🕒 Read time: 7-8 minutes
Autumn is possibly my favourite season to walk in the woods, a time for reflection and release. Yesterday, I was out for a stroll in some beautiful woodland and it got me thinking about change. There are seasons in life when it feels like the ground has shifted beneath your feet.
The familiar disappears and the path you thought you were on falls away. Suddenly you find yourself standing in a kind of inner wilderness that can feel uncertain and disorientating.
These transitional periods can feel chaotic, even unbearable. But this phase isn’t a mistake or a reluctance to move forward. It’s a season, and one that is as sacred and essential as spring’s new beginnings or summer’s full bloom. When we look to the wilderness for guidance we are reminded that descent is not failure, but preparation. It is the necessary letting go of what no longer serves us, creating space for growth that cannot yet be seen.
This is the autumn of the psyche. It is the season of descent, of loosening and letting go. Just as the trees release what they no longer need, and the energy of life begins to draw inward, in many ways, this mirrors the transitions we face as humans. The endings and thresholds, and the changes that ask us to surrender what once defined us.
We often forget that we are nature. Our bodies, emotions, and psyches move according to rhythms that mirror the turning of the earth. The same cycles that shape the mossy woodland floors, the winds through bracken, and the slow migration of birds also shape our inner worlds. Our losses, our griefs, and our periods of transformation are woven into the cycles of life; they are essential stages of being alive.
The Messy Middle: A Threshold, Not a Dead End
We could call this the “messy middle.” The space between what has ended and what has not yet emerged. It can feel overwhelming and threatening, yet it is fertile ground for growth.
Many of us arrive here through profound life changes. The loss of a loved one who once anchored our world, the slow redefinition of self through illness, ageing, or recovery, the ending of a career, or the unravelling of long-held identities.
Who am I now? becomes the question that rises like fog over the forest floor.
From a therapeutic perspective, these moments are invitations to meet all parts of ourselves. The parts that are grieving, resisting, or afraid. The Internal Family Systems model teaches us that these parts are not obstacles but guides. They carry the emotional truth of our experiences, and when we learn to witness them with curiosity rather than judgment, we begin to integrate fractured aspects of self.
In nature-based teachings this is known as the West Shield. The season of autumn, of introspection and letting go. Here we encounter endings as essential aspects of transformation. We are asked to slow down, to inhabit discomfort, and to recognise that surrender is not passivity; it is alignment with the deeper intelligence of life.
The West Shield: The Descent
The West is the place of the setting sun, a time when light softens and the world turns inward. In nature, autumn models this perfectly. Trees do not cling to their leaves; they release them effortlessly, trusting the cycle. The forest floor fills with decay and that decay becomes nourishment for what will grow.
In our lives, the descent often feels less graceful. It can appear as collapse, confusion, or exhaustion. Yet, this too is natural. The body and psyche asking for pause and time to recalibrate.
Therapeutically, the west asks us to cultivate radical acceptance. It invites us to witness grief without rushing, to listen to the parts that are frightened or sad, and to acknowledge that transformation often feels like disorientation before clarity. It is in these pauses that compassion, insight, and resilience take root.
The Wilderness of Change
To walk in the West is to meet yourself in the places you’ve avoided. It is to enter the forest of your own becoming, where old identities compost into fertile soil for something new. It is the time of descent, introspection, and transformation; the place where light diminishes and the inner world awakens.
Processing Emotions and Wounding
The West is the realm of the emotional body. Here, we are invited to turn toward our wounds. Not to analyse them from afar, but to feel them, to listen, and to allow what’s been suppressed to surface. Wholeness requires this descent. When we bring compassion to the parts of ourselves we’ve long silenced, healing begins to take root in the dark.
Letting Go and Releasing
Like trees shedding their leaves, we too must release what no longer serves us. Old stories, outdated beliefs, and attachments that once offered safety may now constrain us. The art of letting go is not a rejection of the past, but an act of trust. A surrender to the natural cycles of life and death that move through us.
Finding Deeper Understanding
Autumn teaches us to live without immediate answers. In the uncertainty, we learn patience and humility. We learn to see that wisdom often arises in the space where control is lost. The descent is not about fixing what’s broken, but discovering a more authentic way of being with what is.
Preparing for the Next Phase
The work of the West prepares the ground for the North Shield – the winter season of wisdom and integration. Through reflection and understanding, we gather the insights of our experience, allowing them to settle like seeds beneath the soil. What feels like an ending is often the quiet preparation for a deeper maturity.
Developing Resilience
True resilience is born not from resistance, but from surrender and from the willingness to move with life’s cycles rather than against them. When we allow ourselves to be shaped by change, we discover a strength, grounded not in control, but in alignment with the truth of impermanence.
In essence, the West Shield – the autumn of the psyche – is the season of sacred descent. It asks us to walk into the unknown with open eyes and a steady heart, trusting that in releasing what no longer serves us, we make space for what’s next to emerge.
Emerging Toward the North
Every autumn eventually turns to winter – the North Shield, the place of wisdom and stillness. Meaning ripens here, quietly, like compost turning to fertile soil.
You begin to see how necessary the descent was. How it stripped away what needed to go, to make space for something more authentic.
If you’re in the messy middle right now, trust it.
You don’t need to rush toward clarity. You’re in the season of growth. The wilderness within is working on you in ways that words can’t yet describe.
I feel I have been in the autumn/West Shield for much of this year. Navigating transitions, old wounds and outdated patterns rising to the surface, ready to be released. Looking deeply within, I’ve had to face and release what holds me back. The beliefs, the stories, the small versions of myself that no longer fit.
Autumn is an important part of the process. It must be honoured, felt, and fully processed. But don’t make a home there. At some point, it’s time to head north and into winter, taking with you the lessons that will guide your next chapter. One step, one season at a time.
Remembering the Cycles: The Four Shields of Human Nature
“The four seasons of nature are also the four seasons of human nature. This cannot be otherwise.” Foster and Little
The Four Shields of Human Nature, provides a map for understanding our lives as cyclical, embodied, and interconnected with the natural world:
- East (Spring): The emergence of curiosity, vision, and possibility
- South (Summer): The full expression of creativity, connection, and agency
- West (Autumn): The necessary descent, reflection, and release
- North (Winter): The deep consolidation of wisdom, rest, and integration
Life does not move in linear progression. Each of these cycles may recur multiple times, and each descent prepares us for deeper growth and understanding. The West Shield, in particular, is a time to reckon with endings, to explore uncertainty, and to cultivate the resilience that emerges from surrender.
Reflection Practice: A Walking Meditation
Take a slow, mindful walk in nature this week, somewhere where the signs of autumn are visible. As you walk, bring gentle awareness to your own season of life.
Ask yourself:
- What am I being asked to release?
- What am I ready to grieve or compost?
- Which parts of me are calling for rest, reflection, or integration?
- What lessons am I carrying forward into my next season?
Pause often. Notice how the earth holds what falls; leaves, rain, seeds. Nothing is wasted. Everything becomes part of the cycle.
When you return, consider a small ritual to honour your current season:
- Build a simple nature altar with items that represent what you are releasing
- Write a note of release and bury or burn it safely
- Gather a symbol of what you wish to carry forward into your next chapter
You can also use the Four Shields map to invite balance:
- If autumn feels heavy, integrate spring (East) curiosity or summer (South) play
- Include winter (North) rest and reflection to regain strength
- Choose practices from other seasons to move yourself intentionally toward where you wish to be
Then, journal what surfaced. You might begin with:
“In this season of change, I am learning to…”
Let it unfold. Let the wilderness remind you: even in descent, life is moving toward alignment with its natural cycles.