Michaelmas and the Rhythms of the Earth: Awakening Courage in the Turning of the Year

By Greg Scott, Class Teacher, Practical Arts, College of Teachers

As we look out into the world at this time of the year, we experience the days becoming shorter, the temperature cooling, and the leaves beginning to change and drop. The morning mists are gathering on the water, and there might be frost on the windows as we get the children ready for their journey to school. The summer may still give one last hoorah, but we know that its time has passed. A change is happening, and a different, calmer, more inward time is approaching. The carefree time of the summer is over, and the familiar rhythm of the autumn with its wonderful festivals and activities is approaching.

If we allow ourselves to live into this feeling of the coming season and let it reside within us, we can become aware of a greater impulse living behind our fond memories. We might recognize something greater than ourselves or what we can bring to this time. There is a certain mood of drawing inward, like a deep in-breath of the earth.

During the summer just past and the spring before it, the life forces of the earth emerged from their winter slumber and began streaming out, out into the ether and into the cosmos like a breath that was held and then let go. By midsummer, this out-breathing is at its fullest and may seem to some that it may never end.

In the winter, these forces are at rest, collected within the mantle of the earth and covered in a great blanket of snow and cold. Here, these forces are digested and germinate into new forces of creativity and growth in the spring. The great dying of autumn and the darkness of winter give rise to a resurrection of these forces, as new imaginations and creations manifest in the buds and blossoms of spring and summer.

But what brings about this change from summer to autumn, this change from breathing out to breathing back in?

In late summer, when we witness the end of this great pouring out of nature, a gesture presents itself in the form of the meteor showers of August. These meteors offer an infusion of cosmic iron to the life body of the earth and bring back balance to this outflowing of midsummer.

For the human being, we are called to strengthen our connection to these rhythms of the earth and of the cosmos. We are called upon to look into the natural world around us and into the heavens with heartfelt spiritual eyes filled with wonder and conviction. An awareness of the spiritual world behind the physical and a conviction of our role and responsibility towards it is asked for. It is important that we allow the spiritual life forces of the natural world to flow into us, into our hearts, where we experience them, informing us through our feelings, for it is through our heart-feeling realm that our soul forces stir within us a true understanding of the mysteries of the world around us. If we can recognize these feelings as soul forces within us and use them to look out into the world as an act of will, then we can truly fulfil our role in the world. When we do this, recognizing and honouring the spiritual behind the material world, the elemental life forces of the world rejoice.

However, if we choose not to listen to this resounding of the heart and instead look for reasons not to engage with them, then we fall victim to the forces of the dragon. The dragon spoken of at Michaelmas resides in each of us. Its goal is to keep us blind to the spiritual behind the physical, and it does this by devouring the spiritual life forces within us before we can access them. If we fail to recognize the dragon within us and understand its actions, it will grow greater and stronger and cut off all possibility of our hearts to truly know the spiritual world around us. We would then look into the world and see only dead matter around us, devoid of life and meaning. It is through recognizing what is at work and engaging our will with knowledge and conviction of our role in the world that we overcome the dragon and transform it within us.

This is what is living in the story of Michael and the Dragon, which the children perform at the school. The princess represents the pure spiritual life forces of the earth and the cosmos that are streaming towards us. The dragon is there to consume all this for himself and leave nothing to nurture human beings, thus cutting them off forever from the spiritual realms. The image of Michael represents clarity in oneself and what is true, and the conviction to do what is needed, regardless of the challenge. In the end, the dragon is subdued and transformed.

Our task for this time of the year is to overcome the urge to remain passive in our inner development and strive to transform ourselves with courage. Then, with renewed soul forces, look back out into the world with strengthened heart, wisdom and a resolve to join with the spiritual world unfolding around us throughout the year. The cosmic meteoric iron streaming towards the earth at the end of August strengthens our ability to be aware of ourselves and to take charge once again of our role and responsibility to the natural, spiritual world around us.