Acbal's Moon: Mabon Activities and Correspondences

SOURCE

http://cronescottage2002.tripod.com/thecottageaugustmabon2002/id1.html

Symbolism of Mabon: The completion of the Harvest begun. Day and night are equal and the God prepares to leave His physical body and begin the great adventure into the unseen.

Symbols of Mabon: all harvest symbols, corn, autumn flowers, red poppies,nuts, grains, leaves, acorns, pine and cypress cones, oak sprigs, wreaths, vine, grapes, cornucopia, horns of plenty, burial cairns, apples, marigolds, harvested crops. wine, gourds

Colors : Orange, Dark Red, Yellow, Indigo, Maroon and Brown.

Goddesses: Modron(Welsh), Bona Dea, Harvest Dieties, Persephone, Demeter/Ceres, Morgan(Welsh- Cornish), Snake Woman(Aboriginal), Epona (Celtic-Gaulish), Pamona(Roman), the Muses(Greek).

Gods: Mabon, Modron(Welsh), Sky Father, John Barleycorn , the Wicker-Man, the Corn Man, Thoth(Egyptian), Hermes, Hotei(Japanese), Thor, Dionysus(Roman), Bacchus(Greek) and all wine Deities.

Tarot Cards: Judgment and The World

Altar Decorations: acorns, pinecones, autumn leaves, pomegranate, statue of the Triple Goddess in her Mother phase.

Mabon Herbs: Rue, yarrow, rosemary, marigold, sage, walnut leaves and husks, mistletoe, saffron, chamomile, almond leaves, passionflower, frankincense, rose hips, bittersweet, sunflower, wheat, oak leaves, dried apple or apple seeds.

Foods of Mabon: cornbread, wheat products, bread, grains, berries, nuts, grapes, acorns, seeds, dried fruits, corn, beans, squash, roots (ie onions, carrots, potatoes, etc), hops, apples, pomegranates, carrots, onions, potatoes, roast goose or mutton, wine, ale and ciders, breads, apples, pomegranates

Animals: dogs, wolves, stag, blackbird, owl, eagle, birds of prey, salmon & goat, Gnomes, Sphinx, Minotaur, Cyclops, Andamans and Gulons.

Element: water.

Incense : pine, sweetgrass, apple blossom, benzoin, myrrh, frankincense, jasmine, sage wood aloes, black pepper, patchouly, cinnamon, clove, oak moss

Mabon Stones : During Mabon, stones ruled by the Sun will help bring the Sun's energy to you.clear quartz, amber, peridot, diamond, gold, citrine, yellow topaz, cat's-eye, adventurine.

Customs: offerings to land, preparing for cold weather by bringing in harvest, cutting willow wands( Druidic), leaving apples upon burial cairns & graves as a token of honor, walks in forests, gather seed pods & dried plants, fermenting grapes to make wine,picking ripe produce, stalk bundling

Spellworkings of Mabon: Protection, prosperity, security, and self- confidence. Also those of harmony and balance. Taboos:It was considered unlucky to cut down the very last of the Harvest, and so was also left to stand in the field by some traditions.

Activities of Mabon:

1. Select the best of each vegetable, herb, fruit, nut, and other food you have harvested or purchased and give it back to Mother Earth with prayers of thanksgiving.

2. Hang dried ears of corn around your home in appreciation of the harvest season.

3. Do meditations and chanting as you store away food for the Winter.

4. Do a thanksgiving circle, offering thanks as you face each direction - - for home, finances, and physical health (North); for gifts of knowledge (East); for accomplishments in career and hobbies (South); for relationships (West); and for spiritual insights and messages (Center).

5. Decorate the table with colorful autumn leaves in a basket.

6. Display the fruits of the harvest - corn, gourds, nuts, grapes, apples - preferably in a cornucopia. Or decorate with wildflowers, acorns, nuts, berries, cocoons, anything that represents the harvest to you.

7. Like its sister equinox, halfway across the Wheel of the Year, the Autumn Equinox is a good occasion for a ritual feast.

8. Plan a meal that uses seasonal and symbolic fruits and vegetables. You can serve bread, squash, corn, apples, cider and wine.

9. Make some homemade wine or cordial gather and dry herbs, plants, seeds and seed pods. Make grapevine wreaths using dried bitter-sweet herb for protection. Use ribbons of gold and yellow to bring in the energy of the Sun, and decorate with sprigs of dried yarrowor cinnamon sticks.

10. Make a protection charm of hazelnuts (filberts) strung on red thread. Make a witch's broom.

11. Tie dried corn husks or herbs (broom, cedar, fennel, lavender, peppermint, rosemary) around a strong, relatively straight branch of your choice.

12. Make magic Apple Dolls Gifts of the Harvest can be used to make tools and emblems that will remind us of their bounty all year round.

13. Look for colored leaves. Collect fallen leaves and make a centerpiece or bouquet for your home. Save the leaves to burn in your Yule fire. Vist an apple orchard and, if possible, pick your own apples.

14. Hang apples on a tree near your home. Watch the birds and other small animals who will enjoy your gift. This is also the time for replacing your old broom with a new one. As the broom corn is ripe now, besom making is traditional and magickal this time of year.

15. Begin the festival with a vineyard or orchard harvest. You might check the farm lands in your area to see if there's an orchard or pumpkin patch that allows customers to harvest produce for themselves.

16. Traditionally Sabbat festivals begin at sun set on the eve of the Holiday. You can use the daytime hours of this holiday eve to prepare baskets for harvesting the next day. Baking a pumpkin pie (from scratch if possible) is a wonderful way to bring in the fragrance of the holiday season.

Herb of the Month

Frankincense

(from Book of Shadows: Journey of a Solitary Witch Blog )

This is an aromatic resin from any of the four main species of deciduous trees in the Boswellia genus. They come in the form of small bushes and trees of moderate size with compound leaves and grow in a wide variety of environments, though the most aromatic varieties come from more arid regions. The flowers are yellowish-white with five petals. The resin comes from cuts in the tree which allow the sap to bubble out and harden . This is done when they are about 8 to 10 years of age. It has been a valuable trade item for thousands of years and used in rituals for just as long.

Latin Name:
Boswellia Carterii

Folk Names: Olibanum, Olibanus, Olibans

Element: Fire

Gender: Masculine

Planet: The Sun

Deities: Ra, Baal

Magical Uses:

Frankincense is often added to other magical mixtures in order to increase their potency due to the powerful vibrations of energy that are released from it when it is burned. These intense energies drive away negative energies and evil so it has been used throughout the ages for purification and exorcism. With this in mind we can see that it also an excellent choice for preventative measures such as that of protection. The strong vibrations produced by frankincense make it an excellent choice in meditation incenses and also in mixtures used to promote spiritual growth as well as to induce visions.

Medicinal Uses:

The resin has long been used in the Ayurvedic medicine of India and the bark has been used in Africa to treat fever, gastrointestinal distress and rheumatism. Studies are currently under way to test the resin, and its chemical derivatives, for treating chronic inflammatory diseases and one study claims the incense may work similarly to a psychoactive drug to reduce depression and anxiety, a correlation to its magical uses that cannot be easily ignored.

Folklore:

The resin was once burned as an offering to the sun god Ra in ancient Egypt on a daily basis at sunrise. As many people know, this was one of two magical resins presented to Jesus in the story of his birth by the Magi or “wise men”, who were traditionally wizards from the east. It has also been in use by the Catholic church as an incense, probably for this reason. It is also used in the Jewish tradition. Its appearance in these stories, and its current use by the church, is obviously influenced by its extensive use for thousands of years before they were written.

Spell - A - Week

Blowing Darts

(from Gypsy Magic Blog)

This is a spell to break and remove all the bad energy, negativity, bad luck, hexes, and etc. that others have put on you, or that you have inadvertently collected or allowed.

You will need:

1 white candle
1 smudge stick OR 1 generous handful of dried sage leaves (not the powder)
1 lemon (lemon essential oil - or pure lemon juice will also work)
1 paper plate
black marker or pen
13 straight pins
1 black cloth - the size of a large handkerchief
1 egg
1 potato

Making the spell:

Gather your supplies
Get centered
Draw an "eye of protection" on the paper plate with the black marker or pen.
Cut the lemon in half and rub it briskly over the candle until the candle is coated with the juice, wipe your hands on the black cloth.
Now, light the candle.
Next light the smudge stick, OR if you are using dried sage, place the leaves into a fireproof container and light them so that they begin to smolder and smoke.

Once you have some good smoke, take the potato and submerge it in the smoke using a circular, counterclockwise motion.
When the potato seems well fumigated, set it down on the paper plate and cover it with the black cloth.
Insert the 13 stick pins through the cloth into the potato.
Crack the egg over the cloth covered pinned potato and let the egg slide off of it and onto the plate.
Blow on each stick pin and into the potato. As you do this, recite the incantation, saying it louder each time, until you feel the negative energy has left you and transferred into the potato.

The Incantation:

Thirteen pins in the poppet,
Hex be broken. Now I stop it.
Curse be over. Curse be done.
I succeed. I have won.
Bad luck stays within the black.
I am not under attack.
Curse be buried and destroyed.
My life it is now filled with joy!

Dispersing the bad energy:

Unwrap the cloth, being careful to keep the pins intact. If a pin does not come out with the cloth, but stays embedded in the potato, you'll have to re-do the spell.

This is important. The potato and the black cloth with the pins in it must be disposed of separately, far from your home. The paper plate should be burned, along with whatever remains of the sage. It's also important to dispose of the lemon (if you used one) and the shell from the egg.

Ideally, the black cloth with the pins will be dropped at a crossroads NOT near your home; the paper plate and the sage burned - their ashes scattered to the four winds; and the potato tossed into a river or sent out with the tide.

Alternatively, the items could be buried near a crossroads (just be sure that the potato and the black cloth are buried separately and at a good distance from one another). Do not bury any of the items in your own back yard!