{"id":22459,"date":"2013-09-29T07:39:24","date_gmt":"2013-09-29T13:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/?page_id=22459"},"modified":"2014-09-29T09:15:49","modified_gmt":"2014-09-29T15:15:49","slug":"michaelmas","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/?page_id=22459","title":{"rendered":"Michaelmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michaelmas<\/a><\/h2>\n

Springtime of the Soul<\/a><\/h2>\n
Posted on<\/span> September 29, 2014<\/span><\/a> by<\/span> Charles<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
\n

Fall \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Falling Leaves Moon<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

A brief interlude of high 70\u2019s and 80\u2019s disappears starting today. It\u2019s 50 and rainy. Better, in my opinion. And more fitting for Michaelmas anyhow. The springtime of the soul.<\/p>\n

St. Michael, the Archangel, is God\u2019s general, the militant leader of the warrior angels, chief strategist in the war against the rebel angels and instrumental in ejecting\u00a0Lucifer, the Morning Star, from heaven. His mass day, today, September 29th, honors him and the other archangels,\u00a0Gabriel and Raphael, and often, Uriel.<\/p>\n

Michaelmas was one of the four English quarter days which celebrated equinox and solstices on set days rather than on their astronomical occurrence. Thus, Michaelmas celebrates the autumnal equinox, which one author called the day of the \u201cdarkening.\u201d It is the start of the English university first term and a day when rents were paid for the year, contracts settled and festivals held.<\/p>\n

Michaelmas is the springtime of the soul because it presages the coming fallow time. It emphasizes the darkening aspect of the fall equinox when the hours of nighttime begin to exceed those of daylight. When the plant world faces the long dark cold, it turns inward,<\/p>\n

\"Durer\"<\/a><\/p>\n

goes down into the ground either as seed or as root and gathers its energy, readying itself for emergence in the spring when lightening begins and temperatures warm.<\/p>\n

Just so with us. As a cold rain falls here today on Michaelmas in Andover, the joy of sitting inside with a book, or meditating, writing, sewing, quilting\u00a0comes. Our inner life can begin to blossom, the richness in the soils of our souls feeds projects and dreams and meditations.<\/p>\n

This springtime of the soul has only begun today and it will follow, over its time, the fallow season. I welcome you to this nurturing, deep time. Blessed be.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Posted on\u00a0September 29, 2013<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0Charles<\/a><\/div>\n
\n

Fall \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Harvest Moon<\/p>\n

Michaelmas is here, the springtime of the soul. \u00a0This is a new entry for the Great Wheel\"delacroix_eugene-st_michael_defeats_the_devil\"<\/a>series and begins time with the four quarter days of the British old calendar (see information from Historic UK below*).<\/p>\n

(delacroix eugene \u00a0st.\u00a0michael defeats the devil)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

These quarter day are close to the equinox and solstice days, following the actual occurrence by a few days and having the advantage of a fixed date on the calendar for festivals and other events rather than relying on variable astronomical conditions.<\/p>\n

Our Supreme Court begins its new term on October 1st and the government fiscal calendar restarts then, too, a shadow of this tradition well in place at the time of the American Revolution. \u00a0If you read books that relate matters of witchcraft, they will sometimes refer to these quarter days and\/or the Catholic holidays for the cross-quarter days. \u00a0That is, Lughnasa, August 1, for example, was Lamas, a mass for the first loaves of bread made from the new harvest.<\/p>\n

I love the imagery recounted below about Lucifer expelled from heaven and landing on a blackberry bush. \u00a0Of course, the implication is that it was the Archangel Michael who booted him out.<\/p>\n

By now, a full week after the fall equinox or Mabon, there are already 21 more minutes of darkness than light.<\/p>\n

(raphael-st-michael-and-the-dragon)<\/p>\n

*\u201dThere are traditionally four \u201cquarter days\u201d in a year (Lady Day (25th March),\"raphael-st-michael-and-the-dragon-3465\"<\/a>Midsummer (24th June), Michaelmas (29th September) and Christmas (25th December)). They are spaced three months apart, on religious festivals, usually close to the solstices or equinoxes. They were the four dates on which servants were hired, rents due or leases begun. It used to be said that harvest had to be completed by Michaelmas, almost like the marking of the end of the productive season and the beginning of the new cycle of farming. It was the time at which new servants were hired or land was exchanged and debts were paid. This is how it came to be for Michaelmas to be the time for electing magistrates and also the beginning of legal and university terms.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSt Michael is one of the principal angelic warriors, protector against the dark of the night and the Archangel who fought against Satan and his evil angels. As Michaelmas is the time that the darker nights and colder days begin \u2013 the edge into winter \u2013 the celebration of Michaelmas is associated with encouraging protection during these dark months. It was believed that negative forces were stronger in darkness and so families would require stronger defences during the later months of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn British folklore, Old Michaelmas Day, 10th October, is the last day that blackberries should be picked. It is said that on this day, when Lucifer was expelled from Heaven, he fell from the skies, straight onto a blackberry bush. He then cursed the fruit, scorched them with his fiery breath, spat and stamped on them and made them unfit for consumption! And so the Irish proverb goes:<\/p>\n

\u201cOn Michaelmas Day the devil puts his foot on blackberries\u201d. \u00a0Historic UK<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michaelmas Springtime of the Soul Posted on September 29, 2014 by Charles Fall \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Falling Leaves Moon … Continue reading Michaelmas<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":686,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-22459","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22459"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28252,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22459\/revisions\/28252"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}