"What Is...?" Wednesday

Mabon 

Autumn Equinox is the time of the descent of the Goddess into the Underworld. With her departure, we see the decline of nature and the coming of winter. This is a classic, ancient mythos, seen the Sumerian myth of Inanna and in the ancient Greek and Roman legends of Demeter and Persephone.


In September, we also bid farewell to the Harvest Lord who was slain at Lammas. He is the Green Man, seen as the cycle of nature in the plant kingdom. He is harvested and his seeds are planted into the Earth so that life may continue and be more abundant.


Mabon ("Great Son") is a Welsh god. He was a great hunter with a swift horse and a wonderful hound. He may have been a mythologized actual leader. He was stolen from his mother, Modron (Great Mother),when he was three nights old,but was eventually rescued by King Arthur (other legends say he was rescued by the Blackbird, the Stag, the Owl, the Eagle, and the Salmon). 


All along, however, Mabon has been dwelling, a happy captive, in Modron's magickal Otherworld -- Madron's womb. Only in this way can he be reborn. Mabon's light has been drawn into the Earth, gathering strength and wisdom enough to become a new seed. In this sense, Mabon is the masculine counterpart of Persephone -- the male fertilizing principle seasonally withdrawn. Modron corresponds with Demeter.


From the moment of the September Equinox, the Sun's strength diminishes, until the moment of Winter Solstice in December, when the Sun grows stronger and the days once again become longer than the nights.


Symbols celebrating the season include various types of gourd and melons. Stalk can be tied together symbolizing the Harvest Lord and then set in a circle of gourds. A besom can be constructed to symbolize the polarity of male and female. The Harvest Lord is often symbolized by a straw man, whose sacrificial body is burned and its ashes scattered upon the earth. The Harvest Queen, or Kern Baby, is made from the last sheaf of the harvest and bundled by the reapers who proclaim, "We have the Kern!" The sheaf is dressed in a white frock decorated with colorful ribbons depicting spring, and then hung upon a pole (a phallic fertility symbol). In Scotland, the last sheaf of harvest is called the Maiden, and must be cut by the youngest female in attendance.

The Four Fire Festivals

When speaking about the four seasons, I like to use my pagan view of them because it's my opinion (and only my opinion I remind you) that these were the original versions of spring, summer, fall and winter that we recognize today. What follows is the Celtic view of of these seasons or "fire festivals."

The four fire festivals marked the turning of the seasons. Two of the fire festivals, Samhain and Beltane, were considered to be male, and Imbolc and Lughnasadh were female. Each was celebrated for three days - before, during and after the official day of observance.

~Imbolc, which literally means "in milk", traditionally has marked the lactation period of ewes and cows. Ewes are unable to produce milk until after they bear their young, which occurs at this time. Since milk was very important to the basic survival of the tribes, this was a time of great joy. It meant that the end of a long winter was in sight, and green pastures were only a few months away. It's significance was placed upon the Light of fire and at Imbolc, Brighid was pregnant with the seed of the Sun. She was ripe with the promise of new life, as the seeds of the earth deep within its soil begin to awaken at this time, ripe with the promise of Spring, new life for the planet. Thus Imbolc was a time of awakening, promise and hope for the coming spring.


~Beltane, was a celebration of the return of life and fertility to the world, and was celebrated on or around April 30. It is sometimes referred to as Cetsamhain which means "opposite Samhain." Beltane was the last of the three spring fertility festivals, and the second major Celtic festival. Beltane, and its counterpart Samhain, divide the year into its two primary seasons, Winter and Summer. Beltane joyfully heralded the arrival of Summer in its full glory. It was believed that if you bathed in the dew of Beltane morn, your beauty would flourish throughout the year

~Lughnasadh marked the beginning of the harvest season, and the decline of Summer into Winter. Traditionally called Lammas from the Saxon word Hlaf-mass, the Feast of Bread, festivities and rituals typically centered around the assurance of a bountiful harvest season and the celebration of the harvest cycle. A bountiful harvest ensured the safe passage of the tribe through the upcoming winter months. The gathering of bilberries was an ancient practice that symbolized the success of the Lughnasadh rituals. If the bilberries were bountiful, it was believed that there would also be a plentiful harvest.

~Our modern celebration of Halloween is a descendant of the ancient Celtic festival called "Samhain" meaning Summer's End. Samhain was the first day of winter, and the end of one pastoral year. It was the time when the night became longer than the day, the last apples were picked, and the year began again with its dark winter half. Also called Samhiunn or Hallowe'en, this festival is sometimes called Trinoux Samonia or "Three Nights of the End of Summer."

Imbolc Is Coming...

Imbolc ( pronounced im-bolk or sometimes em-bulk) is a fire festival that marks the start of Spring, halfway between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox. It roughly corresponds to Groundhog Day, when tradition has it that if a groundhog sees its shadow outside the burrow at dawn, there will be six more weeks of winter. My daughter Meaghan was born on February 2nd and this day is always just a little bit more special to my family. Imbolc is one of the four principal festivals, and the celebration signals the middle of the season of long nights and anticipates the upcoming season of light. Some people make corn maidens from corn and wheat and the maidens are dressed up and placed in a cradle known as a "Bride's Bed". A wand, usually tipped with an acorn or other large seed, is placed in the bed with the maiden which is generally kept year round as a symbol of fertility. Depending on your particular path or tradition, there are many different ways you can celebrate Imbolc. Some people focus on the Celtic goddess Brighid, in her many aspects as a deity of fire and fertility, others focus their rituals more towards the cycles of the season, and agricultural events such as preparing the soil and planting times. I like to do my version of "spring cleaning" and give my house a blessing as well as a bit of scrubbing and involve my children in a few arts and crafts followed by a special dinner which is always a great time together as a family.