Songs of Harvest and Autumn Leaves: Wiccan Chant and Charlotte Fiske Bates

October 31, 2019

In the mysterious rhythm of the harvest, a simple chant echoes with profound spiritual meaning:

Corn and grain, corn and grain,
All that falls shall rise again.

This Wiccan Harvest Chant encapsulates the eternal cycle of life, death, and rebirth—an agricultural truth that doubles as a sacred metaphor for the seasons of the soul.

Just as the seeds fall to the earth only to rise anew, so does nature remind us of resilience and transformation.

This reverence for autumn’s turning is mirrored beautifully in the poetry of Charlotte Fiske Bates, who paints a vivid image of October’s woodbines:

As dyed in blood, the streaming vines appear, While long and low the wind about them grieves; The heart of autumn must have broken here
And poured Its treasure out upon the leaves.

Bates’ lines evoke the poignant, fiery colors of fall, as if the very heart of the season poured forth its sanguine treasure, dressing the landscape in both beauty and melancholy.

It is a reminder that the final acts of life in the garden—the falling leaves, the fading blooms—are not ends but part of a grander unfolding.

They prepare the ground for new beginnings, a sacred promise wrought in nature’s most vivid hues.

For gardeners and nature lovers alike, these words invite us to behold autumn not as a time of loss but as a ceremonial passage, where every fallen leaf is a blessing, and every grain is a seed of future abundance.

Let this harvest season deepen your appreciation for the cyclical gifts of the earth, where all that falls shall indeed rise again.