Mabon is a time of sweeping balance. As the light departs, it takes heat and memories with it. It is also a time to weave a new balance for yourself. If the past harvest went badly, this is the time to lay the groundwork for a better future. Use this time to rid yourself of obstacles inner and outer, and, like planting bulbs at the end of fall, start the deepest seeds for the most beautiful flowering when the world turns warm again.
Mabon Spells
The spells that follow are about putting your world in order. Just as our spiritual ancestors used the equinox to take account of their harvest and prepare for the winter, we call on that energy with these spells intended to correct the balance of the immediate universe.
A Spell to Find a Lost Object
Lost objects can happen at any time of year, you say? True. This particular season just happens to belong to gods who have successfully located children hidden from them. Helping you find your sunglasses, in comparison, should be easy. Invoking the spirits of wisdom that guided Mabon’s men to him may not be necessary but are included as a last-ditch effort for those moments you just can’t figure out where you put your car keys.
This spell actually fares better without a circle. You will need a pendulum—that can be any object you hang off a chain or a string.
First, tune the pendulum by holding it out and determining what direction means yes and what means no. To do this, hold it out in front of you and state how you desire that communication. Say, “Left for yes, right for no,” or “clockwise yes, counterclockwise no,” and so on.
Once you have established the yes/no system, stand in the room where you most likely lost your object. Hold your pendulum in front of you and ask, “Is the lost object in this room?” If the pendulum indicates no, try a different room until you get a yes answer.
If the pendulum indicates yes, pick a corner of the room and say, “Is my lost object close to this corner?” If no, try a different corner until you get a yes.
Once you get a yes in a quadrant of the room, hold the pendulum over each object in that area and ask for a report to see if it gives a yes or no answer. You may need to look under objects, move couch pillows, or shift furniture, depending on the strength of the pendulum’s swing.
If you go through your house and only get a no, ask if the item is still in your house. If the answer is no, repeat this process in your car.
If you have not turned up anything, you may need to resort to a vision process. In this case, you will use a visualization. Settle yourself in a comfortable spot, preferably in the middle of a patch of sunlight. Visualize yourself surrounded by blue or golden light.
Then, in your mind’s eye, see a blackbird. If the bird leads you to the stag, it is lost outside. Ask the stag the same question. See where the stag leads you. If the stag leads you to the owl, then someone has picked up what you’ve lost. Ask the owl. If it leads you to the eagle then the item has traveled from its intended location. Ask the eagle. If the eagle leads you to the salmon, the thing you lost may no longer be in its original form. The salmon will show you what form your lost object now takes. Whether you can replace it from there is up to you. Fortunately, most people won’t need to go as far as asking the salmon.
A Spell to Promote Community Harmony
The conditions of our neighborhoods are living examples of whether a community has sown its seeds well or if it was faulty in its seasons of care. If we’re born into the right situation, we can often find a good neighborhood to live in easily enough. For most of us, though, we either find a place we love only to find the people in it are less than interested in peace, or we must settle for what we can afford and hope for the best. So as autumn comes, harness that equinox energy to send the troublemakers to a place where they won’t be so much bother.
Where we live affects how we think and how we view the world. It’s easier to believe good things can come to you in a place where you can see good things coming to your neighbors. There’s a lot of complicated history behind present conditions of a neighborhood and culture. If you are a part of that neighborhood and culture, then you are already a key organism within it. This gives you a right and a responsibility to influence the future of where you live for the greater good. If you live in a troubled neighborhood, equinox energy is a golden opportunity to sweep out the bad while bringing in the good.
This community harmony spell is one where you, in a very gentle way, influence the atmosphere. To do this, you need to create something to put into the atmosphere—a potion. When the liquid evaporates, it will carry with it the magickal charge you put in and in small, subtle ways bring about the more harmonious community you seek.
To make any potion you will need resealable jars or bottles, a funnel, coffee filters or cheesecloth, a pan, a wooden spoon, tap water, and the herbs desired.
Note: While purchasing from herb shops is ideal for most magickal practice, it is far from your only option. Keep an eye on the spice section at local grocery and dollar stores. You can also find great material in the ethnic food and tea/coffee aisles. If you had a great year in your herb garden, use that!
All potion making is simple: distribute herbs evenly on the bottom of the pan, pour in two cups of water, and stir constantly until the mixture is at a rolling boil. As you stir, perform a small chant while visualizing the mixture glowing a healthy pink. Once boiling, turn off the heat and allow the mixture to cool. Set the bottle or jar in your sink; line a funnel with a coffee filter or cheese cloth. Pour the potion a little bit at a time through the filter.
If your otherwise wonderful community had a bad year, you may want to help everyone along with a little magick. People with difficult lives often end up living near each other. Sometimes the damage sustained causes them to encourage strife instead of reaching to one another for healing and support. Sometimes the damage is so severe that it does not occur to them to reach within to do the healing work on themselves. Use this time to seed the chilling air with some healing energy so that it reaches your neighbors.
Use an herb mix of one part each (about a teaspoon) St. John’s wort, juniper berry, angelica, cloves, and cedar chips. Follow the directions above to create a potion. As you stir the mixture, chant:
Cleanse all poison;
close all wounds.
All who breathe this
come, commune.
Be well!
Be well!
Where we all dwell
on this shared land
all may excel!
When finished, find a quiet time of night to pour the potion outside your home or near busy intersections and meeting places. You may wish to say something as you do this, linking it to the equinox: “Take the troubled with the dark, move them to where light can heal them.”
A Spell for Community Prosperity
Sometimes a good neighborhood falls on hard times. In the days when almost everyone had a part in bringing in the harvest, it was obvious. Now the effects of bad harvests are more subtle but over time become visible. At these times when the known avenues dry up, it’s important to kindle imaginations, to look into the unknown and see possibility rather than spending time gazing into the pool of things lost. Feeding such an atmosphere to the neighborhood spirit can bring surprises: hidden talents that the old work schedule suppressed, entrepreneurial adventures otherwise not taken, and a raw shared will to create anew. Despair and optimism can spread in equal parts, so when the darker side begins to spread you can respond by adding a hint of balance to the neighborhood’s collective mood.
Use a mix of one part each of goldenseal and lovage root, and add three dried apricot ears. After you strain this herbal formula, you may eat the rehydrated apricot ears. Take in a little prosperity for yourself!
Then chant:
Goodness, come to us all!
Good luck befall us all!
New ways open, good things show
within, without more treasures
than we ever before did know.
A Spell to Awaken the Activist Spirit
An engaged community is a great one, and a community that addresses the needs of the poor is an especially strong one. Since Harvest Festival nowadays feeds the hungry, and the Dionysian cult of old served those marginalized by society, Mabon carries a small activist charge within its energies. In urban centers, the seeds sown offer a harvest of creativity. When those centers become unhealthy, the absence of a healthy metaphorical crop leads to urban blight. Getting to the point where community members are using their passion for a collective good and finding the best place for their passion does take a bit of prayer, a bit of magick, and a bit of divine intervention. For some, especially those who have often met failure or obstacles in early efforts, it can take a rekindling of that passionate spirit that goes about making a change. Sometimes firing the spark within requires a simple, symbolic action, such as lighting a candle.
Candles, a staple in magick, are also a staple among activist communities. People hold candlelight vigils to remind us of those suffering elsewhere in the world. They pass lights to one another to represent the shared spark. What activists see as symbolism meant to imprint on the subconscious, others see as a direct act of magick. Both are right.
To cast this spell, gather a red candle, olive oil, salt, basil, cinnamon, and spearmint. First, mix a pinch of salt in a tablespoon of olive oil. Rub the solution on the candle from top to bottom, with the wick pointing away from you. This symbolically cleans the candle. Then, in another tablespoon of olive oil, mix a pinch each of basil, cinnamon, and spearmint. Rub this oil/herb mixture on the candle from the middle outward and then from the middle toward yourself.
Stand at your front door if it leads to the outside. If it is an interior apartment, either step outside on a balcony or go to a door that opens to the outside world. Light the candle and say:
Great God/ess, you have awakened me.
I see the changes needed;
the work that must be done to make them.
Gently, gently awaken the true companions in this task—
that we may share and live
and make our good together.
So mote it be!
Blow the candle out, and then repeat this every night for nine nights. On the last night, bring the candle inside and allow the flame to burn for nine minutes. Proceed to burn the candle for nine minutes a day until it has melted completely.
A Spell for Bees
This next spell isn’t just for humans; it’s also for bees. In an alarming and accurate return to tradition, if a farmer found a hive of dead bees, it bade a poor crop the next season. The disappearance of bees in recent years has underscored the literal truth of this—for those without vicious allergies, planting honeybee gardens might heal the bees and a good bit of humanity. Bees and honey were also a big part of European harvest traditions. The Europeans needed honey to make the mead for celebrations in the spring.
A honey jar is a piece of American folk magick (hoodoo) used to sweeten up a situation. In this case, you can use it as a bit of proactive magick to sweeten up the coming year and even to confer a blessing to your physical and metaphorical crops ahead of time.
Gather together a glass jar with a flat metal lid, honey or maple syrup, a pen (any color), paper (any color), sugar, sweetening herbs such as rose petals, cinnamon, nutmeg, lavender, or basil, and red, green, yellow, brown, or orange votive candles.
Have each member of your household write down what they know is coming in the next year and what they hope to see happen—asking the God/ess that it be as good as or better than they ask. When completed, put the letters in the glass jar. If letters become especially long, you may need to establish one jar per person.
Cover the letters with honey and add your mix of herbs. Speak a prayer over the jar(s) and say:
May the year be sweet and gentle,
honeyed and bright!
Bring abundance to all the things that sustain life!
So mote it be!
Seal the jar(s) as tightly as possible. Set the jar(s) inside an aluminum pan with a high edge/lip. On top of the jar, burn a candle: red for energy, green for growth and fertility, yellow for prosperity, brown for a peaceful home, or orange for happy surprises.
When the candles have burned down completely, bury the jars on your property. If you do not own property, find a favorite nature spot and set them in the ground before it freezes.
Mojo for Wisdom Spell
Wisdom often addresses the necessity of balance; it is what we call on to make the right decisions, just as people did at Michaelmas when deciding what to keep and what to release. Influence yourself toward wisdom with this mojo bag.
For this spell, gather a small, black velvet drawstring bag, five acorns, five rose thorns (optional), an image of a person who represents wisdom to you, a small owl charm, a handful of sunflower seeds, a 3-inch square of aluminum foil, and sage essential oil diluted in olive oil or rue-steeped sunflower oil.
Place the rose thorns (if you have them), sunflower seeds, and acorns on the aluminum foil and say:
Herbs, I bless you and awaken the wisdom
you have to share with me.
Fold the aluminum foil into a packet and place it inside the drawstring bag, then say:
Guide me to the wisest choices.
Place the owl charm and the symbol of personal wisdom in the bag and say:
Help me see what I might miss,
to question until I truly understand.
Anoint the outside of the bag with a touch of the sage or rue oil. Then, tuck this bag into a clothing pocket or keep it in a hidden pocket on your coat or in the back of a purse. Take it out once a week and reanoint with the oil.
An Apple to Bless the Teacher Spell
Apples represent knowledge to Pagans in a different way than they do to Christians. If you slice an apple crosswise through the middle, you will see the five seed cores of the apple forming a pentacle—a symbol of wisdom and protection to many Pagans. Teachers, hopefully, are sources of wisdom and protection to their students and may need some protection in their jobs. So early in the year, pass an apple along to a teacher to enhance that sense of wisdom and safety that students and faculty both need.
In the early history of the United States, teachers were often barely older than the students they taught and relied on the parents of students for food and housing. Part of their pay consisted of food, so students would bring by apples and other foods from their parents’ farms. The apple for the teacher became a symbol of the profession, although now teachers also ideally receive healthcare and retirement benefits instead of what food certain families can provide.
Teaching to this day remains a difficult job, whether in public or in private schools. Teachers all too often must dig into their own paychecks to provide school supplies while also using those same paychecks to fund the continuous education required to remain in the profession. In addition, they have few protections when students have violent outbursts, and they often catch any cold and flu that children bring in first. Those three months a year “off” are never actually vacation for most teachers—that’s time used to develop lesson plans and work summer jobs. While not all teachers are dedicated, self-sacrificing people, the good teachers need our help. When they get that help, they strengthen not just our community but our shared future.
Since the beginning of most school years starts in fall (another extension of early American farm tradition) and the apple is already a symbol of Mabon and autumn, this small blessing falls into place. At the beginning of the year, assemble a basket of school supplies. You need not include actual apples, but decorate in an apple motif if you can. Include common classroom needs, such as reams of printer paper, glue, construction paper, scissors (all the better if you can get a few left-handed scissors in), facial tissue, hand sanitizer, baking soda, Lysol, crayons, pens, erasers, gel ice packs, dry erase markers, sticky notes, and perhaps a small bottle of one of those cold prevention remedies. If you are feeling especially generous, gift cards for phone and tablet apps can go a long way toward helping your child’s teacher give the best education possible to his/her class.
As you assemble the basket, imagine the items glowing or taking on the personality inanimate objects do in an animated movie. Imagine each item spreading good humor, good cheer, and a sense of equanimity and passing that wisdom along to the teacher who runs the classroom.
Package the items up as well as you can and send a note along, thanking the teacher for his or her service to your children and to your community.
A Protection Spell for Community Protectors
In the United States, most townships rely on a network of volunteers and low-paid personnel to see to the safety of the entire community. What began as militia forces around the time of the Revolutionary War eventually became volunteer firefighters, first responders, paramedics, and involved community members who risk their lives in dangerous situations for the safety of others. The men and women who do this are the equivalents of the men and women reaping the harvest; their livelihoods meant security for the entire village. Seeing to their protection is a means of protecting ourselves; our world would be that much more difficult without them in it. These are the people who archangel Michael especially watches over, so performing this spell on September 29 (Michaelmas) is appropriate.
Some Pagans hold archangels in the same esteem that Christians do. Consequently, archangel Michael speaks to people of either faith. In the context of community and protection, Michael watches over warriors of all kinds, including soldiers, police officers, and peace advocates.
For this spell, you will need a pinch of dirt from the nearest police station, fire station, or hospital; a red candle; basil-infused olive oil; printed pictures of your city seal, the local police seal, the fire department seal, and the hospital logo; a printed image of archangel Michael; a heat-proof bowl; and spring water.
Place the image of archangel Michael on a flat surface. Then set the police, fire department, city, and hospital images in the bowl. Dress the red candle from the middle out to both ends with the herb-infused olive oil while asking archangel Michael to confer his blessing on your work.
Set the candle on top of the images and light it while speaking either the traditional prayer of Saint Michael or a version you are comfortable with.
A Pagan-friendly version might be:
Archangel Michael,
you who watch over our warriors,
keep them from evil, lead them to good,
watch over them in their daily battles
for the good of all.
So mote it be.
Dust the pinch of dirt over the images, and then pour the spring water into the bowl so that the paper is just covered. Add a little fresh water and repeat the prayer every day, relighting the candle daily until the candle burns out upon reaching the water level. Once done, bury the remainder of the spell either on your property, at the edge of a public park, or near a highway easement.
Corn Dolly Magick
Corn dollies were more than just symbolic to the harvest gatherers; to the reapers they represented real magickal energy. In Europe, giving the dolly a place of honor for a year and then burying it or burning it at the beginning of a new harvest represented an important cycle—that dolly held the key to the condition of the next harvest. Even now, effigy magick is a powerful magickal tool; it need not represent a specific person or deity, but it can harbor the spirit of almost any intention you might have. Even if you do not farm, a corn dolly can bring about a harvest for you, whether you wish to sow a peaceful home, a safe neighborhood, or plenty of employment opportunity in the coming year.
Different dollies might have items added to them with sympathetic magick in mind. If you wish to make a corn dolly, you might also try some of the following decorations for it with magickal intent.
If you wish to see a new lover or marriage in the coming year, make two corn dollies—dress one like a bride and one like a groom (or two brides and two grooms, as appropriate.) Leave each one offerings of wedding cakes (you can buy sample pieces at most bakeries) or perhaps leave small offerings of mini-champagne bottles. Sing the bridal march to them and tuck pamphlets for honeymoon locations around them. If the new partner does not emerge in that year, burn them at the next autumn and start over again with new dolls.
If you wish to see greater fertility, abundance, or creativity in your home, pour water over the dolly once a day. In some parts of England, the last reaper carried the corn dolly home. Along the way, other villagers threw water on the reaper and on the dolly or sometimes dunked the dolly and the reaper together in a nearby stream.
If you want more money in the house, weigh down the center of the dolly with stones and weave ribbons into its body to represent hard work. If you practice a profession with a specific uniform, dress the dolly in a miniature version of that uniform. You might want to give it an apron, pens, computer or typewriter keys, or any other small symbol that imitates the work you do. Ritually feed it over the year by leaving it small offerings of honey, bread, beer, and apples. At the end of the year, dispose of it with burial or burning.
The most ancient of magick practitioners used what they had on hand. It’s a good place to work from when designing spells. If you live in an area with lots of oak trees, for instance, use acorns, late season herbs, and colored leaves. If you live in an area with palm trees, you might want to use sand, palm tree leaves, or the broken stem of a succulent. If you stumble at crafting, you can also simply buy a package of cornhusks at a grocery store and stuff them with the other magickal symbols that serve your purpose. Pay attention to the subtle changes as the equinox passes through your part of Earth—then create your own spells using the things you witness change before your eyes.
Divinations and Lucky Charms
Our agricultural ancestors worried about the future just as much as we do. While we use tarot cards, meteorologists, and runes to find out what awaits us in the next season, those who went before relied on the tools around them to divine the future and perhaps to influence it.
Wine, Beer, and Water: Drink to Your Future
This comes from a playful Polish tradition, one of many in which someone tries to predict something about a future spouse. Better yet, it calls upon the three liquids of the harvest: wine, beer, and water.
This charm one partakes with a partner, preferably not a romantic one!
Set a glass of wine, a pilsner of beer, and a cup of water on a table. Then, sit with your back to the room so your expression can’t influence your partner’s choice—you may want to watch through a mirror. Have your partner come in after you and drink from any of the three beverages. If your partner drinks wine, you will marry rich. If beer, you will always have work. If water, you will stay single.
The Mabon Tarot Spread
You’ve heard the adage “as you sow, now shall you reap.” This is a way to look at what energy you have put down and where it will lead—and what you will have to work with when your path has led in its own direction. All you need for this is a deck of tarot cards and space to spread them out. You may also want a camera to take pictures of your reading and a notebook to write out your gut responses.
This spread requires twenty-four cards total. You will spread and lay down cards in three groups of eight.
On the first shuffle, first lay down four cards. This represents what you have sown in the past. Then lay down an additional four cards directly beneath them. This is what you will reap because of the action referred to in the cards above it. Shuffle the cards and repeat the whole process two more times so you have three sets of cards to interpret.
The first eight cards represent your more distant past, things sown and reaped long ago. The second eight refer to your immediate past and present, and the last eight refer to your distant future.
There are very few fixed meanings in the cards. Usually only the Tower represents anything drastic, while Death represents permanent, deep psychological change. In this spread, however, a few more cards may appear, and because it is at an equinox, they may bear more weight than they do in the usual daily reading.
The Empress: This card is a signal of supreme fertility. If she shows up right-side up, all systems are go! If she appears inverted, however, you need to examine your relationships with the women around you. Ask yourself if you see mutual respect and shared power in the surrounding relationships.
The Chariot: This card can signal visitors or a journey. If it is right-side up, the querier may travel, and if inverted the querier may receive visitors. Since both can strain resources, look at the cards on either side of it to get any hint for a timeline.
Justice and Judgment: Justice is about having what is lost restored to you; Judgment is about the necessity of responsible actions. Often when one shows up in a reading the other follows shortly after. If Temperance appears near these cards, it is a signal that what has happened is a direct consequence of your own choices. If the Magician appears, you have the power to change it. If the Priestess appears, it is time to seek higher wisdom.
You can check photos and notes of your tarot reading from one harvest to the next. Make notes when you change course or seek additional wisdom—see how it affects your life over time.
Horseshoe Charm
An old superstition says finding a horseshoe is good luck. That makes sense as horseshoes are expensive! In old British tradition, a horseshoe affixed up above the barn door brought good luck (downward could pour out the luck—so keep those curves upward!) In modern day, affixing a horseshoe over a garage door or over a door that leads to the garage might also suffice. Perhaps this is not an overt harvest superstition, but it does remind us of our agricultural roots.
Michaelmas Daisy Divination
Remember playing “s/he loves me, s/he loves me not?” on some hapless flower? The game originally used the Michaelmas daisy, a small, white flower that blossomed in central Great Britain around the end of September. You can perform this divination on any flower. (Just make sure you don’t take that flower from someone else’s yard!) Ask any yes or no question, but don’t cheat by counting the petals first!