September

September brings with it memories of two portentous events - in September 1939 Germany invaded Poland, World War 2 followed. September(11th)2001 brought us another fateful, never to be forgotten event. This year a solar eclipse adds to the drama.

It's sad that September carries such dreadful memories.

Sorrow and scarlet leaf,
Sad thoughts and sunny weather.
Ah me, this glory and this grief
Agree not well together!
(Thomas Parsons, 1880, A Song For September)

September, so named because once upon a Roman time it was the 7th month. (Septem = 7th in Latin).The first three weeks of September fall within the tropical zodiac sign of Virgo, with just one week left for Libra.

You know, September, as a month, here in the northern hemisphere, doesn't strike me as being a typically Virgoan time, or for that matter Libran. Yes, I know that in mythology Virgo holds a sheaf of corn, and in most places September is harvest time, but September is also when the leaves fall from the trees, and life starts winding down. September is not a neat Virgoan month. Leaves pile up all over the place then chilly winds blow them messily around. If anything, Virgo describes the work of clearing up the leaves, I guess.

September is when the kids go back to start a new school term. The boys, in Britain anyway, play soccer and rugby again, after a summer of playing tennis and cricket. They often get themselves very muddy in the process - how Virgo is that?

One of Frank Sinatra's loveliest offerings, "September Song"....."And it's a long long time from May to December, and the days grow short when they reach September....." describes our life's September, our autumn/fall. On the back of the old LP cover to the Sinatra album "September Of My Years", writer Stan Cornyn says:

"...............September can be an attitude or an age or a wistful reality. For this man it is a time of love. A time to sing. A thousand days hath September"

My goodness those liner note writers were good! It's a big loss that cds don't have the space for their purple prose.

Sinatra in his songs, though a Sun Sagittarian, remains in essence a September man. Often melancholy, whether for the dying of the year, or for a love, a memory, a feeling - yet with hope always for Septembers still to come. And that, for me, is the true essence of September.

A YouTube presentation of Sinatra and John Denver singing "September Song" together - a rare and lovely combination. John Denver didn't live to see the September of his own years, and that is so very sad.