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What Autumn Reveals at Cross Quarter Day: this week on The Storyteller's Night Sky

The Autumn Cross Quarter Day occurs on Friday, Nov. 1, when we are closer to the end of the season than we are to its beginning. (Image: The Smart Happy Project)
The Autumn Cross Quarter Day occurs on Friday, Nov. 1, when we are closer to the end of the season than we are to its beginning. (Image: The Smart Happy Project)

In the early 1900s, Austrian spiritual scientist Rudolf Steiner published a book of contemplations called The Calendar of the Soul, which was composed of three main parts:

  • name days and feast days for each day of the year;
  • weekly verses to support a sense of becoming in the cycle of the year;
  • and new images of the sun and moon zodiacs for each month, and all of this to support an awareness of the rhythms of the soul as we journey through the world.

This week, we come to the seasonal cross quarter, the halfway point, which includes the mischievous festival of Halloween, followed by All Saints Day, then All Soul’s Day, and then the several weeks of honoring loved ones who have died, which is observed in many cultural traditions. Why celebrate this now?

The Spring Cross Quarter is an observance of fertility and new life; the summer cross quarter is about the first fruits of the growing season; this is followed by this week’s autumn cross quarter, in the full ripening of the season and honoring the dead.

In the cycle of the year, the solstice and equinox moments mark the beginning of the seasons, but the cross quarter days are a bit more dynamic, because they mark the season’s turning point. And always, they’re preceded by a release of mischief the evening before.

The Calendar of the Soul verse composed by Rudolf Steiner for this week of the autumn cross quarter captures the mood of turning beautifully.

I can perceive now joyfully the autumn’s spirit waking. The winter will arouse in me the summer of the soul.

Here there is a turning away from the season’s beginning toward it’s fulfillment, where we find, at last, the summer’s gifts.

Mary Stewart Adams is a Star Lore Historian and host of “The Storyteller’s Night Sky.” As a global advocate for starry skies, Mary led the team that established the 9th International Dark Sky Park in the world in 2011, which later led to her home state of Michigan protecting 35,000 acres of state land for its natural darkness.