Uncolonising & Liberating Autumn

13 min readSep 30, 2022

The Equinox Stone — Loughcrew Cairn T — Co. Meath, Ireland

last updated 4/12/2023 removal of ‘decolonisation’ as metaphor thanks to the work of Tres Rosas, Eve Tuck, and K. Wayne Yang.

“Using the term decolonization as a metaphor, tokenizes Black and Brown people while actively participating in the erasure of Indigenous peoples, completely bypassing what decolonization actually is. Decolonization is not a label, or a description of an event. [Decolonization is] Indigenous rematriation of culture and tradition as well as repatriation of land and sovereignty to Indigenous Peoples. — Tres Rosas”

Based off the work of Tres Rosas, the uncolonized term for “decolonizing autumn” is Liberating Autumn.

Ive already written about Uncolonising Spring in Neopaganism.

Now it’s time for Fall.

There is thankfully a continually growing discussion within neopagan communities about how Aiden Kelly stole & invented Mabon, Ostara, and Litha altogether for his “Pagan-craft Calendar”; and it’s different impacts on Welsh communities, pagan or otherwise.

To quote Pagan Life Rites from 2019: “Many people now know that Mabon is an incorrect term for the Autum Equinox. It was appropriated from Welsh lore by Aiden Kelly, and twisted into something it’s simply not. Yvonne Aburrow made a great argument against using this term: “Calling the Autumn Equinox “Mabon” has no ancient precedent whatever, and does have the effect of erasing what the god Maponos is really about, and obscures the fact that the autumn equinox was not marked by ancient pagans as the autumn equinox.” It is always worth examining the ‘norms’ of our relatively new culture and making sure your practices are knowledgeable and respectful, particularly if you’re outside the native culture your spirituality is drawn from. 💚”

But I want to go a bit deeper this year.

The purpose of this article is threefold: 1) to expand beyond a New England-Continental Eurocentric idea of autumn, 2) to begin & identify global ideas of autumn by divesting from Deciduous-only understandings of autumn, and 3) to create a uncolonial practice of faith grounded in cultural authenticity — what i call Uncolonial Authentic Paganisms. Because I started to wonder: “does fall really look like the northeast everywhere in the northern hemisphere?”

And the answer i found is: NO!

Autumn is more than (New) England & Continental Europe

The very New England-Eurocentric idea of what the fall harvest looks like, echos a very distinct agricultural cycle, which has permeated neopaganism from the very beginning since it was formed by white Anglo-Saxon-pagan focused men and women who appropriated and engineerd their own cultic religions. There’s whole classes you can take on uncolonising druidry and other neopaganism spirituality, so i will forgo that discussion here today.

What i want to talk about is that temperate deciduous forests (Broadleaf trees: oaks, maples, beeches, shrubs, perennial herbs like mountain laurel, and azaleas, and mosses) and how they only make up 7% of the total land mass of the earth (which itself is only 29% as the globe is still mostly water).

Of the 3.04 trillion trees globally, only 362.6 (± 2.9) billion are temperate broadleafs according to a 2015 study. And most of these that produce fall foliage are found in Europe, China, Korea, Japan, Canada and the eastern part of the United States. Though, we have to look deeper…

Why do white people only think about New England and Europe when it comes to Fall Harvests? Why is Neopagan imagery in popculture completely neglectful of Asian Fall Harvests and foliage? Or, why is it when it is imagined, very Orientalist ideas come forth? And whatsmore, why do we never think about the deciduous trees and fall harvests of the southern hemisphere like in South America, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa? (And im talking about indigenous deciduous trees that do grow there — not the colonising vineyard imports).

Autumn and autumn harvests look very very different around the globe. Different crop cycles exist, different preservation practices exist, different food recipes exist, and different hunting practices too. We need to break outdated and very racist ideas that pagan is only Anglo-Saxon, Nordic, or Hellenic. Continental European agriculture also cannot and should not be the status quo in which we use to think and inform our modern practices and relationships with the land and waters around us.

Our pantheons or paganisms can be authentic and anchored in the land of the cultures in which we practice. Because that is the very nature of culture, you cannot separate religion from a culture as if it is some add-on when a culture is intrinsically interconnected with every facet of a shared people and shared lands/waters.

The White ECE Gaze of Autumn

White people came from England and Continental Europe (ECE) to colonise the world and steal resources globally. Period. With this came ECE styles of agriculture and ECE ideas of harvesting, and ECE notions of fall-equals-falling-of-leaves-and-therefore-deciduous trees. These ideologies impact our actions and therefore our religious practices.

Which is sad because England and Continental Europe was not isolated from the rest of the world. There are well known trade route relationships between ECE and African and Asian lands. There is very little doubt in my mind that white supermacy played and continues to play a large roll in white peoples frameworks of religon, which includes paganisms.

So what does autumn look like outside of ECE deciduous biomes? What does autumn look and smell and taste and feel like outside of ECE and New England? It can’t just be beer, pumpkin spice lattes, and apples. Sometimes, i feel researching into these questions open up new doors for us while we uncolonise our practices.

Whatsmore, i feel we can research even deeper using archaeology & folklore to figure out pre-colonisation (and pre-Romanisation to be frank) practices to reconstruct and revive cultural lifeways and assimilated ideology. (Gotta love those oral traditions!) And when we cant due to the lack of data, we can at least get a sense of how syncretisation and genocide (physical & cultural) has happened and impacted peoples practices.

One day… i hope we can get to the place where white pagans of the future no longer use stolen words & appropriated practices — and attend global conferences to exchange and share in inclusive interfaith settings the various notions and experiences of all the seasons. Without one idea dominating over any other.

Fómhar Cultural Authenticity

Like i asked in Earrach (Spring), what are the Indigenous plants of the lands you are currently residing/settling and calling home, and what are the Indigenous plants of Fómhar (Autumn) for you and in the cultural landscape of your pantheon? What Indigenous harvest/hunting practices are culturally taboo & encouraged? What Indigenous structures align with the equinoxes/solstices? And what might these sacred places teach us from the Otherworld should we finally choose to listen?

Turtle Island Plants, Practices, and Taboos

There are over 20 Native Trees in the Atlantic Northeast: from the shorter Chickasaw Plum (Prunus angustifolia), Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) to the medium sized Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana) and Hawthorn (Crataegus viridis), to the tall American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis), Burr Oak (Quercus macrocarpa), Pin Oak (Quercus palustris) and River Birch (Betula nigra); there are many indigenous deciduous and non-deciduous trees that begin to ready for winter.

The Four Sisters (Maize, Beans, Squash, and Sunflower) are thankfully well known and loved throughout Turtle Island by settlers and non-settlers alike. However, each Indigenous community will have specific taboos and practices to ready for winter. Check your local Indigenous community center or Indigenous activist group that focuses on rematriation, and revitalisation movements.

This time of year is filled with important cultural dates that will be community/region specific, so in addition to those you may want to add to your calendar:

JULY: Disability Pride Month & Muslim American Heritage Month. Apache (Girls Sunrise Ceremony), Hopi Indian (The Niman Katchina Ceremony), and The World Eskimo Indian Olympics (3rd Weds, of July).
AUGUST: Black August focuses on the various contributions to Black liberation by freedom fighters both past and present. August 9th is (International Day of) World Indigenous Peoples Day. The Eagle Dance, Hopi Flute Ceremony, The Crow Fair Pow Wow & Rodeo, and the Hopi Snake Dance.
SEPTEMBER: Latinx Heritage Month. Latinx Heritage Month dives hard into the complexities of identity and the impact of colonisation. Miwok Acorn Festival. Sep 1: National Walk to Free Leonard Peltier Kicks Off. Sep 16–23: Bisexual Visibility Week. Sep 21: Black Women’s Equal Pay Day. Sep 30: The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, which is also known as Orange Shirt Day to promote awareness of Indigneous residential/boarding school system victims and survivors as well as how these systems still impact Native American communities of Turtle Island. Orange Shirt Day is also fast becoming a global day of reckoning, most recently in Australia & New Zealand.
Oct 10: Indigenous Peoples Day. Oct 25: New Moon & Return of the Pleiades beginning of the 4 month long season Hawaiian Makahiki New Years Festival. Seraphine Warren (Diné/Navajo Nation) plans to finish her walk from Arizona to Washington DC which started June 14th by the end of October. Her journey hopes to bring awareness and attention to all Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women & Two Spirit people, which was the sparked by the disappearance of Seraphine auntie Ellamae. You can be in right relationship & solidarity with her along the way by following her along the way and helping with what you can.
NOVEMBER: First Peoples Native American Heritage Month. Navajo Night Chant Ceremony, Hopi Wuwuchim Ceremony, Zuni Shalako Ceremony.
Nov 24: National Day of Mourning. Nov 30: Indigenous Women’s Equal Pay Day.

Having these dates as guideposts will help to anchor your Uncolonial Authentic Paganisms practices in social justice, and hopefully nudge you into getting active & involved!

Irish Indigenous Plants, Foods, & Medicines

The Irish last harvest consists of many fruits and vegetables and things!

In Ireland, “cereals are harvested from mid-July to mid-September with the majority completed in August”. You can find out more about Ireland’s horticulture and beyond at https://www.teagasc.ie/ I also recommend looking up the proper Irish words for harvested crops (as Gaeilge) on focloir.ie.

Irish Taboos & Encouraged Practices

From July through November there are many things to do! Which means there are equally many things not to do! But unlike toxic rugid individualism, in the Irish tradition, this work is never done alone. It is done with a meitheal of friends. And whatsmore, this is a time to harvest and celebrate all of our comrades accomplishments…

You can read more in depth from my two articles here:

Putting Out the Hare & Lúnasa: it took a year to fix it.

https://www.museum.ie/en-IE/Collections-Research/Folklife-Collections/Folklife-Collections-List-(1)/Religion-and-Calendar-Customs/Seasonal-festivals/Autumn

The only thing this year i will add is that via Morgan Daimler, “something remains to be said about Lughnasa. It had another name, Brón Trogain, perhaps an older name, to judge from a phrase used twice in Acallamh na Senórach, ‘laithe mís trogain risa ráidhter in lughnasadh’ (the first day of the month of trogan now called lughnasadh). A verse attributed to Fionn speaks of a feast made for him every year on the day of Brón Trogain. In Tochmarc Emire the quarterly festivals are named and in a passage explaining the names it is said that Brón Trogain, the beginning of harvest, means that the earth sorrows under its fruits. It is a metaphor based on the travail of birth.” - Festival of Lughnasa, MacNeil, page 10

On my favourite subject of taboos: well, in Ireland, you dont cut corn or dig any potatoes before Lúnasa because it is evidence of bad husbandry and extravagant housewifery; and you best don’t cut all of the harvest down at first — always save an area for the last sheaf for the end of harvest in order to put out the hare.

The First sheaf is buried on Lúnasa as offering to the TDD gods proper (though special attention is often given to Tailtiu & Macha) and the ungods (Aos Sidhe) on a hill along with 1/10th “tip-top-pickle” of the first harvest.

The Last sheaf, also called the harvest cailleach, is a very specific harvest knot or bundle; but isn’t gathered until an Clousúr (the close or conclusion or end of harvest). This means it happens after Michaelmas, or after the Fomhar na nGéan, the Goose Harvest at the end of September — and when Hunting season begins.

The Last sheaf is never ever buried — unless for murder — so don’t do that! The Last sheaf is brought home and preserved and made into Brígs crosses or added to livestock feed & meals for strength: to ensure animals produce eggs and a good crop basically. The Last sheaf thus ensures a family and home’s abundance, luck, health, etc. for the coming winter. The Last sheaf is so powerful, that it can even be used by floating a white candle on water to find a drowned body. For all these reasons, the Last sheaf is prominently displayed during the Harvest Home and “stampy party” (Danaher, The Year in Ireland, pp. 193–195) often held during October before Samhain. You can learn about about the specifics of this if you read my “Putting out the Hare” article.

Ireland’s Hidden Medicine by Irish Herbalist Rosarie Kingston

One of my newest books on my #LittleIrishPaganLibrary os Rosarie’s informative text published in 2021.

In chapter 4: Utilising Irish indigenous medicine today” pp. 87–127, we get a look into “the Irish calendar year base don the cyclical nature of agriculture, which creates an awareness of the cycle of food production on whic we are all dependent” (p.89) and see what ways we can work with in relationship with “Irish vernacular medicine” during the Fall. From page 107–117, we can read about Lúnasa, Reek Sunday, the Co. Kerry’s Puck Fair, some activities for a holistic Irish lifestyle, and an in-depth look into the “valuable food and plants in autumn” (p. 110–117).

The four most important for domestic medicine that Kingston says are: Yarrow (Lus na fola/Athair thalún), Elderberry (Caor throim/Ceireachán), Marigold (Ór Mhuire/Lus buí Afracach/Lus buí Francach/Lus buí Albanach), and Marshmallow (Leamhach).

Irish Indigenous Structures

To quote Monumental Ireland from earlier this week: “the term ‘equinox’ (meaning ‘equal night’) implies that there will be equal amounts of daylight and darkness. But the sun rose in Ireland today (the equinox) at 7:19 a.m. and set at 19:28 p.m, giving us 9 minutes more daylight than darkness. This is due to atmospheric refraction, which bends light around the curve of the earth, making the sun appear to be rising earlier or setting later.

The actual day of equal light and dark — known as the ‘equilux’ (‘lux’ — Latin for light) — happens…In Ireland… on Sunday the 25th of September, when there will be 12 hours and 1 minute of daylight. From then on, nights will be longer than days and will continue to get longer until the Winter solstice.

[Our] ancestors observed that the sun’s rising and setting points on the horizon moved in a yearly cycle. The Summer Solstice would occur when the sun reached its northernmost point. The suns’ southernmost point marked the winter solstice. The two days of the year when the sun rose exactly due East and set exactly due West marked the Equinoxes.

These astronomical phenomena were a reliable way to measure the yearly/seasonal cycle and were incorporated into cultural and religious practices. To mark and record these astronomical events permanently, the ancient Irish built great monuments of stone, aligned with the sunrise or sunset on these days.

To celebrate today’s equinox (and Sunday’s equilux), [Monumental Ireland] compiled a list…of ancient Irish monuments aligned with the astronomical beginning of the dark half of the year…”

Aerial shot of Grianán of Aileach, Co. Donegal.

The list, though not exhaustive, is as follows:

Loughcrew Cairn T, Co. Meath — Passage aligned with the Equinox Sunrise which illuminates rock art (The Equinox Stone) inside the chamber
Grianán of Aileach, Co. Donegal — Doorway is aligned with the Equinox Sunrise
Labbacallee Wedge Tomb, Co. Cork — Aligned with the Equinox sunset
Derreenataggart Stone Circle, Co. Cork — Axis is aligned with the Equinox sunset
Bohonagh Stone Circle, Co. Cork — Axis is aligned with the Equinox sunset
Dromagurteen Stone Circle, Co. Kerry — Axis is aligned with the Equinox Sunrise
Kenmare Stone Circle, Co. Kerry — Axis is aligned with the Equinox sunset
Carrowmore Tomb 7, Co. Sligo — Aligned with the Equinox Sunrise
Cashelkeelty Stone circle and Row, Co. Kerry — Aligned with the Equinox Sunset

Conclusion

All in all, Cónocht an fhómhair shona dhuit & Lá Feile Cónocht an Fhómhair!

Especially, i should say… Truth & Reconciliation must be part of our practices — this is why Uncolonial Authentic Paganism(s) is so important.

Please join me in (at the very least) with Honouring the Day of Truth & Reconciliation.

If you dont know where to start here are 3 tips:
-1. Follow the hashtags #LandBack #ProtectTheSacred #EveryChildMatters #NoPrideInGenocide #BringOurChildrenHome #MMIW #MMIW2S #StopLine3 #DefundThePolice #NoMoreManCamps #NoMoreMissingSisters

-2. Residential Schools were all over North, Central, and South America, Europe, Australia, India, China, and the African continent. Bring them all home!!! Talk to your school, work, museums, religious org/CHURCH, and representatives about what they are doing with the 94 Calls to Action.

it is go time! Live in solidarity with local Indigenous community actions. The time for SOLIDARITY (not pseudo-yt-advice) is now!

-3. Follow and amplify at least 50 Indigenous activists on social and not just light-skinned ones! Save. Share. Repost. Like. Comment with support. Just emojis work if you dont know what to say. It is important to know Indigenous people are not monolithic — contrary to how we are conditioned. Not everyone is a neoliberal too. Not everyone is an anarchist communist leftist but that position is super important for inclusion and uncolonising and divesting from whiteness, capitalism, imperialism, and settler colonialism globally.

In closing, may your equinox be authentic, putting that faith into your living practice. Make it special and memorable, however you do it. Put out your hare — preparing for Samhain and Geimhreadh (winter) — in your own modern way by being true to the spirit of the cultural context you’re choosing to live by and with. Just please for all that is holy… dont call it Mabon…The Hunt is coming…

(Re)Sources & Bibliography