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Showing posts with label Mabon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mabon. Show all posts

Wednesday 24 September 2014

Celebrate Mabon

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I love everything about this time of the year when day and night are brought into balance with the Autumnal Equinox. All our endeavours in the garden have come to fruition (hopefully). Some things have done better than others. This year, in my garden, we have had a bumper crop of runner beans and tomatoes. The tomatoes have been slow to ripen, as usual, because the sun has been hiding but indoors, on the window sill, the tomatoes are happy to turn red and we have been enjoying their fruitful taste for a few weeks now.

The blackberries are also ripe and tasty.
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The harvest moon is one of the most splendid things we can ever hope to see, isn't it. It hangs in the night sky like a great big heavy ball, full of abundance and ready to pop. Who could not wonder at such a spectacle.

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I think that at this time of the year we all have an overwhelming urge to thank somebody for all this abundance, but who to thank? God is the obvious choice, but are there many Gods? After all, there are many Saints and we can pray to which ever one we choose depending on our circumstances.  When I took up Wicca as my main religious interest, I took a deeper look at the Gods of old, of whom there are many.

 Whilst retaining the God I was brought up to worship, I no longer see him/her as the only one. I am drawn to the Goddess Freya, a Norse Goddess who seems to call to me sometimes. Perhaps it is my Viking roots, who knows.
'Freyja : Sometimes known as Freya or Frea, was the daughter of the sea god Njord in Germanic mythology and sister of Freyr. She was an important fertility goddess and a member of the Vanir, one of the two branches into which the Germanic gods were divided. After a war, the Vanir seem to have been supplanted by the younger Aesir, who were led by odin.  When peace was agreed between the two sides, Njord went with Freyr and Freyja to Asgard, where they lived with the Aesir as a token of friendship.' taken from The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythology by Arthur Cotterell and Rachel Storm.

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I think the most important thing about harvest time is that we must share what we have with others less fortunate than ourselves. We mustn't keep it all but spread it around. Spread the love too. We all need it. Most of us have something in our lives which is giving us trouble. Perhaps if we share the trouble, it will lessen and not be such a burden on our shoulders. I need to take my own advice for even in my idyllic world there is trouble. My eldest son has recently lost his home and finds himself homeless, living on a beach in the south of England and this is giving me a lot of grief. Many times in the past he has returned home to the cottage but it never lasts. He no longer wants to live with his aging parents and we, for our part, need a quieter life now. He cannot find work and he has no proper address. It all seems very hopeless and yet when I look at the fruits of nature, I think that maybe tomorrow or the day after, the fruits of his life will appear and he will be whole again. He has troubles in his mind and these are very hard to cure, if not impossible. The troubles are not visible. If he was missing a leg, people would feel sorry for him, but when there is nothing to see, the help doesn't come. We all turn away because none of us knows how to cope with it. His situation has done untold damage to the family in general and to those other people who love him too.

So back to Mabon, this time of celebration. A time of stability perhaps and a link to the past when we all lived in smaller communities and it was incumbent on us to help our neighbours. In this day and age many of us don't even know who are neighbours are.

I refuse to be discouraged in my life and will carry on as if all is well. Perhaps if I do that, I can sow seeds of happiness for the future. In the Wiccan year, we are also coming up to New Year, which starts after Halloween. It is a good time to be thankful and look to the future.

I wish you all a joyous Mabon.
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Wednesday 29 September 2010

Mabon - The Autumn Equinox

We are in the season of Autumn, just past the Autumn Equinox. This is the festival of thanksgiving and a time when day and night are in perfect balance again. At Mabon, we celebrate the harvest and whereas Lammas is the grain harvest, Mabon is the fruit harvest. It is a time to store food for the winter to come.

The sap in the trees and plants is moving down now and it a time to give thanks for the gifts and help given and to welcome the turning, the change of energy flowing toward the dark, the power within. We start to think more reflectively, perhaps wanting to study something new (why not try Wicca?) and to turn our thoughts to woolly socks and long evenings in by the fire.

I suggest you read 'Sabbats' by Edain McCoy.

Now is a good time to make a spell for protection in your car.

On to a red cloth, put out these herbs/plants:
1 tsp comfrey and 1 1/2 tsp's mugwort (for protection during travel).
1 1/2 tsp's of rosemary (for alertness during travel).
1 tablespoon ash tree bark (for protection against accidents).
10 drops of lavender oil (refreshing smell).

Put the ingredients in a spell bag and tie with some thing string.

Then say, as you tie knots:

one by one, this spell's begun.

two by two, it will be true.

three by three, so mote it be.

four by four, the power's in store.

five by five, this spell's alive!

Put the spell bag in your car to keep you safe.

Happy motoring on the slippery roads, covered in leaves.
May you keep safe and sound.

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