Open Be Our Hands to All – Blessed Mabon, Happy Equinox

Hail! Journeyer of the Heavens,
Queen of Brightness, King of Beauty!
Gifts of gladness richly bringing,
Autumn sheaves and red leaves’ fall.
Generous be the heart within us,
Open be our hands to all,
Justice to be in equal measure,
Harvest thankfulness our call.
Greeting to the Autumn Equinox
by Caitlín Matthews, A Celtic Devotional

Blessed Mabon! Happy Equinox!

Hail and welcome on this celebration day of the great turning!

This afternoon at 2:19pm, Eastern Daylight time, the Sun moves into the sign of Libra (in tropical astrology). She shines directly towards the Earth’s equator because for this brief moment, neither the Northern or Southern Hemisphere is tilted away from Her brilliance.

That means that today is the Equinox, taken from the Latin for “equal night.” It is the Autumnal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, and the Spring equinox below the equator.

For a brief day or so, light and dark are in balance. But from this day on, until March, in the northern lands, the night will outlast the daylight hours.

With the diminishing sunlight hours, we move from the seasons of planting and growth to the time of harvest and rest. This is the seasonal transition for the Northern Hemisphere from warmth into cold.

Today, we Witches and Pagans celebrate the Sabbat of the second harvest, the midpoint of the harvest season.

With urgency now, we in the north gather in the remaining bounty of Summer, and prepare for Winter. The final harvest at Samhain is only six weeks away.

And below the equator, our friends are looking for signs of Spring, as their daylight hours will now stretch beyond the nighttime hours. And in perfect timing with the New Moon this year, they will be preparing to plant seeds of real and metaphorical crops for their fertile season.

Let us wish them a most merry Ostara today!

Traditions of Mabon

Among Earth-spirituality practitioners, this date may be known as the Witches’ Thanksgiving, Second Harvest, Harvest Home, or Mabon, which was a name given to it in the 20th century by Wiccan leader Aiden Kelly. Some later lore imagines this may be in honor of Queen Mab of the Faeries, or maybe the Celtic heroine Queen Maeve.

But the name Mabon actually has links to the Mabinogion, the ancient stories of Gods and Humans in Welsh mythology.

The tales of the Mabon are the “tales of the hero.” They derive this meaning from “mabon” or “meibon” — meaning a young man or youth. It is also the name of the God named Mabon ap Modron (Mabon in Welsh means “son”). So this is a reference to the son of the Welsh Goddess Madron. She is the Divine Mother, and He is, simply, the Divine Son.

Although the Celts did not call the Autumn Equinox by the name Mabon, it seems to me that the invention of this newer adaptation is in keeping with the fine ancient Celtic practice of adopting festivals, myths, and Deities from other cultures.

In addition, many Druid traditions know this festival as Alban Elfed, “Light of the Sea.” This is beautifully apropos (as Druidry always is), since we are bidding farewell to the season of Summer, South, and the element of Fire, and welcoming in the quarter of the year defined by Sunset, West, and the element of Water.

By whatever name you wish to call it, may its energies of Water be gently, steadily given in the parched regions of our beloved Earth that are suffering catastrophic drought and fires, yet without the flooding rains and storms, either, that have been so destructive in recent years.

At this time, the Mother Goddess of the Harvest becomes the Old One, the wise grandmother who teaches us to rest after our labors. We also honor the Goddess Demeter, who presides over all growing things, and Her daughter Persephone, who becomes Queen of the Underworld now.

As Persephone descends into the Underworld, Demeter covers her face, and darkness descends, with killing frosts and bare landscapes ahead, until Persephone returns at Ostara.

Other harvest deities are celebrated, too, including Dionysus, also known as Bacchus, who is the beloved God of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre.

The Balance

Everything in Nature is constantly giving to and receiving from everything else. Consider, however, that balance is almost never a 50-50 equality.

Only at Spring and Autumn Equinox, only two days of the year, are light and dark exactly equal. A fifty-fifty equality is not necessarily the ideal, nor is it the natural way of things. In fact, it seems to me such a notion is a simplistic concept that can bear bitter fruit, like “an eye for an eye.”

I encounter so many well-meaning people struggling to manage their lives, their families, their work, their passions, their leisure, so they can be “in balance.” Yet — no surprise — this is a rare, temporary exception, and nearly impossible to even briefly achieve, much less maintain.

But a harmonious give and take is the natural way. This can be true in our lives as well, if we would only have the patience and perspective.

Giving Thanks — Paying It Forward

As you and I surely know, there are blessings that our loved ones and Life Herself have given us that we can never repay equally, starting with the gift of our very being. This legacy is given, not just from our mothers and fathers, but from thousands of ancestors reaching back to the dawn of Time.

So it is right and just that we give thanks, and be grateful for all we have been given. Autumn is the time when our thoughts turn to our ancestors of blood and spirit, for the veil that separates our worlds thins. Thus, let us give them honor, and call upon them to aid us at this crossroads time.

We may repay them in our rites with tributes, libations, and remembrances, but perhaps even more so, by paying our thankfulness forward by our deeds and how we live.

This day, especially, let us think more soberly and then act with more courage on behalf of the generations to come. For there has never been a time so dangerous and potentially destructive. Not only is our human family in peril, but the future is grave for all the living beings of our beloved Grandmother Gaia.

Let this sabbat call to the hearts of each one of us, to act with fierce wisdom and radical kindness. Open may our hands be to all.

As we gather in all the gifts and blessings of the Goddess on this holy day, let us remember to give something back, to make an offering, and to express our gratitude by doing good for others at every opportunity.

This year especially, let us give extra care to those who tend the land, who put the food on our tables, and who have toiled to make our lives healthful and free.

Take this time to look back at all the things and people we have to be thankful for. It is also an opportunity to take stock of ourselves, and see how much we have grown and changed throughout this difficult year. Looking back on your Springtime hopes and plans, how would you assess your “harvests?”

Warmest Wishes

To you and all your beloveds, I wish splendid fruition of those qualities and blessings that nurture what is best and most precious to you. May you reap sweet abundance and goodness of every kind. And may your rites be rich, magical, and divine.

May you never hunger. May you never thirst.