Mabon (MA-bon) is one of the eight Sabbats or one of the four lesser Sabbats. It’s a solar festival, celebrated on March 20th-23rd in the Southern Hemisphere and is the festival of the completion of harvest, where we appreciate the goddess of the land for the bountiful harvest, and give thanks to the abundance of the earth. This is a good time to perform spells of balance, harmony, protection, wealth and prosperity.
Themes:giving thanks to the land for the harvest, taking satisfaction in the work of the summer and reaping its benefits, the balance of light and dark (the autumn equinox is when the length of day and night are equal)
Symbols:cornucopia (attracts prosperity and abundance), divination (throw runes or pull tarot cards in the evening, as your fate for the coming year is sealed at this time), besom/broomstick (sweep away negativity, or place over the doorway for protection from unwanted energies)
Herbs:benzoin (relieves stress, anxiety, burn for purification or mix with cinnamon and basil for incense to attract customers), marigold (green bag with marigold beneath pillow for luck and fortune), cinnamon and orange peel (can be used together with sage for smoke cleansing)
Simple ways of celebrating: donate to charity, eat fruit, wear maroon or gold colours, take a minute to reflect and give thanks for your food, jump in crunch dried leaves, clean your home, light red/brown/orange/white candles
Altar items: cornucopia, apples, berries, harvest vegetables, handmade besom, maroon and gold items, art, crunchy dried leaves, pinecones, acorns, rose quartz and amber crystals
Food to share: apple pies, bread, grains, pomegranates, apples, pumpkin, apple cider, wine, home-made jam
ACornucopia is an altar decoration used to symbolise Mabon and the second harvest. It can be filled with dried sage, rosemary, thyme, parsley, and a handwritten wish. After the wish has come true, either bury it in the ground or burn it in a sacred fire after. While in countries like America you can buy them in stores around thanksgiving time, it might be more difficult to find in Southern Hemisphere countries, so you can buy them online like from Amazon or Etsy, or just use a small weaved basket instead.
This is a tea that my mum used to make for me that I’ve converted into a happiness spell! It’s a very basic recipe, then you can make it your own by changing around the ingredients. I’ve listed some optional suggestions that you could use with different correspondents for different intentions.
As you can see, I added clear quartz crystals and a citrine crystal to charge it further with positivity. Then I stirred a sigil for positivity into the drink with my spoon (I am happy and radiate positivity). Edit: here’s a link on how to make sigils!
What you need:
2 tsp honey
½ tsp cinnamon
½ cup boiling water
½ cup milk
What to do:
Mix the honey, cinnamon and water together in a mug until combined.
Froth the milk with a milk frothing tool or by whisking/shaking very violently (Optional)
Add the milk
Garnish with cinnamon
Optional:
The ratio of boiling water to milk should bring the drink down to the perfect temperature!
With milk, you can add peppermint to soothe the stomach, chamomile to soothe the throat and encourage sleep, ginger to soothe the throat, or cayenne pepper to clear the sinuses.
Without milk, you can add a bit of lemon to boost the immune system.
You can replace the water with a herbal tea of your choices such as lavender or chamomile.
You can replace the milk with almond milk or any milk of choice.
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Here’s the explanation for this spell for fellow baby witches
Spells come in many forms, including drinkable ones! You can call them potions if you like. They involve using herbs/flavours/scents etc with specific correspondents to fulfil a specific intention.
Honey signifies happiness and positivity and expels negativity, depression and anxiety.
Milk has correspondents too! Full cream milk signifies prosperity, nurturing, protection, success. Warm milk eases anxiety and anger. Here’s a list of correspondents for non-dairy milk typesby@heximari
Citrine is a crystal that boosts joy and optimism, and clear quartz is used for protection and as an amplifier for other crystals.
Sigils are statements of intent drawn up into a little picture which you can write on your skin, on a paper, or in this case, stir into tea, to make a spell work better.
This one’s been in the works for me for a week or so but I finally had enough peace in my busy moving schedule to sit down and make a pair - one for the front door and one for the back.
Use 9 silver [coloured] bells in place of knots or feathers so that these double as a door protection Witch Bell/s. Their peal as the door is opened wards off dark energies and brings in positive energy.
Use 3 threads:
Blue - for peace, calm, healing and protection
Yellow - for clear communication (So important in a share house)
Black- to absorb negative energy
I used embroidery thread but strips of fabric or anything you have around will do fine, as long as your bells can thread on.
Tie a loop large enough to slip on to your door handle, and then thread on your first bell. I always thread my bells onto the black thread so that they will reinforce each others ability to repel and control dark energies.
Start plaiting! Each time you cross a thread over repeat to yourself its purpose: “peace and calm, clear communication absorb the negative, peace and calm, clear communication, absorb the negative-” I find this helps my intent stay focused for such long projects.
When you’ve plaited enough space that your bells won’t touch, thread on another. Repeat this until the 9th bell. Tie this one on with a strong ending statement such as “In this Home!” Or “So mote it be!”
Trim your excess thread (unless you want straggly-chic). Plop it on your door and thank it in advance for its work. You’re done!
This is still heavily doing the rounds (well, relative to the rest of my stuff) and, wow?
I bring an update.
They seemed to work beautifully for me. And then, due to medical requirements, I moved…
New house and new housemates. My instincts told me to make new ladders but I ignored them, eep. I reused these two. One broke within a month (the loop snapped) and household peace REALLY broke. It’s been a whole lot of drama for 8 months, really. Housemates breaking lease, crazy accusations, people being unwilling to pay their bills or clean…
So… do as I say, don’t do as I do, and make new ones for each house!!
Meanwhile I’ll be doing a massive deep cleanse this beltane…
This is a cocktail I designed for Ostara based around some gorgeous local products:
Goanna Hut Tea, a company founded by australian indigenous woman and chef Jo-Anne Wolles, Eclipse blend (I bought this from t2tea) and,
McHenry Butterfly Gin, brewed in Tasmania’s Port Arthur.
Both contain native Blue Pea Flower, which releases a deep blue colour that is a universal pH indicator so the addition of lemon juice turns it purple.
The predominant flavour is the teas lavendar creating an amazingly floral lemonade.
8 serves, ~16 standard drinks
Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
3 cups water
1 cup lemon juice (approx. 5 lemons)
McHenry Butterfly Pea Gin
½ cup Goanna Hut Eclipse Tea
2 cups tonic water
Ice
For the tea you can substitute 2.5tbs of each green tea, blue pea flowers, and lavendar. Both options provide plenty of blue so you can also use any gin of choice.
Method:
In a pot combine sugar, water, and tea.
Bring to a boil and the remove from heat, allow to sit covered for 10 minutes.
Combine lemon juice and tonic water.
Strain tea mixture through a fine mesh sieve, reserving the blue sugar syrup and throwing out the solids. Chill in fridge.
Fill glasses with ice. For each glass pour a shot of gin over the ice, then pour in the sugar syrup until the glass is half full.
Get ready to watch the amazing colour change: slowly pour the lemon mix over a spoon into the glasses to fill. The idea is to reduce mixing with the sugar syrup so a nice ombre is created.
For a mocktail, don’t add the gin.
For a lemonade, replace tonic water with water (and… ditch the gin).
Look after yourselves when drinking alcohol. Have plenty of water too! Xo
Riesling for Ostara Honey Cakes and Butterfly Gin for my own floral cocktail. The latter I will post a recipe for… soon. I’m making it tomorrow night so I’ll grab photos then :) Sorry I dont have it available before spring equinox ♀️
Riesling for Ostara Honey Cakes and Butterfly Gin for my own floral cocktail. The latter I will post a recipe for… soon. I’m making it tomorrow night so I’ll grab photos then :) Sorry I dont have it available before spring equinox ♀️
My new kitchen has a huge oven and I was excited to host the sabbat banquets of my dreams. I’d invited my closest loves weeks in advance, I had multiple meals planned…
And then life struck… all of us.
1. Even if I COULD find all the ingredients I needed for my recipes right now, I don’t think I could have morally justified a banquet at this time.
2. I am currently unemployed and my partner works in a non-ICU area of the hospital so his employment is up in the air. I couldn’t justify the cash drop.
3. Social. Distancing.
4. To top it all off, Mabon morning I got hit with one of my signature migraines. It lasted 3 days, in all.
But I did acheive a thing!
I made Buckeyes.
I actually realised halfway through that I had no skewers or toothpicks for dipping so after desperately thinking I settled on… the wooden end of an incense stick!
