The beauty of fall is on full display right now. From the warm days and cool nights to the changing colors of the leaves. I’ve taken the opportunity to get outdoors and soak in this beauty of fall through the lens of my camera. (Healing creativity is one of the Ravynwood Foundations).
So let me start off this post by sharing a short video of my favorite images with you.
The Beauty of Fall – My favorite images of the season
Throughout this post, you’ll find ideas to help you connect with the beauty, essence and magick of the fall season. Enjoy!
The Beauty of Fall: Release & Renewal
The fall months of September, October and November offer a beauty all their own. These months are a study of opposites. A time of dying off and a time of seeding the future to ensure new growth will follow.
It’s a time of letting go and release for the natural world and we can align ourselves to this rhythm and consciously let things fall away that are no longer serving us while making space for new growth and opportunity to come into our lives. In this way, we’re also preparing for our next spring season.
Try this: How can you lean into this letting go and trust that letting go will bring new opportunity and growth?
Beauty of the Fall Season – Exploring Each Month
Each month of the fall season has something unique to offer us. Here’s some of the things that make each month special where I live.
September offers us some of the best weather we have all year with clear, bright sunny days. Warm temperatures, low humidity, and comfortably cool nights. Many flowers and plants are still blooming, the grass is growing and we’re in harvest mode, bringing in the last bit of bounty from our gardens.
Chrysanthemums are in full color and the leaves that are still green are taking on that tired hue of autumn, while others are brilliant shades of red, brown, and gold.
October features blazing foliage and then the trees begin letting go of their leaves, showing us by example that it’s ok to release what’s not needed anymore.
The third and final harvest festival of Samhain is here and we’re preparing for the dark months ahead. While in our society today, there’s not as much emphasis on storing up for the winter as our ancestors did, we are still beckoned to it by the remembrance in our cultural memory.
November is a liminal space for me. An in-between time where it’s not really fall and not really winter. I consider it to be a gateway to the winter season, characterized by gray skies, drab weather and the trees are now bare as they stretch up to meet the sky.
There’ something always kind of sad about November for me as I witness this process of the fall season, but I also embrace it as a time to turn inward and become introspective, considering how the year has gone, taking inventory of the lessons it has offered and deciding how I want the next year to go.
November offers us an opportunity to pause. To focus on being instead of doing.
Try this: Explore the beauty of fall where you are: What do you associate with each month in your area?
The Beauty of Fall: Everyday Joys & Every Day Magick
Everyday magick is how I think of the joys of the season. These things are a way to connect with (and immerse yourself in), the delights that are only found this time of year.
Depending on where you live, you might associate different things with this season, but here in the Northeast, this is what I associate with these months.
- Colorful chrysanthemums and other late season blooms
- Pumpkins, gourds, and corn shocks
- The first frost, first snowflakes, less daylight, and declining temperatures
- Blazing colors in the leaves along with fallen leaves scattered on the ground.
- Samhain Celebrations & Halloween decorations
- Seasonal produce and the last gathering from the garden before winter
- The unique smell of the air and earth in the fall season
Embracing these joys is something I do intentionally, soaking in all that this season has to offer.
I find it impossible to look at the bright blooms of chrysanthemums and feel anything but happy. Seeing fields filled with orange pumpkins still on the vine, their bright bodies a stark contrast against the browns of the dying weeds and vines is a delight for the senses.
And of course, one of my favorite things of the season is the appearance of Halloween/Samhain decorations that begin to pop up as early as September.
With later sunrises and earlier sunsets, it’s easier to catch more of them. If you’ve forgotten the magick of life, I always recommend seeing as many sunrises and sunsets as you can to restore your belief.
I regularly do what I call a “sunset chase” which is a drive at sunset time so I can take in the beauty of magic hour from my favorite vantage point.
Full moons in a clear bright fall sky are even more enchanting than in summer. I make it a point to see as many of them as I can.
It’s also the perfect time for sitting around a fire and soaking in the cool, crisp nighttime air while gazing at the stars and maybe even doing a bit of star magick.
And of course, there’s sweaters, boots, wool socks, cozy blankets, fall scents and the rich colors of the fall season too.
Try this: What are some ways that you can bring more of these simple joys into your life? Write down your ideas and then make a plan to do them.
Connecting to Nature to Enjoy the Beauty of Fall
The changes in the natural world in the fall season is another way to fully embrace the unique beauty of this season. Animals have always been my conduit to the natural world and observing the migrations and habits of wild animals is one of the ways that I feel connected to nature’s rhythms.
Years ago, I lived on a private lake where it was easy to observe the annual bird migrations. Each year, I’d eagerly await the arrival of the blue heron that would stop by. If he came in late July, we were sure to have an early fall. If he arrived in late August, then we were sure to enjoy a few extra weeks of warm weather.
The arrival of geese each spring fills me with happiness since I know that springtime can’t be far away. Seeing them leave each fall tells me that freezing weather is coming soon. I always bid them farewell for safe travel when I see those familiar v shaped formations going overhead.
The deer are growing in winter coats now too, so they appear darker colored than they did in summer. The hummingbirds left a few weeks ago for their thousands of miles long journey and the robins are now in flocks, getting ready to make their own trek south.
Gold finches are changing colors, their bright yellow feathers of summer now becoming more gray looking. They pass through each fall feasting on seeds from the echinacea flowers and tall grasses in my garden.
While crickets and katy-dids are still singing me to sleep at night, soon there will be only silence as we move further into the colder months.
Try this:
- What do you observe in the natural world around you where you are now? Write down your observations in your journal. Note how this makes you feel.
- What messages do you receive from the natural world around you?
- How do your observations of the natural world at this time speak to you of the beauty of fall?
Final Thoughts on The Beauty of Fall
Each month of the fall season offers us unique opportunities to immerse ourselves in the beauty of fall. Doing so intentionally becomes something more than just seeing the natural world around you.
It becomes a way to align with the rhythms of the changing seasons, honor this cycle of change within yourself and embrace the unique every day magick the fall season brings.
So, to close out this post, here are some things for you to consider.
You might even want to use these as journal prompts and write down your thoughts and then repeat this exercise again next year to see what is different in how you embrace the beauty of fall.
- What does the beauty of fall signify for you?
- How can you align with this rhythm of change, release, and renewal?
- How can you bring more of that everyday magick into your life?
- What small joys of the fall season have you been missing out on?
- How can you bring intention to how you move through the fall season?
- What are you letting go of now? How is that making room for growth within you?
Here’s to enjoying the unique beauty of fall and soaking in the unique wisdom it brings.
Blessed Be.
You might like these too:
A Sacred Journey Through October Mini-Course
Celebrating the Blessed First Harvest: Sabbat of Lammas
Celebrating Samhain – A Personal Perspective
Plant Medicine to Make in the Fall
Witchy Journal/Book of Shadows Printable PDF pages
Karen
