“In the dark, there is nothing external left to look at – the only thing left to see is ourselves”
The Wheel – Jennifer Lane p.218
August slipped away and we are fully into September. This is usually where I start to get a little uncomfortable. As we move into autumn I start to realize more and more just how disconnected we are from nature. As the world starts to retreat into itself to prepare for the death of winter and the rebirth in spring, the silly sentient beings called humans have decided they don’t need to do that. If anything, humans need to work even harder and shine brighter and fight the urge to slow down. And, to quote Taylor Swift, I’m just too soft for all of it.
One of the things that always draws me back to witchcraft is the connection with nature, and as the days grow darker, that connection might be just the thing to get me through.
This is where The Wheel of the Year comes in. As we saw in my intro post for The Wheel of the Year, it’s quite modern in the way it is celebrated now, but it serves as a connection to the ancient celebrations it is based on. Right now the Wheel has turned to Mabon.
Mabon is only the latest in the long list of names this event and celebration has had over the centuries.
If we were to take ceremony and history out of it, it is ‘simply’ the autumn equinox. During the equinox the tilt of the Earth’s axis is perpendicular to the Sun’s rays, meaning both hemispheres receive the same amount of sunlight. This is just a fancy way of saying; day and night are almost equal.
In the Northern Hemisphere the Autumn Equinox is usually between September 20th and September 23rd. In the Southern Hemisphere this would be between March 20th and March 23rd.
From this moment there’s a shift from longer days, to longer nights. Knowing this, it makes sense that the autumn equinox marks a time of balance, equilibrium, and transition. A balance between dark and light.
Nowadays we know the science behind the equinox, but that wasn’t always the case. And in a time where Gods and Goddesses were honoured and revered, an event like the equinox would be attributed to them.
In ancient Greece there were the Eleusinian Mysteries: a week-long event honouring Demeter and Persephone.
The quickest of summaries of the tale around Demeter and Persephone: Persephone is taken to the Underworld by Hades, because of this her mother Demeter (Goddess of the harvest) allows the world to die. Zeus, obviously upset that the world is dying, orders Hades to return Persephone, which he does, but not full-time. Persephone returns to her mother for half the year, and spends the other half in the Underworld with Hades. And so, we get the seasons, after the Autumn Equinox Persephone returns to the Underworld and the world dies, only to come back to life when Persephone goes back to Demeter in the spring.
There’s much more to say about this tale, maybe I’ll dedicate a full blog to it at some point, but it shows just how long the idea of celebration at specific astrological events has been around, and the common themes which tie all of us together.
In Celtic history around the autumn equinox the Second Harvest was celebrated (the first harvest being Lughnasadh). It was a time where villagers would gather their food and start preparing for winter, it was a time to reflect on how much nature had given us and be grateful for the abundance of the harvest season.
I also came across the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is a harvest festival celebrated in Chinese culture, held around the autumn equinox on the 15th of the 8th lunisolar month in the Chinese calendar.
And even Thanksgiving (Canada & America) seems to have strong connections with the equinox and the harvest celebrations.
All of it seems to come down to same basics: preparations for the darker months, giving thanks to nature and all it has given us, balance, and reflecting on the dualities in life such as light & dark or life & death. Some of the ancient celebrations still live on, and others have been given new life in our modern day and age, which brings us back to Mabon.
Mabon was named by Aidan Kelly, somewhere in the 1970s. Mabon refers to a figure from Welsh Mythology: ‘Mabon ap Modron’ (the Son of the Mother). In Welsh mythology Mabon was a child stolen from his mother, much like Persephone was stolen from Demeter. This relation was apparently enough for Aidan Kelly to name the celebration of the autumn equinox after this character.
Whatever you want to call it in the end, whether you want to follow the spokes of the wheel, the astrological events, or create your own celebrations throughout the year to honour mother Earth, I think the idea behind it is a lovely one.
Be grateful for the harvest, whatever your harvest might be.
Reflect on the duality of life and find a balance.
Celebrate with loved ones and food.
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