An Ancient Andean Ritual for the Fall Equinox & Winter Solstice
The earth moves in cycles, and Andean wisdom teaches us how to listen, offering rituals and practices that bring us into sacred relationship with ourselves, our communities, and the natural world.
By honoring the moon’s phases, the changing seasons, and the Equinoxes and Solstices as sacred markers throughout the year, we can use these key seasonal points in time as opportunities to pause, reflect, and attune to both our inner and outer landscapes.
The Andean teachings for the fall and winter are about preparing for winter’s inward journey, which include the practice of tending to our relationships.
What are Andean Wisdom Teachings?
Andean Wisdom teachings originate from the ancient spiritual traditions of the Andes Mountains, primarily rooted in the cosmology and practices of the Quechua and Aymara peoples of Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador. These teachings are based on a deep reverence for Pachamama (Mother Earth) and the living energy that flows through all of creation. They emphasize harmony, reciprocity, and right relationship with nature, community, and spirit. Passed down through generations of Q’ero and other Indigenous elders, Andean Wisdom offers profound guidance for living in balance—honoring cycles of life, cultivating gratitude, and remembering our sacred connection to all beings.
Fall Equinox to Winter Solstice: Preparing to Journey Inward
Since time immemorial we have gathered as human beings to mark the passing of time. To mark the seasons and the cycles within our own lives as well as important passages in the cosmos.
It’s as though something deep inside of us remembers those rituals and the felt-sense of how we have always come together, in circle, in community.
There is a reset that happens, a collective exhale, knowing that this too shall pass. Coming together and acknowledging the present, and taking stock of where we are in time and space is a powerful anchor in our lives.
In the Andean teachings of Peru, the Elders speak about the time between the Fall Equinox and the Winter Solstice as a time to prepare to go “inside” of ourselves. But before we prepare to go into our internal world, we first need to look at our external world and primarily to all of our relationships. This can be a time of ‘cleaning up’ and making amends.
An Invitation to Come into Right Relationship
Right relationship means living in balance, understanding, and ensuring peace with ourselves and those around us. Approaching the Winter Solstice is a powerful time for reflection, for asking:
Are we in right relationship with everyone and everything around us? How are our relations?
The time between the Fall Equinox and the Winter Solstice is all about tending to our relationships, and bringing them to a place of understanding and peace where possible. It is a practice of allowing and accepting where things are, right here, right now. The invitation of this season is to tend to what we can, and put things in “order” before we dive into our internal world for the winter season.
This is an incredibly practical and powerful teaching that the Ancestors offer us for this specific season in time.
Spring Equinox: Preparing to Go Outwards
As nothing goes one way, there is always a parity or partnership to each teaching.
In the spring, at the time of the Equinox, we prepare to go “outwards” and engage with the world. So, in reciprocity, during the Spring Equinox, we must then take the time to evaluate our internal world. Approaching the Spring Equinox is a time for asking:
How are we in relationship to ourselves?
What do we need to tend to before we go out into the world to connect with others?
Connecting to Nature’s Rhythms & Gathering in Community
Taking the time to watch our own rhythms and cycles is a beautiful way to connect to our own nature, awaken our natural spirituality, and tune into Mother Nature, or Mama Pacha (Mother Earth) as it is known in the Andes.
We can do this at any time throughout our day, following the cycles of the rising and setting sun, or create rituals with the moon as she waxes and wanes. We can connect more deeply with the four elements – Earth, Water, Air, and Fire, and explore how they support us in times of transformation and change.
Attuning ourselves to the passing of time and space and embodying these changes more deeply through the practice of ritual, ceremony, and marking of time is a powerful gift we can give ourselves, remembering that we are a part of the cosmos, and that we are always in relationship with ourselves and each other.
Gathering in circle, together in community, is a deep part of our DNA as human beings. It is as old as time, and possibly the most powerful practice. Finding ways to do so throughout the year brings us a collective holding and re-centering, and it’s so needed in these times that we are living in. And perhaps, this simple yet profound act of gathering, of marking the cycles, of remembering who we are, is what has always carried humanity through.
ABOUT CHILDREN OF THE SEVEN RAYS
Children of the Seven Rays was co-founded in 2006 by Andean Wisdom keeper Jhaimy Alvarez-Acosta and community leader Starr Muranko. Dedicated to sharing Andean Wisdom Teachings to empower & inspire your life, they offer amazing online and in-person classes (Vancouver area), as well as workshops, and retreats internationally. Find out more about how you can join their community or attend one of their upcoming events to deepen your connection to Mother Earth, and live in right-relationship with all of life.
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