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.
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.
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.
Well, the midautumn festival has passed here in Taiwan. We did our own mooncakes (Chinese versions are heavy on pork lard, rather unhealthy), got some really nice and seedless pamellos and watched the fullmoon on our early hrs walk with our little German snowhite schnauzer. It was a nice last free day, before university starts here, but we also had some annoyances: burning of ghost money and fireworks for hrs, although we have already modern environmet protection laws. Still, rural Taiwanese are very supersticious and heat up the atmosphere by any means possible, lol!
ReplyDeleteWe get busy in the garden now, hope you do fine, enjoy your harvest!
Hermann
Hermann,
ReplyDeleteNice to hear from you. Mooncakes, walking, dogs, and gardening - a nice combination.
I have not purchased fireworks in decades, and also don't like the smoke, sound and smell of them. I don't light up my fireplace often. Where I live in Northern California is pretty much smog free and I hope it stays that way.
Our garden harvest in September is substantial and keeps us busy.
Cheers,
Mike