Mabon, the Fall Equinox

Mabon, or the Autumn equinox, has just passed and I can feel the change in the air. The nights are growing darker, longer. The days are crisper and people are layering up in the streets. I love it so much, feeling the seasons change as the wheel of the year turns slowly and constantly.

Mabon is, as all the wiccan holidays, a time of reflection. It’s time to reflect on what has passed – it is after all a harvest festival. It’s also a time of balance, and re-addressing priorities. In some ways one can gain a momentum from equinox to equinox a little like the yin and yang changing, ever circling.

I had just finished my monthly bleeding at the equinox, and I wondered how this might add a deeper meaning to the mabon festival. I considered my blood-offering and thought of how differently it had felt – again.

It seems to me that as I become more mature and more secure in my womanhood, each cycle is both familiar and new. It is as if I must learn something new each time, bring something else into focus with each menstruation.

Perhaps because I know how to take care of myself during these intense days, my being opens up to let other processes flow. They are artistic, emotional, deeply intuitive and profoundly spiritual.

My blood marks the time for me in this way, and it is becoming my most important calendar. Of course I keep track of meetings and appointments, but for my own personal development I need only pay attention to my blood.

And here it is, like a watershed, happening alongside Mabon and the start of yet another season. Universal love manifests in so many ways, I’ve made new friends and learned a deeper compassion since last time.

I’ve chosen my path and taken the first steps along a new, undiscovered road. And I’ve got women, wise and wonderful women, to guide and support me along the way. Together we are the Goddess, we share and love in sisterhood and experience. As I looked out into the Autumn darkness tonight I could sense the divine feminine all around in that dark blue velvet blanket.

As Mabon has passed I again am prompted to move, to do, to act. Mabon and a few days before and after are usually quiet and contemplative days for me, as if the world really stands still for a little while. And now with a new vigour I go into the russet leaves and misty grey rain, ready for whatever adventures are ahead.

The next quarter will be introspective and thoughtful, and I will have long evenings to read, to bake delightful cakes and pies and to be with my love and with family and my friends. One friend wants to gather nuts, another picks mushrooms. One friend brought me apples and another gave me some berries.

Now is the time to savour the harvest, be it friendships or crops from hedgerow or forest. Long may the evenings be, until the solstice when yet another momentous change takes place and the days grow longer and lighter again.

Finding the community of Cycle Harmony has made a huge difference to me. I am delighted to be writing to you from the Red Tent and hope to share thoughts and experiences you recognise, or find useful to ponder upon. I look forward to working with you all in exploring what it is to be women, and hope to hear from you. ~ Vild