From Circle Round, by Starhawk
Mabon/Fall Equinox
The Fall Equinox is our harvest celebration. Twin to the Spring Equinox, it's a time, again, of balance between dark and light. But now we are moving from light into darkness, from warmth into cold. We gather in the harvest of summer and prepare for the winter ahead.
Everything in nature is constantly giving to and receiving from everything else. The oxygen we breathe in is exhaled by the trees, and they take in the carbon dioxide we breathe out. Bees sip nectar from the flowers and in return carry their pollen to other blossoms so that the plants can make seeds. Nothing exists separately from the whole.
When we receive a gift, we give thanks. Sooner or later, we try to give something back to the person who gave it to us -- or perhaps to pass the gift on to someone else. That's part of keeping the balance. At this time of year, when we are gathering in the gifts of the Goddess, the fruit, nuts, grain, and vegetables that are ripe, we also try to give something back, to make offerings and express our thanks. The Fall Equinox is our Thanksgiving.
In fact, the Thanksgiving we celebrate in the United States came from the old European Harvest Home, the special customs and rituals done when the last sheaf of grain was gathered in.
In ancient Greece, the Fall Equinox was the time when the mysteries of Demeter and Persephone were celebrated. (Demeter is the Goddess of grain and agriculture; Persephone is her daughter, who becomes queen of the Underworld.
Although we tell their story at Eostar, we could tell it again now!) The mysteries were celebrated for nine days. Those who wanted to be initiated made a procession from Athens to Eleusis, nine miles away, where Demeter's temple stood. They bathed in the sea, washed and sacrificed a pig, and took part in an all-night ritual that was so secret that nobody in all of ancient Greece was ever told what happened. All we know is that initiates learned the secrets of death and rebirth. For this is the time of the death of the year, but in a dry climate like that of the Mediterranean, it is also a time of rebirth, when the days are getting shorter and darker.
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