Celebrating Autumn Equinox
- Take a walk outside and note the colours of the changing leaves
- Watch the migratory birds for when they are leaving. Are they leaving earlier than normal or later? Earlier could be a sign of an upcoming hard winter.
- Since this is a time of harvest, have a look at the plans you laid out Samhain and started working on through the year. Has anything come to fruition? What are you reaping this year in terms of results of actions taken?
- Take time to make a list of all of the things you are thankful for in your life.
I. Just who is Mabon anyway??
Some Neo-Pagans call this time of year Mabon, but I’m wondering if they really know what…or more appropriately who Mabon is.
Today’s Celtic legend comes to us from Wales and is about the Divine Son and Mother: Mabon and Modron.
The story of Mabon is fuzzy to say the least, but it is one that reoccurs a lot in Welsh Mythology.
The basic outline is:
Mabon was born without a father and then abducted from his mother, Modron, on the third night. His rescuers sought him for another reason than just to rescue him and asked the wisest of the animals if they had seen him: the blackbird, owl, stag, eagle and salmon. None were able to help, not even the oldest and wisest: the salmon, for Mabon was hidden that well!
After much searching, they found Mabon in the Underworld beneath the earth’s surface in Annwn. Mabon then helped the rescuers complete their quest to win Olwen for Culhwch, despite the impossible tasks set for them by her father. Because of his time in the underworld, Mabon remained a youth forever.
The story of Pryderi that I told last week is one other such tale of a fabulous birth and a subsequent abduction with a happy ending after much strife.
Llew Llaw Gyffes is yet another story of the interesting birth of a bright youthful God who is taken from his mother (in this case, Arianrhod wanted to kill him to preserve her honour) and performs amazing feats in order to win the things he needs in life, such as a
name, arms and a wife.
This very interesting article tells of some of these tales of “Mabons” or Divine Sons and how they all seem to fit together. http://bonrhys.idx.com.au/mabon1.htm
So, what does Mabon, a divine youth with interesting luck, have to do with Autumn? Why do most Neo-Pagans use this name as the name of their equinox?
Mabon, as we’ve seen above, is almost a generic character whose story is reflected in a lot of Celtic tales: a divine and shining son who is born of the Earth (or Earth Goddess), is abducted, rescued, performs many great shining deeds and then is returned to the Earth, his mother, again.
This is very close to the sun and how it is “born” at the winter solstice, “rescued” in the spring to shine its light on the world, “performs amazing feats” in the summer and then returns to the earth in the fall to bring us once again to the dark season of Samhain. This would make Mabon a good choice for a seasonal deity…one could follow his life story year in and year out!
This season was not particularly observed by the Celts (at least there is no record of it), but I celebrate the “cross-quarters” as special observances of yearly personal events in life such as planning goals, “seed planting” (starting on goals), growing and harvesting the results. Mabon’s story seems to fit in well with the life events of the year.
For instance, this is the time of harvest and thanksgiving. This is the time when I review my goals that I had dreamed up at Alban Arthuan, “put to seed” at Alban Eiler, worked on “Growing” at Alban Heruin and am now reaping the results at Alban Elued.
Perhaps the goals are born in winter, abducted and then rescued in spring (Because there is always that lull in the winter…nothing wants to get done!), do great things in the summer and return to me in the fall for me to live with the results.
Questions to ponder:
1. Do you find you go in cycles of planning, planting, growth, harvest and implementation?
2. Do you find that they coincide with the seasons?
II. Consequence…The Chain of Influence that Each of us Holds
A prominent feature of Celtic art is the intricate designs and knot- work…all intertwining and creating complex yet beautiful patterns!
Some theories as to why these were so intricate include: the boundless nature of the divine, confusing spirits…and a display of the complexity of cause and effect that connects everything in the universe.
I tend to agree with the theory of the complexity of cause and effect. Laws of science and nature reflect consequence (What goes up must come down, for every action there is a reaction, etc.) and so does everything else in life.
Almost every tale in Celtic myth and legend tells of consequence in some form or another, for better or for worse to the person. Making the right decisions leads to good consequences, while making poor choices leads to more dire consequences.
Cu Chulain learned consequence the hard way in several situations in his life, often due to oversights and silly decisions:
- As a child, he listened in to a conversation the Druid was having with some students. The Druid, Cathbadh, said that whoever took arms up that day would be forever immortalized in history. Cu Chulain failed to listen to the rest of the prophecy which said that the person would have short tumultuous life!
- During the battle for the brown bull, Cu Chulain spurned the advances of Morrighan and thus paid the price for that.
Another story of dire consequence is the one of Macha. Macha, one of the forms of Morrighan, fell in love with a mortal man and took him as her husband. They were very happy and she became pregnant with twins. Her husband had this nasty habit of making bets…particularly ones at other people’s expense!
One day, he bet the king of Ulster that Macha could run faster than the King’s horses! The king was angered by this and demanded the man put his money where his mouth was and ordered him to bring Macha to race his horses.
Macha was understandably upset at this, but went to see the King anyway. She pleaded with him to wait until she had the babies and then she’d run the race for him. The King refused and ordered her to run the race in her state (I guess he figured he’d have a better chance of winning if Macha was pregnant).
Well…Macha ran the race and won. Afterwards, she gave birth to the twins and died. As she died, she placed a curse on Ulster that when the time came that they would most need their fighting men, all of the post-pubescent men would be racked with labour pains and sickness for 2 days. Quite the curse and one that just about lost Ulster the battle for the brown bull! (Were it not for Cu Chulain being so very young, he would not have been able to fight alone)
There have been some misconceptions held by some folks that because modern Druids don’t swear to the Wiccan Rede that they must not have consequences to their actions and thus, no ethics. This could not be further than the truth. While no “rules” really exist, the legends and even the laws that we know of tell us that the Celts were very aware of consequence and demanded that folks take responsibility for their actions. I would think (or at least hope) that we do the same as Druids today.
Like death and taxes, one can always count on consequence! If you’ve ever had one of those days where you think no one would notice if you disappeared…believe me, they would. You hold a chain of consequence all of your own!
One interesting activity to do if you’re ever wondering just how much influence you really have in life:
1. Take some decisions you’ve made in your life (or even ones you’re about to make) and trace out all of the people and situations that were (or will be) affected.
2. As well, look at all the people in your life. How are they related to you? How are they affected by you? How are you affected by them?
III. Wrongful Judgment – How much harm can be done?
In Ireland, a Brehon or Judge who made a wrongful accusation or judgment was punished or suffered a kind of blemish that would reveal him or her as an utterer of wrongful judgment. The story of Morann tells of the Iodh Morainn, or the Collar of Morann, which would shrink around the neck of the judge who uttered a false judgment.
We’ve all been accused of things we did not do, or have even jumped to such conclusions ourselves. What exactly becomes of a false accusation today? Sometimes, an accuser may have to pay the legal bills of an innocent defendant…and sometimes the accuser just wastes a lot of his own money or time making the accusation against an innocent person.
Rhiannon, a woman of the Otherworld, married Pwyll (whom we may remember as the fellow who exchanged places with Arawn for a year), lord of Dyfedd. For a year they tried bearing children to no avail. Pwyll’s lords became agitated and advised him to get rid of her since she could not bear children. To say that she was not well loved would be an understatement.
However, another year later, she bore a beautiful baby boy. She fell into a deep sleep after the birth and the nursemaids also fell asleep. When the maids awoke, the baby was gone. To cover their incompetence, they decided to kill some puppies, smear the blood all over Rhiannon and accuse her of eating the baby in a fit of afterbirth dementia.
Rhiannon awoke to find herself covered in blood with small bones littered around her. The women accused her of eating the child and she was horrified. Upon seeing what happened, the lords again told Pwyll to be rid of her for denying the kingdom an heir. Pwyll, not really believing what happened, decided on a penance instead. Rhiannon was to sit at the gates of the kingdom and tell her story to visitors. She was then to carry the people on her back to the door of the castle. Lucky for her, many visitors felt sorry for her and refused to be carried!
Her salvation came in the form of one of Pwyll’s vassals, Teirnyon Twryv Vliant. On the night of the child’s birth, Teirnyon’s mare was giving birth to a foal. Every Beltane she would bear a foal and every morning, the foal would be missing.
This night, Teirnyon waited for the thief and saw a clawed hand grab the colt. Teirnyon was able to cut off the arm of the intruder, but could not catch him. The sound of a baby replaced the wail of pain and the running of feet and Teirnyon ceased his pursuit.
Upon investigation, Teirnyon found a lovely baby boy, wrapped in fine swaddling! Where the baby came from, he did not know, but he and his wife raised the little one as their own and thanked the Gods for the gift of a child regardless. They named him Gwyri of the Golden Hair, for indeed he was beautiful!
As the years went by and the story of Rhiannon’s missing baby reached him, he could not help but think Gwyri was the missing baby. The boy had disappeared the same night that he had been found by Teirnyon. He could not bear to hear of Rhiannon having to suffer for a child that had merely been stolen and was alive and well.
Teirnyon and his wife brought the boy to the kingdom gates and Rhiannon told her tale. Teirnyon refused the lift to the door and told her that their son had been found the night that Rhiannon’s went missing. Perhaps this was her boy!
Rhiannon was delighted and brought the boy and his adoptive parents to her husband. None could doubt that Gwyri was Pwyll’s son and the family was reunited once again. No one ever found out who the thief was, but who cared? The troubles were over. Appropriately, the boy was renamed Pryderi (trouble), for the grief that had been caused over his disappearance!
Questions to ponder:
1. Can you think of a time you were wrongfully accused of something and how it affected you?
2. Can you think of a time you wrongfully accused someone else and what became of it?