Find your equinox: how to use ancient traditions to avoid modern burnout this autumn

Whether you’re already missing the sunshine or can’t wait for cooler air, here’s how to embrace autumn and restore a sense of balance in a chaotic world.

Detail from the cover art of The Ancient Ways showing a moon and sun amongst purple clouds

Seren Hawley-Plows is on a mission to reconnect people with the natural world. Taught herbalism and ancient practices from an early age, her new book, The Ancient Ways, aims to show how such knowledge can help us re-establish our relationship with the land, to find connection, tranquility and balance. In this edited extract, she turns her attention to autumn, and explains how ancient rituals and folklore can help you embrace the new season and avoid overwhelm.

For many, many years, humans have placed great importance on the natural world. We personified the ancient trees and healing plants to feel connected to the earth. We transformed animals into mythological creatures in our stories and legends. We ritualized the passing of the seasons and the changing elements with traditions and community celebrations. In our fast-paced modern world, it’s easy to forget how connected humans once were to nature and the cycles of the seasons. Over time, we have lost touch with the old ways, and many customs and tales that once deeply rooted us to the land are now only practised by few.

But there is a stirring amongst people who are tired of feeling disconnected, an awakening of a desire to reforge fractured links to the land and revive the ancient ways. This is a guide to reconnect you with these old practices this autumn.

Nature’s blueprint for balance

If I asked you what is more important, the light or the dark, you would most likely pick the light. However, many ancient teachings have shown us that one cannot exist without the other.

At the Autumn Equinox, day and night are of equal length, representing a perfect point of balance between the light and the dark. It’s a time that demonstrates how we can also bring balance back into our lives and start to wind down after the summer months, which can in turn help us through the waning of the year and the darkening nights.

This is a time to slow down and breathe, using this change to work in alignment with the seasons and bring balance to our minds and bodies.

Ancient traditions to reset the modern mind

Celebrate the equinox

In the Northern Hemisphere, we reach the Autumn Equinox, a solar event that mirrors the Spring Equinox, on 20–23 September.

Across the world, the arrival of the Autumn Equinox and the harvest season has long since been a time of great celebration, marked out by cultures under a variety of names and traditions. In the misty lands of the British Isles, this festival is known as Mabon. This name hails from Welsh mythology and the story of Mabon ap Modron, a young son of an earth goddess. In the far northern lands once roamed by the Vikings, the Autumn Equinox is celebrated with Haustblót, an ancient Nordic festival. In turf-roofed houses, new fires were kindled, crackling into existence while a great feast was laid out. In Eastern Europe, nestled in the rolling hills, vast oak woodlands, and wooden villages of Romania’s Maramureș region, the harvest is welcomed in with a vibrant festival known as Ziua Recoltei, translating to ‘Harvest Day’. Between late September and early October, villages come alive with folk songs, traditional costumes, dance and vibrant decorations.

‘You can still embrace ancient rituals with just slight adjustments to fit in with our modern life.’

In 2026, there are numerous ceremonies and rituals you can do to welcome in the season, like visiting a sacred site or attending a celebratory gathering. If you cannot get to these places, there are also smaller daily rituals that you can do to embrace this time of year, such as setting up a seasonal altar. Lighting candles or kindling an outdoor fire are also fantastic. In my household, our first great feast of the season is usually held on the first Friday or Saturday after the Equinox, as most friends and family work full-time jobs. This small change shows how you can still embrace the ancient rituals with just a slight adjustment to fit in with our modern life.

Do something creative

During the autumn, I feel a spark of creativity, possibly linked to an ancestral trait of spending this time of year making and preparing stocks, as well as mending houses, fences and clothes before the winter storms set in. I find balance by leaning into this desire to make and create. Creating does not just have to be making something artistic, it could look like finding creativity in reorganizing your home or getting creative with your hobbies, expanding on a practice or challenging yourself to try something new.

Slow nature walks

Use your free time to go for a walk in a local area of nature. This doesn’t have to be a major expedition, it can be as simple as a twenty-minute stroll outside. Prioritize slow movement. The aim of the walk is to experience the season and to come back feeling refreshed and immersed, not to use the walk as a form of exercise.

Mindful foraging as stress relief

Foraging in September will vary depending on where you live but this season is renowned for being a bountiful one, and the variety of foods that it brings helps with that sensation of the shifting seasons. What I love about foraging and herbalism is that it can be a very mindful experience and help to reduce stress, a slow activity that can be beneficial in the autumn. Teasing berries off stems or prepping wild foods allows you to clear your space, put on soft lighting or candles, and relax into the process.

Through these small habits, I found balance with the autumn and managed to change my perspective from one that saw this season as bleak, to one that saw the wild, windswept beauty that it has to offer.