Falling into Autumn

The reds, the browns, the softening hues

As we move from Mabon towards Samhain, I feel the rush and high energy of the summer of herbalism just gently start to ebb a little. Settling in to write this I am sorry I have not gotten here earlier in the month. So to make amends this might be a longer read for y’all.

Elements of autumn that come up for me include earthing. In the humoral system, Earth is the element of this time, until Yule. This makes sense for me as I have always associated autumn with earth - the leaves in their physicality falling to the earth, the shade of bright summer receding to a softer palette with fissured or smooth trunks appearing in the landscape vista. While the Celts associated water with this season, I feel the earth makes more sense. Take some time to see how these differences resonate for you:

Humoral (in the N. hemisphere):

Spring - Air - East - Childhood

Summer - Fire - South - Youth

Autumn - Earth - West - Adult

Winter - Water - North - Elderhood

Celtic:

Spring - Air

Summer - Fire

Autumn - Water

Winter - Earth

As Mabon comes in the cycle, the land is browning, aglow with oranges, yellows and reds from the many berries but the changes in the leaves are starting to appear. First the field maples go bright yellow and then the horsechestnuts seems to prematurely recede owing to the damage from the larvae of the Cameraria ohridella moth which causes the leaves to brown, wither and fall.

As the colours sweep over the hills, the chill appears in the air and suddenly the nights are drawing in. In the city the lush green of tree avenues or Buddleia on train tracks or building cracks start to show their movement back towards to the earth when the winter season brings all the energy back down to the roots of our plant kin. Unless they are winter-flowering wonders.

So we make things. We make berry syrups to tide us over and rooted infusions, we make fire cider and warming rubs. I pondered which herbs to share as there are so many and took a walk outside.

For all here is a berry syrup picture that I did when working with Roots at EKHO - check them out, they are wonderful. You can make any variation on the theme - one of my current students introduced sloe berries and found it went too jelly-like for a syrup and was a little puckering (highly astringent berries!) so you might want to use some of the more fruity berries - blackberries, elderberries, rosehips (still plenty around) and blackcurrants. If you can’t find any, you can always use a bag of frozen berries - they make delicious syrups (raspberries, blackcurrants, blueberries, mulberries etc.) and add in spices to zhuzh it up a bit. Star anise, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon and so on… and some citrus peel is nice… just simmer it all up for 20 mins. Then strain and measure. Pour back into the pan and add equal amounts of sugar to water (eg 1L water to 1kg sugar). Bottle and label. Keep in the fridge and have a teaspoon when needed.

Now let’s look at some plants in a bit more depth: