Calendar of the Sun
Aequinoctium Autumnale
Colors: Brown and Orange
Element: Earth
Altar: Upon cloth of brown and orange, patterned with autumn leaves, place a basket of fallen
leaves, barrels of straw, shovels, spades, a bowl of rainwater, and seeds for cover crops.
Offerings: Turn under and mulch the used land.
Daily Meal: Vegetarian.
Aequinoctium Autumnale Invocation
Earth, we have eaten of your bounty!
You have fed us, and we are content.
We have worked you hard, and you have responded
With generosity and fruitfulness.
Now, as the year draws on, and the Sun
Shortens its days and counts the moons
Until its chilly death and incandescent rebirth,
We gift you as you have gifted us,
We care for you as you have cared for us,
We give back that we may continue to take,
Year after year, cycle after cycle.
Do not think, O Mother, that we are merely selfish,
And would only rape you of your bounty.
Our hands shall toil that you may have,
If only in this one small place,
Richness to take back for yourself.
For we know the hard secrets of the cycle,
And we will someday give ourselves
Back to your quiet embrace.
Chant:
Leaves falling
To our hands
Autumn calling
Cover all the land
(All take up the buckets of leaves and straw, and the spades, and go out to the garden. Some will
turn over the soil, and others shall follow with cover crop seeds and rainwater, or with mulch to
cover the ground. This shall be done throughout the Aequinoctium Autumnale days until all the
ground from this year's crops are covered.)
[Pagan Book of Hours]