Mabon/ Autumn Equinox/ Harvest Home

September 23, 2023

Colors: All shades of red, gold, brown, rust

Dieties: All harvest dieties, Earth Mother/Sky Father, Persephone, Epona, Greenman, Mabon

Symbols: Acorns, apples, dried flowers, pine cones, chrysanthymums, Ferns, ivy. Cornucopia, Indian Corn, Grapes and Grains.

Food & Drink: Wine, ground veggies (potatoes, onions etc), beans, squash and multi-grain breads

Herbs: Marigold, sage, myrrh, honeysuckle, rose, sweetgrass

Sacred Stones: All yellow stones, Lapis, multi colored agates

Mabon Activites: This is such a beautiful season to go outside! Take some nature walks and collect pinecones, acorns, colored leaves and interesting seeds and pods for decorating your home and altar. Other activities include making gourd rattles, harvesting from your garden, share your gardens abundance with others, fill your bird feeders with treats for your avian friends. Most of all, count your blessings. Have everyone in your family make a list of all the things they are thankful for and then read them aloud. I will also include my favorite activity…”feeding the trees”. We share a drink of apple cidar or wine with our trees. This honors not only the tree spirit but my husbands patron The Greenman.

Mabon (pronounced May-bon, May-bone, May-bun, May-bawn) is celebrated at the time of the Autumn Equinox on or around September 21. This festival marks the completion of the harvest begun at Lughnasadh. It is named after the celtic god Mabon. Other names for this Lesser Sabbat include Harvest Home, Festival of Dionysus, The Feast of Avalon, Mea’n Fo’mhair (druid), Winter Finding (norse), Equinozio di Autunnio (strega).

On this day, day and night are again equal and time holds it’s breath as the Dying God gets ready to leave his physical body and begin the great journey to the Summerland. He sees this as the last great adventure of renewal and rebirth. The Goddess who is drowsing in the waning warmth of summer feels her love getting ready to depart as well as the new life growing in her womb.

 The threefold theme for this Sabbat is Balance- Gratitude- Reflection. This is also a time of balance not only within nature but within ourselves and our lives. On the great wheel Mabon is balanced by Ostara. It is traditional to clean the unnecessary clutter from your home and life as well as blessing the thresholds of your house. Look back on everything you have done in the past year and with your life. Congratulate yourself on your accomplishments and make note of the areas you need to improve upon. Give thanks to the Lady and Lord, yourself and to everyone who has helped to get where your on this day! This is a wonderful time to do spells of balancing in preparation of the time of relfection that will be coming up at Samahain.

I invite you to check out my websites!

The Desert Path: The dusty ramblings of a desert pagan. https://thedesertpath.com/

Sacred Spirals (the place where all paths meet)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/SacredSpirals/