Autumn alchemy for a quiet expansion below ground-level.

root down and fill up with the earth element – part one.

I’m Lyndsay, mother, creative and storyteller with a background in interiors PR. Story & Thread. is a weekly letter exploring the intersection of creativity, mothering and the living world, with a home and a garden at the heart...

Please feel free to share parts of this newsletter that connect with you — here on Substack, on social media or I would love you to send it on to someone special to you.

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"Don’t you imagine the leaves think how
comfortable it will be to touch
the earth instead of the
nothingness of air and the endless
freshets of wind?”

— Mary Oliver, from ‘A Song for Autumn’.

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Hi everyone

Following the equinox on Saturday, we have reached the time of year that is cloaked in waning light in this part of the world (although the skies are illuminated by the Harvest supermoon as I write), and is suffused with growing light in the southern hemisphere.

I loved hearing your musings about autumn and how you are navigating the seasonal shift in response to my last post, with many of you recognising it as time of change but with the intention of not moving too fast.

I have been exploring the seasons from an elemental living perspective, noticing the dominant element within the season and using the contrasting, complementary elements to find balance to make the transitions more easeful.

In autumn, the season governed by the air element (which has a tendency to stir and scatter), we look to earth…

The last roses and autumn leaves sit together on our way to the park.

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Balancing autumn with the earth element.

September has been full to the brim, I have been noticing and holding so many juxtapositions in my mind — fading and fullness, gathering and clearing, falling and flight, release and return, stillness and freedom…

It makes sense to me that air is the predominant element in the autumn. The air outside begins to cool, the wind lifts leaves from their branches, tousles enchanting, ethereal autumn grasses, and seed pods are dispersed far and wide. The month is a threshold, it embodies movement — encompassing a seasonal shift, it starts in summer and ends in autumn, it is an ending and a beginning.

The joy of crunchy leaves, autumn 2022.

The air element also governs the mind and our creativity and so if, like me, you are feeling overwhelmed with ideas and opportunities conjured by the new rhythms of September, it can leave our minds feeling obscured, scattered, cloud-like…

Whilst we can use the qualities of air to intentionally let go; rooting down and filling back up with the earth element helps to avoid the feeling of being unsheltered and exposed, like the trees towards the end of the season.

The nature of earth.

Just as the water element is a symbol for our emotional body, fire symbolises spirit, and air, our thoughts — earth signifies our physical body and our environment. 

Earth is our foundation — it is the ground below our feet, the landscape of our lives, it witnesses us, surrounds us and we are not separate from it. Earth is from where everything begins, creating a place of stability and support from which to grow.

Fading and fullness in the garden on the autumn equinox.

Earth is home.

It is nourishing, nurturing, tactile, supportive, solid, strong and secure.

It is the expression of soft strength.

Compared to the transitory nature of air, the earth element represents permanence, it existed long before us and it will endure long after we have gone, holding us and absorbing the shape of us.

Earth represents a connection to our own roots, to our place in the world and where we come from; our ancestry and our memories. A connection to earth gives us and the belongings we collect along the way, their provenance.

A doorway built into old walls at Stephens House, North London.

Root down into the earth.

I was fascinated to discover that although many trees’ visible growth above-ground halts during the autumn and winter months; most trees spend their remaining energy on root growth (as long as the soil is not frozen), whilst searching and retaining nutrients in preparation for the spring months.

I love this idea of slow, unseen growth happening deep within the earth, below ground level.

Being part of the living world, we too, can trust that whilst we are harvesting and releasing in autumn, we can lean into the support of the earth — safe in the knowledge that by clearing ourselves of the things we no longer need and by conserving our energy, we are laying strong foundations for our next period of growth.