The Sweetness of Ripening: Finding sensuality, pleasure and soul wisdom in the turning of the season
A Prelude…
My work often revolves around the shadow side of existence. I believe that we live in a culture where the shadow is misunderstood, feared and avoided.
This, in my opinion, actually creates a bigger shadowside which we often see projected in society. The shadow thrives in the dark (go figure 😜): when we push things away through fear, they do not go away, they fester and grow and, at some point, can take over. Leaving us out of control and often disrupting our lives and relationships.
For example, perhaps your shadow says ‘I’m not good enough’ or ‘I am broken’ - these underlying beliefs, without care , love and attention, will find their way into our lives and inhibit us from living and loving fully.
In my experience, the more we are able to face and embrace our inner shadow, the more we can also experience the joy of the light.
I recently read a great analogy for this - I will paraphrase - our emotions are not a mixing board where we can turn one emotion down and the others up. Instead, we can think of it as a master volume - if we turn one down, we end up turning them all down. If we avoid feeling our sadness, we are also less able to experience true joy, satisfaction and happiness. We essentially numb ourselves out (Philippa Perry).
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A Season to Savour
Autumn is a time when we transition toward longer nights, darker days and more moody weather. This shift in weather and light can have an effect on our mood. I know many people find this time of year challenging.
Personally I often go through a shedding period - of descent, carried by nostalgia for times past or hopes not yet realised. It comes with a sense of release and decay. Which may all sound gloomy…but I promise it’s where the medicine lies.
However, with all that said, this month, my message takes a lighter and more seductive line of inquiry.
With the passing of the autumn equinox, where both light and dark are in balance, I’d like to focus for a moment on this season as part of a cycle of the earth’s fertility and abundance.
I’d like to proffer the idea that this is a bountiful and positive time of year, where we can tap into sensory pleasure and bask in the ample harvest of everything we’ve cultivated, drawing it into our skin and bones like the trees call back nutrients from their leaves for winter storage.
Yes, we may face more difficulty or darkness during the autumn-winter months, so here are some ideas to help us navigate these waters, whilst letting ourselves be held and supported by the seasons and their riches.
I also speak to the passages of womanhood, and how we can understand the phases and processes of aging that are inevitable to us all, not as something to be feared, but something to be celebrated and enjoyed.
As we mature, we ripen.
We don’t fade, we deepen. We don’t wither. But ripen. No less alive. Only more succulent, rounded, whole and wise. We get to drink deeply from the well of our experience, take nourishment from our achievements and the lessons we’ve learnt, and show up with more integrity, authenticity, wildness and power.
Autumn is a time of harvest, of bounty and sensuality. It leads us back into ourselves which can be a very emotive experience - rather than getting bogged down by this change in energy and mood, today I invite you to explore these questions:
🍎 How can I make this journey succulent, sensory and explorative?
🍎 How can I shift my perspective and see this season as an opportunity to dive into deeper relationship with my soul, my self and my sacred sensuality?
A Bountiful Orchard Goddess
Enter Pomona, the Roman Goddess of ripened fruits at their sweetest and most plentiful.
Pomona is a tree nymph, cultivating succulence and tending to the abundance of orchard and harvest. She represents abundance at its most supple and ripe.
Here we can frame autumn not solely as a time of release and decay, but a time where we guide our energy back into ourselves, slow down enough to take stock and enjoy the gifts of a summer season well lived.
It is a time to draw those energies back into the porous texture of your skin and let them nourish and feed the soul.
Just like autumn trees pulling vital nutrients back into the body of their trunks and branches, turning their leaves from green to orange to brown…
…this is our time to gather in nutrients, nourishment, pleasure, warmth and optimism in preparation for the winter season.
Pomona represents that perfect moment of ripeness:
from summer fruit - hard, green, growing, becoming...to autumn fruit - soft, fragrant, heavy, colourful, sweet, ready to be tasted.
An Invitation
Your senses are the portal to this rich and abundant orchard.
This autumn I tempt you to let them bid you welcome to the deliciousness of the season:
🍂 Smell the damp and musty autumn leaves.
🍂 Feel warm water cleansing your skin.
🍂 Nourish your body with warm and hearty foods - truly taste them, savour them.
🍂 Move slower.
🍂 Breathe slowly and intentionally
🍂 Rest - let rest be your muse.
🍂 Wear fabrics that feel beautiful against your body.
🍂 Make something simply because it delights you.
🍂 Enjoy the soft contours of your body through touch and movement
🍂 Weave in a gentle movement practice
🍂 Make art - let challenging feelings pour out of you into paper, song, pen - or whatever creative outlet speaks to you.
🍂 Bake something luscious.
🍂 Massage your own body.
🍂 Make space for pleasure that doesn't need to be productive.
Here is an invitation to shift from the more masculine themed rhetoric of:
What am I achieving?
What am I producing?
What am I accomplishing?
What comes next?
To something our Goddess Pomona may ask of us:
What am I tending?
What am I nourishing?
What is ripening?
What feels delicious?
What is ready to be received?
A Final Thought
Last month, we examined the art of coming home to the hearth with the Goddess Hestia. We have continued this journey this month, as Pomona shows us how to embody the wealth that this time of year can bring.
Summer gave us expansion and exuberance. Autumn gives us ripeness, a point at which we can pause and actually experience what we've grown.
Autumn is a time to release what no longer serves us, but it is also a season to savour what does.
In the mainstream eye of society, the journey of womanhood is often overshadowed by a fear of aging, of fading, of stepping reluctantly into the autumn and winter of our lives. This is underpinned by themes of being less valuable, valid or visible.
I’m here to say - fuck that. The fruit doesn't become less valuable because it softens or wisens.
In fact, that's when it becomes sweetest and most potent.
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