Solstices. Crisalis .

the other had very well-trimmed dark wavy hair. Both were wearing perfectly tailored dark suits, ties and held black laptops on their knees. The smaller man was obviously trying to impress his neighbour, perhaps due to his lack in size, by gleefully telling him how he had managed to sack a female employee when she returned to work after maternity leave. Charlotte didn’t understand the story and the dark-haired colleague obviously hadn’t understood it either, but he seemed suddenly very eager and alert. He asked his companion to explain again how they had managed that because usually the lay-off protection in Germany would protect women coming back from maternity leave from getting fired. The balding man now began to explain with enthusiasm that they just closed job contracts that did not define the tasks in detail. As such, they could claim any time that the tasks the employee was supposed to do no longer existed, and this way they were legally allowed to dismiss them.

      Charlotte slowly sat down again. Unobtrusively, she put her hand on the back of the man’s seat near his head. She visualised herself invisible, connected with the energy of the fox, filling herself with love and light energy and searching the connection to the universe. When she felt warm and full, she sent the energy through the palm of her hand into the crown chakra of the man in the seat in front of her. She stopped listening to him and concentrated completely on the flow of love and understanding, straight from the universe, through her own crown chakra, her body, the palm of her hand into the man’s top chakra. She sensed his voice suddenly becoming reluctant. 'Well, at the end I almost felt sorry for her. But her husband has a well-paid job.' His colleague glanced at him with surprise.

      Charlotte now put her other hand on the back of the dark-haired man’s seat and concentrated on sending love and light to his heart chakra. For some time both men were silent. Suddenly the curly-haired guy asked the one beside him, 'Isn’t your company able to afford that? I would think that given its size it should be possible to organise a replacement for the duration of the maternity leave.' The words seemed to have escaped him involuntarily. He hadn’t been aware of where they were coming from. His colleague made a startled sound. Both men fell silent, gazing out of the window and avoiding looking at each other.

      Charlotte tried to keep her concentration on sending love and sympathy, but a big joyful laugh tickled in her throat. She closed her eyes to concentrate more deeply but was unable to. She stopped and looked up. The curly-haired guy was standing in front of her. 'What in hell’s name...?' He left the question unfinished, his look more baffled than angry. 'What are you doing?'

      Charlotte flushed and leaned back in her seat. The laugh rose in her throat and finally broke out of her. To her surprise the curly-headed guy joined in her laughter, shook his head and went back to his seat, looking thoughtful. The two men kept silent now, but Charlotte could see out of the corner of her eye that they kept throwing anxious glances in her direction. She evidently made them uneasy. A few minutes later they agreed that it was time for a pint and they set off in the direction of the train’s dining car.

      Charlotte sighed. Perhaps what she had been doing was wrong. Had she really done it in order to bring more love and understanding into the world, or had she just tried to manipulate the two men? But it was okay to manipulate people into feeling love and understanding, wasn’t it? She shook off her doubts. That was nonsense. Love and understanding could not manipulate anyone. They helped people find another piece of their true self. She was calm now and finally fell asleep and only awoke shortly before she reached Basel.

      She was still sleepy when she walked along the cold and draughty platform. Suddenly she noticed someone had fallen into step at her side. It was the dark-haired guy from the train. He hesitated and now Charlotte felt embarrassed.

      'How…, how did you do that?'

      Charlotte smiled hesitantly. 'What did I do?'

      'Well, I suddenly felt very warm inside and my heart seemed to open. I haven’t felt that good for ages. But', now he hesitated again, 'also very sad, all of a sudden, almost painfully sad.'

      Now it was Charlotte’s turn to be surprised. She hadn’t expected such open directness. And she hadn’t thought that he would be able to feel so much of what had been going on. She asked herself if it wasn’t strange that these businessmen in their strict dark suits could be as sensitive as this guy and still do what they did. How could they live in a world like that and endure it?

      They walked along silently. Suddenly the man seemed to force himself to ask, 'Can you do that with everyone?'

      Charlotte hesitated. 'Not always. And in most cases I can only do it if the person involved wants me to do it, if they allow me to do it and if they feel a need for it.'

      He nodded. He seemed to understand her. 'Because, I mean, my wife..., she’s depressive. It’s very bad. Perhaps it would help her if she could feel a bit of this warmth in her heart for once?' He spoke abruptly, fast and almost as if he was afraid of his own words. The last few words were spoken with hesitation, almost like a question.

      Charlotte smiled. 'Yes, I could try', she said. They had reached the exit and came to a stop.

      'How would I be able to contact you?' he asked.

      'You can’t contact me at all', Charlotte said forcefully. She felt him shrinking back and smiled. 'Your wife has to contact me.'

      He looked at her enquiringly. 'Your wife has to take the first step. If she can’t do that, I can’t do anything for her. Then it’s simply something you’ve made her do. That won’t achieve anything.'

      He looked as if he had been caught doing something forbidden. But when Charlotte offered him her card, he dared to ask, 'But how do I explain to her…?'

      'Well', Charlotte said earnestly, 'just tell her what happened to you. No more and no less.'

      He looked very doubtful. She gave him another nod and strode off in the direction of the tram. He stood where she had left him and looked at the card in his hand.

      'Charlotte Lesab, Healer Tel. [phone]'.

      Just a mobile number, no address. He was surprised to realize that he would very much like to know where she lived. He was even more surprised to find that it wasn’t because he found her interesting and attractive. He didn’t want to come onto her. He would like to see her again, but not for the usual reasons. He knew that there was another dimension to this.

      Autumn Equinox

      21 September.

      Harvest Festival, Thanksgiving, Autumnal equinox

      ∞ Giving thanks for the harvest ∞

      ∞ Beginning of the dark season ∞

      ∞ Gradual passage from growth and birth to dying and death ∞

      ∞Nature’s retreat into the earth ∞

      The harvest is finished. If it has been a good year, the storerooms are filled. We will have been able to charge and fill up ourselves with sun, power and energy, in order to cope with the dark, cold season. Our thanks for the harvest are perhaps laced with melancholy for the falling leaves and the dying plants. But in the daytime butterflies are tumbling for a last few hours in the warm sunshine. If you are watching a bee buzzing along looking for flowers, you might be asking yourself how much longer this bee will live. If the year hasn’t been kind and we didn’t have the chance to store sunlight and energy, you might even be full of sorrow and afraid of the oncoming cold, dark season. It is very important to be aware of this dark part in us and expose it to the last warming rays of the sun. The days are getting shorter. When we have to get up in the mornings it is still dark, the air often has a cutting edge to it early in the day. At lunchtime the midday sun spoils us with its warmth and seems to hold off winter a bit longer. We can thankfully store its warmth and light one more time, while enjoying the autumnal colours.

      In times before Christianity and especially before men settled down on farms and villages, this time of the year was probably more defined by the ritual preparation of meeting with the dark force. The preparation for the dark season, the battle against impending dying and death, which in former times not only threatened plants and animals,