Equal Dark and Equal Light

We Druid/Taoists prepare for the upcoming Autumnal Equinox celebration, also called Mabon, Autumn Moon Festival, Alban Elfed, Harvest Home Festival, Apple Feast, etc.   

The Moon Festival, Zhong Qiu Jie, a very popular Chinese autumn festival, is held when there is a full moon at this time of the year.   


"Equal dark, equal light
Flow in Circle, deep insight
Blessed Be, Blessed Be
The transformation of energy!
So it flows, out it goes
Three-fold back it shall be
Blessed Be, Blessed Be
The transformation of energy!"
-   Night An'Fey, Transformation of Energy

   

"The last of Summer is Delight --
Deterred by Retrospect.
'Tis Ecstasy's revealed Review --
Enchantment's Syndicate.
To meet it -- nameless as it is --
Without celestial Mail --
Audacious as without a Knock
To walk within the Veil."
-   Emily Dickinson, The Last of Summer is Delight 

  

September: Quotes, Poems, Lore

"Great Goddess, Mistress of cats,
Lady of love, beautiful Vana-Goddess,
Fulfill my greatest needs, O glorious one.
Teach me the magic I need.
Give me a glimpse of your deep wisdom.
Teach me in dreams. Enrich my life.
O Lady, you are Golden-Tears of Asgard
Lady of love, beautiful Vana-Goddess,
You are the Shape-shifter, the Sayer,
The Independent One.
Give me the strength and the magic I need."
-  Prayers to Freyja   

General Preparations for Mabon 

We gather dry corn stalks and make background arrangements and corn dollys; collect, dry and display all kinds of gourds and squash; we cut long grape vines and tie into circular forms for wheel symbols; we cut fire wood for a outdoor pre-dawn campfire in our sacred circle garden; we do reading in literature relevant to the Mabon seasonal theme; we make special meals with the vegetables and fruits of the season; we make moon cakes with rice.  We tend to do pre-dawn fireplace celebrations in the summer because it is too hot in the evening. 
 

Autumn Equinox Celebration Preparations: Mabon

Repost from 2008:

We Druid/Taoists prepare for the upcoming Autumnal Equinox celebration, also called Mabon, Autumn Moon Festival, Alban Elfed, Harvest Home Festival, Apple Feast, etc.

“Mabon, or Autumn Equinox, is named for the Welsh God of the Harvest, Mabon ap Modron (“divine son of the divine mother).  As told in the Mabinogion, Mabon was stolen from his mother three nights after his birth, and swelt in Annwfn (the Underworld) until he was rescued by Culhwch.  Because of his time in the Underworld, Mabon stayed a young man forever, and was equated with the Roman Apollo.  He is the Green Man whose blood is an intoxicating beverage; Dionysos (wine), Osiris (beer), and John Barleycorn (whiskey).  The bay tree is sacred to Mabon as its magickal action is preservation, a time-honored harvest occupation.  Also known as the Harvest Home, Kirn Feast, Mell Day, Ingathering, and Harvest’s Height, this festival commemorates the ritual sacrifice of the God and his descent into the Underworld, and the brewer’s art that produces the sacrament of this season.  In California Wine Country, where we live, it is the festival of the Grape Harvest.  Whiskey, the spirit of the barley, is also readily consumed during this festival.”
-  Oberon and Morning Glory Zell-Ravencraft, Creating Circles and Ceremonies, p. 227

“Your altar is a great place for fruits, such as squash and apples set in an old wooden bowl.  You will also want to add pomegranate, in association with Peresphone.  Decorate your altar with orange, brown and yellow altar cloths and candles.  Arrange colorful autumn leaves and small gourds, nuts, dried corn, seed, acorns, pine cones, etc.  You also might want to add a bowl of water, since autumn is associated with water, emotion, and relationships.”
-  Oberon and Morning Glory Zell-Ravencraft, Creating Circles and Ceremonies, p. 228


Ask yourself these questions in the month of September:
What is your personal harvest from self-improvement resolutions planted last spring?
In what specific and creative ways can you honor the productivity of Mother Earth? 
What is something new that you produced in the last six months?
How can you best celebrate your productive efforts during the year?
How have others helped you to be more creative?
How can you best celebrate the autumnal equinox holiday? 

September: Poems and Quotes

Autumn Equinox, Mabon, Harvest Festival, NeoPagan High Day

 

The Moon Festival, Zhong Qiu Jie, a very popular Chinese autumn festival, occurs when the moon is full in September. 


"Equal dark, equal light
Flow in Circle, deep insight
Blessed Be, Blessed Be
The transformation of energy!
So it flows, out it goes
Three-fold back it shall be
Blessed Be, Blessed Be
The transformation of energy!"
-   Night An'Fey, Transformation of Energy

   

"The last of Summer is Delight --
Deterred by Retrospect.
'Tis Ecstasy's revealed Review --
Enchantment's Syndicate.

To meet it -- nameless as it is --
Without celestial Mail --
Audacious as without a Knock
To walk within the Veil."
-   Emily Dickinson, The Last of Summer is Delight 

  

September: Quotes, Poems, Lore

"Great Goddess, Mistress of cats,
Lady of love, beautiful Vana-Goddess,
Fulfill my greatest needs, O glorious one.
Teach me the magic I need.
Give me a glimpse of your deep wisdom.
Teach me in dreams. Enrich my life.
O Lady, you are Golden-Tears of Asgard
Lady of love, beautiful Vana-Goddess,
You are the Shape-shifter, the Sayer,
The Independent One.
Give me the strength and the magic I need."
-  Prayers to Freyja   

General Preparations for Mabon 

We gather dry corn stalks and make background arrangements and corn dollys; collect, dry and display all kinds of gourds and squash; we cut long grape vines and tie into circular forms for wheel symbols; we cut fire wood for a outdoor pre-dawn campfire in our sacred circle garden; we do reading in literature relevant to the Mabon seasonal theme; we make special meals with the vegetables and fruits of the season; we make moon cakes with rice.  We tend to do pre-dawn fireplace celebrations in the summer because it is too hot in the evening. 
 

The Harmonies of Autumn

The Last Second of Summer

The bare branches of an old shrub
Above its fallen scarlet leaves─
Emptiness or forms? 
Chrysanthemums in full bloom
Below clear blue skies─
Forms and emptiness? 

The first second of autumn,
The last second of summer─
Neither Forms nor Emptiness,
The spaces of past time,
The realms of dead minds;
Or, bereft of Space and Time,
The Singularity of the Big Bang Sublime. 
  

-  Mike Garofalo, Autumn Poems

   Mabon,  9/22/2020  
   Reading The Heart Sutra from the Buddhist scriptures. 

"Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting
and autumn a mosaic of them all."
- Stanley Horowitz

"There is a harmony 
In autumn, and a lustre in its sky, 
Which through the summer is not heard or seen, 
As if it could not be, as if it had not been!" 
- Percy Bysshe Shelley 

"The leaves fall, the wind blows, and the farm country slowly
changes from the summer cottons into its winter wools."
- Henry Beston, Northern Farm

Autumn- Quotes, Sayings, Lore

November - Quotes, Sayings, Lore  

Mabon, Autumn Equinox Celebrations: Lore, Quotes, Bibliography, Notes

Beautiful autumn colors on the trees in our neighborhood.  Wonderful.  

We have been improving our winter vegetable garden.  

Here are a few photos that Karen took in our back yard in Red Bluff.

 

Our Winter Garden

Autumn Equinox Celebration

Repost from 9/23/2011!

The Autumn Equinox occurs today, Friday, September 23, at 2:05 am (PDT).  Today is the first day of the Fall season.  In Red Bluff, California we are expecting a low today of 63F and a high of 102F.  

Today is one of the Eight High Days for celebration or feasting by Neopagans around the world, and the day is variously named: Welsh Mabon, Late Summer Harvest Feast, Autumnal Equinox, Alban Elfed, Harvest Home, Second Harvest Festival, Cornucopia, Feast of Avalon, Festival of Dionysus, Harvest Tide, Witch's Thanksgiving, Night of the Hunter, Apple Festival, High Mysteries of Demeter and Persephone, September 21st - 23rd, September Celebrations, NeoPagan Thanksgiving, Winter Finding (Teutonic), Equinozio di Autunno (Strega), Wine Festival, Winter Nights, Zhong Qiu Jie (Moon Festival).  Check out my webpage on the subject of Mabon.  

Autumn Equinox: The Enchantment of Mabon.   By Ellen Dugan.  Woodbury, Minnesota, Llewellyn Pubs., 2005.  Bibliography, index, 208 pages.  ISBN: 0738706248.  VSCL.  A very informative book on the subject.  

This morning, at 5:30 am, I lit a fire our Sacred Circle Garden.  I sipped Irish coffee (a tip of the hat to John Barleycorn's gift to us).  I meditated.  I opened the Circle and called the Quarters, made some offerings, and called on spirits for healing support.  The element of Water, Autumn, aging, intuition, Demeter, waning of the year, the Crone, feelings and emotions were the themes.  After sunrise, I read Druid and Taoist books and scriptures, and made some notes.  I did my daily Tarot reading.  I enjoyed playing Taijiquan and Qigong.  I listened to an MP3 recording from the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids during the day.  

I am a NeoPagan and borrow from modern Druid and ancient Taoist practices, legends and ideas to acknowledge and celebrate our many gifts from the Tao, Mother Earth, the Goddesses/Gods, our Ancestors, and the Nature Spirits.  I am mostly a solitary Druid/Taoist.  My temple is my home garden.  I have ample reasons for gratitude, respect, reverence, awe, and inspiration.  What I believe has more to do with mysticism, creativity, vitality, and beauty than any fixed set of religious doctrines or dogmas. 

 

Our Gushen Grove Sacred Circle Garden is used for outdoor fireplace activities, relaxing during the cooler hours of the day, and for meditation and rituals.  The blue pole, set in the west side of the garden, was the place for a Mabon altar.  The blue ceramic pot in front of the blue pole is filled to the brim with water.