Under the harvest moon,
When the soft silver
Drips shimmering
Over garden nights,
Death, the gray mocker,
Comes and whispers to you
As a beautiful friend
Who remembers. – Carl Sandburg, “Under the Harvest Moon”
As I’ve mentioned a number of times before, many whores (including myself) follow some form or another of witchcraft or Neopaganism; when one considers the low regard in which the Judeo-Christian religions hold us it should hardly be surprising that many of us should turn to a faith which not only reveres the feminine principle as equal to the masculine, but also recognizes the goodness and power of sexuality. The best-known Neopagan faith is of course Wicca, which is based on traditional Celtic beliefs, but I have known girls who paid tribute to the Goddess under the names Aphrodite or Ishtar as well; some of us consider ourselves sacred prostitutes in the ancient tradition, but despite the 1st Amendment guarantee of religious freedom even those of us who hold valid minister’s credentials (as I do) can be persecuted for practicing our faith.
I don’t practice formal Wicca, but rather a mixture of beliefs (this “salad bar” approach seems strange to Westerners but is the norm in much of Asia); however, most of the holidays I observe are either important American secular holidays (including Independence Day and Christmas) or the seasonal holidays observed by Celtic-tradition witchcraft (as befits my Irish ancestry). Today is the Autumnal Equinox, the first day of autumn, also called Mabon or “Witch’s Thanksgiving”; whereas Lammas is the festival of first fruits we now enter the time at which the main crops are harvested, and indeed the Harvest Moon reached its peak of fullness at 4:17 AM this morning. The sun crossed the ecliptic (the celestial equator) at 10:09 PM (CDST) last night, so the day and night are theoretically the same length today (though atmospheric distortion makes the day seem a bit longer). My family and I observe this holiday with a feast, so I am taking the day off and asked my witch friend to write a short essay to explain the spiritual meaning of the holiday as she did for me at Lammas.
The Significance of Mabon
The universal symbol of reincarnation, the double spiral, is the special symbol of this time of year, a time of the winding-in upon the thread of fate, towards the still point in the darkness where there is rebirth of light and life. All have to journey through the realm of winter and the harvest, the grain that has been reaped, sustains us through the winter season, holding seeds that shall be planted in spring. For the circle of life is unbroken.
It is a time to celebrate and give thanks and to throw out and clear away unwanted things, the chaff and the rubbish and to meditate on how well we have achieved balance between the four elements in our psyche: intelligence, passion, emotion and the physical/practical. In the Mabon ritual we move in turn towards the compass points which relate to each element and think about:
East: Our harvest of ideas, concepts and realizations.
South: Improvements in health and vitality – or any other successes or adventures, and “high spots”.
West: Emotional fulfillments.
North: Practical/physical results of things achieved in work, finance and property.
The best results for magical workings at the time of the Autumn Equinox relate to an increase in intellectual, psychic and spiritual powers.
I wish all of my readers a happy Mabon and a prosperous autumn season, and ask that God (however you conceive Him or Her) bless you all in your personal, sexual, emotional and professional lives. Blessed Be!
And good Mabon to you. Whether one believes that good fortune comes from Jesus, Allah, Astarte, Daikokuten, or sheer dumb luck, I wish that you receive it.
🙂