🍂 Happy Equinox from Midnight Sun

FIELD NOTES No. 1

Welcome to Field Notes

Hello dear friends!

Autumn winds have arrived with soft insistence, urging us to light a signal fire from our new home on the internet (we have a website!) and send a very warm hello and happy Autumn Equinox to all of you.

Welcome to Field Notes. This newsletter is intended to animate your inbox with the sky-screech of a circling red-tailed hawk and invite you out your door and into your “immediate ecology of animate forces” (thanks Josh from The Emerald) and into the big Conversation of which we are all a part.

Delivered alongside each Solstice + Equinox (and occasionally in between), Field Notes is where we’ll announce upcoming gatherings, offer invitations for marking and honoring seasonal thresholds, and share news from the “field” — what is blowing in on the wind during these transitional times?

We are so grateful that you’re a member of this growing community. Whether you’ve shared your magic with us as part of a land-based gathering, are a friend or supporter of our work, or may be curious about joining us in person, as we head into year two of this wild experiment we can’t wait to cultivate even more connection in community, on the land, and with you.

↑ The seasonal altar from our Winter ceremony

Which brings us to the here and now from which we write: Annette, from the coolness of her music room, gazing out at the softly yellowing leaves of a Northern California Black Walnut as the day’s heat billows in from the garden… Comet, from a blissfully stormy day in the Sonoran Desert, the Catalina mountains bathed in purple clouds.

We are feeling Autumn at the gate — are you?

Perhaps Autumn arrives on a scent-laden breeze, summoning your body’s remembrance of this season of release. Perhaps Autumn is the whistle of a strong wind in the pines, or a noticeably chillier jump into whatever body of water you swim in. Perhaps Autumn is a thick layer plucked from the back of your closet for night-time star-gazing. Or perhaps Autumn arrives when you least expect it…

autumn comes on blue-black wings: a crow upon a gate, cawing. in the air, particles rearrange. cold enters.

last night I dreamt that three beloved fathers died; not in tragedy, but as trees falling in the forest, leaving only air. how do we turn toward this emptiness?

below the canopies, a dark stream flows downhill. its water looks black, though it is clear when you open your eyes. mothers swim here. i take my heart into my arms and readjust its weight: animal. inhale.

the air seeks entrance, tempts bonfire. when the door to autumn appears in the park one morning, I can’t help but laugh. persephone knows how fast the ground collapses.

the dark stream flows downhill. the gate swings open.
࿐ Comet

Today’s Autumn Equinox (on Monday, September 22nd) offers a profound opportunity for collective and personal renewal. How might you engage this transition? Below, we share a few ideas — a walk in your local woods or watershed being chief among them.

Autumn is a bonfire: leaves surrender their color in a vibrant release, an “extinction flare-out” before the land returns to itself and dreams. What sudden vibrancy in your life might signal a coming transition? What spent husks, ancestral or situational, must now be honored and placed on the compost heap? Cooler mornings and star-studded nights summon us into the coming dark. Our favorite advice for navigating this season?

“If you are falling, dive.”

࿐ mythologist Michael Meade

The sloughing of old skin comes with the privilege of vision: what newness emerges as Winter beckons you into into the cave of dreams?

A return to the loamy soil of transformation is essential for the regeneration of all life. Should you encounter Death in Autumn, or greet the apparitions of old stories, we’ll share a heartfelt reminder from our beloved community member Camille that many challenges can be headed off with a deep commitment to self-kindness (thank you Camille!) The good news is…

Contraction is always followed by release.

𖦹

Big love to you all during these times. If you are inspired, write back! Tell us what occupies your hearts, what you are shedding, what is calling to you from the wild beyond.

We look forward to sharing space with you in the seasons to come— for the first time, or again in ceremony.

Ritual invitations:

Glimmers

On your next walk, look for glimmers in the landscape — places of potency that generate joy or in some way speak to you. A glimmer is a doorway: answer the invitation and see what happens. Seek out glimmers for an entire week and tell us about it. What else in your life might become re-enchanted?

Light a bonfire!

On scraps of paper, write down any fears, stories, or outdated architectures in need of release. Then, offer them to the flames. Be bold… maybe even burn your old morning pages?!

Parting gifts…

✴ Stay tuned for news of our Winter ceremony in late January
✴ Listen to River in the Dark — a playlist for Autumn

Welcome to Field Notes

We are feeling Autumn at the gate — are you?

“If you are falling, dive.”

Contraction is always followed by release.

𖦹

Ritual invitations:

Love and gratitude, Comet & Annette

𓅓 Visit our new website!

Love and gratitude,
Comet & Annette