The Wheel of the Year: Mabon - the Autumn Equinox
Mabon marks the Autumn or ‘Fall’ equinox and is a time of balance, when day and night are of equal length. It occurs when the Sun moves into Libra around 22nd Sept (the sign of balance, rather appropriately) and is the last festival in the Wheel of the Year before the ‘The Witch’s Year’ starts all over again at Samhain which marks the end of the Light Half of the Year (the Samhain post was my very first blog post on my blog - I can’t believe that was almost a year ago!)
It’s the second of the three traditional harvest festivals - beginning with Lughnasadh, which celebrated the grain harvest, Mabon which celebrates the harvest of fruits and vegetables and ending with Samhain which celebrates the slaughtering of cattle and the end of harvest.
The festival marking equinox was only recently named ‘Mabon’ by pagans in the 20th century, however the equinox was known as ‘Elban Efed’ in Druidic traidition. Ancient communities would come together around the equinox to harvest apples, pumpkins and root vegetables, give thanks for the abundance of Mother earth with seasonal rituals and feasts and begin to start preparations for the cold months to come such as preserving some of the bounty of harvest and preparing their homes for the harsh winter ahead.
In modern times, whilst most of us have readily available food year-round and don’t necessarily need to rely on preserving all our home-grown veg to survive winter, this transitional time in the Wheel of the Year cycle is still a profound seasonal shift and a good moment to take stock, to slow down and to begin to ground ourselves.
Just as we begin to lose the full solar power of the sun, the powerful light, warmth and energy begins to wane and nature begins to slow and die, internally our body clocks and physical energy too begin to ebb. This time of transition and equal balance between the light and dark is a signal to cultivate inner balance between work and rest, productivity and receptivity, extroversion and introspection, yang and yin energy. To find equilibrium.
As the equinox occurs at the mid-point between the summer and winter solstices, it’s a potent time to reflect on, feel gratitude for, honour and acknowledge what the ‘Light Half’ of the year brought us, release what’s no longer serving us and then begin to energetically prepare for the dark months ahead.
We can reflect back on the seeds of intention we planted at Imbolc and tended to throughout the year, investing our time, energy and focus into them - whether they were related to work, business, home, relationships or creative or personal projects. Mabon grants us a moment of reprieve - a time when we can pause on the endless treadmill of productivity to practice gratitude for all we’ve received and learned from anything we’ve been plugging our energy into.
The equinox, whilst being a time of hard work and harvest, was also a time of feasting and celebration - a celebration of and gratitude to the gods for the bounty of Mother Earth before the scarcity of winter. We too can come together with friends and family or even just on our own and celebrate ourselves and our efforts throughout the year - what worked out for us? What were we able to ‘harvest’ this year - success, creations, connections, collaborations, abundance, joy, fulfilment? What didn’t work out maybe the way we’d planned and what could we do differently next time?
In Triple Goddess terms, as the Wheel of the Year follows the cycles of the Goddess around from the Maiden phase of Persephone at Imbolc, Ostara and Beltane to the Mother phase of Demeter at Litha, Lughnasadh and Mabon - Mabon marks the time when the Triple Goddess is coming to the end of her ‘Mother’ phase and preparing to begin her ‘Crone’ phase of the year which begins at Samhain.
My Goddess for Mabon is Mawu-Lisa - the Goddess of Balance, from the Fon pantheon of Dahomey mythology - I’ll do a dedicated post to her in the next fortnight. This will be the final Goddess post in this Goddesses of the Wheel of the Year series I started at Samhain last year! It’s been so fascinating to work deeper with these Goddesses who have presented themselves to me as I’ve worked with each of the Wheel of the Year’s cycles and I hope you’ve enjoyed them as much I have enjoyed learning and writing about them. Thank you for all of your support throughout the year for those of you who have read my words - it has meant the world to me.
I will still be blogging after this final Wheel of the Year post, however the blog will be shifting and evolving a bit over the coming months to reflect the shifts my business is going through currently - this is all being worked out behind the scenes at the moment (potent equinox + eclipse work!) but watch this space for more updates soon and subscribe to my newsletter to get the latest!
Mabon themes:
Harvest
Celebration
Feasting
Gratitude
Transition
Balance
Equilibrium
Grounding
Connection and gratitude to the Earth
Community
Preparation
Letting go
Slower pace
Rituals for Mabon:
Set up an Equinox altar: adorn your altar with autumnal leaves, nuts, berries, red, orange and green crystals to reflect the Autumnal colours, candles and any oracle cards or symbols associated with a Goddess or deity you feel drawn to work with at this time.
Nature walks: connect in with the Earth and take a walk in nature to collect leaves, acorns, and pine cones as reminders of the season. Go foraging for wild blackberries, rosehips or other seasonal berries or fruits to make concoctions, elixirs or syrups to boost immunity throughout the winter months.
Feasting: gather family or friends around a table and prepare a feast featuring seasonal fruits and vegetables such as pumpkins, squash, root vegetables and yes, wine absolutely does count! All symbolic of earth’s bounty. Finish it all off with a delicious apple crumble - apples were particularly symbolic of harvest and used in rituals to thank the gods for the earth’s bounty.
Do a clean, energy cleanse with sage and de-clutter your space and belongings. Once done, ensure your home (and wardrobe!) is cosy enough for the winter ahead - invest in some candles (I personally love ones in amber glass jars at this time of year - they’re very cosy!), warming essential oils such as cedarwood, ginger, cinnamon and cardamom and wool blankets to make the home feel more cosy as the nights begin to get chilly.
Letting Go Ritual - connect in with yourself energetically also and see if there’s anything - whether emotions, energy, habits or situations you need to let go of before the descent into winter. Light a candle, give thanks for the thing you want to let go of and what it served in your life, then write it on a piece of paper and burn it.