It is a hot summer day towards the end of August. You stand still for a moment in the lazy dry heat, listening.

Do you hear it? Autumn is whispering to us through the ripening tomatoes on the vines and the late summer flowers in our gardens.

My Mama always spoke about how the flowers this time of year held a bittersweet sorrow of the earth. As a child, I wasn’t quite sure what she meant by that, intellectually, but in my heart, I could feel it.

If you know the story of the Goddess and God through the seasonal Wheel of the Year, then you know that the sorrow my Mama spoke about was the sorrow of the Goddess mourning the loss of the God who willingly sacrifices his life force, in the form of the first grain harvests, so the People can live.

As we head towards the Autumn Equinox, also known as Mabon, we are riding the seasonal cycle of three aspects of harvest time.

The first harvest cycle, celebrated at Lughnasadh (Lammas) focuses on the first grains to be brought in. Think of it as the early fruits and vegetables of the season.

The second harvest is celebrated at Mabon and is about the larger vegetables and fruits that required a longer growing cycle.

The third and final harvest comes at Samhain, known for pumpkins, but also signaling the end of the growing season.

Back to our story about the Goddess and God. In their journey, as reflected through the cycles of birth, life and death upon the land, they are shifting too.

Once the God sacrifices his life force at Lammas, he returns to the Underwold.

The Goddess, mourning him, also feels the pull to return to the Underworld. She begins preparing for her descent with the approach of Mabon.

As she withdraws her life force from the outward expression of growth, you see the plants and trees withdrawing their life force as well. We are headed towards the slowing time. It is visible, palpable, all around us on the land, but also in the animals as they begin to migrate and prepare for the slowing time, the cold days to come.

Here, in the heart of the harvest season, there is deep and potent magickal work to be done.

This is the time of intense exertion that accompanies bringing in the harvest, of taking stock and preparing for winter, but also the pause-point, an in-drawing of energy and time for reflection. The year is not over and there is still work to be done.

As we review what we have harvested (and 2020 certainly threw us some SERIOUS curve balls), this is a time for using the wisdom gained by your inner work process so that you can redirect and realign in the remaining months.

Be the wise farmer, depicted so well in Tarot as the 7 of pentacles, and celebrate what you have harvested while analyzing and planning for the next growing cycle.

The Autumn Equinox is the perfect time for all of this, the celebrating, the gratitude, the inner work and the re-set.

For me, I always begin this work with an Altar. Maybe it is because I am a Taurus, but altars anchor my spiritual practice in a powerful way.  When you build an altar, you are creating a container for the sacred, both in your life and in your physical space. The very act can be a ritual in itself.  

A Mabon Altar is a seasonal altar, reflecting the autumnal tide and celebrating the harvest.  There are many ways to create a Mabon altar and I don’t subscribe to the notion that there is only “one” way or a “right” way to make yours.  What is most important is that it is meaningful and relevant to you. 

If you are not sure how to go about creating a Mabon Altar, I have put together a straight forward, user-friendly guide that you can get for FREE.  Just sign up below to grab your printable, guide.