Kate Braun : During Fall Equinox Give Thanks for Earth's Bounty

Honor Mother Earth on Fall Equinox. Image from Seeds of Good Fortune.

Fall Equinox:
A time to seek balance in all things

By Kate Braun / The Rag Blog / September 16, 2013

“Come, ye thankful people come
Raise the song of harvest home...”

Sunday, September 22, 2013 is the Fall Equinox, aka Mabon, Harvest Home, Second Harvest, or Cornucopia. Hours of day and night are equal on this day. As you concentrate on rituals for protection, prosperity, security, self-confidence, and harmony, seek balance in all things.

Use the colors red, orange, russet, maroon, brown, deep gold, and violet in your decorations and dress. Select decorations from an assortment of gourds, pine cones, acorns, grains, apples, pomegranates, ivy, dried seeds, horns of plenty, grapes, autumn leaves, scales or balance beams, and textured fabrics such as velvet, velour, and corduroy.

Serve your guests a buffet that can include breads, nuts, apples, pomegranates, carrot soup, blackberries, nuts, and cider as well as red meat or fowl. Honor all Goddess-as-Matron deities such as Cerridwyn, the Celtic water-oriented Goddess of Autumn whose symbol is the cauldron; her fruit is the apple and all nuts and seeds are sacred to her.

Traditionally, quilts were started on this date, but any project that would occupy your winter evenings could be begun now. You may also make a corn dolly or other poppet, charge it with the qualities and goals you are working on, and bury in the yard or garden as a seed that will see fruition as you achieve the goal.

To make a corn dolly: using about three fresh corn husks, bend them in half and use a strip of corn husk to tie off a small bit at the bend to form the dolly’s head; decide where the waist should be, twist the corn husks at this point and tie them with another corn husk strip. Fluff out the skirt and your corn dolly is finished. Sprinkle her with a few drops of wine and tell her the qualities and goals you choose to work on over the winter. Write this down for future reference.

Then bury her in your garden or back yard or under a tree, as you would plant a seed you want to grow vigorously. Plan to visit the site periodically; use it during the Dark Time to meditate on what you have sown. When celebrating the Spring Equinox, look at what your goals were and see what strides you have made towards achieving them.

This is a festival where you should give thanks for: Mother Earth’s bounty and the feast being enjoyed; friends and family; specific goodnesses in your life (name them); professional success as well as the basics of food, clothing, and shelter. When giving thanks, go around the table Sun-wise, starting with you, the host/ess, and moving to your left around the table.

When you give thanks for the bounty of the Earth, you are maintaining your connection to Spirit in a most elemental way. Without good water, good earth, good air, and healthy bees, there would be no crops to celebrate. Indeed, without these things there would be no people to create such a celebration. By honoring Mother Earth seasonally, we recognize not only our spirituality but also our place in the greater scheme of things.

Kate Braun will be participating in a Spiritual Life Productions Metaphysical Fair on Saturday and Sunday, September 21- 22, 2013, at the Marchesa Hall and Theater, 6406 N. I-35, Suite 3100, Austin, Texas. Saturday hours: 10 a.m.-6:30 p.m.; Sunday hours: 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Kate will also be answering questions on Tarot, Sunday at 1 p.m. as part of the fair’s lecture series.

[Kate Braun was a contributor to the original Rag. Her website is www.tarotbykatebraun.com. She can be reached at kate_braun2000@yahoo.com. Read more of Kate Braun's writing on The Rag Blog.]

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Kate Braun : Fall Equinox is Celebration of Balance

A celebration of balance. Image from Lifehack.
Mabon, Harvest Home:
Friday is the Fall Equinox

By Kate Braun / The Rag Blog / September 19, 2011

“We can’t return we can only look behind
From where we came...” -- The Circle Game

Friday, September 23, 2011 is Mabon, Harvest Home, the Fall Equinox.

Friday is Frigga’s day; her power combines with Lady Moon’s waning energies to achieve the harmony traditional to this celebration of balance. When the hours of daylight and darkness are equal, as they are twice a year, there is a quantifiable balance which can be measured. Harmony comes from within and is an immeasurable quality in our lives.

With the loss of homes and trees to wildfires, with the disruption of the rhythms of our lives, not only balance but also harmony is being lost. I strongly recommend making the time on September 23 to perform whatever actions or rituals are helpful to restoring feelings of both balance and harmony. Only then will we be able to create plans for moving forward.

Use the colors red, orange, russet, maroon, brown, deep gold, and violet; select from gourds, pine cones, acorns, apples, dried seeds, grapes, autumn leaves, horns of plenty, cauldrons, and ivy for your decorations; drape your table and clothe yourself in textured fabrics such as velvet, velour, and corduroy.

This is a season sacred to Cerridwen, a Celtic Goddess of Autumn. Her symbol is the cauldron; her fruit is the apple; all nuts and seeds are sacred to her. Lore tells us that when souls leave the body they go to Cerridwen’s cauldron, where she stirs the brew that helps the souls within the cauldron make good sense of the lives they have left. When that lesson is learned, then the soul is ready for the next lesson in another body, another life, another time.

Such is the seasonal progression of the soul, measured in lifetimes, not months, and just as rhythmical as the turning of the Wheel of Life.

Change is inevitable. It will come when it will come, not always when we choose. As we should now be mindful of the needs of others, we should also be mindful of the changes in our lives and not be too quick to label them negative changes. In Brother Cadfael’s Penance: the Twentieth Chronicle of Brother Cadfael, of the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, at Shrewsbury (Mysterious Press, 1994), Ellis Peters writes:

The year proceeds not in a straight line through the seasons, but in a circle that brings the world and man back to the dimness and mystery in which both began, and out of which a new seed-time and a new generation are about to begin.

Out of the ashes of homes and forests a new beginning shall rise.

[Kate Braun's website is www.tarotbykatebraun.com. She can be reached at kate_braun2000@yahoo.com. Read more of Kate Braun's writing on The Rag Blog.]

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Kate Braun : Fall Equinox and a 'Full Wishing Moon'

Fall Equinox: The egg is a symbol of the four elements.
Balancing the egg:
Fall equinox is time of energy and power

Round and around and around and around and around and round we go...

By Kate Braun / The Rag Blog / September 15, 2010

Wednesday. September 22, 2010, is the date of the Fall Equinox, also named Second Harvest, Mabon, and Cornucopia. Lady Moon is in her second quarter in Pisces and there is Full Wishing Moon on Thursday, September 23.

A Full Moon is a time of high energy and much power; its effect can frequently extend to the days immediately before and after the actual Full Moon; therefore, it would be good to include in your activities this night rituals for protection, prosperity, harmony, and balance, keeping your focus on the positive aspects of these qualities.

Decorate with gourds, pine cones, acorns, autumn leaves, apples, pomegranates, and textured fabrics such as velvet, velour, and corduroy. Appropriate colors are red, orange, deep gold, russet, maroon, and violet. Scales or balance rods could be used as a centerpiece. A cauldron filled to overflowing with apples would also serve well as Mabon is sacred to Cerridwen, the Celtic water-oriented Goddess of Autumn. Her symbol is the Cauldron and her fruit is the apple.

In the long ago, the Fall Equinox was the time to start a project which would be completed by Yule (Winter Solstice). One tradition was to make a quilt. If you have friends who enjoy this activity, each of you could begin a quilt square on this night, take it home to finish at your leisure, bring it back at Yule and assemble the quilt. It need not be a full bed size; a lap quilt will generate the same energy associated with finishing what you start.

Equinoxes are the two times each year when a raw egg can be balanced on its larger end. This presents a good reason to contemplate the symbolism of the egg without having to eat any (and given the recent salmonella outbreak we must be more vigilant than usual about knowing the sources of egg production).

The shell represents Earth, the membrane represents Air, the yolk represents Fire, the white represents Water. These are the four elements from which come all things, hence the egg may be considered to represent “All and Everything." As you and your guests balance your eggs, turn your focus to acknowledging your blessings. Silently give thanks for not only food, clothing, and shelter, but also friends, family, and professional success.

[Kate Braun's website is www.tarotbykatebraun.com. She can be reached at kate_braun2000@yahoo.com.]

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