Mabon/Autumn Equinox (around September 22nd) also known as: Alban Elfed, Winter Finding Once again we find ourselves in the time of balance, for day and night are once again equal. The sun crosses the equator and heads south, signaling the end of summer's impassioned days and the beginning of the quiet winter months. For the sun has begun His yearly descent and the His journey commences into the final days of His reign. Again relating to us of the Universal Truth of life, death and reincarnation. Autumn Equinox is the second in the trilogy of harvest festivals. Mabon marks the completion of the grain harvest begun during Lughnasadh. Thanksgiving for the abundanceÕs of life are characteristic during this harvest time. It is a time of great joy and great sorrow, it is the time of great change. A time when we are between the worlds, we morn that which is passing, joyful for bountiful harvest and the awareness that the Mother will hold the seed of Light in Her womb. Realization that the Wheel of Year has turned once more, and will continue to turn. For time in circular not linear, there is no end but only new beginnings, the continuance of life eternal. We celebrate the story of Mabon ap Modron, " the son of the mother", the Divine Youth, the Son of Light. Mabon is taken when he is three nights old. His whereabouts are a shrouded in mystery, it is through the wisdom and memory of the most ancient animals (Blackbird, Stag, Owl, Eagle, and Salmon) we understand His where he is and why. Mabon, dwells in His Mother's womb, the Otherworld. It is a place of challenge and a place of nurture, a place where one is renewed and regenerated, a place of new life. So that He maybe reborn, the source of Light and Joy, the champion of His Mother. Just as the Light is being drawn into the earth accumulating strength and wisdom, to become a new seed, Mabon has returned to his Mother's womb. For as the winter begins, the earth incubates the tender seeds. Throughout the winter, the seeds are kept within Her womb so that they maybe reborn bring forth new life. The Autumn Equinox is the time when we prepare our personal harvests, gathering those experiences transpired over the past year (s), bringing them within, making them apart of who we are. Allowing them to die, regenerate into wisdom, to be reborn within. Preparing us for new life from that we have experienced and brought to the table thus far. It is during Mabon we are reminded the necessity of fallow periods. For these periods allow us the assimilate, regenerate, and incorporate that which we have progressed through. For in life events happen, choices are made, and actions generated, we cannot go back and change that which has passed, but we can reap the harvest of wisdom these have brought us. We do not know that which we have not experienced, and it is this time we give thanks for that which has been our lives, for that we perceive as wonderful and that we perceive not to be, for they all are part of the sum of who we are. |