Autumnal Equinox 2025 in review
Happy equinox, everyone! Today's post comes with a soundtrack: Scrimshire's Music for Autumn Lovers. Please enjoy. :)
Note: Today's post is about religion and spirituality, namely animism, druidry, and Egyptian polytheism. If this is not your cup of tea, feel free to pass on it.
The past few weeks have been surprisingly busy for my Druid practice. I didn't expect moving houses to come with re-centering this element of my life... but here I am!
This is my first autumn equinox since joining the Ancient Order of Druids in America last year. Traditionally, I've centered my equinoxes and solstices around Hetheru (Hathor) as part of my Egyptian polytheistic practices. For this equinox, I decided to go in a different direction: a waterway blessing, as part of a shared ritual with AODA.
The waterways of the Boston area - especially the Charles and Mystic Rivers, along with Alewife Brook - have been an important element of my spiritual practice since I first moved to the area in 2011. In my Kemetic background, they served as proxies for the Nile as the sacred source of life. As an urban animist, they serve as a potent connection to all the peoples who have occupied this land; past, present, and future. And they serve as a reminder of how critical it is for us to take action as people living in Boston; the health of the waterways is the health of our city. Nothing could be more right than to take time today the do a working for the well being of our dirty water, followed by action (in the form of trash cleanup).
As we recently moved much closer to the Charles, I walked down to the river with an intent in my mind of finding a spot I might be able to revisit with some frequency. The river guided me with a path down to the shoreline complete with the perfect sized spot for a solitary ritual, gazing right onto the water, with a rewilded area between myself and a local graffiti spot. As an urban animist, it felt like the perfect liminal space between the city I adore and a more natural environment.
The space made itself comfortable with me, allowing me to take both water and earth representations from the site, in addition to the rock needed for the blessing ritual. When it came time to do my daily draw, I asked the Charles to guide me in what I could do here. I had asked the city to bring me to an anchor spot, and here I drew the Anchor! Sometimes divination can be too on the nose... ask and you shall receive!
This was the second time in as many says that I asked and was answered loudly. As an old friend of mine used to sarcastically say, "it helps if you pay attention!" Yesterday, on a walk home, I found myself at a pollinator garden. A few people were gathered around it, getting ready to do some work in the yard. I asked if they were a professional group or volunteers, and it was immediately assumed that I was one of the volunteers, and I was directed to gloves and given a chance to work in the dirt! Two and a half hours later, I was happy, filthy, and exhausted... and blessed to have new opportunities to know my neighborhood. I may yet get to volunteer with this group again, less impromptu.
Between my graffitied section of river bank, this pollinator garden, and the backyard of my new apartment, I certainly have many chances to know my neighborhood's land spirits more deeply. But the other highlight of my month thus far was an opportunity to attend a druid camp here in New England. BAM was a wonderful opportunity to meet druids from all over New England, and some who traveled even further to join us. I was so blessed by the rituals and workshops these fine folks held... if you were at BAM, thank you so much for everything! Being there really helped parch the part of myself going through a spiritual dry spell that just needed some water and tender care.
I was particularly surprised at how present my primary deity, Ptah, was at BAM. Despite Ptah being the one to set me on the path of exploring druidry all the way back in 2022, I've been very hesitant to involve my gods in my druidry. This has been particularly true these past few years, as my practice has shifted further away from devotional polytheism. However, I could not deny His desire to be present at BAM rituals, the influence He had on me at them, and His further presence today at my second equinox event.
AODA is religiously agnostic. This is part of what drew me to it, as I have been going through a crisis of faith for the past five years. AODA is very free-form, self-directed, fluid. It's much more about nature (in a grounded, physical world sense) and about animistic relationships with nature than about God. However, there is a branch of AODA that veers more into religion and mysticism, the Gnostic Celtic Church. While drafting this post, I happened to drop into the GCC's lectio divina where once again, I encountered Ptah in His form of Sokar, the great falcon in the heart of the earth. Ptah-Sokar is a cthonic deity, and I felt His great wings enshrouding me in the depths as we meditated on a passage by Zenju Eathlyn Manuel. The experience of this reading, of my spiritual Father's presence, and of the command that stuck into my mind - "go unafraid into the dark, into life" - may be my focus for some time to come.
This is my first foray in some time into blogging about my religious-spiritual life. I appreciate you taking the time to listen to me ramble! Regardless of how you mark the turning of the seasons (and regardless of which direction your seasons are turning!), I hope you have a beautiful equinox. Be well in all things, and I hope to hear from you. <3
Always yours, AL