🍂 Mabon 2025: The Autumn Equinox and the Magic of Balance
On September 22, 2025, the wheel of the year turns to Mabon, the Autumn Equinox. This sacred pause arrives when day and night are perfectly equal, when the Sun crosses the celestial equator and the Earth leans into the darker half of the year.
Mabon is a festival of gratitude, balance, and release. It is the witches’ Thanksgiving, the second harvest sabbat when the fruits of summer are gathered in and the first hints of winter stir in the air. To honor Mabon is to stand at the crossroads of light and shadow — to feast on abundance while also preparing for descent.
This sabbat whispers of firelight on crisp nights, cider steaming in cups, and fields heavy with the last fruits of the season. It is a moment of both celebration and surrender, reminding us that every cycle contains both fullness and release.
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🌞 Mabon: A Solar Festival
Unlike the New Moons and Full Moons, Mabon is not a lunar event — it is a solar festival, rooted in the Sun’s journey across the heavens. On the equinox, the Sun crosses the celestial equator, tipping the scales so that day and night are perfectly equal. For a brief moment, the cosmos itself shows us what balance looks like.
This balance is not just mathematical; it is mystical. The light and dark bow to one another, each yielding space to the other. It is a reminder that our lives, too, must honor both halves of the whole. Growth cannot exist without rest. Joy cannot exist without sorrow. We are called to walk in harmony with cycles rather than fighting them. At Mabon, the Sun itself becomes the high priest, showing us how to release control and surrender to the rhythm of the turning year.
🌾 The Harvest Spirit
For our ancestors, the harvest was not only about food, but about the soul of the land. They believed the life-force of the crops — the very spirit that gave nourishment — lived within the final sheaf of grain. Cutting it was not just agricultural labor, but sacred ritual. That sheaf was gathered with reverence, woven into corn dolls or stored in the home as a charm of fertility and protection until planting season returned.
This practice carried the harvest spirit safely into winter. It ensured that abundance, vitality, and protection would bless the home even when the fields lay barren. When you craft a harvest doll, bake a loaf of bread with intention, or pour cider as a libation, you are echoing those ancient rites. You are saying: I honor the spirit of the Earth, and I will carry its blessings with me into the dark. This is the heart of Mabon’s magic — to feed and be fed by the living spirit of the land.
🌌 The Myth of Mabon ap Modron
The name of this sabbat also holds a story. Mabon ap Modron, “the Great Son of the Great Mother,” is a figure from Welsh lore. Stolen from his mother three nights after birth, he was imprisoned in darkness until he was rescued years later by a band of seekers and hunters. Mabon’s rebirth symbolized vitality, renewal, and the eternal return of light after darkness.
His tale is not simply a myth, but a mirror of the Earth’s own cycle. Just as Mabon was taken into shadow only to emerge renewed, the Sun now begins its descent into the underworld of winter — only to return with new strength at Yule. In celebrating Mabon, we honor the truth that descent is not the end. Darkness is not final. Every retreat into shadow contains the seed of resurrection.
🔥 The Living Magic of Mabon
Mabon is best felt, not explained. It is the smell of spiced cider simmering on the stove, the sound of leaves crunching underfoot, the glow of candles flickering on an altar of apples and wheat. It is a feast for the senses, a holy reminder that the Earth provides in abundance, and that every cycle of growth is sacred.
On this day, the veil is not yet thin — but it begins to stir. The wind carries whispers of the ancestors, reminding us that balance is a spell we cast with every choice. The turning of the year invites us to:
Offer gratitude to the land — leave bread, cider, or apples at the base of a tree.
Honor the harvest spirit — craft a doll of corn husks or wheat, blessing it as a guardian for the darker months. Though harvest dolls are often associated with Lughnasadh, many traditions carry them into Mabon as well — at this sabbat they shift in meaning, honoring gratitude for what has been gathered and offering protection for the darker half of the year.
Light the hearth flame — candles or fire, symbolizing the Sun’s strength as the days grow shorter.
Gather in community — share food and blessings aloud, weaving words into magic that multiplies abundance.
Walk at dusk — pause as the Sun sinks, breathing in the equilibrium of day and night, and whisper a prayer of thanks.
The true magic of Mabon is this: every act of gratitude is an offering, every release a spell, every bite of fruit a communion with the Earth.
🍎 Simple Rituals for Mabon
You don’t need dozens of steps to honor the Equinox. These few are more than enough:
1. Gratitude Altar
Gather apples, corn, wheat, and autumn leaves. Place candles in gold or red, and add crystals like citrine or carnelian. As you build your altar, speak aloud the blessings you are grateful for.
2. Feast of Abundance
Prepare seasonal foods — squash, bread, cider, apples, nuts. As you eat, speak gratitude aloud. Each bite is spellwork, each sip an offering.
3. Release Ceremony
Write what you are ready to surrender on fallen leaves or slips of paper. Burn them or bury them, returning them to the Earth to be transformed.
4. Walk at Dusk
At sunset, pause in the equal balance of day and night. Breathe deeply and whisper: “I honor the light, I honor the dark. In balance, I am whole.”
🔮 Crystals for Mabon
Citrine — Magnifies joy and gratitude
Carnelian — Fires courage, passion, and vitality
Moss Agate — Connects to the spirit of harvest and fertility of the land
Smoky Quartz — Grounds, stabilizes, and protects
Amethyst — Spiritual insight as we approach the thinning veil
🌿 Herbs & Seasonal Magic
Apples — Sacred fruit of abundance and wisdom
Corn & Wheat — Fertility, continuity, blessing of the land
Sage — Cleansing and ancestral connection
Cinnamon — Prosperity, warmth, vitality
Wine & Cider — Joy, communion, sacred offering
✨ Closing Reflection
Mabon is the golden doorway of the year. It is the pause before descent, the feast before silence, the balance before shadow. It is both thanksgiving and farewell, a reminder that every cycle contains both fullness and release.
On this day, gather your blessings close. Feast, give thanks, and celebrate the fullness of what you have created. Release what is ready to fall away, just as the trees surrender their leaves. Trust that what you honor now will sustain you in the dark months ahead.
🌑 And remember — the day before Mabon, the Virgo New Moon invited us to plant seeds of clarity and renewal. Together, these back-to-back events create a rare and potent alignment: one to reset, rebalance, and remember that both beginnings and endings are sacred.
👉 [Read our Virgo New Moon blog here] to see how the lunar energy flows into the Equinox.