Fireside circle, marking the Autumn Equinox, with music, folklore, songs, poetry, stories, and silence.

The Turning: An Autumn Equinox Fireside Session

As the light begins to wane and the year turns towards autumn, we gather around the fire to mark a threshold.

The Autumn Equinox is a moment of balance: day and night standing almost equally together before the darkness gradually begins to take more of the year. Across generations and cultures, this turning of the seasons has been marked with stories, rituals, songs and gatherings around the fire.

This evening is an invitation to slow down, gather together, and reflect on what this season has brought us.

We’ll share stories and folklore from the changing seasons, the symbolism of the season. Primarily from Celtic and Pagan traditions, in honour of the land's ancestors and the ways they understood their relationship with the natural world.

Around the fire, there's an invitation to explore the idea of harvest. The literal harvest of offerings from the Earth, and what we have grown, created, learned, survived, and brought into being in our own lives.

What are the fruits of this year so far?

What deserves to be gathered, celebrated, savoured?

And what are we ready to let go of as we enter the next part of the cycle?

There will be space for a simple fire ritual in which we can symbolically place into the flames something that no longer serves us, making room for whatever wants to emerge next.

We’ll also lean into the more inward, receptive and traditionally feminine qualities of this part of the cycle: listening, gathering, tending, nourishing, reflecting and allowing things to mature in their own time.

You’re very welcome to bring something to offer to the fire: an instrument, a song, a poem, a story, a reading, or simply your presence. You don’t need to perform or contribute anything at all. You can come, listen, warm yourself by the fire, and be part of the circle.

Come as you are.

Wear warm layers, and bring a blanket, if you wish, and anything you’d like to share.

Venue: The Salisbury Centre, Edinburgh

Time: 18:30-20:30 (Fire lit at 19:00)

Exchange: By donation

All welcome.

Come and mark the turning of the year with us: to gather what has grown, honour what has passed, and make space for what comes next.

Description supplied by the event organiser.