8 Ways to Celebrate Mabon

Mabon or the Autumnal Equinox is a Pagan holiday marking the ‘second harvest’, or the mid-harvest season. Celebrated on or around the official start of fall, this is a time of balance, gratitude and reflection. Whether you are a solitary practitioner, celebrating with your family or part of a coven, here are 8 ways to celebrate Mabon this autumn.

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Also referred to as the Autumnal Equinox or the ‘Harvest Festival’, Mabon is a time in which we are given the opportunity to celebrate the success of our hard work, or ‘reap what we sow’ as many will say. For the farming community, which has a very significant impact on many Pagan rituals and ceremonies, it was at this time that many crops were ready to be harvested, blessing families and communities with a solid supply of food for the colder, winter months.

This is also the time of year in which we find ourselves directly in between the longest and shortest days of the year, a time where light and dark are equal before we move into the shorter days and longer nights ahead. For the Pagan community, the sun and moon are a powerful part of their belief system. Depending on your individual spiritual path, this may be a time to focus specifically on the God and Goddess as are often represented by the sun and moon, or the energies that are associated with both the sun and moon and the presence of light and dark. Whichever aspects resonate most with you, this is going to be an important underlying part of your Mabon celebrations.

Whether you are newer to the Pagan community and looking for some suggestions to celebrate Mabon in a way that fits into your life or someone who has been celebrating for many years and are simply looking for some new ideas, I’ve got you covered!

Check Out These 8 Different Ways To Celebrate Mabon This Autumn:

#1 – Set Up and Decorate Your Mabon Altar

For many Pagans, your Altar is an important part of your spiritual path. This is used for many different purposes; It is a place for worship or prayer, an energy-filled location to cast spells or a sacred place where you can conduct a number of ceremonies. The alter traditionally contains symbols of the 4 classical elements – Earth, Air, Fire and Water. Depending on your beliefs, they may also include other elements including a goddess candle, a book of shadows or something to represent a specific God or Goddess (or multiple Gods or Goddesses) that you choose to worship.

This is where many Pagans will keep their ritual or spell casting tools for regular use, but many will also decorate their altar for specific seasons or ceremonies. For Mabon, you may choose to include colours associated with the autumn season such as yellows, reds, oranges and browns. Other common additions for Mabon include symbols of the harvest season including corn, wheat, apples, and seasonal vegetables.

#2 – Engage in a Mabon Balance Meditation

During the Autumn Equinox, the periods of light and dark will come into balance with one another for this short period of time. As such, it is believed that the energy is ideal at this time to also seek balance within our own lives. If you have been feeling ‘off’ in any way (spiritually, emotionally, mentally, etc.), this is a great opportunity to harness this energy of balance and completeness.

The ideal location for a Mabon Balance Meditation would be some that also promotes this energy. You should try to avoid cluttered places or areas that are associated with stress or confusion in our life. Alternatively, you could take this as the opportunity to declutter an area of your home, welcoming this feeling of balance and completeness into your life. The meditation uses 2 candles to represent the light and dark, a black candle and a white candle.

Light both candles before entering into the mindset of meditation. Closing your eyes and breathing slowly, focus on the things in your life that are preventing you from feeling balanced, the things that you need to change. This may include toxic relationships, emotional baggage or work-related stress among other things. Picture these negative energies leaving your life, releasing them and freeing yourself from their toxic impact. At this time, turn your focus to the positive aspects in your life including healthy relationships, your goals and dreams and the aspects of your life that bring you true happiness. Allow yourself to acknowledge that for each struggle or negative experience in life, there is a positive experience just over the horizon. When you are finished meditating, don’t simply let this all go. Remember the important lesson you have embraced here and apply it to your life moving forward.

#3 – Spend Time Outdoors

As Mabon is a time of celebrating the harvest and all that we have been blessed with, what better time to get out and reconnect with the nature around us? Rather than focusing solely on rituals and feasts indoors, why not head back outside and allow yourself to truly appreciate all that the environment has provided us?

There are many ways that you can do this depending on the time you have or the level of commitment you want to give to reconnecting with nature at this time. For example, you could simply go for a walk through your local park or hit a local hiking trail on your own or with family. If you’re looking for something a little more in-depth, why not pack up a tent for a weekend camping or even allow yourself to sleep under the stars, weather permitting. This is a great way to celebrate the season if you have younger children in the family, teaching them the importance of respecting and appreciating the environment.

You can easily combine this option with many of the others included on this list, conducting meditations or rituals outdoors or hosting an outdoor feast. If you want to give back to the environment, bring a bag along on your hike and fill it up with any trash or waste you spot along the way. Take the time to notice and acknowledge any wildlife you encounter and the beautiful views you witness during this time.

#4 – Honour the Darkness

We will often focus on the balance of light and dark, or the fact that we must prepare for less daylight moving forward, but Mabon is also a great time to focus on the positive blessings that the darkness brings into our lives. After all, there can be no light in our lives if there wasn’t also darkness. What this looks like will differ significantly depending on your spiritual path. For example, if you worship the Dark Mother, your ceremonies will likely focus on this worship. However, if the Dark Mother is not a part of your spiritual journey, you may instead focus on the energy associated with darkness and its impact on your life.

There are many ways you can choose to honour the darkness such as a candle ritual, mediation or through a feast focusing on this aspect of your life. Whatever you choose, it is a time to consider not only the presence of darkness in the world around us but also on the darker aspects of your own soul. Are there negative feelings or emotions that you have been holding onto, allowing them to poison your life, that could be turned around and used in a positive way? This is the time! For example, were you overlooked for a promotion at work? This could be time to focus on improving your performance or provide you with the motivation to finally move forward with a job or career change that you have been considering. It’s time to find the blessings in the darkness! I assure you that they are there…

#5 – Celebrate and Cleans Your Home for the Coming Months

With the shift of light and dark in our lives and the changing of temperatures moving forward, the Autumn Equinox marks a time where we are likely going to be spending more time indoors moving forward. For this reason, it is an ideal time to focus on cleansing and preparing your home, finding balance within your personal sacred walls.

How do we do this? Start by going through and decluttering the home, removing unnecessary negative energy that clutter often brings. If there are any necessary home repairs outstanding, take the time to complete them now rather than leaving them undone. When your home has been physically cleaned, it’s time to move forward with cleansing the energy that you are allowing to take up residence here. This can be done through a candle ritual, by charging protection and healing crystals or by conducting a ritual smudging. Whatever it is, follow your heart and pay attention to which rituals speak to you.

#6 – Conduct A Gratitude Ritual

At a time where we are focused on acknowledging the benefits and accomplishments that we have been working so hard to attain (harvest time), we are in the perfect mindset to conduct and truly appreciate the value of a gratitude ritual. While these rituals can differ greatly from person to person depending on your spiritual path, I’m going to share one example with you today. Feel free to take and alter this to fit your own beliefs and needs – therein lies the true power of Paganism.

Begin by lighting a gold or green candle as these are the colours associated with abundance and wealth. To decide which, sit back for a moment and allow yourself to feel which speaks strongly to you. You can also surround yourself with symbols of the fall harvest and abundance such as a basket of apples or a cornucopia. You also want to include symbols of people or things in your life that you are truly thankful for. This includes pictures of loved ones, symbols of your career, your health, your home, etc. If you are celebrating as a group, each person should have and light their own candle, as well as come to the ceremony with symbols of gratitude from their own life specifically.

After lighting the candle, take a few minutes to simply meditate and focus on the overall concept of abundance and gratitude. Once you feel that you have freed your mind of any negative outside energy and entered a place of true gratitude, allow yourself to start listing the blessings in your life. If you are celebrating in a group, go around the circle allowing each person to share. Allow yourself to focus on these blessings and how fortunate you are. Also, if you find that one blessing leads you to another you hadn’t previously considered, keep your heart and your mind open to this! It’s a great chance to realize how blessed you really are!

When the ritual has completed, end it by thanking any God(s) or Goddess(es) that you worship. Then, take this ‘attitude of gratitude’ into your life as a whole. Take the time to focus on the reasons to feel grateful, especially in the most stressful moments of your life. If there is someone specific who has made a difference in your life, take the time to tell them what they mean to you. This may be your opportunity to bring happiness into their life as well. Pick up the phone or invite them out to coffee and let them know how much you appreciate them.

#7 – Hold A Food Drive or Volunteer At Your Local Food Bank

Along with the concept of being grateful for the blessings in our lives, we should also extend our blessings to others. This Mabon, why not take the opportunity to reach out to those who may be struggling in your own community? Sticking with the symbolism of the harvest, why not hold a food drive to collect non-perishable food items. If you are celebrating Mabon as a coven, come together to amplify your efforts and make a difference together. If you are a solo practitioner, don’t let that discourage you! Reach out to family and friends and explain what you are doing or hold a Mabon feast at your home asking those you invite to bring an item or two with them to donate that day.

If you are not in a position where you feel that you can give physically or financially, that’s also okay! We are all at different stages in our lives, but that isn’t going to prevent you from embracing the positive energy of this season. Instead, consider giving your time to a local food bank or soup kitchen.

#8 – Host A Mabon Feast

One of the most traditional ways of celebrating Mabon, this is a great time to bring friends and family together to celebrate as a community. This can be done where you are putting the meal together or potluck style, it doesn’t matter as long as you are all focusing on the blessings in your lives! You can symbolize the harvest by serving traditional dishes including corn, squash, apple dishes and grain products. As grapes and the vine are also signs of the harvest, wine is often served with the meal. Decorate your table by using colours associated with the season (reds, oranges, yellows and browns) or symbols of the harvest such as a cornucopia or seasonal root vegetables. During your feast, take time to go around the table and all share the blessings that you are grateful for.

BLESSED MABON!

Do you have any additional ways to celebrate Mabon or the Autumn Equinox that I failed to include in this list? If so, I’d love to hear them in the comments below!