Mabon: The Autumn Equinox

Mabon: The Autumn Equinox

Mabon marks the end of the second harvest, a time when the majority of crops are gathered. Nuts, apples, and grapes — all autumn crops — are the featured items at this Sabbat feast. Berries, which began to ripen in summer, are ready now to be made into jam, jellies, and wines. In many traditions there is a taboo against eating autumn berries after Mabon unless they were made into wine.

The Norse often spent the day and night before Mabon fasting and praying for forgiveness for transgressions. Divinations and visions were done to ascertain whether one's life in the last year had been pleasing to the deities.

Wines of Mabon

In Scotland and Wales, Mabon wines were poured onto the ground to honor the aging Goddess as she moved swiftly into her Crone aspect. It was also a symbolic sacrifice, as in the spilling of blood, so that the God might live until Samhain.

Wines from the autumn grape harvest have always figured prominently in pagan harvest rites. Drunken orgies were common practice at the equinox in Germanic lands and in Rome and Greece.

The German Oktoberfest celebrations were once festivals for the wine harvest, particularly in Bavaria, where the equinox was a major Sabbat. Celtic lands were not as well known for their grape industry, but what they developed was a heather wine made from the native flowering plant — a tribute to the bounty of nature and very appropriate for Mabon. Blackberry wines were another Celtic specialty, especially in Ireland, where the berry was sacred to the goddess Brigid.

Mabon Symbols & Traditions

The grapevine wreath is a powerful Mabon symbol. Vines also figure heavily in Mabon symbolism — they are used as decorations for altars, as raw material for the making of wreaths, and as head crowns for Mabon worshippers. Unadorned grapevine wreaths came to symbolize Mabon in many parts of Europe. The vine was a symbol of the season and its emptiness represented a completed harvest.

One large, sturdy grapevine wreath can carry you through the whole year and beyond if you change its decorations to correspond to each Sabbat. Another can be used as head wear for the actual Mabon ritual.

The Horn of Plenty, used to represent Thanksgiving, is another symbol of Mabon. It is both a phallic symbol and, when stuffed with the fruits of the harvest, a womb gushing forth its autumn bounty. Indian corn is another potent Mabon symbol — its colorful appearance and durability come from the fact that each kernel is encased in its own tiny husk, which helps preserve it for an unusually long period of time.

Garlands & Cairns

Garlands were constructed of native vines and apples by a village's churchyard. It became customary during Mabon in Ireland, and in parts of western Scotland and Cornwall, to visit burial mounds, called cairns, to honor dead ancestors, particularly female ancestors. This practice may have had two origins: one was to visit the dead and appease them, and the second origin may have been in ancient Ireland where a cult of female ancestor worship based its belief on the notion that, upon death, all human souls were reabsorbed into the wombs which bore them.

Honour the Season with Witches' Brew

As the Wheel turns toward the dark half of the year, there's no better time to deepen your ritual practice. Our Mabon candles and ritual oils are crafted to honour this sacred threshold — blending warming autumn botanicals and resins to support reflection, gratitude, and the release of what no longer serves. Whether you're setting up your harvest altar, performing a balance ritual at the equinox, or simply welcoming the season's energy into your home, our Mabon collection is made to accompany you.

The Balance of Mabon

Mabon is not only a time when night and day are equal, but all things are in balance for one brief moment. The Goddess and the God are thought to have equal power on this night, as well as the forces of good and evil. It was a time when the old Norse people believed one's fate for the coming year was sealed.

Mabon, like its polar opposite Ostara, is a time of balance. Only now, instead of looking outward to the coming summer, we begin looking inward, preparing ourselves for the winter to come. Now is a good time to adopt a pet if you wish to have one, cut firewood for the coming winter, and seek out reading material for the dark, cold nights ahead.

After this night of balance, darkness will again overcome the light, and the power of light will give way to the powers of darkness. Pagans have always honored the dark as being simply another part of the light — they are each half of a whole and neither is inherently good or bad.

The old God is also preparing for winter by readying himself for his sacrificial death at Samhain. The Goddess is entering cronhood, storing up more wisdom which comes with age, though deep inside her, her Maiden aspect carries the impregnated seed of the God who will be born again at Yule as the Wheel of the Year eternally turns.