our community has grown we have been using the larger room next-door for many of our events; Moonlodge Red Tent, turn of the Wheel ceremonies, singing and chanting, gong meditations, Children's hour and many more. This room has witnessed and held us through both tears of joy and sadness.

​So to honour what this room gives to us, and for the other communities using the space, The Friends of Bristol Goddess Temple decided it was time to give back!

​The tired yellow walls have been given some TLC. A fresh coat of paint has been lovingly applied, the white stone wall refreshed! We have also painted one wall white so it will be suitable for a projector for talks. Curtains have been made in a lustrous green to give privacy when needed.

​We are so happy and honoured to have been allowed by the custodians of the building to do this and we hope it brings joy to people who attend our events and the many other groups who use the room. 

​As the Wheel turns towards the Autumn Equinox, we become more and more aware of the Earth moving into the darker half of the year, with changes in the light, the temperature and the trees, animals and plants all around us.

​Many will celebrate this festival as Mabon, while in the Avalonian tradition, we honour the Earth Goddess: Banba, Gaia, Mother of harvest – the second harvest of fruits and berries.

​Druids celebrate this season as Alban Elfed, marking the time of balance between light and dark, a sacred pause to look back with gratitude for the blessings of Spring and Summer, while acknowledging the power and potential of the approaching darkness.

​Without the descent of the vital energy of the plants into their roots, the moist richness of the falling leaves blanketing and nourishing the earth, and the cold that brings rest and hibernation, there will be no glorious green Spring and abundant Summer!

​We don’t have evidence from prehistory of specific celebrations of the equinox, but there is no doubt that the changes in the earth and the sky would have been observed by our ancestors, whose lives and survival depended on living in step with the natural world.

​Autumn would have been a time of harvesting and storing nuts, berries and roots, finding ingenious ways to preserve them for the winter months. Often when we celebrate harvest we focus on the blessings of abundance and manifestation, but there is another aspect to the harvest: a lot of work and husbandry is still needed before that abundance can be transmuted into nourishment that will keep us warm and fed until we start to see the green shoots of Spring again.

​Today we are lucky enough to have lots of options at our disposal for making the most of Autumn’s bounty: we can make jams, vinegars, honeys, alcoholic tinctures; we can cook, bake and freeze, as well as drying or pickling our harvest, whether of hedgerow or garden.

​However, it’s easy to get carried away, so if you are foraging, remember to leave plenty on the bushes for the birds and small mammals.

​How do you mark the Autumn Equinox? If you’re someone who greets it with sadness for the end of summer and dread of the nights drawing in and the cold months, you might want to find a way of bringing in the light and warmth in small rituals, whether with candles, incense or a meditative few minutes with an uplifting warm drink.

​Get as much daylight as you can, especially in the morning – even 20 minutes will be beneficial. Maybe keep a journal for the dark half of the year and explore your feelings around it.

​If you love and look forward to this time, may you find the time you need to rest in the autumnal hush and sense the Earth drawing in, ready for her own long rest.

​Either way, the Bristol Goddess Temple is the perfect place to connect with the energies of the season and all are welcome, whatever your path.

​Blessings of the Autumn Equinox to you!