Marking the Turn: From Summer Energy to Autumn Equinox
/By Carrie Garcia — Last Updated: August 4, 2025
The energy of the summer...
If you're a native northerner, you know the feeling well—hot, muggy days, lingering light, and the unspoken permission to relax into the season. Summer is brief. We squeeze in every outdoor activity we can, knowing we only have three short months.
I remember how summer felt as a child, staying up way beyond my usual school-night bedtime. The phrase “come home when it starts to get dark” felt liberating! The days stretched long, and the nights shimmered with possibility—because even if I got home by dark, dad, with his guitar in his lap, would invite me to sit on the porch outside while we watched the flashes of summer storms rolling in over the city lights. As a child, summer felt endless—days full of freedom and light. Yet by late August or early September, I found myself ready to return to the comforting rhythm of the school year: 4:30 dinners, 8:00 bedtimes, and waking up before the sun.
Although not marked by anything I would have named a “ritual” as a child, the shift between the endless freedom and light of the summer season and the predictability and structure of the fall season was observed, held, and performed with certain rituals. I knew that the end of the summer would be marked by a day of shopping with mom for new school clothes. I waited in anticipation to wear these clothes (for I was not allowed to do so until school began). Looking in the Sunday morning newspaper for the school supplies sales ad was a ritual that extended through a jubilant car ride to the nearest K-mart or Target to purchase one—repeat, only one—of the 64-set boxes of coveted Crayola crayons, one Elmer’s glue bottle, and one set of perfectly fresh, unsharpened Number 2 pencils. Each item was chosen with care, each purchase a sacred part of the season’s turning.
I longed for these rituals each year. I looked forward to the early bedtime the night before school started, despite the summer light still lingering outside. That evening, the rituals continued: teeth brushed, hair combed, new clothes laid out. The next morning, cereal eaten, bag in hand, I would be swiftly kissed, gently nudged out the door, and then I would make my way to the bus stop—joining a small procession of children, each of us carrying out our own version of this seasonal ceremony.
The Autumnal Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere typically falls between September 21st and September 23rd; in 2025, it arrives on September 22nd. This celestial event marks a perfect balance—equal light and dark—as the Earth tilts toward neither the moon nor the sun. It is the natural harmony between Yin and Yang, coolness and warmth, light and dark. Traditionally, it’s also a time of harvest, when the seeds that were planted in the spring come to fruition, and we gather in those fruits with gratitude.
The importance of this turning of the seasons has been recognized throughout human history, around the globe. Our ancestors lived in rhythm with nature, with the universe, more than most of us do today. Ancient peoples built elaborate structures to track the sun’s progress with the changing seasons: Stone Henge in England; Intihuatana (meaning place to tie up the sun) and the Temple of the Sun at Machu Picchu in Peru; the Temple of Karnak and the Sphinx and pyramids of Ancient Egypt; and Krahan Tepe in Turkey, among many, many others. While some of their structures still stand, the ancient rituals that accompanied sacred days such as the equinox and solstice have largely been lost to time.
You may not have specific rituals to honor this time of year—and that’s understandable. In a society driven by consumption, the sacredness of the seasons and their changing is often marked only by what we buy or how much we indulge. But this time of turning offers something deeper, and I believe we are here to learn. It is a reminder to pause, reflect, and reconnect. Every moment is a new opportunity to return to meaning. If you’ve never marked the equinox before, perhaps this year can be the beginning—a chance to step into a teaching, a ceremony, or a simple ritual that grounds and nourishes you.
Our lives are made up of moments. A quiet moment, a moment of an ending or a beginning, a moment of breath taken with awareness; all these can be sacred acts. Let this season invite you to reflect on your growth, your internal bounty, and allow yourself to welcome the shift toward introspection and balance with grace and presence.
Carrie Garcia is an RYT 500 yoga and meditation teacher and Success Coach. She is certified in yoga through Lifespan Yoga with specialized training in vinyasa, yin, and Rainbow Yoga. Carrie creates spaces for people to share movement, mindfulness, and laughter. She grew up in Minnesota, immersed in music and watching her mother practice yoga from a library book. She has been practicing meditation since 1992 and was ordained as a Soto Zen Buddhist priest in 2022. Carrie brings her passion for yoga and mindfulness to adults and youth with an intention to decrease racism, bullying, isolation, and anxiety and to increase compassion, connection, and well-being.
Carrie is deeply grateful to her amazing teachers including Gopala Yaffa (Rainbow Yoga); Francoise Freedman (Birthlight - fertility to school-age yoga, and Street Yoga trauma-sensitive yoga); Michelle Pietrzak-Wegner (yin yoga); Amelia Ruth (vinyasa/power yoga); Michael Moore (Iyengar yoga), and Ben Connelly (Soto Zen Buddhist Priest at Minnesota Zen Meditation Center). And she is grateful to the many wonderful human beings who she has met in elevators, on the streets, and on mountaintops – all her teachers.
