To me the Equinoxes Ostara and Mabon are particularly Pagan in their symbolism even though they have long been the least commonly celebrated of our contemporary sacred days. Solstices were far easier to calculate and symbolized the great dualities of embodiment: life and death, light and dark. Their history is ancient and world wide, at least out of the tropics. Our four Cross Quarter Sabbats are geared to harvest cycles, and so also quite venerable. The Equinoxes are relative newcomers.
But very appropriate ones. Along with Ostara, the Spring Equinox, Mabon exemplifies balance, a balance that is always dynamic. After Mabon the balance will tip from the predominance of light to the growing presence of darkness, from warmth to cold, from growth to dormancy. Throughout much of the US signs of this shift are evident to the careful observer, from the declining vitality of our gardens, flowers that have ceased their bloom, and become seeds, the touches of color just beginning to appear on some impatient leaves, and the advent of colder mornings. But there are still some weeks of growth and harvest ahead of us here in Sonoma County, as well as in many other parts of the country.
And so when we meet in ritual tonight our altar will be covered with the fruits of the season. We will ask the Gods to come and bless them. Afterwards we will eat some of this bounty while taking the rest home. But we will also focus on balance.
For the Equinox balance between the eternally dancing dualities of life reigns and is honored. Neither predominates. And so, for our ritual tonight we will focus on what needs greater balance in our lives, as well as gratitude for the fruits of this summer. For me at least one balance, returning after too long an absence, is to work with the energies and spirits of the land along with all this head tripping.
What needs more balance in your life? If you can, work that need into your ritual, either as a group or as a solitary.
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I would love to have posted on Mabon earlier, but this month has been too discombobulated. No sooner than I began to finally feel moved in than a bag containing my checkbook, date book, and David Abram’s Becoming Animal was stolen. That led to a long time at the bank and missing various things I’d written down.
(I hope the thief, or someone else, reads the book. I’d almost finished, and it is awesome. I’ve bought another but my review will have to wait till I’ve finished. The good dimension of this is that I am rereading much of it to get to where I was. )
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