Activities of Mabon:

Select the best of each vegetable, herb, fruit, nut, and other food
you have harvested or purchased and give it back to Mother Earth with
prayers of thanksgiving. Hang dried ears of corn around your home in
appreciation of the harvest season. Do meditations and chanting as
you store away food for the Winter. Do a thanksgiving circle,
offering thanks as you face each direction -- for home, finances, and
physical health (North); for gifts of knowledge (East); for
accomplishments in career and hobbies (South); for relationships
(West); and for spiritual insights and messages (Center). Decorate
the table with colorful autumn leaves in a basket. Display the fruits
of the harvest - corn, gourds, nuts, grapes, apples - preferably in a
cornucopia. Or decorate with wildflowers, acorns, nuts, berries,
cocoons, anything that represents the harvest to you. Like its sister
equinox, halfway across the Wheel of the Year, the Autumn Equinox is
a good occasion for a ritual feast. Plan a meal that uses seasonal
and symbolic fruits and vegetables. You can serve bread, squash,
corn, apples, cider and wine.
Making some homemade wine, gather and dry herbs, plants, seeds and
seed pods. Make grapevine wreaths using dried bitter-sweet herb for
protection. Use ribbons of gold and yellow to bring in the energy of
the Sun, and decorate with sprigs of dried yarrowor cinnamon
sticks.Make a protection charm of hazelnuts (filberts) strung on red
thread.Make a witch's broom. Tie dried corn husks or herbs (broom,
cedar, fennel, lavender, peppermint, rosemary) around a strong,
relatively straight branch of your choice. Make magic Apple Dolls
Gifts of the Harvest can be used to make tools and emblems that will
remind us of their bounty all year round. Look for colored leaves.
Collect fallen leaves and make a centerpiece or bouquet for your
home. Save the leaves to burn in your Yule fire. Vist an apple
orchard and, if possible, pick your own apples. Hang apples on a tree
near your home. Watch the birds and other small animals who will
enjoy your gift.

Spellworkings of Mabon:
Protection, prosperity, security, and self-confidence. Also those of
harmony and balance.

At Mabon, Witches of many traditions prepare for the season of sleep,
the dark time of Fall and Winter. Witches call to the animal spirits
for guidance and insight as we enter this time of inner searching. We
prepare to meet our true inner self and grow and further our journey
toward self enlightenment. We undertake this journey so that when we
return to the coming cycle of light, the seasons of Spring and
Summer, we can do so in a more peaceful, harmonious and balanced
state. Our energies can then touch the community around us and help
to promote peace and harmony within it.
Use this time of balance, to look closely at the balance in our life.
How do you balance your personal needs with your commitments to the
outside world? How do you receive and how do you give? You might want
to reflect on this in your journal or make it concrete by putting
objects on a scale. For everything which represents one side of the
scale to you (for instance, a book representing quiet time alone),
place something on the other side which represents its opposite (a
letter or phone for reaching out to friends).