To me, it feels like we just planted and here it is almost the launch of yet another harvest. It has been a hard year and I know barely anyone who has emerged from it unscathed in terms of personal loss or challenges. I am trying to think of hearing from someone that it was an easy year for them and nothing is coming to mind except a huge flow of soul-crushing, game-changing challenges. For myself, everything comes back to the harvest cycles, so I try to keep in mind what I planted and how what I am experiencing relates back to that goal. It also helps to think about where we are in the harvest cycle. For instance, at the time of this writing, we are ten days away from the start of the first harvest, which is when the rewards for your own efforts through the year come in. The moments just before harvest are some of the most difficult of the year. Just after Samhain, around the time of the Mourning Moon, we begin to adapt into what we had to release in the past year. To my mind, that is the only time that comes close to the mental stress of the time just prior to harvest. At Summer Solstice, we could see our crops growing healthy out in the field and knew that barring unforeseen catastrophe, our sustenance was assured for the coming winter. It is a time of patience because the crops are not yet ready to eat, but it has been a year since the last harvest and our reserves are likely almost gone. This creates a potential for fear and even panic if there is any threat to the crops. We begin to worry that Deity will forsake us and our harvest will not yield, so we stand in front of this immature harvest and shout, “HURRY!!!”
Now is a wonderful time to remember that we are still in the cultivating and nurturing phase of harvest; not the rewards phase, so do not expect much in the way of returns just yet. There may be encouragement and you may begin to see how the harvest will manifest, but the rewards will likely not be here at this time. Instead, you are left running on a lot of hard work and a tremendous amount of pure faith to bring you through this home stretch. I also caution you to remember that while harvest is a time of instant gratification where manifestation runs hard and fast and thought quickly manifests form, it is also a time of incredible, back-breaking work. Harvest usually does not drive up to your door and unload itself. Be sure and pace yourself so that you have energy for the coming work of harvest. Get plenty of sleep, good nutrition to your body, adequate hydration, and time for peaceful meditation and contemplation.
You are almost there and when November 1 rolls around and it is time to release whatever harvest did not bring to us, we can rest at last and dissolve into the peaceful, dormant time of the year.
Hang in there!
