Ever stand alone on a seesaw, in the middle, balanced, feet planted sturdily, rocking that plank up and down as you sway from side to side, feet a bit slidey as the far plank points reach their heights, jolting a bit as edges threaten to crash down on landing? Ever felt that shivery sense of controlling your world, the only world that exists right then? It’s lovely, isn’t it? And it’s only possible because of one thing: movement.

Movement is the single element that ties together a human body, a large outdoor toy, the concepts comprising the knowledge to build it and use it and in the use of it, make for boundless joy. Without movement, that toy is an edged artifact of childhood both sticking into the sky and grounded on dust. Without movement those concepts are complex theorems of mathematics and physics, empty, dry, useless. Without movement, the human body is dead, for it is only movement that allows for the eternally circling inhalation and exhalation of life.

Seesaws, childhood, they only last so long. Then we grow up. We change. We are no longer the controllers of our own worlds, no longer absolutely absorbed by movement, balance, focus and the delightful joy of making simple things work. Life becomes intense, difficult, staid, often boring, routine, dull and grey. We stumble from thing to thing, trying to find some one thing that enlivens our lives, that captures all of ourselves, that enraptures us, like seesaws did. We turn to work, relationships, status, creativity, sport, objects, groups, belief systems, trying to find a path through life that feels good, that matters.

For some of us, that path is the pagan way, the reconnection with earth and all her elements, along with the reaching for ancestral knowledge of ancient harmony in attempts to make valid now what many in human society no longer believe to be of value. These pre-historical belief systems incorporate animism, ceremony, ritual, a pantheon of deities and earth powers in activities related to the cycling of the seasons.

For some, pagan life is the enacting of specific forms, sequences of belief and behaviour said to correlate with ancient celebrations and processes. For others, the pagan way is a mystical enrooting in earth consciousness, a purely inner experience that can never be fully described. And for many, paganism is nonsense, and any mention of Samhain or Beltane a mystical claptrap on par with mediumship or UFOs.

So, what IS true? What IS real? And in those truths and realities, what actually matters?

Look outside your window. What have you got today? Are you cooler than you were two months ago? Is more of your day dark, as harvest time comes to an end, as colder winds and frosty mornings, damp and the smell of cold air point to the coming of winter?

Or is your day lightening earlier, with just a touch more heat, along with that thrumming sense of things-waking-up? Are you seeing the first signs of new life, unfolding? Are you feeling your body thirsting for the blessing of sun and warmth, to thaw your frozen bones, or gently heat your chilled skin?

Or are you in a place where seasons are slight variations on a theme, not much hotter, not much colder, not much wetter, not much drier?

And what do you make of this experience, where we stand on the cusp of movement from one seasonal state to another, from cold dark to warm light, or from abundant harvest to winter scarcity, or from pretty much same same-old to same-old?

Are you awake? Are you aware? Are you noticing? Are you paying attention? Do you even care? Does it matter to you, this last deep breath, before we move into a completely new thing, which nevertheless has been before, over and over again?

Are you coming into alignment? Are you preparing for a new stage, even if only through witnessing that the old is passing?

Have you seen, in your own life, how there are times of plenty and richness, times of expansion and giddy growth, times of celebration and excess, as well as times of barrenness and scantness, times you desperately wish for more? Have you noticed how waves of life throw you through experience, sometimes strand you, alone and fearful, sometimes drag you deep into hilarity and communion with kindred spirits?

Where do you stand, in your life? What is the fulcrum that moves you into balance and ecstatic, simple joy? What joins you to the soil under your feet, the water you drink, the air you breath, the fire that keeps all life alive on this planet of mystery, swifty turning through space so slowly that even babies’ eyes can follow the fall of a leaf, or feather?

Movement takes us through our lives, from infancy to elder, from birth-into-life to birth-into-death, and just like that seesaw, we are the fulcrum of our lives, tipping up, tipping down. For every movement one way, an equal response the other way. For every this, a that. For every when, a now. For every what, a how.

Unlike that seesaw, we have choice, the capacity to decide, the capability to notice, to witness, to participate, to commune, to come into union with the great energies of life.

So look outside your window, if you’re lucky enough to have one. Notice and feel what is happening right where you are. Come into alignment and choose to acknowledge and even celebrate what is, whether by following the old forms of they-say, or creating new approaches afresh. However you choose to, return again to feeling the fullness of onepointed connection with earth, sky, and the bliss of movement encompassing all.

Happy Lightreturn! Happy Darkening!

May this time of transition be fruitful for you.

May it lead to friends, fun and fearless movement into the new places and heart spaces life offers all who are willing to dip beneath the surface and connect with anciently new truths of what is.

Within them, may you find your Way.

Abheda was raised in Africa and now lives in the United Kingdom. She has a deep love for nature and for writing. Her magical path is that of a solitary, eclectic practitioner.