Covenant of WISE, Church of Wicca, A.T.C. , Inc.
Mabon

Mabon – 1º Libra
On or about September 21

  • Light and Dark in Balance, Beginning of Fall

  • Recognizes others as individuals with same feelings, drives, wants, and needs as ourselves.

  • Libra seeks to reconnect to the group which is a source of balance and harmony

  • Concerned with expressing our mental and social identity

  • Accepting life lessons, and integrating them through rest and reflection

Mabon – Correspondences

  • Colors – Red, Orange, Black

  • Gods – Death, Mother & Crone Aspect (Hades, Persephone, Demeter)

  • Direction – West

  • White eggs, Black Shrouds

  • Magic – Reaping, Resting, Re-connecting

Mabon is the second Harvest.  It is the time of our yearly incarnation that we pass away from the trials of the year, reap our rewards and embrace rest.  We reflect on the year’s lessons, and try to gain clarity as we integrate with the whole.  We ritualize the myth of Persephone’s abduction and descent into the Underworld, and follow her on her journey into the dark.  We recognize that we are leaving behind our individuality, and embracing the connectedness with spirit with which we have longed to reunite.

As much as Demeter and Persephone love each other, and share the true joy of each other’s company.  Persephone also has the love she shares with her husband.  The joy she shares with her mother is as an individual, Demeter’s daughter, Goddess of Spring. 

The joy she shares with her husband, Hades, is in connectedness as Lord and Lady of Tartarus, King and Queen of the Underworld.  By comparing her strengths to Hades weaknesses, and vice versa, she has found her specialness and can contribute her individual talents to bring harmony and balance to the union of the couple, and also to the greater realm of the Underworld as a whole.  Persephone knows her duty to this connection and finds a true sense of purpose as a piece of the greater whole. 

We also find our true purpose as a piece in a greater whole, for until you compare your individuality with another, you cannot know your unique assets, and how you fit into the greater scheme of things.  All of us are unique and have a single purpose to fulfill.  But unless you know that other people can’t do what you do, you take your own gifts for granted.

Persephone was not happy in the Underworld until she saw that she could ease suffering and pain of the inhabitants there.  She found that by using the powers of regeneration as Goddess of Spring, she could complete the cycle of birth and death with rebirth.

Mabon is a funeral.  It is the passing into the dark half of the year.  It is the death of our current yearly incarnation.  But it is a birth into your understanding the transformation of death, and how your unique talents not only contribute the evolutionary process, but transform it into something greater than it was before.  The relationship between man and God, individual and whole is symbiotic.  Without the individual there would be no whole, without the whole there would be no individual.  Without man there would be no God, without God there would be no man.
 

Mabon Ritual

Participants

ü     Demeter
ü     Hecate
ü     Persephone
ü     Hades
ü     Zeus

Preparation

  • A gate of Death for everyone to pass through

  • White empty eggs (poke holes in the ends and blow out the middles)

  • Fire placed in the center of the circle

  • A flower for Demeter

  • Three cords long enough to be braided around the circumference of the circle.

Cast, Call, Invoke

Hecate, Demeter, Persephone, Hades, Zeus, step into the middle and draw down.  These are just standard invocations.  Please feel free to invoke your deity in whatever way you wish to.

Hecate - Hecate, teacher of Witches, I call unto thee, descend into the body of this thy priestess.

Demeter (with flower)- Demeter, goddess of grain, I call unto thee, descend into the body of this thy priestess.

Persephone - Persephone. Queen of the Underworld, I call unto thee, descend into the body of this thy priestess.

Hades - Hades, Lord of the Underworld,I call unto thee, descend into the body of this thy priest.

Zeus – Zeus, Ruler of the Universe, I call unto thee, descend into the body of this thy priest.

Demeter and Persephone move together, holding hands or in a casual embrace dancing around the circle exclaiming their love and sharing the joy and happiness of being together.

Hecate -  “Now is the time for Persephone to return to the underworld to once again to be united with her beloved husband Hades, ruler of  the underworld (point west,then finish pointing down in slow arc).  For six months she is to be with her husband, and for six months she is to remain with her mother , Demeter, goddess of grain, within the realm of the living.  This is how it must be.”

Zeus – (said to Persephone) Persephone, it is time.

Demeter –  (gaining Zeus' attention) The agony of parting tears at the very core of me, for I love my daughter so, that I cannot possibly continue to bear fruit (emphasize the flower in hand) while she is away.  I am incapable of such acts within this state of this grief. I mourn the loss of her each moment she is away, both day and night.  I morn the absence of her embrace.  Sweet Persephone, my daughter, my joy, my love…

Zeus – (moves a hand to Demeter’s shoulder or another comforting gesture), She cannot remain among the living any longer.  Life and light has reigned high and the balance needs to be set right, or the land shall grow stagnant.

Hecate - We cannot truly rejoice in our abundance without knowing the absence of it as well.  To know life, we must know death. 

Demeter - [Crumple the flower in your hand, turn away] Let the darkness and grief within my heart reflect upon the land, so that all will miss and wish for the return of my beloved daughter,(fading energy now) Persephone,…Goddess of Spring. (Demeter, and Persephone embrace for last time, then break)

Let nothing slow the speed of your return, for I shall be waiting the long while, with only memories of you.  Let us weave a cord that will connect us to each other, so that you may be able to find your way back safely from the shadowlands of death.

 (We weave a widows braid with symbols of spring intertwined in it, and place it around the circumference of the circle to help us find our way back from the underworld to the light.)

 (The gate of death emerges from the west.  Hades comes through it to greet Persephone.)

Hades - Persephone, my love.  I have come to escort you to my domain.  I have missed you greatly. I cannot bear to be without you any longer.  Return to me at long last and take your place by my side as my radiant queen. (Hades then is handed the veil, which he applies to Persephone}

Persephone - Farewell, dear mother.  I will miss you. Do not grieve so, and cause the land to suffer.  When I return in six months we shall rejoice.  But now, I must return to my lovers embrace and resume my duties as Queen of the Underworld.  I will inspire  divination, and magick, and grant knowledge to those who seek to know the mysteries of death.

Demeter starts the chant:

Seed and Grain, Seed and Grain, all that falls will rise again,
Hoof and Horn, Hoof and Horn, all that dies will be reborn,

 (Persephone goes to the fire picks up on of the white eggs, concentrates on what she needs to release within her which needs to be transformed, and throws the egg into the fire.  She then joins Hades who covers her with black, veil and walks through the gates of death.)

 (Then in turn all of the people in the circle take the thing that they have decided that they want to give up (this is symbolic.  It should be an aspect of yourself that no longer works for you that you would like to Transform), throw it into the fire and follow Persephone through the gate.)

 (Persephone will usher everyone to circle Widdershins. As more and more people go through the gate and begin circling, start clasping hands until it's a widdershins rune.  But don't go too fast, because remember, we are all dead now.)

 (Demeter and Hecate will be the last to go through the gates.  When we are all circling widdershins together and chanting and the power peeks, the Priestess will yell out "NOW" and then we will all stop send the energy up and shout "Transform"!!!!

Pass wine and cakes

Close Quarters

Feast!

Covenant of WISE, Church of Wicca - ATC, Inc. * 2370 Ebenezer Rd. * Conyers * GA * 30094