As the September equinox ushers in a pivotal shift across the globe—bringing the Autumnal Equinox (Mabon) and the harvest season to the Northern Hemisphere while welcoming the Vernal Equinox (Ostara) and the blossoming of spring to the South—contemporary Pagan leaders have gathered to share their collective wisdom. In this installment of Pagan Voices, prominent elders, high priestesses, priests, authors, and community advocates reflect on themes of balance, gratitude, mortality, and spiritual renewal.
Through essays, rituals, and personal testaments, figures including Rev. Selena Fox, Lady Belladonna LaVeau, Lilith Wolf, Jim Sayer, Macha NightMare, and Manny Tejeda y Moreno offer a multifaceted look at how modern nature-religion practitioners navigate the turning of the cosmic wheel amid the complexities of the modern world.
Main Facts: The September Equinox in Contemporary Paganism
The September equinox marks one of the four minor solar festivals, or quarter days, on the modern Pagan Wheel of the Year. Representing a moment of temporary equilibrium where day and night stand in equal length before the seasonal pendulum swings decisively toward the dark half of the year in the North, the equinox serves as both a literal and spiritual milestone.
Diverse Traditions, Shared Themes: Contributors to this year’s reflections span various lineages and traditions, including Wicca, the Aquarian Tabernacle Church, Faeryseers, the Covenant of the Goddess, and Appalachian folk herbalism. Despite their diverse backgrounds, their reflections converge on core concepts: gratitude for what has been gathered, the necessity of acknowledging grief and loss, the honoring of ancestors, and the restoration of personal balance.
Public and Communal Engagement: Observances range from interfaith public services, such as Rev. Selena Fox’s address at Unitarian Church North in Wisconsin, to intimate home rituals, candle-and-cauldron workings, and digital livestream circles designed to foster global community connection.
A Counterweight to Modern Crises: Several leaders explicitly tied the spiritual work of the equinox to the psychological exhaustion of living through relentless contemporary news cycles, positioning seasonal rituals of rest, gratitude, and letting go as vital tools for resilience and activism.
Chronology of the Season: From Planting to Reaping
The ritual calendar of contemporary Paganism is deeply intertwined with agricultural metaphors, functioning as an unbroken cycle of birth, growth, harvest, and return to the earth.
Spring’s Promise vs. Autumn’s Accounting
The cycle begins in earnest at the Vernal Equinox (Ostara), a time when practitioners turn their energies outward, planting metaphorical and literal seeds of intention, ambition, and community projects. As the months progress through the blazing clarity of Midsummer (Litha), everything is brought to light.
By the time the September equinox arrives, the energy shifts inward. As Lilith Wolf notes in her equinox working instructions, the equinox demands a thorough accounting of that spring planting:
Celebration of Successes: Recognizing what successfully grew, what yielded fruit, and what contributions were made to personal and communal life.
Weeding Out the Unfinished: Releasing projects, desires, and intentions that failed to manifest, allowing practitioners to shed dead weight through controlled ritual burnings.
Nurturing Pending Manifestations: Identifying seeds that are still growing beneath the surface, placing them on altars to receive focused attention and hope as the winter approaches.
Supporting Data and Ritual Frameworks
Modern Paganism relies heavily on reconstructed and adapted rituals to anchor abstract spiritual concepts into tangible human experience. The contributors offered several specific frameworks for observing the 2026 equinox:
1. Rev. Selena Fox’s Harvest Liturgy
At the Unitarian Church North in Mequon, Wisconsin, Rev. Selena Fox—senior minister and high priestess of Circle Sanctuary—opened her Sunday service by honoring the interconnected elements of the biosphere:
Sacred Air (crisp breezes and falling leaves)
Sacred Fire (autumn bonfires)
Sacred Water (nurturing rains)
The Planet Earth and the greater Cosmos
Fox also emphasized her enduring Harvest Thanksgiving Chant, inviting practitioners to give thanks for abundance and annual blessings, and promoted Circle Sanctuary’s upcoming livestreamed Full Moon Circle.
2. Lady Belladonna LaVeau on Death Rituals and Mabon
Lady Belladonna LaVeau, Matriarch of the Aquarian Tabernacle Church and Hierophant of the Great Mother Demeter, used her reflection to challenge modern society’s sanitized, institutionalized approach to death. Comparing contemporary sterile death rituals with ancient traditions—which involved washing, anointing, and providing provisions for the journey—LaVeau argued that Mabon is fundamentally a funeral season as much as a harvest festival.
"Mabon is the Harvest, and it’s also the funeral," LaVeau writes. "If we are born at Ostara, at Mabon we return to the dark half of the year, to the embrace of the mother, to that which is attained at the end of desire." She urged Pagans to decolonize their view of mortality, honor their sacred dead through community book listings, and use the fall season to consciously put to death habits and structures that no longer serve them.
3. Lilith Wolf’s Three-Part Equinox Working
Author, artist, and High Priestess Lilith Wolf outlined a structured ritual involving paper, fallen leaves, a cauldron, and a "Happiness Jar." Wolf emphasized safety and psychological grounding during ritual burnings—cautioning against destructive or baneful magic directed outward—while encouraging practitioners to externalize their inner clutter, release unfinished goals back to the universe, and carve out energetic space for future growth.
Official Perspectives and Personal Testimonies
Jim Sayer: Finding the Divine in the Shadows
Jim Sayer, a third-degree Wiccan High Priest, folk herbalist, and founder of The House of Life, shared a deeply personal reflection on how chronic health struggles and professional setbacks shifted his perspective on the equinox.
Historically viewing Mabon through the lens of a balanced struggle between light and darkness, Sayer experienced a profound spiritual evolution this year. Confronted with canceled projects and physical limitations, his internal dialogue distilled down to a simple prayer: "Here I am."
"My harvest this Mabon is not filled only with victories. It includes better health and a new direction. It also holds the limits I had to accept and the plans I had to release," Sayer wrote. "I still honor the turning Wheel… But I no longer believe the Divine departs as darkness grows. The forms change. The seasons turn. Presence remains."
Macha NightMare: The Angle of the Light
Northern California-based Witch Macha NightMare (Aline O’Brien) focused her reflection on the sensory markers of the season. Citing poet Steven Posch ("Witches’ work is turning the Wheel, / And round the Wheel doth turn"), NightMare contrasted the urban disconnect from agriculture—where citizens buy pre-baked bread without ever seeing a wheat field—with the undeniable celestial reality of the changing angle of sunlight.
Drawing on Robert Burns’ classic imagery of John Barleycorn, NightMare highlighted how agricultural transformations remind humans of the sacred embodied within nature. As the high, revealing light of Midsummer gives way to the sharp reliefs and dramatic shadows of the equinox, she noted that observing these subtle shifts is itself an act of sacred stewardship.
Manny Tejeda y Moreno: Resisting Alarm Fatigue Through Gratitude
Manny Tejeda y Moreno, National First Officer of the Covenant of the Goddess and editor-in-chief of The Wild Hunt, addressed the psychological weight carried by spiritual practitioners living in a hyper-connected, crisis-driven world.
Tejeda y Moreno cautioned that while global injustices and societal suffering demand attention and action, the constant barrage of alarming news can trap individuals in a chronic state of alarm fatigue. Gratitude, he argued, must not be misconstrued as toxic positivity or willful ignorance of injustice. Rather, it serves as a necessary lens widening.
"Gratitude can help widen that field of vision," Tejeda y Moreno noted. "It reminds us that alongside the things that frighten or anger us are people helping one another, communities gathering, relationships deepening, and moments of generosity and grace. Those things are real, too."
Implications for the Broader Pagan Community
The collective voices featured in this year’s equinox reflection point to several broader trends within contemporary Paganism:
Integration of Shadow and Loss: Modern Pagans are increasingly moving away from purely triumphalist narratives of light and abundance. By framing Mabon as a funeral season and a time for acknowledging failed harvests, personal grief, and physical limitations, the community is building a more emotionally honest and resilient spiritual framework.
Activism Balanced with Rest: Leaders are recognizing that sustainable social and environmental activism requires deliberate pauses. Rituals of rest, stillness, and gratitude are no longer viewed as withdrawals from the world, but as essential refueling stations that prevent burnout.
Adaptation for Urban Practitioners: As more of the global population resides in urban and suburban environments devoid of agricultural fields, Pagan leaders continue to innovate ways to connect with natural cycles—using celestial markers like the angle of light, indoor altar workings, and digital communal gatherings to bridge the gap between ancient traditions and modern life.
As the wheel continues its eternal turn, the 2026 September equinox leaves the Pagan community equipped with both the harvested fruits of their labors and the quiet strength needed to journey into the dark, contemplative half of the year.
