In September, here is the time of the autumn equinox, called Mabon. It is the first of the festivities of darkness, where the god prepares to descend into the afterlife where he will reign as lord of shadows.
One of the characteristic symbol of this holiday is the passage from life to death.
The holiday of the equinox is halfway between the two solstices, so another symbol associated with this holiday is balance, right now the light and darkness are in perfect balance.
This is the period in which the production cycle ends, in fact the trees begin to lose their yellow leaves that fall, the animals begin to stock up for the winter.
It is time to savour the harvest, time to view what we have collected from the previous sowing. It's time for wine.
This is the right time to start to search a new level of awareness, inside: we travel within ourselves trying, entering the time of darkness, to understand what are the mysteries of transformation through death.
Moon: Wine Moon, Harvest Moon, Song Moon, Pawing Deer Moon, Harvest Moon, Acorn Moon, Rice Moon, Mulberry Moon, Freshness Moon
Symbols: wine, grapes, chestnuts, dry leaves, pine cones, cornucopia
Divinity: Demeter, Persephone and the gods of the collection
Colors: brown, orange, yellow, gray, black
Food, drinks, etc: wine, grapes, chestnuts and seasonal fruit
Herbs: wheat, vine and oak leaves
Trees: Apple trees, hazelnuts, larch, laurel
Frankincense: myrrh, pine, sage, hibiscus and rose petals
Stones: chrysolite, olivine, citrine
Candles: look colors
Animals: swan (represents the immortality of the soul and accompanies the afterlife)
What to do during this day: try to find balance and rediscover the mysteries surrounding death. We reap our fruits, what we sowed on this date will be reaped. Leave old projects aside and try to relax the mind and body, let's reflect.
Bags or rites of protection for the new season.
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Activities:
- take a basket, collect some dry leaves and pine cones ... put the herbs inside for protection and place the basket near the entrance of your house, it will protect you. (if you want, you can make smaller ones to give away as gifts)
- try to savor the change of season by taking long walks, look at the colors, feel the air, everything
- take a picture that immortalizes the change, write behind it your bad habits, burn everything and bury the ashes
- take some time to take a nice journey within yourself to rediscover yourself
- have a nice mabon dinner with a lot of wine, seasonal fruits and a nice apple dessert
- if you have children, take them to play among the leaves
- suitable holiday to collect branches to make wands
- take two apples, break them in half so you can see the pentacle inside, if you have a garden, bury them in the 4 cardinal points for protection
- have dinner with your friends
- put some crumbled leaves in your bags
- create a beautiful wreath with ears of corn and pine cones to be used as a candle holder
- create a nice basket of fresh fruit and pine cones
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How to decorate the altar:
- Yellow, brown, orange tablecloth, a color of autumn
- Take a picture of the autumn landscape and place it on the altar
- Collect pine cones, ears of corn and apples and place them on the altar
- Candles in brown, yellow, orange, etc.
- Pine incense
- Pine cones and apples should not be missing, as well as freshly fallen leaves
- Inside your cauldron, insert pine cones, chestnuts or chestnut hedgehogs, leaves and herbs suitable for this holiday
- Do a little ritual for protection
I hope these information can help you enjoy the new sabbat, leave comments below if you have any and... Happy Mabon witches!!!