Mabon Tidbits

With Mabon so close I wanted to share this wonderful info sent to me by a dear friend. She is a amazing teacher, and super witch! Autumn Blessings to you all!

Mabon/Autumn Equinox

 

Mabon is also called Alban Elued, Harvest Home, Mean Fomhair, Autumn Equinox, Second Harvest Festival, Festival of Dionysus, Wine Harvest, Cornucopia and Feast of Avalon, to name a few.  The date is September 20, 21, or 22 (depending upon the calendar); sun is at 1 degree Libra.  The meaning of the word Mabon is Divine Youth.  The primary focus is the Second Harvest, offerings of vegetable and fruit harvests, corn festivals; this is the season of gratitude and for giving back to the Earth.  Some popular mythos for Mabon is the Death of the Harvest Lord and honoring the King and Queen of the Harvest.  Mabon is filled with the luxury of a bountiful harvest and the gratifying experience as we sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labors.  The Astrological sign is 1 degree Libra; cardinal sign air, the planetary ruler is Venus.

 

Mabon is the second of the three harvest festivals concentrating on the fruits and vegetables (as opposed to the grains of the first harvest).    Mabon is a cross-quarter day midway between Lughnassadh and Samhain.  It is a lesser Sabbat, along with the Vernal Equinox and the solstices that were the only annual celebrations of the early recreationist druids. 

 

This is more or less the Pagan Thanksgiving; a time of reflection, sharing, balance, and celebration of the bounty of life. Although today we do not depend upon the agriculture crops to ensure our well-being directly, we are indirectly affected by them, to a lesser degree than our ancestors whose very existence depended on the success of the harvest, but connected none the less.  This is one of the eight times each year that we consciously attune ourselves to natural cycles. At Mabon we once again connect with the ways of our ancestors and the understanding of the Second Harvest.

 

Mabon is also the time to meditate on the fruits of our own labors.  What have you sown this year?  Are you reaping healthy and constructive fruits or are you paying the price for not nurturing your seeds, or for attempting to plant them in poor soil?  This is the time to begin to consider what we want to change and the gardens of our lives we plan to sow in the coming year.

This is a time of community and kinship with the land and all creatures.  Donate time at soup kitchens or bless and donate food to shelters.  Help those who are in need, rake an old widow’s yard, make bread and take it to your neighbor.  Give of yourself.  It is a time of community with all beings in all worlds.  As such, we offer special honor to the dead and our spirit allies during this time.

 

At this time the last sheaves of the harvest are kept in a place of honor then burned at Mabon, some throw the ashes onto their fields to be ploughed into the soil, to ensure health and abundance.  The harvest grain and fruits are frequently associated with the dying God who will be reborn in the spring.  John Barleycorn was the spirit of the grain that was made into beer (or Scotch as the Scottish poet Robert Burns would likely prefer).

 

While the last sheaf is honored as the body of the vegetation God, it is also believed to belong to the Goddess by ancient peoples.  The last sheaf was known as the Ivy Bride, the Wheat Girl, and the Corn Mother; the Corn Dolly is reminiscent of this perception.

 

 

Mabon is the time of the year when our Goddess awaits the birth of her son, and is whiteness to her lover’s aging. She knows that he is close to death and we can feel her struggle. The days are getting shorter; it is time to gather the harvest. It is also the holiday ritual to honor the Sun God Mabon, and to thank the Mother Goddess Modron for the bounty of the Harvest. It is time to prepare for winter.

I believe that Mabon is the Sabbat that we should celebrate with the Goddess. She needs us most at this time of year, and we need her. The story of our beloved Goddess can easily be explained with one of many mythological stories.  For example, the story of the Goddess of Mabon: Demeter and her daughter Persephone.

The story of this beloved Goddess goes like this: Demeter was, and is still is today, the most loving Goddess anybody could find. She is the Goddess that doesn’t hesitate to mingle with humans in their day to day lives.  Demeter is the soft and loving side of our Goddess. She cares for humans, teaching them how to sow, reap grain, how to live from their crops. As we all know, our Goddess and God have many faces, and Demeter is the most generous one. She is the Goddess of corn, grain, and the harvest. She is the daughter of Cronus and Rhea. Her joy in life is to teach humans how to grow, preserve and prepare grain, how to harvest the goods she helped them grow throughout the year. Her daughter is Persephone (also known as Kore) and she loved her dearly. Persephone was the most beautiful entity there was, everybody wanted her.

One day, while Persephone was picking flowers in the meadow near her home, she was abducted by Hades, the God of the Underworld, who had opened the earth under her to take her. She then became Goddess of the Underworld because her taking by Hades made her his Queen. Demeter heard her daughter scream, but arrived too late. When she arrived in the meadows, there was no sign of her beloved daughter. Demeter searched high and low for her daughter, even going to Zeus for council. After all, Zeus was Persephone’s father. He and Demeter had a love affaire well before Zeus was married to Hera. After Persephone was abducted, Demeter became really depressed. The land died immediately, giving place to the cold and the disappearance of the crops and food. This Goddess who would think about the humans before was only thinking about her daughter now. She roamed the earth as an old lady, searching day and night desperately for her daughter, but with no success.

When Demeter was walking the earth to find Persephone, she met an old and poor old man who was gathering firewood who invited her to return to his home to eat supper with his family and to rest on her journey. When she told him that she was searching for her daughter, he wished her success and he told her that he understood her suffering. His son was young, but dying at home. This changed Demeter’s idea and she accepted to follow the old man to his house. There, she saw the boy and felt so for him that she cured him when she kissed him on the forehead. Her love had restored his health.

Demeter was tired of looking for Persephone alone, she needed help. So she went to see Hecate, Goddess of the crossroads, who advised her to speak to Helio, Goddess of the sun. Demeter then went to Helio who had been riding her chariot of sun through the sky the day Persephone was kidnapped. Helio told Demeter that she had seen Persephone being taken by Hades to become queen of the underworld. She also told Demeter that it was Zeus himself who had sanctioned the abduction, and therefore marriage. Demeter was furious. She trusted Zeus in this ordeal; she never expected that it was him behind all this.

She then went to see Zeus and told him that unless Persephone was brought back to her, she would then renounce her divine duty of bringing fertility to the land and crops. After months of waiting, Zeus finally agreed and talked to Hades about letting Persephone go back to her mother. He did see that the humans where helpless and that they needed Demeter to survive. They did not have any crops to feed on and since they where not prepared for this, they did not gather any food. The humans were starving and were helpless.

 

After Zeus spoke to Hades, he agreed to let Persephone go, but before he let her go, he then gave her three seeds of the Pomegranate fruit. Anybody who eats food from the underground world cannot go back to the other world, but since Persephone had eaten only three seeds, she was able to go back to her mother. But she had to return to the underworld at least 4 months a year. If she did not she would die. Every time Persephone has to go back to Hades for 4 months, Demeter will not make the land fertile. That is why we have 4 month winters and our lands are not fertile. Every seed represented one month and we believe that the extra month represents the long time Persephone went from one world to the next. It took her that long to go from each world because she never wanted to leave her mother and when she was with Hades, she never wanted to leave her lover for she did come to love Hades when she had to return to the upper world.

So we now see the despair of our Goddess who lost a loved one, when she knows that the God adult has to die in order for the new God to be reborn. It is like when Demeter lost Persephone and found her again after many months. It was like a rebirth. Imagine that when she did find her daughter, everything was fertile again, living again.

 

What is lost in your life, that with help you can find once again?  What are you willing to sacrifice to live a better life? These are questions you might ask of yourself during this time of year.  Look at what your personal harvests are and ask yourself what did you do to bring these harvests to fruition…did you do your best…did you give it your all…what lessons are there for you learn.  Then when you acknowledge the bounty of your harvest, what will do to show the Lady and Lord thanks for their input and their gifts to you.  What have gained?  What did you lose?  What will give in return?

Tidbits on Mabon

Day and night are equal and the God prepares to depart and begin the journey back to the strength and development within his mother's, the Goddess', womb. Both sad and joyful, the Goddess lovingly awaits her God's rebirth.

☽ Spellwork ☾

Spellwork for protection, wealth and prosperity, security and spells to bring a feeling of self-confidence are appropriate for Mabon. Since this is a time for balance -- you might include spells that will bring into balance and harmony the energies either in a room, home, or situation. Ritual actions might include the praising or honoring of fruit as proof of the love of the Goddess and God, and a ritual sprinkling of Autumn leaves.

 

☽ Symbols ☾

Deities: all wine Deities (especially Dionysus and Bacchus), the Mother aspect of the Triple Goddess, Persephone, Thor, Modron, Morgan, Snake Woman, Epona, Pamona, Muses, Mabon, Thoth, Hermes, Hotei, the Green Man, Harvest Deities, Aging Deities

Colors: red, orange, deep gold, brown, russet, maroon, violet

Candle Colors: orange, dark red, yellow, indigo, brown

Gemstones: amethyst, yellow topaz, carnelian, lapis lazuli, sapphire, yellow agate

Animals: dogs, wolves, birds of prey

Mythical Creatures: gnomes, minotaurs, sphinx, cyclops, andamans, gulons

Plants: vines, ivy, hazel, cedar, hops, tobacco

Herbs: acorns, asters, benzoin, ferns, honeysuckle, marigold, milkweed, mums, myrrh, oak leaves, passionflower, pine, roses, sage, Solomon's seal, thistles

Incense: frankincense, aloes wood, jasmine, cinnamon, musk, cloves, benzoin, myrrh, sage

Foods: crops of the Harvest; corn, corn bread, beans, baked squash, grapes, breads, pomegranates, roots (carrots, onions, potatoes, etc.), nuts, apples

Drinks: apple cider, wine, ale

Perfume: apple

Activities:

• making wine
• gathering dried herbs, plants, seeds and seed pods
• walking in the woods
• scattering offerings in harvested fields
• offering libations to trees
• adorning burial sites with leaves, acorns, apples, and pine cones to honour those who have passed away
• making corn dolls
• sharing your bounty with others (nature included)
• taking nature walks
• dipping leaves in paraffin and placing them around the house or in large jars with sigils of protection and/or abundance carved lightly into them