The Harvesting Time

Animal Totem : Brown Bear

Astrological Sun sign : Virgo

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The Harvesting Time marks the time for reaping what has been sown and for drawing in from the Earth’s bounty, though it has much more significance than the harvesting of produce. It also stresses the importance of harvesting the potentialities that lie within. It indicates the need to discover one’s talents and to work on them so that they can be brought to their full potential. It is a reminder, too, that one gets from life in proportion to what one puts in.

The peak of the summer power has now passed as the solar energies wane towards another transition in the seasonal cycle and the days shorten.

The emphasis of the solar energies at this time is on the immediate and practical work that is at hand, for there is an urgency about the gathering in as well as a responsibility, for neglect can lead to deprivation in times to come.

The Harvesting Time is the last cycle under the influence of the Spirit of the South, whose emphasis is on trust and growth to maturity. The trust is a childlike dependence on ones own inherent instincts and on that still, small voice within as against the cynicism and false values of the ~outside~ world.

The growth to maturity also implies the quality of innocence which is so strongly emphasised in the South – an innocence which does not mean naivity but a state of non- attachment, and which sees not differences but the unity that is in the harmony of a whole. Trust and innocence, as understood by the Native Americans, enriched the experience of living through the enjoyment of life’s simple pleasures.

Under this time, the quality of trust is a guard against becoming too cynical and too critical about the world and the circumstances of one’s life, and the quality of growth is a prod against becoming too rigid in one’s outlook on life and too set in ones’ ways.

Growth to the fullness of maturity and to a subsequent reaching upwards to the things of the spirit can take place only if the earth energies are firmly grounded. The influence of the power of the South is towards the harvesting of the fruits of practical endeavours while at the same time allowing the intuitive and spiritual energies to develop and in this way allowing an expansion of awareness beyond that which is physical.

The totem animal of the South is Mouse, which is associated with comprehending things through closeness to them. It is especially related to the feelings and emotions and with the qualities of trust and innocence.

The influencing elements are Earth with Water. Harvesting Time is affected by Elemental Earth, which gives a close affinity with the earth and with familiar places. Water is not just a superb solvent which can absorb and dissolve harmful impurities. It is a great container, able to hold within is grasp the substance that is poured into it. Water is likened to the emotions which are also able to absorb and dissolve negative influences and dilute them so they cause no permanent harm, The emotions are also able to contain the essence of powerful spiritual qualities which are awaiting to be expressed in accordance with the will and desire. Elemental Water is a powerful influence for Harvesting Time because it can help to bring into fruition practical endeavours that have been mixed with strong feeling and desire. It is also through the waters of emotion that the innermost desires of Harvesting Time can find expression to the elevation of the individual and those with whom the emotion is being shared.

Let us tune into the energies of this Harvesting Time and the Allies of Brown Bear and (balancing totem of Wolf} in learning to rise above the material attachments of day to day practicalities and seeking the higher view that a more spiritual perspective can give us.

Walk in Beauty always