While the Fall Equinox can be acknowledged with the sun’s fiery energy, I prefer to make the transition to fall under the bright light of the Harvest Moon. It’s the time when Hekate, like the natural cycle of the earth, transitions from lightness to dark. Hail the return of the Dark Mother while celebrating the harvest under the light of her Harvest Moon.

The Harvest Moon

As the transition to fall occurs, it is not the sun that is the most brilliant, but the full moon. The Harvest Moon is the full moon closest to the Autumnal Equinox, falling either before or after depending on the year. This full moon is typically brighter than most of the others because of the position of the moon in relation to the earth.

The Harvest Moon represented the true seasonal shift for people living in places where the land was turning fallow. For the Ancient Greeks, it was the time of the second sowing. How very different from the ancient societies where this moon indicated the beginning of frost. Such is what this moon represents in all the places that I have lived.

Searching for inspiration for an article about the commencement of autumn, I thought about the months of increasing darkness. The time when Hekate returns to her role as a Chthonic Goddess. To me, she is the Dark Mother, Queen of the Witches and the Torch Bearer wandering the night. My thoughts turned to Aleister Crowley’s vision of Hekate which led to me wandering around in old files on my computer. Alongside my file containing Crowley’s ode was my own that I had written to Hekate on the Harvest Moon when I had just begun my journey with Hekatean Witchcraft.

I knew that this was no accident, that I had been guided to find this long-forgotten ritual. A decade ago when I wrote it, I had almost no knowledge of the rich history of my favorite Goddess.

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