The Mourning Moon

November was the ninth month in the oldest Roman calendar. In the Celtic tradition this was the beginning of a new year. The Celtic year ended on the eve before Samhain and began again on the day after. They considered it a Moon month of beginnings and endings and many still do.

The goddess Hecate had many celebrations though out the year. November 16 was known as the Night of Hecate, the Three -formed. Hecate is part of the most ancient form of the triple Moon goddess as Crone or Dark Moon: Artemis was the Crescent Moon and Selene the Full moon. Most of Hecate's worship, and especially on this night, was performed in a three way crossroad at night. Food was left there as an offering to her. She was known to rule the passages of life and transformation, birth and death. Her animals were the toad, the owl, the dog and the bat.

Correspondences

Moon Names: Snow Moon, Dark Moon, Fog Moon, Beaver Moon, Mourning Moon, Blotmonath (Sacrifice Month), Herbistmonoth (Harvest Month), Mad Moon, Moon of Storms, Moon When Deer Shed Antlers.

Nature Spirits: subterranean faeries

Herbs: grains of paradise, verbena, betony, borage, cinquefoil, blessed thistle

Colours: gray, sea-green

Flowers: blooming cacti, chrysanthemum

Scents: cedar, cherry blossoms, hyacinth, narcissus, peppermint, lemon

Stones: topaz, hyacinth, lapis lazuli

Trees: alder, cypress

Animals: unicorn, scorpion, crocodile, jackal

Birds: owl, goose, sparrow

Deities: Kali, Black Isis, Nicnevin, Hecate, Bast Osiris, Sarasvati, Lakshme, Skadi, Mawu

Power Flow: Take root, prepare. Transformation. Strengthen communication with the god or goddess who seems closest to you.

According to the Old Farmers' Almanac, the full moon in November is the Full Beaver Moon. This was the time to set beaver traps before the swamps froze, to ensure a supply of warm winter furs. Another interpretation suggests that the name Full Beaver Moon comes from the fact that the beavers are now actively preparing for winter. It is sometimes also referred to as the Frosty Moon.

Happy November!!!

Happy November to you all!! I hoped that all you Samhain festivities were awesome. I know that here in my house it was. I'm a little exhausted with the trick or treating we did last night, my Samhain ritual and the time change.

November in my house is a time to rest after a busy last 2 months with Mabon & Samhain. This is when I take down all the decorations, tidy up and prepare for the upcoming Yule season. It is also the time when, here in Canada, we remember our fallen heroes on the 11th.

November is also when I start my holiday baking. This year, I'll be making my favorite shortbread recipe, which I may post on here...not sure, it's my "secret" family recipe, I'll be making my mom's chocolate chip cookies, chocolate macaroon cookies, molasses cookies, etc. I also pull out the slow cooker to make boiled dinners, a family tradition in my house since I was a kid. I usually make chicken stews, beef stews, corned beef & cabbage. I may even be making my homemade chilli. Comfort food to warm up our bones when the temperature drops.

As much as most of you out there hate this...snow will soon be falling. I, personally, love the snow in winter. From the howling of a Nor'easter to the gentle falling of snow at night time, I love it!! To see the snow on the branches first thing in the morning is a sight to behold.

Wanna know what else I love about this month?? The Twilight Saga: New Moon is out on the 20th!! Yes, I love me some Edward Cullen. I have 3 weeks to wait til I get to see this movie. I've been following it on other blogs since they started filming it back in March. You can say I'm a little obsessed.

So, this ends my into to November. May you all be rested up this month for the soon-to-be-here Solstice/Yule/Christmas season. Remember, it's only 51 days 'til Solstice.

)O( Blessed Be,
Rowan

Pix of Pumpkin Carving

Samhain Correspondences

Symbolism: Third Harvest, wisdom of the Crone, death of the God, reflection on our place in the Wheel of the Year, New Year, reincarnation, the dark mysteries, Rebirth after Death.

Foods: turnips, apples, nuts, beef, pork, poultry, gingerbread.

Drinks: Mead, apple cider, mulled cider, mulled wines.

Herbs: Angelica, burdock, catnip, pennyroyal, rosemary, rue, sunflower, sage, thyme, wild ginseng, tarragon, mugwort.

Flowers: Calendula, chrysanthemum, cosmos, marigold.

Trees: Acacia, apple, cypress, hazel, hemlock, yew.

Incenses and oils: Bay, cedar, clove, copal, coriander, cypress, eucalyptus, frankincense, heather, mugwort, myrrh, patchouli, peppermint, sage, sandalwood, vetiver, wormwood.

Colors: Black, brown, orange.

Stones: Amber, beryl, bloodstone, carnelian, clear quartz, diamond, garnet, gold, granite, hematite, jasper, jet, marble, obsidian, opal, pyrite, rose sapphire, ruby, sandstone, smoky quartz, steel, tourmaline, turquoise.

Animals: Stag, jackal, cat, bat, ram, scorpion, heron, crow, robin.

Mythical creatures: Goblins, harpies.

Some appropriate Gods: all Death, Underworld, and aged Gods; Am-Heh (Egyptian), Anubis (Egyptian), Arawn (Welsh), Cernunnos (Celtic), Dis (Roman), Hades (Greek), Heimdahl (Norse), Herne (English), The Horned God (European), Kronos (Greek), Loki (Norse), Nefertum (Egyptian), Odin (Norse), Osiris (Egyptian), Pluto (Greco-Roman)

Some appropriate Goddesses: all Crone and Underworld Goddesses; Arachne (Greek), Aradia (Italian), Babd (Irish), Cerridwen (Welsh), Elli (Teutonic), Ereshkigal (Assyro-Babylonian), Eris (Greek), The Fates/Moerae (Greek), Fortuna (Roman), Freya/Frigg (Norse), Hecate (Greek), Hel (Teutonic), Inanna (Sumerian), Ishtar (Babylonian), Macha (Irish), Mari (Basque), Morrigan (Celtic), Nephthys (Egyptian), Nicneven (Scottish), Persephone (Greek), Psyche (Greek), Proserpina (Roman), Rhiannon (Welsh)

Decorations: Autumn leaves, fall flowers, pomegranates, apples, pumpkins, ears of corn, sprays of grain, corn dollies, gourds, nuts, seeds.

Traditional activities: divination, drying winter herbs, feasting and partying to defy the coming darkness (bob for apples, roast nuts, pop popcorn), Witches' Ball.

Spell/ritual work: astral projection, past life recall, Dark Moon mysteries, mirror spells, scrying, protection, inner work, clearing obstacles, transition, culmination, transformation. Releasing bad habits and toxic relationships, illness, failure and poverty; everything you do not want to carry into the new year.

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend!!

Well, it's another Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada. The autumn chill is in full swing, the leaves are changing into their autumn looks, shades of reds, oranges and golds are everywhere. Looking in the grocery stores are all the gourds, fall vegetables and turkeys for sale. Bakeries are baking & selling pumpkin pies, apple pies, all sorts of fall treats.

This year, however, I will not be taking part in the whole Turkey-day festivities. Why, you ask?? Well, for a few reasons. It's my son's weekend to spend with his father, so the idea of me cooking a Thanksgiving dinner is a little pointless when it's just me home alone with 2 cats. I also had to work this weekend, so I couldn't go home to my family's for dinner (I don't even think Mom's cooking anything special) and I have a bunch of housework to keep me busy for the long weekend (laundry, dishes, changing the litter box, garbage, etc).

I do like this holiday, not just because I get a paid day off from work, either. I love being with my family & friends back at home. I love my mom's roast turkey dinner, that I help cook with her. It's just us 2 in the kitchen, bonding over boiling carrots & potatoes. Since I don't like pumpkin pie (hearing gasps from all you readers), Mom usually makes me my favourite pie, lemon meringue. I will be taking Mark home next weekend where we'll have a belated Thanksgiving dinner. I will also be taking him to a corn maze, where we can pick a pumpkin for Samhain, go on a hayride and play in those bouncy castes thingies. It will be a lot of fun. We'll also go walking through the park, look at the waterfalls, hike through the trails in the woods and then go play in the playground.

I am looking forward to next weekend, my Thanksgiving with my family, eating the wonderful food, sharing laughs across the dinner table and being thankful for all that we have in this life. The Gods have blessed us with many things and even though this is a secular holiday, based on our Harvest Sabbats, giving thanks is always appreciated.

Blessed Be )O(

Mabon: The Second Harvest

The harvest is a time of thanks, and also a time of balance -- after all, there are equal hours of daylight and darkness. While we celebrate the gifts of the earth, we also accept that the soil is dying. We have food to eat, but the crops are brown and going dormant. Warmth is behind us, cold lies ahead.

Some symbols of Mabon include:

• Mid-autumn vegetables, like squashes and gourds
• Apples and anything made from them, such as cider or pies
• Seeds and seed pods
• Baskets, symbolizing the gathering of crops
• Sickles and scythes
• Grapes, vines, wine

You can use any of these to decorate your home or your altar at Mabon.

Feasting and Friends:

Early agricultural societies understood the importance of hospitality -- it was crucial to develop a relationship with your neighbors, because they might be the ones to help you when your family ran out of food. Many people, particularly in rural villages, celebrated the harvest with great deals of feasting, drinking, and eating. After all, the grain had been made into bread, beer and wine had been made, and the cattle were brought down from the summer pastures for the coming winter. Celebrate Mabon yourself with a feast -- and the bigger, the better!

Magic and Mythology:

Nearly all of the myths and legends popular at this time of the year focus on the themes of life, death, and rebirth. Not much of a surprise, when you consider that this is the time at which the earth begins to die before winter sets in!

Demeter and Her Daughter

Perhaps the best known of all the harvest mythologies is the story of Demeter and Persephone. Demeter was a goddess of grain and of the harvest in ancient Greece. Her daughter, Persephone, caught the eye of Hades, god of the Underworld When Hades abducted Persephone and took her back to the underworld, Demeter's grief caused the crops on earth to die and go dormant. By the time she finally recovered her daughter, Persephone had eaten six pomegranate seeds , and so was doomed to spend six months of the year in the underworld. These six months are the time when the earth dies, beginning at the time of the autumn equinox.

Inanna Takes on the Underworld

The Sumerian goddess Inanna is the incarnation of fertility and abundance. Inanna descended into the underworld where her sister, Ereshkigal, ruled. Erishkigal decreed that Inanna could only enter her world in the traditional ways -- stripping herself of her clothing and earthly posessions. By the time Inanna got there, Erishkigal had unleashed a series of plagues upon her sister, killing Inanna. While Inanna was visiting the underworld, the earth ceased to grow and produce. A vizier restored Inanna to life, and sent her back to earth. As she journeyed home, the earth was restored to its former glory.

Modern Celebrations

For contemporary Druids, this is the celebration of Alban Elfed, which is a time of balance between the light and the dark. Many Asatru groups honor the fall equinox as Winter Nights, a festival sacred to Freyr.

For most Wiccans and NeoPagans, this is a time of community and kinship. It's not uncommon to find a Pagan Pride Day celebration tied in with Mabon. Often, PPD organizers include a food drive as part of the festivities, to celebrate the bounty of the harvest and to share with the less fortunate.

If you choose to celebrate Mabon, give thanks for the things you have, and take time to reflect on the balance within your own life, honoring both the darkness and the light. Invite your friends and family over for a feast, and count the blessings that you have among kin and community.

Mabon Video

Mabon

Mabon is one of the eight solar holidays or sabbats of Neopaganism. It is celebrated on the autumn equinox, which in the northern hemisphere is circa September 21 and in the southern hemisphere is circa March 21.

Also called Harvest Home, this holiday is a ritual of thanksgiving for the fruits of the Earth and a recognition of the need to share them to secure the blessings of the Goddess and God during the winter months.

Among the sabbats, it is the second of the three harvest festivals, preceded by Lammas and followed by Samhain.

Mabon was not an authentic ancient festival either in name or date. The autumn equinox was not celebrated in Celtic countries, while all that is known about Anglo-Saxon customs of that time was that September was known as haleg-monath or 'holy month'.

The name Mabon has only been applied to the neopagan festival of the autumn equinox very recently; the term was invented by Aidan Kelly in the 1970s as part of a religious studies project. (The use of Litha for the Summer Solstice is also attributed to Kelly).

Previously, in Gardnerian Wicca the festival was simply known as the 'Autumnal Equinox', and many neopagans still refer to it as such, or use alternative titles such as the neo-Druidical Aban Efed, a term invented by Iolo Morgannwg.

The name Mabon was chosen to impart a more authentic-sounding "Celtic" feel to the event, since all the other festivals either had names deriving from genuine tradition, or had had names grafted on to them. The Spring Equinox had already been misleadingly termed 'Ostara', and so only the Autumn Equinox was left with a technical rather than an evocative title. Accordingly, the name Mabon was given to it, having been drawn (seemingly at random) from Welsh mythology.

The use of the name Mabon is much more prevalent in America than Britain, where many neopagans are scornfully dismissive of it as a blatantly inauthentic practice. The increasing number of American Neopagan publications sold in Britain by such publishers as Llewellyn has however resulted in some British neopagans adopting the term.

The Druids call this celebration, Mea'n Fo'mhair, and honor the The Green Man, the God of the Forest, by offering libations to trees. Offerings of ciders, wines, herbs and fertilizer are appropriate at this time. Wiccans celebrate the aging Goddess as she passes from Mother to Crone, and her consort the God as he prepares for death and re-birth.

Various other names for this Lesser Wiccan Sabbat are The Second Harvest Festival, Wine Harvest, Feast of Avalon, Equinozio di Autunno (Strega), Alben Elfed (Caledonii), or Cornucopia. The Teutonic name, Winter Finding, spans a period of time from the Sabbat to Oct. 15th, Winter's Night, which is the Norse New Year.

At this festival it is appropriate to wear all of your finery and dine and celebrate in a lavish setting. It is the drawing to and of family as we prepare for the winding down of the year at Samhain. It is a time to finish old business as we ready for a period of rest, relaxation, and reflection.

Other names for this Lesser Wiccan Sabbat are The Second Harvest Festival, Wine Harvest, Feast of Avalon, Equinozio di Autunno (Strega), Alben Elfed (Caledonii), or Cornucopia. The Teutonic name, Winter Finding, spans a period of time from the Sabbat to Oct. 15th, Winter's Night, which is the Norse New Year.

Symbolism of Mabon:
Second Harvest, the Mysteries, Equality and Balance.

Symbols of Mabon:
wine, gourds, pine cones, acorns, grains, corn, apples, pomegranates, vines such as ivy, dried seeds, and horns of plenty.

Herbs of Mabon:
Acorn, benzoin, ferns, grains, honeysuckle, marigold, milkweed, myrrh, passion flower, rose, sage, solomon's seal, tobacco, thistle, and vegetables.

Foods of Mabon:
Breads, nuts, apples, pomegranates, and vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, and onions.

Incense of Mabon:
Autumn Blend-benzoin, myrrh, and sage.

Colors of Mabon:
Red, orange, russet, maroon, brown, and gold.

Stones of Mabon:
Sapphire, lapis lazuli, and yellow agates.

Activities of Mabon:
Making wine, gathering dried herbs, plants, seeds and seed pods, walking in the woods, scattering offerings in harvested fields, offering libations to trees, adorning burial sites with leaves, acorns, and pine cones to honor those who have passed over.

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

Deities of Mabon: Goddesses: Modron, Morgan, Epona, Persephone, Demeter, Pamona and the Muses. Gods: Thor, Toth, Hermes and the Green Man.

Mabon is considered a time of the mysteries. It is a time to honor Aging Deities and the Spirit World. Considered a time of balance, it is when we stop and relax and enjoy the fruits of our personal harvests, whether they be from toiling in our gardens, working at our jobs, raising our families, or just coping with the hussle-bussle of everyday life.

Mabon Video

The Full Corn Moon

Like the fruits of the vine, lives too can change & ferment. As you gather the late fruit harvest of your labour, give thanks for the sweetness of life. From such sweetness comes pleasure & treats, but also fermentation and "spirits". Celebrate the ever-changing nature of life, dreams,& goals as you toast the sacred ingredients-friends, family & familiars-their loving friendships that mellow & ferment you. Honour Dionysus god of wine & ecstasy. Invoke the balance of the light & dark, and evaluate the balance within your life. As you prepare for the growing darkness, readying yourself to move within, clean & declutter yourself physically, mentally, emotionally & spiritually. Balance will bring you steady footing throughout the challenging journey ahead.

**Borrowed form Llewellyn's Witches' Datebook 2009**