by Alison Price
Image by Michal Kubisek
Autumn
The Four Seasons
There are four seasons each year; spring, summer, autumn and winter.
The seasons start when the Sun enters one of the four cardinal signs which are Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn.
These seasonal ingresses are the time markers for the year and the basis for calculating the tropical zodiac, which is the one used on my site, and that references time not space.
The Sun spends three months, or one quarter of the year, in each season.
Autumn or Fall
As the Sun leaves Virgo and enters Libra the third season of the year Autumn begins.
During its passage of Libra, Scorpio and Sagittarius the autumn season develops and the beginning is very different to the end.
Mild temperatures at the start of Libra lead through to cooling and far crisper weather at the end of Sagittarius.
The Harvest
Autumn is the time to gather in the crops and store grains to sustain animals and us over the long winter and into the early spring.
We who live in the developed world and reside in major cities may be slightly out of touch with the sequence of growth and harvest for food.
We just pop into the local deli or bakery and pick up a fresh loaf of bread, baked and sliced that morning.
Rural dweller on farms and small-holdings do notice the changing year more closely.
Libra
Venus rules Libra and she also rules sugar and the fructose in all fruits and berries.
During the Libra part of autumn the late fruit is harvested (the early fruit harvest starts at Lammas on August 1st).
Typically at this stage the food plants have their sugars fully developed even in crops like onions and potatoes.
Plants are ripe and juicy.
Scorpio
As the Sun enters Scorpio the leaves fall profusely and annual plants start to decompose to provide nutrients for the next year’s trees and crops.
This is the transformation period of plant’s decay and part of the cycle of nature.
It is reflected in astrology by the Sun being disposed by Pluto as the ruler of Scorpio.
In many plants the seeds for the next year are being created in pods and flower heads and they wait for the Sagittarian breezes to blow them hither and thither.
Seed distribution is a process of autumn and can be spread over the whole three months.
Sagittarius
The last sign of autumn is Sagittarius.
By now all the leaves have fallen and bare branches abound and this allows the wind to whisk through the branches.
Jupiter’s influence as the planet of Sagittarius now disposes the Sun and we can see much further through the trees and our horizons are broadened at this time.
The late crops are now in and the animals have grown in their thicker coats ready for the cold ahead.
The final migrations have finished and long journeys by birds and herds have come to an end.
Did you notice? Really?
Did you notice all this going on?
No?
Neither did I.
But I live in Vancouver city where I can see the changing seasons by the trees in the streets being stripped bare and the varying colours throughout the city’s parks.
This year I hope to pay more attention, will you?
