The Descent

We wrote this story for the autumn equinox, when day and night are nearly equal. It still reads well in the dark. Scroll down slowly.

We wrote this story for the September equinox, when day and night are nearly equal. Where you are, it was the start of spring. Scroll down slowly.

Equinox means “equal night”. Nearly: the day wins by a few minutes.

NOAA, the equinox, 22 Sept 2025.

Nox, night, is inside equinox and nocturne. In the Iliad even Zeus is afraid of Night. Iliad 14.258–261. At the equinox the sun rises due east, wherever you are. Mark the spot from your window. It does on both equinoxes.

In Ireland, five thousand years ago, people built a stone passage and carved suns on its far wall. At the equinox sunrise the light walks down it. It was doing this before the pyramids went up.

Cairn T, Loughcrew. Mnajdra, Malta, does it too.

Eugene Conwell, Cairn T, 1872.

Cairn is Gaelic càrn, a heap of stones. An old blessing: I’ll put a stone on your cairn. Cuiridh mi clach air do chàrn. Day and night are truly equal a few days from now. Astronomers call it the equilux. timeanddate.com

Many witches call the equinox Mabon. The name is young. A writer picked it in 1974, from an old Welsh tale about a stolen baby who was found again years later. A young name for Demeter’s story.

Aidan Kelly, 1974 · Culhwch and Olwen, in the Mabinogion.

Up north it’s Mabon. Down south many witches turn the wheel round, so the September equinox is Ostara. Its whole history is one sentence a monk wrote in 725.

Bede, The Reckoning of Time 15.

NASA, the moon on 26 Sept 2026.

Harvest once meant autumn itself. German still says Herbst. Old English hærfest. Mabon is Welsh for “son”, Modron for “mother”. The river Marne in France may still carry her old name. Welsh; Gaulish Matrona. East, Easter and Eostre may share one old word, for dawn. Germans still say Ostern. etymonline Lent meant spring: lencten, when the days lengthen. Note tonight’s sunset, then next week’s. Old English.

In Japan it’s Higan week: families visit their ancestors and bring sweet rice. In Beijing, emperors brought the Moon her offering at the autumn equinox, at a white altar. The Moon’s altar is still there, in Yuetan Park, Beijing.

Higan, Japan. Yuetan, Beijing, 1530.

Kawanabe Kyōsai, 1880s.

In Victoria, Australia, the Wathaurung people laid out about a hundred stones that point to the equinox sunset. Stand at the right stone and the sun goes down where they point.

Wurdi Youang. Norris and others, 2013.

NASA EPIC, 19 Sept 2026.

Higan means “the other shore”. The red lily flowering this week is named after it: higanbana. 彼岸 The rice cake is ohagi, after bush clover. In spring the same cake is botamochi, after the peony. Japan, both equinoxes. Melbourne’s Kulin calendar has seven seasons, read from plants and animals. Find the first flower near you. Museums Victoria.

Demeter walks nine days with a torch in each hand, looking for her daughter. On the tenth, Hekate meets her on the road, carrying a torch of her own. Which is why there is a light in your hand.

Homeric Hymn to Demeter 47–53.

Persephone comes back up. Demeter runs to meet her like a maenad down a mountain, and Hekate walks with them. The same story, from the day she comes home.

Homeric Hymn to Demeter 385–440.

Persephone Painter, c. 440 BC.

Goudt after Elsheimer, 1610. Cleveland Museum of Art.

Torch is from Latin torquere, to twist: the first ones were twisted straw. etymonline Persephone was picking a narcissus when she was taken. The Greeks heard “numb” in its name. So does narcotic. Plutarch, Table Talk 3.1.

Down here it’s quiet. Three cards are lying face down. Hold your light on one until it turns over.

Lucius swore not to tell what he saw in the mysteries of Isis. Then he wrote one sentence. About midnight I saw the Sun shine.

Apuleius, The Golden Ass 11.23.

Tarocchi, before 1467. Cleveland Museum of Art.

We go down for the old stories and bring them back up to you. You brought the light. Oh, that’s so cathartic.¹

¹ Aristotle, Poetics 1449b.