I love holidays. While celebrating sabbats isn’t a requirement in witchcraft, partaking in the festivities is a great way to connect with the deities, Mother Earth, or whoever you are spiritually close with. While preparing for festivities, whether decorating the altar or cooking up a feast, I like to think of all the reasons I’m so grateful to Mother Earth and all the bounty she provides (the good food and drinks don’t hurt, of course!).
Mabon is one of the eight sabbats celebrated annually in modern pagan traditions like Wicca. Also known as the autumn equinox, Mabon typically falls around September 21st in the northern hemisphere. This sabbat marks the halfway point between the summer and winter solstices and signifies the beginning of astronomical autumn.
The themes of Mabon center around the second harvest, gratitude, balance, and preparation for winter. Agriculturally, it is a time when crops like apples, squash, grapes, and nuts are ready to be gathered. Ritually, covens and solitaries reflect on the blessings of the waxing year and seek to find equilibrium as the seasons shift. Deities associated with Mabon include wine gods like Dionysus, agriculture goddesses like Demeter, and wild hunt leaders like Odin.
Traditional activities for Mabon involve picking seasonal produce and preparing feasts incorporating autumnal foods. Rituals often focus on releasing what is no longer needed as the days grow shorter. Common magical workings align with prosperity, abundance, and protection. Decorations feature autumn leaves, gourds, vines, and fruits in warm shades of red, orange, brown, and gold.
For modern pagans today, Mabon is a time to commune with nature's cycles of change. As the harvest unfolds under the darkening skies, this sabbat provides perspective on what we have manifested this year and all we have to be grateful for. Mabon offers an important moment of tranquility to celebrate our passions and find balance before winter arrives.
Ways to celebrate Mabon
Here are some ideas for celebrating Mabon, the autumn equinox sabbat:
• Have an autumn feast - Cook up seasonal produce and comfort foods like apples, squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, turkey, nuts, cranberries, cornbread, and spices like cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.
• Make a corn dolly - This traditional harvest doll can be made from dried corn husks as a decoration or offering to honor the change of seasons.
• Go foraging - Forage for autumn edibles like berries, mushrooms, fallen leaves, acorns, pinecones, and sumac. Offer your finds on a nature altar.
• Press apples or grapes - Press fresh apples or grapes to make cider or wine for libations. Infuse with spices for added flavor.
• Create a spell jar - Make a spell jar filled with herbs, stones and oils focused on a goal like prosperity, protection or balance to energize on Mabon.
• Honor the elderly - Connect with elders in your community and show gratitude for their wisdom. Reflect on what you have learned from them.
• Meditate on change - Find equanimity through meditation on nature's impermanence and the cycle of seasons. Release what no longer serves you.
• Decorate an altar - Incorporate seasonal elements like gourds, acorns, pine cones, fallen leaves, grapes, apples, Indian corn, wheat. Use autumn colors.
• Do divinations - Reflect on your harvest so far this year by doing Tarot readings, rune casts, pendulum work, or tea leaf readings. Set new goals.
Best rituals and spells for Mabon
Here are some suggested spells and rituals to try for Mabon, the autumn equinox sabbat:
• A ritual to honor the cycle of the seasons. Decorate your altar with fall items like leaves, acorns, and apples. Light a candle and meditate on change and balance.
• A spell for prosperity. Charge a green or gold candle with your intention. Anoint it with cinnamon and patchouli oil. Burn it while visualizing growing abundance.
• A spell to banish negative energy. Write down what you want to release on paper. Toss the paper into your fireplace or cauldron while voicing your intention.
• A ritual of gratitude. Create an altar with fall fruits, breads, and a chalice of wine or cider. Offer thanks before feasting with loved ones.
• A spell to bring balance. Tie an equal-armed cross suncatcher to a tree outside while focusing on harmony. Let it catch and reflect light.
• An equinox ritual. Decorate a table with a fall-colored cloth, wheat, grapes, sunflowers, and crystals. Place grapes and wheat crackers as offerings while doing chants or meditation.
• A spell for protection. Add basil, black pepper, cinnamon, and sea salt to a jar. Seal it with red wax while charging it with protective energy. Keep near your home's entrance.
• A vision ritual. Gaze at a candle flame while envisioning your goals for the coming seasons. Write them on paper and keep somewhere you'll see it.
Adapt these suggestions based on your own intuitive practice. Have a blessed and abundant Mabon!
Best recipes for Mabon
Here are some tasty recipe ideas to celebrate Mabon and the autumn harvest:
• Apple cider - Fresh pressed apple cider is a quintessential drink for Mabon. Add cinnamon sticks or cloves for extra flavor.
• Cranberry sauce - Make a spiced cranberry sauce with oranges and ginger to pair with turkey or chicken dishes.
• Acorn squash soup - Roast acorn squash and puree with onions, garlic, broth and cream for a savory, velvety soup.
• Nutty wild rice salad - Toss wild rice with walnuts, cranberries, feta, and a maple vinaigrette dressing.
• Caramel apple bread - Bake a bread with apple chunks and swirl caramel sauce on top for a sweet treat.
• Quinoa pumpkin muffins - Bake fluffy quinoa muffins with canned pumpkin, warm spices and chocolate chips.
• Autumn pizza - Top a veggie pizza with sliced apples, figs, prosciutto, arugula and a drizzle of honey.
• Pear galette - Make an easy free-form galette with pears, cranberry compote, thyme and brie wrapped in a flaky crust.
• Ginger molasses cookies - Chewy cookies with molasses, ginger, cinnamon and black pepper are perfect with tea by the fire.
• Mulled wine - Gently mull red wine with orange slices, cinnamon sticks, cloves and maple syrup on the stovetop.
Have fun cooking up the bounty of autumn! These harvest-inspired dishes align perfectly with the Mabon sabbat.
Best ways to decorate an altar for Mabon
Here are some ideas for decorating a Mabon altar to celebrate the autumn equinox sabbat:
• Seasonal produce - Incorporate fall fruits and veggies like apples, pears, squash, grapes, nuts, corn, etc. These represent the harvest.
• Leaves and plants - Display colorful fallen leaves, acorns, pinecones, branches, dried flowers or wheat stalks to reflect nature's cycles.
• Candles - Orange, yellow, red and brown candles symbolize the turning of the Wheel of the Year.
• Statues or imagery - Include deity figures or Wiccan symbols like the Green Man, Triple Goddess, Horned God, etc. that align with Mabon.
• Incense - Burn earthy, aromatic incense like sandalwood, myrrh, sage, cinnamon or clove.
• Crystals - Stones associated with balance like amethyst, citrine, and jasper pair nicely with the equinox energies.
• Wine or cider - Offer a chalice of wine or fresh apple cider as a libation. Infuse it with spice.
• Corn dolly - Create a harvest doll from dried corn husks or wheat to honor the seasons.
• Besom/broom - Display a besom or broom decorated with fall ribbons to symbolize clearing out the old.
• Colors - Drape the altar with fabrics in autumn hues like burgundy, orange, gold, brown, plum, olive green, etc.
Decorate your Mabon altar as elaborately or simply as you like! These are just some ideas to bring the spirit of autumn into your celebration.
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