Mabon Meditation

This meditation is appropriate for use on the Autumnal Equinox. Like Eostre, it is a time of balance-day and night being equal. You might want to study the astronomical consequences of this Sabbat and how they affect our planet.

I suggest using this meditation in a group setting, perhaps after a late afternoon feast. While dinner is dinner and people are in a quiet, mellow mood is a perfect time to have your guide lead you through this journey.

Relax and make yourself comfortable.Close your eyes and take three deep breaths.

Summer is over. The leaves on the trees burn brilliantly; shades of orange, yellow, and bronze emblazon the forest with colour. The nights are cooler, and there is a chill in the morning air when you wake.

You are standing at the edge of a vegetable garden. Today is Mabon, the Autumnal Equinox, and the first frost hit the ground last night. The sun is filtering through the trees, but you can still see the delicate lacings of white that glitter across the vines. You know that when the sunlight touches the vegetable garden, the frosted vines will wither and blacken. There is much work to be done today.

Carry a large basket into the tomato patch and begin picking the green tomatoes. As you pick each fruit, wrap it carefully in old newspaper and tuck it gently into your basket. The tomatoes will sit in a dark pantry where they will ripen slowly without rotting if you do not bruise them. When you have picked all the tomatoes that are left on the vines, it's time to mulch the plot. You have been raking leaves the past few days, and now you have a huge pile of them that you covered with a light piece of plastic to protect them from the rain. Take large armfuls of the leaves and layer them across the tomato vines. With a garden fork, turn the soil and mulch the leaves under the fresh earth, spading up the plants as you go. The soil smells musty; almost sour, and you know that autumn is here. You have spent several weeks storing and pickling the fruits of your garden and now it is time to put the bed to rest.

LONG PAUSE

After you have finished, take the tomatoes to the pantry. There, on well-ventilated shelves, stand rows of squash and pumpkins, full and orange and waiting for Samhain.

Your pantry gleams with jar after jar of various fruits and vegetables. Bags of dried beans and sunflower seeds sit waiting for inclusion in casseroles and breads. Stand back and look at the bounty with pride. It has taken a lot of work to encourage the growth, but now you have a good stock put away for the winter, and you know hunger is not likely to knock at your door.

LONG PAUSE

This afternoon you will gather with your neighbours for a feast. Everyone is bringing a different dish, and you have agreed to make a hearty soup. Look through the different vegetables and choose several-corn and peas, the rich tomato stock you made earlier this summer, a few potatoes from the Hessian sack in the corner, an onion, a large courgette, and a scoop of dried beans. When your basket is full, leave the pantry and go through the door that leads to your kitchen.

LONG PAUSE

First, you need a big saucepan. It should be sturdy and solid, representing a centred, well-balanced you, and it should be big enough to hold all the ingredients that go into producing a fully balanced and enriching soup.

Now, look at each vegetable that you are going to add to the soup. Each vegetable represents a challenge you have met and mastered, a goal that you set and were able to accomplish. As you prepare each vegetable and drop it into the pot, think about your goals this year and the successes you can count for yourself.

EXTENDED LONG PAUSE-ABOUT ONE MINUTE

Are there some vegetables that are missing? Remember that even with all our best intentions, sometimes things don't work out the way we hoped or planned. Sometimes the universe has other ideas about our lives, and sometimes chaos intervenes.

Think now about those goals that you were not able to meet, that still have not come into fruition. have you allowed them enough time to grow? Does their season take longer than you thought? Do you still need to forge ahead and give your energy to them or should you let them quietly die and put them to rest in order to create new space in your life?

EXTENDED LONG PAUSE-ABOUT ONE MINUTE

When your vegetables are chopped and cleaned and in the pot, add enough vegetable stock to cover them and turn the burner to medium heat.

While the soup cooks, you have time to pay your private reverence to the Goddess. Go back to the pantry and get a large pumpkin and a small basket of apples. Then change into a warm ritual robe.

LONG PAUSE

return to the garden. The work you did this morning looks good, and when you look at the vegetable patch, a sense of pride in your honest labour wells up and fills up your heart. Next to the garden patch is a wide, flat stone. On this stone you placed an ear of corn at Lughnasadh; it has now thoroughly dried, and today you add that to the pumpkin and the basket of apples.

LONG PAUSE

Kneel by the stone and touch its smooth surface. The rock is warm to your fingertips, but not with the intense heat of summer, and you know that winter is coming soon.

Look at the food on the altar, then around at the fields standing barren and parched. The body of the Goddess is tired; she must rest. But out of her soil came food for the winter, wonderful fruits and tangy vegetables, grain for the cattle and sheep, berries for the birds and the wild creatures that live in the forest ...

 Author Unknown