(S) Sabbat: Fall Equinox

While I don’t have a whole lot that I do on a regular basis, the Sabbats are something that I do make a point of acknowledging, even if it’s only briefly. Being Eclectic I do tend to sort of do my own thing – and while I do honor my God and Goddess, there are other aspects of the Sabbats that I honor as well.

I’m clearly a child of Fall, I relish in the crisp weather, the bright oranges and yellows as the leaves start to turn – that smoky smell in the air, of wood stoves or fireplaces that have been lit… and everything else that comes along with it. Spring runs a close second, but my true love is Fall. For quite a while I never quite knew what to do with myself on Mabon, and in truth I rarely call it that – preferring simply the Fall Equinox. At first glance it’s a sort of in between day – you’ve already celebrated one harvest, and if you really need to, there’s another one coming up… but that is the sort of beauty of it, when one takes a closer look (or at least there is for me).

Both Lughnasadh and Samhain have other components to them, that often overshadow their “harvest festival” aspect. So much so that I’ve really come to appreciate this particular day, as my actual day to celebrate the “harvests” of the year, and leave the other days to their other aspects. I rarely cook – it’s not something that I enjoy all that much and hubby is so much better at it than I am. He has that special gift of being able to throw things in a pot and no matter what it is, it almost always comes out amazing. A gift that I sorely lack. However on the Equinox, I usually will put forth the effort, and make it a true “thanksgiving” feast for the family.

This year, celebrations will be slightly tempered though – while I am thankful for a lot (and some things are a lot better than they were the last couple of years, so I am thankful), it’s been a pretty bad month so far. Even though it’s been almost 15 years, events earlier in the month brought the reality of my mother’s death crashing back down on me. Then – while I was still dealing with that, got a call from my dad that he likely has skin cancer, and (in his words) “hope for the best, but prepare for the worst”. He’s not the type to be overly melodramatic, so needless to say, I’m a bit worried. All of which is bad enough, but then came the worst part (yes… something worse than cancer), confirmation that one of my son’s teacher assistants was more than likely physically and verbally abusing him off and on last year. He’s autistic and completely non-verbal, so had no way to tell us what was going on, and we had absolutely no idea. This was someone we thought of as a friend, and needless to say we are devastated.

So… clearly not really in a festive, or thankful mood at the moment, but it’s still important for me to mark the turning of the Wheel. So I’m looking forward to cooking a bit of something good later on, and hopefully regaining some of the inner-balance that this day is good for.

Hope you and yours have a wonderful Sabbat!!

P.S… if anyone is in need of a good balancing ritual this is one I wrote several years back, feel free to use/modify as needed (please credit me though if you are posting it elsewhere). 🙂

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Righting the Balance

I’ve not posted in a while, and truthfully I’ve been apathetic in my practices for the last few months. There are a lot of really stressful things going on in my life and to say that it has gotten me down would be an understatement to say the least.

I had made plans in August to celebrate Lughnasadh (as it is one of the Sabbats that has the most meaning to me personally), however those plans fell through at the last minute, so other than a quick “moment of silence” type thing, there really wasn’t much to write home about.

Even though it is difficult at best to find anything to be thankful for at this moment, as Mabon approached, I felt called to celebrate it. I usually do my balancing ritual at this time as well, and that is something I am in sore need of, so it was definitely appropriate that I heed the call.

I can honestly say things didn’t start out so well, my celebration actually spanned 2 days (not by choice). I spent about 2 hours on Monday cooking a most awesome (if I do say so myself) feast, only to realize at the very last minute that I was mistaken about the date. That hubby fell asleep before it was done cooking should have been a sign that “something” was not quite right, but yeah… it was a definitely ‘Doh moment. But I ate it anyways and it was really good.

Last night I held my ritual and for one who hasn’t done much recently, it went fairly well. Hubby sort of interrupted once, which threw my energy off just a bit, but it all worked out well in the end. I feel a lot better today than I have. I faced a few things, things that I have known, but have not really ever spoken out loud, and in saying them have hopefully begun to heal. I’ve been broken for awhile now, and trying to fix me has been difficult, but I am determined to get myself out of this hole I am in… and last night was a good first step. We’ll have to see how things go from here, but at least now there is shiny ray of light, whereas before there was only darkness.