The Wheel of the Year - Autumn Equinox

The Wheel of the Year is turning and  here in the southern hemisphere we are approaching the mid-way point between the Summer and Winter Solstices, Mabon or the Autumn Equinox.  This is my favorite time of year.  The days are still warm, daylight is still in abundance and the amazing colours of the natural world changing around us.  

 

Why not add to your To-do-List some time to get outside and enjoy the beauty of the world around you.  While you are outside think about where you need to find balance in your life.  

Mabon - The Autumn Equinox

Southern Hemisphere - March 20^th

Northern Hemisphere – September 21^st

At Mabon (March), the God has died. The Earth has received His body and given up the last of the harvest. Leaves are falling from the trees and the Earth is preparing for the long, cold winter without the light of the Sun.

Mabon is the 2nd of the 3 harvest festivals.  It is also the Autumn Equinox, which means that day and night are equal.  This is because the earth is tilted at a right angle to the sun, and the sun is directly over the equator. In Latin, the word equinox translates to "equal night."   After the equinox the days begin to get shorter and the nights longer as the earth moves into winter.

Harvest festivals are celebrated by many cultures around the world since the beginning of time.

Symbols of the Season:

The harvest is a time of thanks, and also a time of balance, after all, there are equal hours of daylight and darkness.  While we celebrate the gifts of the earth, we also accept that the soil is dying. We have food to eat, but the crops are brown and going dormant.  Warmth is behind us, cold lies ahead.

Some symbols of Mabon include:

Mid-autumn vegetables, like Pumpkins and Zucchini’s

Apples and anything made from them, such as cider or pies

Seeds and seedpods

Baskets, symbolising the gathering of crops

Sickles and scythes

Grapes, vines, wine

You can use any of these to decorate your home or your altar at Mabon.

Feasting and Friends:

Early agricultural societies understood the importance of hospitality, it was crucial to develop a relationship with your neighbours, because they might be the ones to help you when your family ran out of food.  Many people, particularly in rural villages, celebrated the harvest with great deals of feasting, drinking, and eating.  After all, the grain had been made into bread, beer and wine had been made, and the cattle were brought down from the summer pastures for the coming winter.  Celebrate Mabon yourself with a feast and the bigger, the better!

Magic and Mythology:

Nearly all of the myths and legends popular at this time of the year focus on the themes of life, death, and rebirth.  Not much of a surprise, when you consider that this is the time at which the earth begins to die before winter sets in!

Demeter and Her Daughter

Perhaps the best known of all the harvest mythologies is the story of Demeter and Persephone.  Demeter was a goddess of grain and of the harvest in ancient Greece.  Her daughter, Persephone, caught the eye of Hades, god of the underworld.  When Hades abducted Persephone and took her back to the underworld, Demeter's grief caused the crops on earth to die and go dormant.  By the time she finally recovered her daughter, Persephone had eaten six pomegranate seeds, and so was doomed to spend six months of the year in the underworld.  These six months are the time when the earth dies, beginning at the time of the autumn equinox.

Inanna Takes on the Underworld

The Sumerian Goddess Inanna is the incarnation of fertility and abundance.  Inanna descended into the underworld where her sister, Ereshkigal, ruled. Erishkigal decreed that Inanna could only enter her world in the traditional ways, stripping herself of her clothing and earthly possessions.  By the time Inanna got there, Erishkigal had unleashed a series of plagues upon her sister, killing Inanna.  While Inanna was visiting the underworld, the earth ceased to grow and produce.   A vizier restored Inanna to life, and sent her back to earth.  As she journeyed home, the earth was restored to its former glory.

Of course, the dark nights are not on us yet. The equinox just signifies a tipping point.  What it also signals is a time to get ready. If the year were a day, then we are only yet at early evening.

Traditionally it is a time of taking stock.  What do we need to let go of or resolve, in terms of getting ready for winter?  Traditionally this was a time of making amends; of sorting out any unresolved disputes; of getting things in order; and of putting finances in order.

If you choose to celebrate Mabon, give thanks for the things you have, and take time to reflect on the balance within your own life, honouring both the darkness and the light.  Invite your friends and family over for a feast, and count the blessings that you have among family, friends and community.

★   Ange   ★