[caption id="attachment_19884" align="alignleft" width="150"]
Art by Freydoon Rassouli[/caption]8/30: New Moon in Virgo8/30 eve to 9/29 eve: Elul--Jewish month of self-reflection, peace-making, and renewal. Elul-Rosh Hashanah Truce (through Yom Kippur).9/1: Day to pray about, commit to, and act on, lifestyle and consumption changes to stop extinction, waste, overharvest, pollution, and climate change.9/2: Labor Day--Day to reflect on the sacredness of all work and the value of ethical, meaningful employment.9/2 eve to 9/3 eve: Feast of Old Greek Deities Aphrodite and Hermes--Day to honor the divine feminine and divine masculine in harmony.9/2 to 9/13: Ganesha Chaturthi--Hindu festival honoring God Ganesha (son of Goddess Parvati and God Shiva) as the Challenger - creator and remover of obstacles.9/6: Day Tibetan Buddhists meditate on Bodhisattva Goddess Gold Tara, provider of all sustenance and necessities.9/7: Mindfulness Day--Zen Buddhist day for being mindful that harm to the Earth and sentient beings results from ignorance of interdependence.9/8 (OC 9/21): Birthday of Blessed Mary, catalyst of liberation and redemption.9/10 eve to 9/11 eve: Demokratia--Old Greek festival celebrating democracy, constitutional government, and justice under law. Zeus Agoraios, Athena Agoraias, and Themis were honored.9/11 eve to 9/20 eve: Greater Eleusinian Mysteries--Old Greek festival recalling Goddess Demeter’s search for Her missing daughter Kore.9/13 to 9/21: Navajo Sing--Festival in thanksgiving for the harvest. Estsanatlehi/Changing Woman is believed to represent life, and is manifested in the harvest.[caption id="attachment_19883" align="alignleft" width="150"]
Art by Eleanor Ludgate[/caption]9/14 (12:33 a.m. EDT): Full Moon (Harvest Moon).9/17: Christian feast of St. Hildegard von Bingen (d. 1179), mystic who sang praises to the Holy Spirit as Grace and Wisdom. She recognized the Holy Spirit to be the feminine aspect of the Holy Trinity, and found Her everywhere in Nature.9/19: Appearance of Our Lady of La Salette, Mother of the Harvest (France 1846).9/22 to 9/23: Coya Rayni--Inca festival honoring Moon Goddess Quilla; focus is on purging sickness and evil.[caption id="attachment_19839" align="alignright" width="223"]
Out of chaos comes the dance of balance, art by Denise Kester[/caption]9/23 (3:50 a.m. EDT): Autumn Equinox--Marks the beginning of Autumn and point of equal daylight and darkness; celebrates the bounty of Mother Earth with feasting and aiding those in need.9/23: Beginning of Libra (the Scales of Lady Justice).9/23: Taoist festival honoring the Shen of Winds, West, and Autumn; thanksgiving is made for the harvest. Taoists believe the unity of Yin (Eternal Feminine) and Yang (Eternal Masculine) make up the psyche-matter-energy of the eternal all-encompassing Ch’i.9/23: Aki-no-Higan--Day Japanese Buddhists mark the time of change by meditating on the impermanence of life.9/23: Old Slavic Dozhinki--At the end of the grain harvest, God Jarilo betrays Goddess Morana, and he returns to the realm of the dead. Her anger and sadness causes the world to become dark, cold, and dead.9/25: Day Pope Francis called for Christian evangelizing to focus on service to humanity - rather than conversion (2014).9/25 eve to 9/26 eve: Old Greek festival honoring Gaia and the Nymphs (the male and female Spirits of Nature).9/26: Old Egyptian festival of Neter Amen-Ra-Atem, the Great God, and Neteret Amenet-Rait-Mut, the Great Goddess.9/27: Baha’i feast honoring the one Deity as Mashiyyat - Divine Will.9/27: Indigenous Peoples’ Day--Day for honoring Native Americans and their life-affirming spiritual traditions.[caption id="attachment_19885" align="alignright" width="150"]
New Moon in Libra[/caption]9/28 (2:26 p.m. EDT): New Moon in Libra9/28: Birthday of Confucius (K’ung Fu-Tzu) (551 BCE). He taught that societal harmony could be realized when individuals acted with loving care for family, concern for friends and neighbors, benevolence to strangers, and respect for all.9/28: Good Neighbor Day.9/28: National Estuaries Day--Celebrate the beauty and life that lives where rivers meet the sea.9/28 eve: Old European feast of the Triple Goddess (Goddess of the Moon and the Seasons), marking the transformation of the Mother into the Crone.9/28 to 10/1: Iroquois Squash Ceremony--in thanksgiving for the squash harvest.9/29: Feast of Michael, Angel of Protection, and Uriel, Angel of Justice.9/29: World Rivers Day--Immerse yourself and feel the flow of life.9/29 eve to 10/1 eve: Rosh Hashanah/Jewish New Year (Year 5780)--Commemorates Creation of the World by Elohim, the one universal Deity; begins ten days of self-examination and penitence for harm done.9/29 to 10/8: Navaratri/Durga Puja--Hindu festival of Great Goddess Maha Devi as Durga, Protector of the Powerless; celebrates Her destruction of evil and restoration of cosmic order. 9/30: Christian feast of Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom), Soul of the Universe, and source of faith, hope, and love.9/30: Birthday of Jalal ad-Din Rumi (1207), Sufi saint and poet. He believed the soul to be one with Deity, and thought ecstatic experience of Deity could be attained with music, whirling dance, and chanting Deity’s holy names.Excerpted fromTHE MYSTIC'S WHEEL OF THE YEAR 2019A Multifaith Calendar Reflecting Eco-Egalitarian Spirituality© 2018 Marija Miovskiwww.WheeloftheYear.com