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Mabon
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Mabon The sun grows weaker by the day the light it gives has turned yellow and the nights grow colder night by night...It is September now and the day and night length approach equality.... In ancient Celtic lands this time was the harvest ...before oil and gas and combines and farm machines ...EVERY LAST HAND was busy either harvesting food or preserving it for the long winter ahead. The ancients noticed that there was one day in the month of September where the light and dark length was exactly equal...this day they called "Mabon" or "Harvest Home" and it generally falls on September 21 or 22 Since in ancient times the sun was associated with particular gods the Day length also became associated with those gods as well. In September the night's length eclipses the day's length and so the ancients had to have an explanation for this. Their explanation was a killing and a betrayal. In the Welsh and Irish traditions the Sun god Lugh (or Llew) is betrayed by the earth goddess who is his wife who tricks him into putting himself into a vulnerable position whereupon he is slain by her lover Goronwy (who represents the God of Night) ---the vulnerable position she tricks him into is standing balanced with his legs wide spread and one foot on the back of a goat and the other on the lip of a cauldron. The Goat would be Capricorn and the Cauldron is a well known ancient symbol for Cancer (the Zodiac Signs that the sun is "in" at the time of the Summer and Winter Solstices) and the Equinoxes (like Mabon---AKA the Autumnal Equinox) are the "balance points" between them and in the Welsh stories the Sun god is NOT actually killed he is struck by a spear wielded by Goronwy and transformed into an Eagle---which is an ancient symbol for the Zodiac Sign of Scorpio (which the sun moves into in September and October). After "killing" the Sun god the Lord of Night promptly mates with the Earth Goddess (named Blodwuedd in the Welsh stories and Isis in Egypt and Demeter or Gaea in Greece and Ceres in Rome) and impregnates her with his own reincarnation ---to be born 9 months later in June on the Summer Solstice. In Christian Mythos Jesus took the place of the Sun Gods Mithras (Iran/Iraq), Ra (AKA Re--Egypt) , Osiris (Egypt), Apollo (Greece and Rome), Llew and Lugh (Welsh Britain and Irish and Gaelic) among others. Jesus did not take on the stories associated with these Gods except on one or two major points. these points being... without exception the sun gods were born in December (at the Solstice) of a virgin and were betrayed killed by their evil brother or twin at some point in the narrative. In the Christian Mythos the evil brother is Satan or the Devil---who took the place of the "evil twins" of other Mythos such as Goronwy (Welsh), Set (Egypt) and all the other representations of Darkness or Night in other lands. In the Christian Mythos the Betrayer is NOT a woman close to or even married to Christ but rather a MAN (Judas Iscariot) who points out Jesus to the Roman Guards who then take him away to be killed and it is attributed to be fundamentally the "work of Satan" that is at the heart of why he is killed in he Christian Mythos. The fundamental story of Betrayal, Murder and Transformation survives as does the "victory" of Darkness over Light and the reverse---Light over Darkness around Easter in the form of the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ. The Church Fathers did a really good job back then of eliminating anything to do with the Sun or the movement of the planets (of which they were back then only a few others besides Earth actually known to exist). They also eliminated a goodly portion of the feminine influences in the story (the Earth goddesses and several of the pagan goddess were all folded into Mary the Virgin and all mention of the healthy sexuality of the pagans was completely expunged sex was converted into something "impure" or "dirty". The Stories passed down through ancient times to describe the movements of the heavens were transformed into the tales of a MAN and to this day they don't quite fit but put them into Astronomical contexts ...and suddenly all the pieces fall into place Mabon is one of the Balance Points of the year ALL the forces of life are visibly in motion the leaves changing animals going to sleep the air colder with each passing day even humans are preparing for the Dark Time of the year ...holding one another close...stoking the fire... and hoping that the Sun returns from his 3 month journey in the Underworld----as in ancient times there really was the fear that at one time or another the sun would stay weak and Summer never would come again |
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