The Quiet Weeks of November

inhale - pause - exhale

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Between the spooky season of Halloween with its costumes, grinning jack-o-lanterns, and prayers to the dead, and the Christmas revels, replete with lights, carols, gift giving, decorations, feasting, and merriment, there’s a quiet season within the season.

Both Hallowmas and Christmas have been thoroughly commercialized and inflated to the status of major holidays focused on buying and binging in various forms. But almost unnoticed, a quiet few weeks in November slip into our lives with calm and gentleness.

In the United States, November is punctuated with Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday. While Thanksgiving is also a major holiday, the most traveled holiday of the year, it remains relatively unencumbered with crass commercialism. It remains a day of feasting and family togetherness without gifts, massive decorations, or special music like the Christmas carols soon to be blaring in every shopping center and mall.

The Pilgrims created Thanksgiving as a lengthy prayer service characterized by prayers of Thanksgiving and gratitude to God for his providence and protection. The feast that came later was more like the usual harvest festivals familiar to them in England. True to its roots, our modern Thanksgiving remains a time of reflecting on blessings, being with family and friends, and feasting, with the only opulence being a spectacular parade and football.

Even before we sit down to a turkey dinner with all the trimmings, November offers a few weeks of quiet, calm, and stillness, which can be seen and felt in nature.

The Movements of the Seasons

By October, Mother Rot appears, and nature is in the throes of actively dying. Meanwhile, we are contending with growing darkness, a thinning veil, and the potential of bumping into the grief of lost loved ones, regrets, and haunting memories on All Soul’s Day. We are also plunged into the energetics of the shadow, the unsettling and sometimes malevolent forces in our world, and the unseen realms. The transition from October into November is often challenging as we are reminded of our mortality, the unrelenting passage of time, and the slow creep of entropy.

Once we get past All Soul’s Day, nature has succumbed to the onset of winter. Most, if not all, green and growing things have died back to the earth, and many birds and beasts are gone because of migration or hibernation.

At this point, there is a pause in the turning of the seasonal wheel. Less is happening in nature as the woods and fields fall silent and still.

You are invited to do the same.

To become deeply silent is not to become still, but to become tidal and seasonal, a coming and going that has its own inimitable, essential character, a story not fully told, like the background of the sea, or the rain falling or the river going on, out of sight, out of our lives. ~ David Whyte

After the mythic terrors of Halloween and before the Holly Jolly of Christmas, give yourself a moment to recover and devote time to silence and stillness. Quietly observe the pause in the natural world and cultivate a similar pause in yourself.

Now is the time to notice runic patterns in bare tree branches, the slant of the winter sun, Venus and Jupiter in the cold night sky, the flash of red when a Cardinal visits your bird feeder, and the magic of the first frost or snowfall.

November is a fallow time. When fields lie fallow, it is because they have done their work and finished producing their crop, and now need a time of rest and replenishment so the soil can renew its store of nutrients before a new crop of seeds is sown. The message for our lives is evident. Rest and renewal, a pause from activity, is the natural and necessary quiet end to a cycle of productivity.

November’s quiet elegance

of leaf and branch and stone

offers calming reverence

for hearth and kin and home.

Give yourself permission to follow Mother Nature’s example and enter into November’s pause.

There’s so much that is coming.

Already, we’ve entered the Martinmas Gateway into Winter, Celtic Advent has begun, and Catterntide awaits on November 25th. Yet, all of these festivals are quiet ones that encourage contemplation, introspection, and preparation in the form of pause. They each, in their way, signal the shift from summer work to winter work, vocational and spiritual.

Wintertime is a time for stories and songs, crafts and naps, prayer and contemplation, tea, and long talks.

Pause and shift gears gently and slowly.

November sits between Halloween, with its excess of devilish symbolism, and Christmas, with its light-filled rejoicing. It is anchored in the middle by the traditional ingathering of blessings and family at Thanksgiving.

Energetically, we see a flow that gives character, depth, texture, and context to our seasonal experiences at this time of year: fear and sadness (Halloween), a response of gathering together our family and provisions (Thanksgiving), and finally, great rejoicing when the light returns (Christmas).

We are at the time of gathering, pausing, and thanking the Giver of all good gifts and blessings. To do this properly, we must pause and find stillness, neither driven mad by fear nor swept away by joy. November is a solemn time that offers respite from the often “too much” of Halloween and Christmas.

Rituals for Pausing - Candles

Candles, stones, and teas perfectly support pausing and resting rituals at this time of year.

First, candles. As the days grow noticeably shorter and darkness pervades our evenings and mornings, something ancient urges us to light a candle in the dark. Protection from the unknown, sympathetic magic in solidarity with the waning sun, and the need for warmth, cheer, and coziness in winter are human responses to the oncoming season.

Candles come in all shapes, sizes, colors, fragrances, and containers. There are even some very convincing flameless batter-powered candles. Whichever you choose, make it a November practice to leave the rest of your lights off for some portion of the early morning and evening hours to sit with your candle, enjoying the soft glow and the way even a small light dispels the darkness in a room. If you want to extend this ritual, you can take your candle for a short walk in the dark in your yard or on your street, being mindful and safe, of course. My street has no street lights, is punctuated by lengths of woodland, and is exceptionally dark. I often sit on my deck with a candle in the dark or stroll down our driveway. As you sit or walk with your candle indoors or out, you may want to allow your mind to ponder the qualities of fire, its mysteriousness, its symbolic meanings, and its associations. Fire is generally symbolic of the Spirit, specifically with the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of God. The epic battle of light and darkness, the need for both, and the powerlessness of the darkness to overcome even the smallest amount of light are perfect ideas for your mind to engage with.

Stones

Whether you find them in your yard, at the beach, along a stream bank, or in a parking lot, common stones are often the best and most potent way to connect with the element of earth in winter.

Stones are often thought of as the bones of the earth. Layered within and beneath the soil, they provide a solid structure and make up the earth's crust. The humble rocks you find everywhere are often composites of several types of minerals, and their components are likely tens of thousands or even millions of years old. I frequently think we don't grasp their ancientness because of their ubiquity.

Both of the rocks in the photo are local finds. I dug up the large stone full of quartzy matrix while gardening in my yard, and the small dark stone was found at the beach just a few miles away.

Crystals, which deserve their own post, are also an excellent way to connect with the earth, but common stones have unique delights and powers. If you have a crystal collection, good ones to work with at this time of year include jaspers and agates with clear quartz to amplify their calming, grounding, and slow-moving, lower-vibration energies.

What to do with your rocks?

First, find some. Look for ones that catch your eye, present themselves to you in some way, or go on an expedition into your backyard to search for some. Wash them if necessary and spend a little time observing them. Look at their texture, color, shape, and any patterns on their surface. Choose a few words to describe them.

The most common way to work with stones is to hold them. Traditionally, the left hand is the receiving hand. Sit quietly, perhaps with your candle lit. Bring your attention to what you need.

Stones are especially good at helping you siphon off negative energy and difficult or complicated feelings. While holding your stone, imagine your hurts, worries, cares, anger, sadness, etc., being pulled into the stone and neutralized. If you’ve been feeling anxious, flighty, or ungrounded, place two stones on the floor, sit in a chair, and place your bare feet on the stones. Close your eyes and allow the sensation of connecting to the stabilizing force of the earth to rise in you from your feet to your head.

Stones can also effectively be used in earth meditations. Get comfortable, quiet your mind, still your body, and hold your stone. Open your mind and ask the land around you questions. What is needed, what wants to be healed, what animals are close at hand, and what do you need to know to be a guardian and steward of the land you live on?

For the eagerly awaiting creation waits for the revealing of the sons and daughters of God.

Work with stones because the Earth wants to speak with you. Earth wisdom is everywhere and accessible if we sit still and silent as a stone and listen.

Tea

Tea, like stones is ordinary. Yet, how we arrive at tea time and what we intend for that moment can elevate the ordinary to something more elevated and important.

Tea is the gentlest form of plant spirit medicine I know. This is particularly true if you’ve grown or foraged your own herbs, but can also be true if you’ve purchased special herbs or even pre-made tea blends.

To imbibe tea is to consume some of the essence of a plant friend. It is the easiest and often the most effective way to benefit from Mother Nature’s apothecary.

Japan is famous for its ritualized tea ceremony. Your own tea ritual need not be that formal or that long but it will require presence.

Procure your tea with intention. Identify what you need and then find a tea that offers you a remedy or support. Name what ails you, insomnia, anxiety, a sore throat, a compromised immune system, an upset stomach, inflammation, heartache, spiritual longing, sadness, a stuffy nose, shock and loss, there’s a tea for all that and more.

You can also use tea to celebrate the season. Chrysanthemum tea is a wonderful brew for November. As the temperatures drop, warming teas made with cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and turmeric bring a sense of comfort and well-being along with a host of health benefits.

Once you have your tea, hand blended or purchased find your cup or mug, and possibly a tea pot too. The right teaware makes all the difference so choose wisely and perhaps a cup or mug that goes with the season.

Your tea ritual should never be rushed but slow and lesiurely with plenty of time and space for you to drift through the making of tea with ease and thoughtfulness. Let the water come up to a boil slowly, let the tea steep so that its fragrance fill the room. Pour slowly and sip delicately with attention and mindful consideration. Offer a prayer of gratitude for the plants that have offered their healing and supporting properties to you.

Sip your tea slowly by the light of your candle glowing in the dark and the calming and grounding weight of your stone in your lap or hand. Let every element bring you into harmonious wholeness.

November is the quiet month, lean into its gifts. Find your center and enjoy some calming practices that take you into seasonal alignment with the Earth. I hope what I’ve share today inspires you to find the true gifts of this season within a season.

November Blessings, my friends!

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