Mabon

At the west of the year's compass stands Mabon. Like Ostara, a day when daylight and darkness are of equal length. Unlike Ostara, however which brings the promise of long days, the autumnal equinox foreshadows the darker days to come. Mabon is the harvest of the fruits of the Earth Mother who in her aspect as eternal Goddess enters the third trimester of her pregnancy.

This is the time when the dying Sun God brings his journey across the western ocean to sojourn with the eldest aspect of the Goddess, in the land of the dead at Samhain. Witches can see within the Arthurian legends echoes of the dying God in the fallen King Arthur, who is borne westwards towards either the Summerlands, or Avalon, the Celtic Otherworld accompanied by three, sometimes nine, maidens, thought to symbolise the Triple Goddess. His renewal is seen in the birth of the Star Child at the Winter Solstice and his rapid growth to youth, hero and protector in the next year's cycle.

THE MYSTERY WITHIN:

The connection between Avalon - The "Isle of Apples" - and Mabon continues with some of the celebrations of Mabon today. In our rituals, we slice open apples to reveal the mystery within - a five-pointed star symbolising all elements of life combined. We eat them to remind us that, as witches, we walk between worlds; that of consensual reality and that of the magickal Otherworld. At this festival, we stand between the pillars of light and darkness, ready to descend, with all those goddesses whose myths are associated with the Underworld, into the long night of the year. We eat the fruits of liminality, and, like Inanna, Persephone, Freya and Ishtar, prepare ourselves for the descent into the deep, creative darkness of the six months to follow. Just as seeds germinate in the darkness of the rich earth we continue to grow by preparing ourselves for stillness in the dark, reaching into the deep places of regeneration within, and bringing back the treasures of creativity and spiritual knowledge.

IF Yule is the year's midnight, Mabon is its sunset, and in this dusk we carry what we can of the Sun's noon-day strength at Litha with us into the dark. After Mabon we continue towards Samhain, and having travelled the sacred Wheel of the Year, continue the cycle around.

Mabon, the autumnal equinox, is the completion of the harvest begun at Lughnasadh. Once again day and night are equal, poised as the God prepares to leave his physical body and begin the great adventure into the unseen, toward renewal and rebirth of the Goddess.

Nature declines, draws back its bounty, readying for winter and its time of rest. The Goddess nods in the weakening sun, though fire burns within her womb. She feels the presence of the God, even as he wanes.