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.

Star

On Children by Kahlil Gibran

On Children
Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

The Hedgerow

'Hedgerows are rooted deeply in our national consciousness as indispensable elements of our ideal of the English countryside. They stitch together the fabric of our landscape to create a scene unmatched except where newly created by seventeenth-century colonists in a few parts of the old Empire such as New England, Tasmania and parts of New Zealand. Many are more ancient by centuries than our castles, cathedrals and abbeys and in the words of W.G. Hoskins, ''they represent the physical evidence of decisions made long ago and fixed solidly on the ground''. By their character they proclaim the regional identity of the countryside as surely as a knight's pedigree was revealed by the charge on his shield.'

From 'Discovering Hedgerows' by David Street and Rosamond Richardson.

'The bramble has much folklore attached to it: sick children used to be passed through an arch of bramble that had rooted at both ends in order to make them better; it was also believed that this could cure rheumatism. The Greeks and Romans used blackberries to cure gout, and infusions of the leaves are still used in folk medicine to relieve sore throats and tonsillitis. Current medical researchers are investigating the possibility that the leaves contain anti-diabetic properties.'

You can tell the age of a hedge by the number of species of plants and trees that grow in it.

Lughnasadh

The beginning of August celebrates the first of the three harvests, Lammas. It is a time for celebrations and the playing of traditional games.

I found this little video which illustrates this time of the year very well.

It is taken from the BBC serial, The Victorian Farm in which three intrepid volunteers, all experts in their own field (excuse the pun) live life as the Victorians did.

The business of bees

I took this video of busy bees yesterday. They just epitomise this time of the year, don't they - for those of us in summertime of course!

The smell of the lavender whilst I was taking the picture was just wonderful and I stood there in a happy haze of contentment feeling that all was just right with the world.

I hope that all is just right with your world and if it isn't, just ignore the bad bits.

Star