To be done before your personal shrine.

You will need:

Offerings
Offering bowl
One unlit candle
Matches
Pen or pencil
Small piece of paper
Fireproof container

Note: Offerings may include any grain that is locally grown or anything that has ripened or bloomed recently. Clean, fresh water or a stick of incense may also be used as your offering. You may wish to take your offering outside to be left at the base of a special tree or stone after your ritual is over. This may be performed at any time of day; however, dusk may be the best time because Fall is like the evening of the year.

Feel free to leave out any sections that do not resonate with you. Group rituals are usually longer partly to help others attain the same level of trance (to establish a group mind) as well as to explain to others what is being done and why during the ritual. As a solitary, you are in control of all this.

[Opening. Some people like to ring a bell or beat a drum as a clear cut beginning. All parts may be spoke aloud or silently as you see fit.]

Shining Ones, I ask for your presence and guidance during my ceremony of the Fall Equinox.

(Light your main candle now)

As I connect with the Well of Wisdom, the Fire of Change and the World Tree, I honor my Patron/s, the memory of my ancestors and the nature spirits who surround me.

With Mother Earth supporting me in all I do, I proclaim my Fall Equinox festival within this sacred space.

Here at the edge of space and time and reality The power of my faith opens the door I am a being of energy Fire in the Head

This day
This night
In complete balance

All beings
naturally seek a life in balance
All of nature seeks a balance

To be out of balance
means one is without
Without time
Without love
Without peace
Without the Shining Ones
Drained and lost
Sometimes not understanding the emptiness felt

Life out of balance is a life changed
As water exposed to too much cold or heat
becomes unrecognizable

In this rare moment
a quick breath twice each year
I revel
in this balance

As in the checkbook figures that balance
As in the new life offsetting the passings
As in the day after the night
As in the cool of winter after the heat of summer
As in the wisdom of age after the impulsiveness of youth

Each life, each dream
are like the seeds carried by the winds
From dandelion puffballs

Some land on asphalt
Without water for balance
They cannot sprout

Some land in rivers
Without soil for balance
They cannot sprout

Some land in the forest
Without sun for balance
They cannot sprout

Some land in the meadow
All is in balance
They grow into maturity

[Pause for a moment to meditate on what in your life is out of balance. When the answer/s comes, write it on your piece of paper. Then continue, either speaking the following parts or just visualizing the concepts.]

Dandelion seeds are sometimes like my life
So much I cannot control
So much I cannot foresee
I have faith
In myself, in my ancestors and in the Shining Ones
I open my heart to my life taken
Like rain sweeping the seed off the asphalt

Like the current washing the seed onto the shore
Like the wind blowing the seed away from the forest
To the place
To that perfect meadow
Where all is in balance
So every hope, dream and desire
Can sprout and grow into its potential

If I can dream it
If I can visualize it
If I can work together with others
If I have faith
I will attain my goals

[Make an offering into your offering bowl. Use the main candle flame to set your scrape of paper on fire and place it in a fireproof dish to burn out. Meditate how to create balance in your life as the flames consume your issue.]

[If you have any additional praises, divination or requests this is the time to do so. These can be any healing requests, offerings of poetry or individual prayers as well as statements of gratitude.]

(State or just concentrate on the following concepts)

My prayers have been given but my path does not end here. From this sacred space, I will continue to seek balance in my life.

Balance the individual with the community
Balance the preserving with the replacing
Balance the responsibility with play
Balance the should-s with the want-s Balance the savings with the splurges Balance the tears with the smiles

I will be open to the Shining Ones, my ancestors and the nature spirits whenever they come to show me the way. I am grateful for the gifts they have given me and will give in the future.

I now declare this Festival of the Fall Equinox ended in peace and love.

So Be It