Good Evening,
Tomorrow, Saturday September 22nd, we all get to experience Mabon also know as the Fall or Autumnal Equinox. I say experience rather than celebrate because the Equinoxes like the Solstices happen whether we celebrate them or not!
What's going to happen tomorrow is a natural event that happens twice a year. The daylight hours and hours of darkness will be of equal length, that is, 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness.
In the springtime when this happens, each day afterwards, the daylight hours get slightly longer until we reach the peak or zenith of daylight hours on the Summer Solstice around June 21st. When the Equinox happens in the fall the opposite happens, which is, we will get slightly more darkness each day until we reach the longest night, shortest day of the year around December 21st which we call the Winter Solstice.
This division of daylight, nighttime hours made a pretty big deal back when we were all farmers and our world was largely agricultural. The pagan Wheel Of The Year that modern pagans still follow is actually an ancient agricultural calendar created by the ancient Celtic peoples of ancient Europe.
Today, with modern electrical lighting, man created heat sources, refrigeration and such we don't follow the times of the year as precisely as the ancients did. We simply don't need to. We have food sources available year round in our modern supermarkets, and we create a summer like atmosphere indoors year round. Although in New England we follow the seasons primarily because they happen and affect us whether we want them to or not! Some people like winter, some of us do not. But in Southern New England 'Winter Happens'!
For modern pagans, few of us need to harvest the grains from the fields to survive the winter, and thankfully so! But we can still recognize the Sabbat of Mabon by how it metaphorically manifests in our lives. This is what I mean. What 'seeds' have you planted in the last year? By seeds I mean, what ideas, concepts, promises and goals have you made or set down for yourself? Many in our culture typically do this around New Year's Eve and call them New Year's resolutions. As pagans many of us do this same thing around the Sabbats of Imbolc and Ostara. Following the agricultural theme, I call these ideas 'seeds' that we are to plant, nurture, tend, weed and eventually harvest when they come to full growth.
If you had 'planted your seeds' earlier in the year, how are the ideas you had for yourself coming along? Have you been nurturing your concepts, doing what needs to be done to bring them to fruition so that they can be harvested? If not, no worries, the Wheel Of The Year is a yearly calendar and new seeds or the same seeds can be re-planted and worked on again for next year. Next year is right around the corner, you know.
For me, I planted seeds of happiness, satisfaction and love. These are concepts I always feel I can have more of in my life and tomorrow I plan on 'harvesting' those feelings by celebrating with like-minded folks and friends and enjoying the bounty of the harvest with a Mabon feast and then socializing with others as some walk the Labyrinth. For me the celebration of each Sabbat brings a deep, spiritual satisfaction and being with others of like mind brings me happiness. Now is also a good time to start thinking about what 'seeds' we may wish to plant in just a few months time.
I wish you a bountiful, happy and healthy Mabon Sabbat!
Peace and Happiness
© 2010-2012 Faith M. McCann. Portions of this blog posting may include materials from my book “Enchantments School for the Magickal Arts First Year Magickal Studies.” For more information, see www.enchantmentsschool.com or go to the title of tonight's discussion and click, it will link you to my school's website. Please note that the copying and/or further distribution of this work without express written permission is prohibited.
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