Mabon
is the second of the three celebrations of the Harvest Festival. It
is the time of the second harvest, the harvest of fruit and wine. The
powers of light and darkness are now in balance. This is a time to celebrate
blessings of the year. The Goddess is mature now and manifests her bountiful
mother aspect. The Underworld Goddess returns. The Year Goddess approaches
her Crone time now, as the night begins to lengthen and the days to
shorten once more. We feel her bite, the crispness of the air, the brightness
of the moon. Demeter yields her daughter to the underworld.
Persephone has descended to the land of Hecate and the dead, and Demeter in despair halts all new growth until her return. It is also the time when Hecate walks the land. (In days of old, the story was told that Persephone each year went to the underworld for teachings from the Goddess of the Crossroads, Hecate, who could see past, present and future. Not until the Titan Goddesses were married off to war/hunting Gods did the story change to Persephone being kidnapped and raped by Hades.) This is the time for both mourning and joy, as we face the darkness and look back over the year we have just lived. For many witches this begins the most powerful time of the year - the dark time when the sun's light recedes to give more focus to the moon and the deep self of the female principle. As Persephone must separate from the world and her Mother for a time for teachings with Hecate, so must each of us undergo this mystery in our lives. Rituals of grieving are appropriate now as well as acknowledging the rebirth and joy to follow. It is a time when the Goddess must say farewell to her Consort. The separation between mother and daughter, and that between lovers is a dominate theme of this time. We are in deep need of rituals that help us through these transitions. You can take an apple to the cemetery and hold it in front of you and say "Ancient symbol of life, death and rebirth, take away my mourning and assure me that death is not a permanent parting, but a new and joyful beginning" and then placed at a love one's grave for hope of rebirth or if you cannot get to a cemetery, after the prayer, bury the apple in the earth to symbolize your hope for the rebirth of all life. The theme is balancing polarities, so do some thinking about the balance within your life. The female and male elements of your personality - do they have equal respect and expression. This night, when the hours of light and the hours of darkness are equal is a night to honor the balance of the Goddess and the God and the balance of matter and spirit because the Craft religion celebrates not only spiritual life of the next world, but also the physical life of this world.
Candle Colors: Brown, green, orange and yellow Gemstones: Carnelian, lapis, sapphire, yellow agate. Ritual Herbs: Acorns, asters, benzoin, ferns, honeysuckle, marigold, milkweed, myrrh, oak leaves, passion flower, pine, roses, sage, solomon's seal and thistle. |