A creative ritual for the Autumn Equinox - by Lu Hersey

 We're approaching the autumn equinox, when day and night are of equal length. This point of balance in the year is a good time to assess how your creative projects are going - to decide what's working and what isn't, so you can adjust accordingly.

To think about your project from a different perspective, you might try making yourself a sand painting. Whether you're working on a book, a painting, or anything creative, a sand painting can help you adjust and balance your ideas, ready for the coming slide into winter.  (You don't need actual sand to make it by the way, it's just an umbrella term for this kind of ritual)

Take some time to think about how your project is going so far this year, and what needs to change. Consider the aspects you're happy with, and those you'd like to drop. 

Now start the ritual by collecting objects to represent all these aspects. To help me assess my current writing project, I collected some autumn leaves, a few sticks,  a stone, feathers and a few ugly things to represent problem areas I think need sorting. (If it's easier for you to do this ritual indoors, collect things from around the house like cutlery, candles, dried food, fresh fruit - or even photos if that's appropriate for you.)

Think about what you want each object to represent as you put them out on the ground (preferably outside if you have outside space, but inside is fine if not). Make a frame (a loose frame of sticks, or wool, or anything that works) to surround your objects, leaving yourself plenty of room to move things around inside the frame as you decide whether you want to keep them or not, and where you think they fit into your project.  

This is my stick frame with a jumble of chaos in the middle. It represents all the ingredients of my story, but not in any kind of order.

After some sorting of the chaos, the story outline is marginally clearer to me - but basically it's still a big jumble.

A bit of thought brings an improvement - I can now see what I have, and get an idea of where I'm going. I'm trying to make it work a bit like the hero's journey, but it definitely isn't there yet.

Taking the restrictive boundaries of the stick frame away has helped me get closer to my goal - but it's still not right.

To add a touch of magic, I exposed the pentagram at the heart of my apple (and it gave me the other half to eat while I thought about what to do next)

Having taken quite a lot away, I decided it needed something new - so I added a bit of flowery sparkle. But somehow it still didn't feel quite right. 

Better. I looked at this for a while and wondered if I'd done enough... 

Then I tweaked some areas, and brought a little light on the situation with the candle. I think all the elements are now in the right order and I have a clearer idea of what I need to work on as the nights grow longer - so I found the process quite useful. 

The idea of making a sand painting like this is loosely based on a shamanic ritual, more generally used to help resolve problem situations. Hopefully you'll find this adaption gives you some insight. If nothing else, it's a way to step back from your creative project and look at it objectively. Or simply to procrastinate. One of my key skills :)

Lu Hersey
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