[8/28/02, 1:50 am: this page has now been archived...click here for the Current Page.  Broken links on this archived page remain broken but have been updated on the newly revised page.]

Wednesday, 8 August 2001:

Author's Note:

This year I sought an image for autumn equinox from my own hemisphere.  When Navajo-inspired prints of my friend Sandra Stanton's painting of "Isanakleshe, Natseelit, and Sacred Corn" arrived earlier this week, I knew I had found what I wanted.  Sandra based the painting's images on my own writings about "Corn" for my Green World Oracle (FYI: since many have asked,  we plan to search for a publisher about a year from now; I'll post updates on my website).  What follows below comes, in part, from that text as well as from a script I wrote for a slide presentation on "Changing Woman" (for those interested in references, you'll find further sources at the bottom of my page).......

Isanakleshe (many alternate spellings exist, including: 'Asdzá ^. nádle ^. hé, Asdzáá Nádleehé, Esdzânádle, and Estsan-ah-tlehay).   Changing Woman.  Whiteshell Woman.  Turquoise Woman.  She has many names.  In some Navajo sacred narratives, she dwells as Whiteshell Woman in her hogan in the eastern skies while her sister, Turquoise Woman, dwells in her own hogan in the west.  Together, the sisters hold the east-west solar pathway across the heavens.

In other sacred narratives, Whiteshell Woman and Turquoise Woman, instead of being two different deities, represent different stages, or cycles (youth and maturity), of the same Goddess.  In these narratives, she lives on earth, but moves freely through time/space.  In the skies, she dances out thirty-two spiraling paths through the stars, and in the depths of the ocean, she dances out thirty-two spiraling paths through the waters.  These spiraling whorls, reflecting the spiraling whorls at the crown of her head, and in her fingertips and toes, mark the entire universe as her sacred domain.

On earth, she is born of Darkness and Light on a mountaintop, surrounded by bluebirds and rainbows.  Usually when we think of a holy or divine child, it is a baby boy (e.g., Jesus, Krishna, the Buddha).  Here the divine child is a baby girl.   Her guardian, Grandfather Talking God, finds her and carries her down the mountain to the Holy People, who raise her.  She grows well and strong, racing each morning towards the dawn skies and back again, the rhythm of her movements set for her by songs sung by Talking God.

When it is time for her puberty ritual, she begins to change before the eyes of the Holy People -- from youth to mature womanhood to a wizened old crone and back to youth.  She changes four times, from youth to age, and back to youth, finally remaining about twenty years old, and very beautiful.  From this, they name her "Changing Woman."  She changes as does the earth through her seasons, from budding, to bloom, to harvest, to decay, to budding anew.

According to Navajo sacred narratives, she wed Turquoise Man (the Sun) and bore two sons.  In her later years, she left the southwest for a hogan in the western seas.  Medicine man, Hasteen Klah (1867-1937) identified Santa Cruz Island off the coast of California as her mythic Land that Floats on the Water --  since I can see that island from where I live, I like to think that it is so <smile>.

There, in a hogan made of whiteshell, turquoise, abalone shell, black jet, and clear quartz, she continues to live.  For her, it is a place of dance.  Dance, in fact, seems to be Changing Woman's primary activity in her house.  I have found no mention in the narratives that she gardens, cooks, weaves, sews, dusts, mends, or performs any of the other so-called feminine arts.  Yet she does dance, and through her dance she manifests blessings, abundance, protection, wisdom, compassion, and ever-changing transformations.  Like many women, this goddess comes into her full power only after her child-bearing years.  She learns to transform her solitary hours and begins functioning equally as a healer, teacher, and artist.

After a long time, Talking God brings two human children to Changing Woman's island so that she might teach them heretofore secret rituals.  When the children reach her hogan, they find her so old and withered that she can barely move.  It would seem that this is how she wants to be found: old, seemingly helpless, and of no use, yet hiding the wisdom of the ages within her seemingly shrunken husk.  Then, true to her name, she reverses the aging process until she is so young and lovely that the children bow their heads in wonder.

Over a period of many days, she teaches the children the sacred narratives, chants, prayers, and dance-movements.  Finally she sends them back to teach their people.

Sandpaintings, it should be noted, are not part of the original gift to the two children, for they do not yet exist.  As time passes, errors creep into the ceremonies because there are no "memory-devices" to assure perfect continuity.  Changing Woman realizes that "sand"-paintings (made of colored sands, dried grains, petals, berries, pollen) would solve this problem, but she does not yet know how to create them.

Detail of Bluebird

She decides to have a "sing" over herself.  First she dances through yellow pollen in a cornfield -- then she sits, chanting, under a cornstalk, the (Pueblo-influenced) Navajo "Tree of Life."  As she loses herself in meditation, a bluebird comes, sits on the stalk, and sings with her.  The bluebird is Talking God's messenger, sometimes even his "byform."  The bluebird's presence is an indication that he is fully with her in this project.  He is midwife, but she is the sacred artist, tapping into deep realms of creativity.

Slowly, the sacred images begin to emerge, one after another......

This is the moment Sandra Stanton has captured in her painting.  The sandpainting shown directly above comes from a one-night ceremony in which the help of Changing Woman and the Rainbow-Natseelit is invoked to drive away nightmares (image is adapted from the Klah/Wheelwright volume -- see bottom of this page).  Just as every sandpainting requires a surrounding rainbow of protection, in Sandra's painting, the rainbow Goddess, Natseelit, is there in person, raising the enormous spiritual energy of her multi-hued arch  (FYI: in Navajo tradition, one color alone is is immensely powerful; when many colors are combined in a rainbow, the power is vast beyond human understanding).  That image, and many more, arise within the mind of Changing Woman.  Then she generously gives them to her people for their sacred ceremonies..........

Natseelit's Hand
(Detail)

I chose this painting for this year's Autumn Equinox and harvest celebrations because it captures so well the themes I have been living with this year: the immense need we have in our culture for genuine creativity, for sacred arts; for care of the earth and her creatures; and for protecting the old and withered (the "Crone-corn"), recognizing within them the immense treasures they can share with the young if only their own creativity is nurtured first.

As autumn returns to earth's northern hemisphere,
and day and night are briefly,
but perfectly,
balanced at the equinox,
may we remember anew how fragile life is ----
human life, surely,
but also the lives of all other creatures,
trees and plants,
waters and winds.

May we make wise choices in how and what we harvest,
may earth's weather turn kinder,
may there be enough food for all creatures,
may the diminishing light in our daytime skies
be met by an increasing compassion and tolerance
in our hearts.

Kathleen

A Kernel of Isanakleshe's Sacred Corn
(Detail)

[Annotation revised 8/16/01]:   I first grokked Waverly Fitzgerald's School of the Seasons for my 1999 debut of the Autumn Equinox page.  Since then, her jewel of a site has become a favorite of mine and appears on all my seasonal pages.  The overall design is unusually tasteful and elegant.  Even more important, Fitzgerald has well-researched content on monthly celebrations, feasts, and cross-cultural holy days (with hypertext links to further information on many of these).  Her opening page also includes fascinating "Special Features" for each season.  Fitzgerald's command of lore is exceptional.

For each current month, she begins with a large number of names from various cross-cultural traditions.  Then a calendar follows.  If you click on hyperlinks for a particular day, you'll be linked to more detail on another page.  The September feasts, for example, include the Nativity of the Virgin on the 8th; Rosh Hashana; England's Day of the Holy Nut; the remembrance of the Virgin's Seven Sorrows; the God Pan; Yom Kippur; Autumn Equinox; the 9-day Eleusinian Mysteries; the Harvest Moon; Sukkoth;  the Chinese Mid-Autumn Moon Festival; and Michaelmas on the 29th.

NOTE: a new month's calendar appears on the first of each month (sometimes a night or two beforehand).  As of August 2001, the site is undergoing many changes.  Thus, last year's archives, which once gave one a sneak preview of what lay ahead in a given month (since many celebrations don't change their dates from year to year), are currently unavailable -- but keep checking, since they will be restored eventually.

[Added 15 September 2000]: This charming site looks at autumn and the autumnal equinox in Japan.  There are many (usually clickable) photos connected with the months of September, October, and November.  Text is fairly minimal but very useful to those unacquainted with Japan's seasonal customs.

From "Slavic Pagan Holidays" comes fine data on harvest festivals from early August to early November.  Autumn in Russia's cold Ukraine begins early -- it's celebrated on August 2nd, the feast known as St. Ilia's Day. The entire autumn season is a time of music, apples, honey, and grain sheaves:

...Sometimes the last sheaf ceremony was merged with the ritual surrounding a small patch of field that was left uncut. The spirit of the harvest was said to precede the reapers and hide in the uncut grain. This small patch was referred to as the "beard" of Volos, the God of animals and wealth. The uncut sheaves of wheat in "Volos' beard" were decorated with ribbons and the heads were bent toward the ground in a ritual called "The curling of the beard". This was believed to send the spirit of the harvest back to the Earth. Salt and bread, traditional symbols of hospitality were left as offerings to Volos' beard....

[Added 20 August 2000]: Mike Nichols' series of detailed, well written essays on earth-based pagan celebrations are always worth reading.  This is his page on the history and lore of autumn equinox, or "harvest home" (he prefers not to use the Welsh term, Mabon):

...Mythically, this is the day of the year when the god of light is defeated by his twin and alter-ego, the god of darkness. It is the time of the year when night conquers day....the only day of the whole year when Llew (light) is vulnerable and it is possible to defeat him. Llew now stands on the balance (Libra/autumnal equinox), with one foot on the cauldron (Cancer/summer solstice) and his other foot on the goat (Capricorn/winter solstice). Thus he is betrayed by Blodeuwedd, the Virgin (Virgo) and transformed into an Eagle (Scorpio)....

Nichols touches on many themes.  For example, Celtic Druids have long been accused of practicing human sacrifice at this time of the year.  Nichols looks at the lack of solid evidence and argues convincingly that what these ancient celebrations had instead was the "mock sacrifice" of seasonal sacred theatre.  It was a metaphoric sacrifice, in other words -- not a literal one.  He writes:

...Jesse Weston, in her brilliant study of the Four Hallows of British myth, 'From Ritual to Romance', points out that British folk tradition is...full of mock sacrifices.  In the case of the wicker-man, such figures were referred to in very personified terms, dressed in clothes, addressed by name, etc. In such a religious ritual drama, everybody played along....

Stages of Corn
(detail from Sandra Stanton's "Sacred Corn")

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/7280/LLew.html

[Added 20 August 2000]: Again from Mike Nichols comes this carefully researched essay examining the Celtic deities of light and dark and their role in both equinoxes.  If you're looking for fine mythology, don't miss this one.  For example:

[After Llew is slain]...The Welsh myth concludes with Gwydion pursuing the faithless Blodeuwedd through the night sky, and a path of white flowers springs up in the wake of her passing, which we today know as the Milky Way. When Gwydion catches her, he transforms her into an owl, a fitting symbol of autumn, just as her earlier association with flowers (she was made from them) equates her with spring. Thus, while Llew and Goronwy represent summer and winter, Blodeuwedd herself represents both spring and fall, as patron goddess of flowers and owls, respectively....

For the Celtic Connection comes Akasha's lively page on Mabon, the Celtic celebration of September's autumnal equinox:

...The Druids call this celebration, Mea'n Fo'mhair, and honor the Green Man, the God of the Forest, by offering libations to trees. Offerings of ciders, wines, herbs and fertilizer are appropriate at this time....Mabon is considered a time of the Mysteries. It is a time to honor Aging Deities and the Spirit World....

Akasha looks at Mabon's themes, symbols, herbs, foods, incense, colors, gems, spells, and deities.  If you click on the Holiday Index at the bottom of the page, you'll be given access to recipes, activities (for children and teens), and ritual (see below for a direct link to the autumn ritual...).

This is a powerful, eloquent, lyrical harvest ritual from Akasha (see above).  I love her sense of sacred theatre.

Also from the Celtic Connection comes this lovely and evocative little essay by C. Austin on the "in between" nature of the Celts' autumn:

. . . . We have bid farewell to summer, but the sun's light has not yet faded. Such is the style of in between. . . . Night is falling on the year. The equinox grants us a moment of reverie, before we rush on to year's end at Samhain.

[FYI: the above excerpt was written in the late 1990's and has since been replaced by new material for 2000; I assume the page will be updated for 2001 -- if not, just ignore the date and times of the autumnal equinox here.]

[Annotation revised 18 August 2001]:  This is the portfolio page of artist/professor Mary B. Kelly, whose vibrant painting of Hungary's "Black Goddess," the Harvest Goddess, Dordona, is not to be missed:

...Like her counterpart in Russia, her arms are raised. She is crowned by both the sun and the moon.

(Note: the larger version of Dordona, with text, is no longer available on this site, but you might e-mail Dr. Kelly if you wish to see it.   If you click on the menu buttons on her Portfolio page, you'll also find information on her groundbreaking books on goddess embroideries, etc.  On her Home Page, there's a large version of Dordona, by the way, but no text.)

The page offers links to paintings of many other goddesses, some of whom (e.g., Persephone & Demeter -- don't miss that one!) are also connected to autumnal harvest festivals.

Rainbow, Crone-Corn, and Harvest Moon
(detail from Sandra Stanton's "Sacred Corn")

This is "The Elders Speak: About Autumn," a page of wonderfully chosen, evocative quotes about the fall season.  The page comes from the "Weather Doctor," Dr. Keith Heidorn, whose entire website on all aspects of weather (from science to philosophy to art) is a richly mulled pleasure where I love to browse.  Note: from this page, you can get to his home page and from there to his no-frames site map, or click here for a direct link: http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/general/site_map.htm

[Added 15 September 2000]:  This is a lengthy, informative, rich page on Autumn Equinox/Mabon from "Storm Wing."  In addition to lore on Mabon and his mother Modron (and Persephone and her mother Demeter), the author gives suggestions for what to gather for your autumn rituals and also offers recipes for covenstead bread, Salem Witch pudding, Texas-style pecan pie, and blackberry wine (also for incense and potpourri).  At the end are several ritual incantations -- my favorite is to the Southwest's Blue Corn Girl.

[Added 15 September 2000]:  This is "North Carolina Traditional Weather Lore," a brief page offering an engaging Native American (Cherokee) tale that explains why some animals like the panther and owl can see in the dark, and why some plants and trees stay green through the winter.  There's also a good collection of North Carolina folk sayings about autumn and early winter.

[Added 15 September 2000]:  This is a fine little essay on Mabon by "Lance" -- he looks at the season's Wine Moon, Harvest Moon, Corn Man, Wicker Man, and also offers some wonderful suggestions for celebrating the season - for example:

...go through your garden, tending it, thanking the plants and flowers for their abundance, harvesting whatever is ready, collecting seeds; make a mandala of seeds and grains on the ground, an offering of the Mother's gifts to the animals and birds; infuse it with specific magick that will be released as the seeds are consumed or scattered; honor the elders in your circle or your life in some special way....

[Added 16 August 2001]: From the Worldwide Wheat Weavers comes an attractively illustrated and informative little site on wheat-weaving and corn dollies:

...Objects made from dried straw are known to have been made in the earliest civilizations, practiced throughout Europe, Asia and South America. Harvest rituals occurred in every country where grain is grown in order to please the spirits of the crop. Abstract shapes or religious symbols made from straw were believed to insure prosperity and good luck in the next growing season....

Pueblo Harvest Dance
From Canku Ota (artist unknown: see directly below --used with  permission)

[Added 18 August 2001]: This is a page from the award-winning Canku Ota ("Many Paths"), a thoughtful, beautifully presented e-zine on North American Native traditions, past and current.  This particular page, "Dances with Buffaloes" by Suzanne Ruta, looks at buffalo, corn and rain dances among the Pueblo peoples of the southwestern United States.  It begins with the Christmas season but then compares the dramatic winter dances with the quieter rain and corn dances of summer and autumn.  The lively essay is well written and beautifully illustrated (see above for one illustration).

Note: Canku Ota's site is huge and puts out an issue (designed for all age groups, with special sections for children) every two weeks.  To explore further, here is the Home Page:  http://www.turtletrack.org/index.html

[Added 16 August 2001]: From Britannica.com comes a marvelous page on ritual dance and music from the American Southwest, including traditional autumn dances.  It touches briefly (but intriguingly) on the Athabascan Navajo and Apache, and then offers a lengthy section comparing and contrasting the rituals of the Pueblo peoples.

...The polytheistic religion of the Pueblos resembles that of the ancient Aztecs and Maya. But their indigenous styles of music and dance appear very different from the aboriginal and contemporary styles of Latin America, even from those of the adjacent tribes of northern Mexico....

The page is literate, impressive.  At the bottom is an astounding collection of more Britannica links to other indigenous peoples' art and ritual in the Americas.  You could spend days here.

[Added 16 August 2001]: This is "Native American Dances," a specialized website featuring sheet music and detailed choreography (including sketches) for two dances: the autumnal Indian Corn Dance from the South Dakotas; and the White Deer Dance, which is usually given in September at the full moon in the Klamath River region of California.

[Added 16 August 2001]: This calendar for August 2001 is part of a worldwide "Diversity" project from a most unexpected source: the Business Operations Division of Los Alamos National Laboratory, operated by the University of California for the National Nuclear Security Administration of the US Department of Energy.  The monthly calendars offer solid data on Pueblo dances as well as other worldwide feasts -- some have great links to additional data (e.g., an August feast celebrating the birthday of India's elephant-headed god, Ganesh).
Here is September: http://bus.lanl.gov/diversity/Calendar/sept2001.htm
October: http://bus.lanl.gov/diversity/Calendar/oct2001.htm
& November: http://bus.lanl.gov/diversity/Calendar/nov2001.htm
(You're on your own for the other months <smile>.)

[Added 18 August 2001]:For those fortunate enough to be able to attend the harvest dances in the southwestern United States, I'm adding a handful of links with further information.  For those, like me, living too far away to attend, we can dream <smile>.  The above is a no frills page from the Pueblo of Santa Ana on dances in Central New Mexico:

There are eighteen Pueblos in addition to Santa Ana within the state of New Mexico. Visitors are usually welcome during annual events and feast days. Easy to reach -- especially in the Albuquerque area, between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, and between Albuquerque and Grants, New Mexico....

The link will take you to September through the rest of the year; scroll to the top for earlier months.

[Added 18 August 2001]:  From St. Louis (MO) Community College comes another no frills page on Pueblo Celebrations, "Yearly Calendar of Indian Dances and Events at the Pueblos."  Contacts are provided for further information.

[Added 18 August 2001]: From Guest Life: New Mexico comes yet another Pueblo events calendar, similar to the preceding two but with nearly 2 dozen telephone contacts to specific pueblos -- since dates for these dances can change at a moment's notice, these contacts are especially valuable.  This is an online e-zine with links to well written (and illustrated) articles (see below for a direct link to one of these).

[Added 22 September 2001]: This is another site looking at autumn events among both Pueblo and more recent Navajo peoples.  It's sponsored by the New Mexico Lodging Association and includes useful phone numbers.  Here's an excerpt from the opening:

Of New Mexico's two American Indian groups, the Pueblo Indians can trace their evolution from a prehistory among pit houses and cliff dwellings to stable village life.  Many of the pit houses and cliff dwellings can be seen today. The other group, the Athapascans, which include Apaches and Navajo, arrived later - just a couple of hundred years before Europeans....

[Added 18 August 2001]:  This is a brief page on Taos (NM) Pueblo.  It looks at:

...the Feast of San Gerónimo at the end of September, when hundreds and even thousands of outsiders flock to join the general revelry....

A telephone number is included.  Nearby is a casino -- and I like the quote from an elder:

As one unapologetic elder remarked, “poverty was never a part of pueblo life until the Europeans came.”

[Added 18 August 2001]: Another no frills New Mexico events calendar, but this one includes essential data on the etiquette one needs to observe when visiting a pueblo.  It also includes telephone contacts and brief travel instructions for reaching each village.

8/18/01 NOTE:
The following 3 Pueblo-focused links are yet to be annotated.
Feel free to discover treasures within them on your own <smile>!
Fully annotated links continue below these....

[annotation tba]

[annotation tba]

Fine essay on "Clowns, Priests, and Festivals of the Kâ'-kâ" from "Zuñi Breadstuff", Millstone 10, no. 8 (1885).  [annotation tba]

A pumpkin with a shimmering aura
(Used with the kind permission of the Salem Tarot Page --
check their well-done 3-card tarot reading)

From about.com, comes this page of links to everything you might want to know about pumpkins.  It's called "The Great Pumpkin: Pumpkin Picking, Recipes & More!"  The focus is on New England and upstate New York, but much of the data is relevant elsewhere.

From England's erudite Michael B. Quinion comes "CIDER INSIGHT: The jargon of an ancient craft."  This is on autumn cider-making in southern England. . . . . .

. . . . Yet another autumn-related essay from Michael B. Quinion is his engaging "TALKING TURKEY: Names for a much-travelled bird." [Note: a much longer entry on Quinion and his word-loving work is on my Samhain page -- see below for link.]

 

 Samhain (Halloween),
and the soul-feasts of November:
I have created 2 separate pages for these at:

SAMHAIN
&
el dia de los Muertos
[Day of the Dead]

Other Related Pages from
Mything Links:

To Archived Autumn Greetings & Lore (2000)

To Archived Autumn Equinox/Mabon Greetings (1999)

To August's Lammas page

To Current Summer Solstice / Summer Greetings & Lore

To Eastern & Western Europe: Earth-Based Ways (Wicca)

To the Wheel of the Year

To Common Themes: WEATHER-WORKING: Introduction
(An experimental on-going ritual in cyberspace)

To Common Themes: Sacred Foods

To Latin America: The Lore and History of Maize

To Common Themes: The Green Man page

Note: my complete Site Map and e-mail address are on my Home Page.

To hear the embedded music, you'll need to have your JavaScript enabled (and not be on AOL). The "square" on the mini-console below will stop the sound; the "triangle" will start it again; the two lines will pause it; the slider controls the volume.

<BGSOUND SRC="Romanian~eerie~moldva094.mid" LOOP=infinite>

This Hungarian love song, Kerek a szolo levele, is at least 200 years old; it comes from a region in what is now Romania, so it's known among both non-Slavic and Slavic peoples.  Courtesy of Robert Szlizs, whose collection of Hungarian music is at Robert's Midi Creations.

Text and layout © 1999-2002 by Kathleen Jenks, Ph.D.
All rights reserved.

1999 = Page first created & designed 22 June 1999, 2:15am PDT;
page put online Saturday, 14 August 1999 (see Archived 1999 Page for more specifics).
2000 = 18 August 2000 (added new links for current year --
unless noted, all links are from 1999, but newly revised and updated for 2000:
see Archived 2000 Page for more specifics).
2001 = 6 August 2001: began revising images for Autumn 2001;
7 August 2001: updated times & dates; 8 August 2001 (wrote essay; added new images);
16 August 2001 (checked all links; began adding new Pueblo section);
18 August 2001: archived last year's; Nedstated this one; published w/Pueblo links incomplete; began annotating half of the remaining Pueblo links; tracked down Mary Kelly's new URLs);
22 September 2001 (added my NYC & Crone Papers links to very top of page; grokked one of 4 remaining ungrokked links, which now leaves 3; put Pueblo Dance image out in space w/black bkgrnd  -- no time for more: must return to unfinished Afghanistan page).
2002 = archived 28 August 2002, 1:55am

.............
Natseelit
(from Sandra Stanton's "Sacred Corn")

Farella, John R.  The Main Stalk: A Synthesis of Navajo Philosophy.  Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1984.

Franciscan Fathers.  An Ethnologic Dictionary of the Navaho Language.  Saint Michaels, AZ: 1910.

Klah, Hasteen, and Mary C. Wheelwright. Navaho Creation Myth: The Story of the Emergence.  Santa Fe, New Mexico: Museum of Navajo Ceremonial Art, 1942.

Jenks, Kathleen.  "Changing Woman: The Navajo Therapist Goddess." Psychological Perspectives, Autumn 1986, published by the Jung Institute of Los Angeles.

McNeley, James Kale.  Holy Wind in Navajo Philosophy.  Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1981.

Reichard, Gladys A.  Navaho Religion: A Study of Symbolism.  Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1974/1983.

Reichard, Gladys A.  Prayer: The Compulsive Word.  New York: J. J. Augustin, 1944.

Witherspoon, Gary.  Language and Art in the Navajo Universe.  Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1977.

Zolbrod, Paul G.  Dine bahane': The Navajo Creation Story.  Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1984.
 
 

Still to be Grokked:

This is a 1987 "Harvest Home Ritual" by Michael Fix.