The Fall Equinox: You Don’t Have to Release Everything by Dinner

There is something about fall that gets my attention every year. Every single year! 

The air changes. The light looks different. The leaves begin turning, and suddenly pumpkin spice has taken over every drink, candle, loaf of bread, and probably something it has no business being in lol.

I love fall. I always have. It feels powerful to me, but not in a big, dramatic, everything-must-change-today kind of way. It feels like a season that gives us permission to pause long enough to notice what has already been changing.  And for some reason we seem to need the permission.....

That is what I think we miss when we talk about the fall equinox. The PAUSE. We know the standard words. Balance. Harvest. Release. Letting go. But when we repeat them without connecting them to our own lives, they start sounding like something printed on a seasonal coffee mug.

So what does the fall equinox mean to you? Do you celebrate it? Do you feel anything when the seasons change, or does it pass as another date on the calendar?

There is no correct spiritual answer here. The value is in paying attention to your answer.

What the Fall Equinox Actually Represents

Astronomically, the fall equinox happens when the sun crosses the celestial equator. Here in the Northern Hemisphere, it marks the beginning of fall. The word equinox is connected to “equal night,” although day and night aren’t perfectly equal because sunrise, sunset, and our atmosphere like to complicate things a little.

Spiritually, I see it as a point of awareness.

For one moment in the turning of the seasons, light and darkness come close to balance. That doesn’t mean we’re supposed to create perfect balance in every part of our lives by the end of the day. Good luck with that. It gives us an opportunity to notice where we’ve fallen out of balance and whether the way we’re living still feels like us.

Life gets in the way. We get busy or pulled into whatever needs our attention next. Months can pass before we realize we’ve been operating from habit instead of intention.

Then the season changes around us, and something inside us notices.  It's like Hey grrrrllll....you there?!

We Rush Straight Past the Harvest

When people talk about fall from a spiritual perspective, they tend to go straight to release. What are you letting go of? What no longer serves you? What needs to fall away?

Those questions matter for real, but fall is also the season of harvest. Before you decide what needs to leave, take a proper look at what has grown.

Your harvest isn’t limited to visible accomplishments. It can be the goal you reached, but it can also be the boundary you held when the old version of you would have said yes and resented it later.

It can be realizing that your intuition was working even when you doubted it. It can be getting through a season you wouldn’t have chosen and discovering that you know yourself differently because of it.

That absolutely counts.

We can become so focused on what still needs work that we forget what we’ve already done. I don’t mean pretending everything was wonderful or forcing gratitude over something painful. I mean being willing to say, “That changed me. I handled that differently than I would have before.”

There is power in recognizing your own growth without waiting for someone else to validate it.

Releasing Has Layers

Here is where I get a little spicy about spiritual language. We talk about releasing as if it’s a one-and-done job.

Release the fear. Release the relationship. Release the belief. Light a candle, write it down, burn the paper, and apparently the entire emotional situation should be cleaned up by dinner.

For real, some things take longer than the candle.

Releasing is a work in progress because we’re a work in progress. We can let go of one layer and find another months later. We can know a relationship is complete and still grieve the future we thought we were going to have.

That doesn’t mean the release failed. It means there is more for us to understand.

Fall gives us a whole season devoted to paying attention to that process. Letting go isn’t the same as erasing. An experience can matter and still be complete. An old version of you can deserve compassion without making every decision going forward.

This is where authenticity comes into the conversation for me.

Our authentic self isn’t the polished spiritual version who is calm every minute, never gets angry, and floats through conflict as if she has background music following her around. That woman sounds exhausting. And suspicious.....just saying......

Authenticity is much more practical. It’s noticing when your yes isn’t true or when you’re explaining yourself for the twelfth time because you want permission to make the choice you already know is right. It’s seeing which roles and expectations stopped fitting a long time ago.

The equinox doesn’t make those choices for us. It gives us a reason to stop and see them.

How I Work With the Energy of Fall

You can celebrate the equinox with a ritual if that feels aligned for sure!  Light a candle, sit outside, pull a card, speak to Spirit, or make a beautiful meal. There is meaning in marking a moment with intention.

For me, the ritual supports the choice. It doesn’t do the choice for us.

One way to work with this season is to write about what you’ve grown this year. Give yourself time with that before moving into what you want to release. We’re usually faster at listing our flaws than acknowledging our growth, so don’t rush this part.

Then look at what you’re still feeding with your energy. Choose one honest place to begin, not a complete renovation of your entire personality before bedtime.

If you’re working on overexplaining, notice the next time you turn a clear answer into a five-paragraph defence. If self-doubt has been running the show, watch the space between your first intuitive knowing and the fear that arrives to argue with it.

That space tells you a lot.

Take a Moment

Give yourself a few quiet minutes with these questions:

• What have I grown, learned, or moved through since the beginning of this year?
• What am I still carrying because it is familiar, not because it belongs with me?
• Where have I moved away from my authentic self to meet someone else’s expectations?
• What do I want to create space to receive in this next season?

You aren’t looking for the answer that sounds the most spiritual. Pay attention to the one that feels true.

Carrying This Beyond One Season

The fall equinox is a beautiful reminder, but reconnecting with yourself and Spirit isn’t seasonal work. We need the reminder more than once a year because life will continue to be life. We get distracted. Old patterns find a side door. A lesson we thought was finished returns wearing a different outfit.

This is why I created Spirit Essentials and Spirit Essence Mentorship.

Spirit Essentials is $5 a month and offers a simple, ongoing spiritual touchpoint without adding another giant commitment to life.

Spirit Essence Mentorship is the deeper space. For $25 plus GST, you receive spiritual teachings, live circles, messages from Spirit, opportunities to ask questions, and a like-minded community.

You don’t have to be a medium or want to become one. The heart of the mentorship is learning to trust your own knowing, strengthen your relationship with Spirit, and become more conscious of how you’re moving through your life. My role is to guide and support you, not to become the authority over your choices.

So yes, let the fall equinox remind you to pause. Notice what has grown. Be truthful about what feels complete. Make room for what belongs in the season ahead.

And when the leaves have finished falling and the pumpkin spice has finally calmed itself down, keep paying attention.

Your relationship with yourself deserves more than one day on the calendar.

Stay Divine, Lovees, and I’ll see you next week!