mabon...

 it's coming... MABON (Autumn Equinox) 

 

Mabon Lore
Altar Dressings
Mabon Magickal Herbs
Mabon Incense
Mabon Magickal Stones
Holiday FareMabon Activities

Mabon Lore

Autumn Equinox, around September 21, is the 
time of the descent of the Goddess into the 
Underworld. With her departure, we see the 
decline of nature and the coming of winter. 
This is a classic, ancient mythos, seen the 
Sumerian myth of Inanna and in the ancient 
Greek and Roman legends of Demeter and 
Persephone. 

In September, we also bid farewell to the
Harvest Lord who was slain at Lammas. He is 
the Green Man, seen as the cycle of nature in 
the plant kingdom. He is harvested and his 
seeds are planted into the Earth so that life 
may continue and be more abundant.

Mabon ("Great Son") is a Welsh god. He was a 
great hunter with a swift horse and a wonderful
hound. He may have been a mythologized actual 
leader. He was stolen from his mother, Modron 
(Great Mother),when he was three nights old, 
but was eventually rescued by King Arthur 
(other legends say he was rescued by the 
Blackbird, the Stag, the Owl, the Eagle, and 
the Salmon). All along, however, Mabon has 
been dwelling, a happy captive, in Modron's 
magickal Otherworld -- Madron's womb. Only in 
this way can he be reborn. Mabon's light has 
been drawn into the Earth, gathering strength 
and wisdom enough to become a new seed. In 
this sense, Mabon is the masculine counterpart 
of Persephone -- the male fertilizing principle
seasonally withdrawn. Modron corresponds with 
Demeter.

From the moment of the September Equinox, the 
Sun's strength diminishes, until the moment of 
Winter Solstice in December, when the Sun grows
stronger and the days once again become longer 
than the nights.

Symbols celebrating the season include various
types of gourd and melons. Stalk can be tied 
together symbolizing the Harvest Lord and then 
set in a circle of gourds. A besom can be 
constructed to symbolize the polarity of male 
and female. The Harvest Lord is often 
symbolized by a straw man, whose sacrificial 
body is burned and its ashes scattered upon the
earth. The Harvest Queen, or Kern Baby, is made
from the last sheaf of the harvest and bundled 
by the reapers who proclaim, "We have the Kern!"
The sheaf is dressed in a white frock decorated 
with colorful ribbons depicting spring, and then
hung upon a pole (a phallic fertility symbol). 
In Scotland, the last sheaf of harvest is called
the Maiden, and must be cut by the youngest 
female in attendance.

Altar Dressings

* candles should be brown or cinnamon.
* decorate circle with autumn flowers,
  acorns, gourds, corn sheaves and fall 
  leaves.

Mabon Magickal Herbs

Rue, yarrow, rosemary, marigold, sage, walnut 

leaves and husks, mistletoe, saffron, chamomile,
almond leaves, passionflower, frankincense, 
rose hips, bittersweet, sunflower, wheat, oak 
leaves, dried apple or apple seeds.

http://www.earthwitchery.com/mabon.html