Mabon – Autumn Equinox & Second Harvest | Celtic Wheel of the Year

Mabon – Celebrating the Second Harvest around the time of September Equinox (northern hemisphere).

Virgo Sun Season, is phasing in, in waves, and brings with it the first of that particular quality of late August and September - still warm in the afternoon sun, but with a coolness in the morning that wasn't there a few weeks ago. The hedgerows have been heavy with fruit and seeds. My allotment is asking for a tidy up - the Wheel of the Year is moving - and this year, if I hadn't had my wheelbarrow stolen a couple of months back, its wheels would be moving too.

Mabon's appreciative spirit celebrates the second harvest and is associated with the Autumn Equinox - for the U.K. falling between September 20th to 24 depending on the year. Aka the moment when day and night stand in equal length before the dark of night becomes more than the light of day. The exact time when day and night are actually equal in length in your specific area is called the Equilux. The date for this event depends on your latitude.

The second harvest festival of the modern Celtic Wheel of the Year, sits between Lughnasadh (the first cutting of grain in August, or earlier in a drought year) and Samhain (the final harvest and the thinning of the veil in October).

At Mabon, the orchards, allotment gardens, and farmers fields are heavy with the fire element part of the plants - fruits, nuts & seeds. The fire element foods created from the summer's sun energy. If we've been blessed, our larder, and in modern times, our freezer will be full. Mabon is another time to count, and utilise, what we have grown, or to just appreciate the beauty of the changing season's details.

The Name Mabon – Where Does It Come From?

The name Mabon comes from Welsh mythology – specifically from Mabon ap Modron, meaning 'Son of The Mother', a divine child figure from the ancient Welsh tales of the Mabinogion. Mabon was a god of youth, light, and liberation – stolen away as an infant and held in the otherworld until rescued by King Arthur's men. His story is one of the great Celtic myths of loss, seeking, and return.

Mabon is a modern Celtic Year named celebration, that is a much loved new term that was only formally applied to the autumn equinox festival in the 1970s, by the American Pagan scholar Aidan Kelly, as part of his codification of the modern Wheel of the Year.

Before that, the autumn equinox had no single agreed recorded Celtic name – it was simply the harvest tide, the turning of the year, the moment of balance. Many modern Pagans and Wiccans use Mabon; others prefer Alban Elfed (the Druidic name, meaning 'Light of the Water') or simply Harvest Home, the old English tradition of giving thanks for the gathered harvest. Now for many of us Mabon is another wonderful heartfelt tribute to Mother Nature. Any excuse right?

Whatever name you use, the roots run deep – into the ancient harvest thanksgiving traditions of Britain and Europe.

---

The Equinox – A Moment of Perfect Balance

Twice a year, the sun crosses the celestial equator and day and night become equal – twelve hours of light, twelve hours of dark. At the spring equinox (Ostara), we tip toward the light. At the autumn equinox (Mabon), we tip toward the dark. For one brief, still moment, the day and night are perfectly balanced from our perspective.

• Count Down to September Equinox this year
• Cultural Customs around the September Equinox

The Earth Element, True sidereal / Real Sky 'Sun in Virgo Season' sits between September 15 and November 4th. It is the time of the year that the sun from earth's perspective traverses through the constellation of the harvest maiden.

The Virgo sun season carries this beautifully - Virgo's gift is discernment, the ability to sort the wheat from the chaff, to refine and improve, and ultimately to provide and facilitate better service. The second harvest is not just about what grows in the fields, or in our case the allotment, it is about what we choose to appreciate, share but also the choices we make to refine our service going forward.

In the Five Element tradition of TCM, the Earth Element Season is called Late Summer – energy of nourishment, fulfilment, and being held and fed by the Divine Mother energy.

---

The Second Harvest

Lughnasadh in August was the first harvest – read our Blog Article to find out about the cutting of the grain and baking of the first loaf. Mabon is similar but different. By the autumn equinox, the full abundance of the growing season in the U.K. is about the late fruits. The orchard is heavy with apples and pears. The root vegetables are ready to lift. Corn / maize is ready to harvest. Our native nuts are forming helped by the Virgo rains. The hedgerows have been dripping with berries, we have already made jam, or frozen them for winter storage – healthy and full of vitamin C and phytonutrients to keep our bodies fit throughout the dark and cold part of the year.

Late summer season – is a good moment to stand in the middle of what you have grown and feel the weight of it. Not to rush past it toward winter regretting summer's passing. Actually stop and see what's a valuable memory, a true gift, or learnt lesson.

 

 

On our allotment garden, between the end of August and end of September:- corn cobs are swelling on their stalks (2026 my second year growing them – three mini-plots this time, and many more cobs than last year, whoo hoo); early pumpkins have already turned orange; the later ones still growing, green, yellow and swelling; mini-white pumpkins keep producing more - quietly, steadily, hardly noticeable but one after another - more gifts to give; new chard sowings are strengthening between the onion beds; ready to pick at Equinox - Tromboncino and butternut squash are colouring up; and the early blackberries – I picked them last weekend and froze, fat and sweet from the allotment hedgerow. Other years I have had bags of elderberries frozen by Equinox…

N.B. - Elderberries are brilliant for winter coughs & cold support but do not eat without a quick cook first to neutralise their toxic elements - Raw elderberries contain cyanogenic glycosides (specifically a compound called sambunigrin), which break down during digestion to release toxic hydrogen cyanide - not so yummy - so follow good herbal books / videos instructions for all foraging.

My 82 year old mum and I went Damson hunting in the week of writing this. She made potted jam - my appreciation and abundance right there.

---

Giving Thanks – The Mabon Harvest Audit

Auditing, databases, recording, checking, verifying is a very Virgo born power and Mabon asks us to be intentional about gratitude. Not the passive, polite kind – but the active, eyes-open kind. The kind that requires you to actually look at what you have grown this year and name it.

This is what I think of as the Mabon Harvest Audit – a personal ritual of counting. Not just the vegetables and the jam. The inner harvest too. What did you begin this year that took root? What surprised you? What are you carrying forward into the darker months?

For me, this Mabon brings some clear answers. I have made new, more balanced lifestyle promises – simpler habits I can actually achieve without getting overwhelmed. That feels very Virgo: the second harvest refinement, the sorting of what is sustainable from what is not. I began new habits in the Leo sun season – habits of sharing, of reaching out, of making my days easier and my connections more joyful. I am sticking with them. That is a harvest worth counting.

I also meditated with a crystal, for the first time as part of writing product copy – sitting with the stone, letting it speak before I put words to it. The results were remarkable. Reminding me of my previous years as a natural healthcare professional where meditating on crystals was a daily occurrence - now a new refined practice, with a slightly differing purpose - not a one to one healing but an online support for many. Another new seed in the ground. And a new reaped reward from previous learning and actions.

As I write - the Capricorn full moon towards the end of Leo Sun Season, brought its own extra earthy energy – a disciplined day to clear, to mark boundaries, to put plant matter and soil back into the earth. I found myself unearthing pots of dead plants on the allotment, unused potting up, cleaning trays, and composting what was finished. If we know our seasonal energy well and listen in you will catch your inner life moving together through the Wheel of the Year. You just have to know its language and timing.

---

What's in the Hedgerows – Seasonal Abundance

No garden, no allotment? - Step outside at Equinox and you can notice for yourself, the season is writing itself in the hedgerows. The rosehips are out – bright orange-red on the rose stems. Ivy flowers are feeding the late summer's bees which in turn are pollinating the Ivy, the smell of its pollen fills the air. Honeysuckle already has dropping berry seeds but is still flowering and feeding the night moths like elephant hawk moth. The Michaelmas daisies are in full bloom in the street gardens, that particular soft but glowing purple that belongs entirely to September. Autumn crocus and cyclamens have pushed through to brighten the dark soil below – those quiet, determined little flowers that appear as if from nowhere, right on cue.

My new white dahlias seem late to me - they went in during spring and it has been so dry since then that they are only just beginning to bloom or perhaps because they were gifts and I've been eagerly waiting all summer to take a snap and report back to my sister. Just in time for Mabon here's 'My Love' - appropriate right?

My mum has already bought her girls some spring daff bulbs to put in. Even as we harvest, we are already curating / planting the next beginning. The wheel never stops turning.

What to do with the hedgerow harvest: blackberries for jam, crumbles, and freezing. Rosehips for syrup (rich in Vitamin C, perfect for the colder months ahead). Damsons for jam and gin. Elderberries for tincture or cordial. Hazelnuts to dry and store. Apples to press, to dehydrate, bake, to preserve.

---

Mabon Crystals & Earth Gifts

The crystals of Mabon reflect the dual energy of the equinox – the warmth of what has been grown, and the turning toward the quiet of winter.

Citrine leads the Mabon crystal collection. The stone of the harvest audit – forward-facing, warm, Mercury and Virgo aligned. Citrine carries the energy of counting your abundance with excitement rather than anxiety. It is the stone of the merchant who has had a good season and is already planning the next one.

Yellow Jade holds the Earth element energy of late summer - grounding, nourishing, present. If Citrine looks forward, Yellow Jade asks you to be here, now, in the fullness of what is.

Smoky Quartz speaks to the Metal element beginning to stir – the exhale, the letting go, the composting of what is finished. Just as I cleared dead plants from the allotment this week, Smoky Quartz supports the clearing of what no longer serves.

Carnelian carries the warmth of summer into the darker months – a coal to keep the fire going through autumn and winter. Grounding, energising, deeply seasonal.

Moss Agate is the stone of the harvest itself – connection to the land, to growth, to the slow and patient work of tending something over time.

✨ Explore our Mabon crystal collection in: Mabon Seasonal Treasury

---

Celebrating Mabon at Home

You do not need a ritual or a ceremony to mark the equinox. You just need to notice it.

You could light a candle, tea light, or incense, 5 minutes before the moment of your personal Equilux – and sit with it for a few minutes. The mere fact you hunted out your own aligned moment in the universe, is enough to pull you into the present moment and the start of flow state.

Or try the Mabon Harvest Audit: sit with a piece of Citrine, a notebook, and a quiet half hour. Write down what you have grown this year – in the garden, in your work, in yourself. What took root? What surprised you? What are you carrying forward? What are you going to compost to feed the soil/matrix for next year?

Other simple ways to mark the season:

• Make something with seasonal produce – a blackberry crumble, a pot of jam, an apple cake
• Walk somewhere with hedgerows and collect rosehips, conkers, or fallen leaves
• Bring late summer flowers indoors – Michaelmas daisies, dahlias, the last roses with their orange hips, or dried flower seed heads
• Plant spring bulbs – the Mabon paradox of planting the next beginning as you harvest this one
• Tidy, organise or clear one thing that is finished – a drawer, a corner of the garden, a habit that can be refined or no longer fits

The equinox itself does not ask for grand gestures - it is just a single moment of the great cosmic revolving clocks. But we can use this time of the year for our presence and focus. For a moment of stillness in the daily rush, to honour what has been and what's to come, to look more thoughtfully with more joy at what is around us at this time of the turning year and notice:

I see what I have grown. I see how I have grown. I am grateful. I appreciate. I am ready to plan, improve and refine in readiness for what I can provide as service to myself and others, in the next phase of the year - so says the earth element, mutual, Virgo Sun Season of the year. *

The Mabon name may be new. But the feelings are as old as the land that our ancestors stood on, working out how best to use the current harvest and how best to grow next year's.

* Virgo is the 6th life house in western astrology – the stage after Leo's free-child creative/ imaginary play and before Libra's teen/adult world of relating to others. Virgo represents a time set aside for analysis, refinement, and service. 🧐

---

---

---