In The Belly of The Earth

In the belly of the Earth: Transition and the dark half of the year.

By Roman Delgado.

Ah! Yes, here we are once again! The nights grow longer, it is getting colder. The darkness and cold seem envelop the earth. For many these days are depressing and lonely. Others despise this time because it lends way easily to introspection and thought. We do not like being left alone with our thoughts. Too many monsters under our beds, too much fear and anger that we refuse to confront. Yet this time of the year is just as sacred as the light half of the year. The beginning of fall is more than just the dark growing stronger. It is sacred space and time. It is a time in between. This time when the change in seasons is at its most noticeable. It lends its way to magic and change. It is in times like these that the whole world looks to us to be a witches circle! Every word we say, ever step we take is a form of magic.

There is something going on in the dark half of the year that drives us batty. Something that is taking the magic of transition in nature, inwards into the transitions that we go through within our own souls. What have we accomplished in the light half of the year? What is the healing that needs to take place in the darkness of fall and winter? What needs to die with the light of the sun?

We start thinking about all the changes we need to make over the winter. We start to get restless and let go of things that no longer lend to our success and happiness. We are desperate to birth into being our very own new fantastic life and selves. We push our magic into the world of the Gods and hope for a steadfast change. Yet for most of us, there are times that no matter how many candles we light, how many crystals we carry, how many incantations we chant - nothing seems to happen! We let go and let go some more. Make room in our lives for what we wish to manifest. Yet even when we are taking action and doing our best to back up or spells with hard work, it seems like we are cars spinning our wheels in place. It doesn’t seem to matter how frustrated we get when things don’t quite happen. Why are we neither in the past we are releasing nor in the life we so desperately try to manifest? Why must we spin our wheels in place! Be mindful, do not do something self-destructive out frustration. When we plant seeds, we do not dig them up after a couple of days to see if they have sprouted. Everything in due time!

It is absolutely terrifying not knowing what’s next. It is nerve-racking not being sure when or where our opportunities will come. It is why we as witches turn to magic. Yet there is something deeply magical in not knowing. It is a spell of its own. When we give ourselves permission to not know, we also give ourselves permission to learn and grow. It is thought that growth in the liminal space that is the dark half of the year that we grow into the witches that are reborn with the light.

Yet once again I must remind you everything in due time. Give yourself permission to be in transition! If we force ourselves to grow out of the transformative time of the dark half of the year. If we hurry and find the light of rebirth before either we are ready or the cosmic forces we channel are prepared, we may end up manifesting something completely out of place in our lives. What is so important about this “ All in due time” stuff? Well fruit that is harvested and cooked before is ripe rarely taste right or is usable at all! You cannot rush healing. It takes however long it takes! If we rush healing we risk hurting ourselves even more. The same is true of manifesting our dream life, if we manifest our dreams before everything in our lives and within ourselves is ready to receive it, we must likely won’t be able to fully connect with our new life. Our manifestation is always in alignment with the self after our natural transformation. It is never aligned with who we are when we are just restless.

Take the time to look within, enjoy the brisk cold air for a moment and wake up to the mysteries found within yourself! Be an active participant in your transformation. Be willing to release what is not to be. Learn what you need to learn. That way when the light half of the year comes about again, you will have a clear mind on what you wish to manifest for who you have become. There is no need to rush, you are not spinning your wheels in place. There is still plenty of work to do. However that work is not out there in the world of man. But within your mind and soul, in that place where Gods and your own humanity meet. That place that shall forever remain holy and a sacred space that is between.

Let’s delve deeper into the darkness of the abyss, that holy place between. That place where the monsters live, and where our most rejected fears and insecurities lay. This place is why we hate being left alone with our thoughts. This place is why we are restless, trying to manifest our new life before we release the old one. This goes beyond shadow work; this goes beyond magic.

This goes to the very heart of what it means to be a witch. To allow the dark half of the year mirror what lays within. Everything in nature is a mirror to our own psyche. What you love about this time of the year likely brings up things about you, your life or past to surface that are beautiful. Happy memories and good feelings.

Yet the things we hate often speak of something about ourselves and our lives we rather change. So we do our best to ignore our triggers! We hid from the darkness and the dying light. We rather not do the work! After all in order to change what we dislike we must first be willing to embrace it, you cannot change your life until you make peace with what is. Once you have a good hold of what you have to work with, you are ready to start the metamorphosis.

Yet it is painful and sorrowful to do so. Allow the magic of the dark half of the year help you. Allow the heavy rains be the tears the Goddess sheds with you while you clean out those infected spiritual wounds. Allow the falling leaves teach you not to hold on to dead things, including old pain, or dare I say dead dreams. Allow cold of the first snow to reminds us of the grave be a metaphor for setting to rest the very person we used to be, the one that does not allow our joy to be real.

This is the magic of the dark half of the year, each moment of transformation in nature is an opportunity for the witch to do magic, to heal and grow. So when the light returns once more, our lives and souls will be fertile soil in which our dreams are planted. Our life will once again bear fruit, tended by our efforts and blessed by the Gods. Yet none of this can happen without the gentle release of darkness. The touch of death that also brings life. We cannot, must not run from it. We must live through our transformations. In doing so we will be once more in the belly of the earth.

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Roman Delgado is a Psychic Reader and Shamanic Healer at Teotl Tonalli Intuitive Arts. He is an active member of the Keepers of the Flame Coven, ATC (The Ever Green Hearth) Please check our Community Connections page to find ways to connect with Roman or other members and Affiliates of The Ever Green Hearth.