Practicing Joy at Mabon

The topic this week at the on-line Spiral Steps meeting this week is Step 7, and the moderator has asked us to focus on the latter part of that step: "We let go of dysfunctional thoughts and behaviors and we consciously welcome joy, love and peace into our lives."

Here in our home, we are getting ready to celebrate the return of the autumnal equinox and the harvest moon. I haven't written much since the oil spill began as the terrible threat posed to wildlife in the gulf took up so much of my time. Like so many others, I'm feeling tired and worn as the wheel turns but I am also full of gratitude for those first responders and wildlife rescue volunteers who did so much against such great odds, who faced (ongoing) deceit on the part of BP and such (ongoing) ineptitude on the part our government. The threat to residents and wildlife in the gulf is still very great (1) and there is still much work to do, but the well is capped, at last, and for that, I'm grateful.

I can't speak for any of the gulf residents or volunteers, or indeed, any of you, but I think that, like the wetlands, we all need restoration. I know that I, who have only served on the sidelines and then only in very small ways, need joy. So I am grateful for this topic at Spiral Steps and I'm giving it some thought. Here is where I find myself at Mabon:

I am working today to welcome creativity and peace into my life. For me, peace means time and silence, gifts I must give to myself. As I said, I need joy. Not delirious, short-lived, over-the-top joy, just the simply, daily, ongoing, quiet joy I used to have, joy I created for myself over time. Small threads make a tapestry and small actions make for a life filled with joy. I can have that joy again if I am willing to claim it.

I take joy in walking my dog. She's a pound puppy but it's anyone guess who really rescued who. I take joy in living in the glorious Pacific Northwest, near a town so unique and charming that the bumper stickers read "Keep Portland Weird". I take joy in working with animals, in making new friends and cherishing old ones and in making a difference where and how I can. I take joy in good books, in music, and good meals. I take joy in listening to my heart, in speaking my truth with kindness and in making connections to people and to this green-minded, tolerant, polite place that supports my path in healthy ways. I take joy in what I've learned and in knowing that I'm brave enough and strong enough to learn more, and that the learning doesn't always have to be done the hard way. I take joy in laughing with my loved ones every day. I take joy in the foster kittens currently turning our guest room into a circus tent.

I also take joy in the fact that my mother is still with us and that she is glad to be so. She has suffered a year full of accidents, health problems, surgeries and visits to the ER; a year we all now refer to as the Annus Horribilis, but she is once again independent and active. (2)

I am reminded by those who love me, that I have my own health to think of, now, and I have promised to move my body more, spend less time on the computer and more time out in the woods. I will be quiet more often and let the silence speak to me. I have promised myself that I will write every day and take better care of myself physically. Tomorrow, I get a massage. I can't wait. I have an more of a reason to get one now since I read how much it can support my physical and mental health. (3)

I'm also using this time to get in touch with some joys I have lost. I don't know why I let these wonderful (and often simple, inexpensive) joys slip away but it is time now to reclaim them.



When I listen and look, ask for help, and remain open to the teaching that comes my way, I get what I need. This season, this year, I believe we are all asked to love ourselves a bit better, and to love Mamma Gaia much, much better than we've been doing. There exists for me, for others, and for unique, natural places like the gulf wetlands, an urgent need for conscious care, support and renewal. This is the wisdom I encounter more and more as I get older, and my practice makes that possible - what a joy that is.

Wishing the blessings of the season for you and yours,

Sia

Art is from a t-shirt offered by the International Bird Rescue Research Center. Please support the work they do rescuing wildlife in the gulf and elsewhere.

Photo: Gulf Oil Spill: Spoonbill release courtesy of IBRRC

Endnotes:

(1) While the well is finally capped, most of the oil is still on the bottom of the ocean, the wetlands are still a mess and millions of migrating birds are on their way to the gulf while many people in that area still face horrific job losses as well as health problems from breathing oil fumes and from the dangerous (and in many places, banned) chemicals used to disperse the oil.

(2) Recently we spoke about the fact that when she was my age, both her parents and her in-laws had all passed on. My generation is perhaps the first to care, en mass, for their elderly parents living into their 70's, 80's and 90's, while our parents struggle to keep their cherished independence and to navigate our dysfunctional health care system as they watch their retirement savings melt away. Legally speaking, I am her primary caregiver, but really, I'm a member of Team Mom and she's the captain. This is a respectful and sometimes difficult dance we do, and I could not do it alone. I have my spouse and my friends (many of whom share the same experiences) as well as her friends, and some very good doctors and nurses to help us all through this. My thoughts today are with all those who acting as caregivers to young and old alike, and with elders like my mother who face the challenges of aging with grace, humor and courage.

(3) I also have two doctors appointments next week for routine tests. I will get my mammogram on time this year and take joy in the fact that I have access to health care and that I get to live a healthier, enriched life if I'm willing to do the work. My sister who died of breast cancer at 47 did not get that choice. I owe it to her to take care of myself and to cherish the gift of health.

Mabon & Equinox: Rituals, Recipes, Essays, and Links

This post is offering to those of you who celebrate Mabon & Equinox. It contains some links, articles and recipes to inspire you as we enter Fall.

I have many things to be grateful for this year, including that fact that today makes it 24 years since I quit smoking. People I love who did not do so are gone now. I allow little room in my life for hate, but I do hate cancer. This post is dedicated to those in the Earthwise Community who seek health and healing. May they find the tools, the teachers and the courage they need to face change. I say this as someone who needs to visit the gym and put in those yoga tapes more often then she does....

Have you ever made such a powerful change that it leaves an imprint, not only on your life, but on the very time of year it happened, for many years after? It's that way for me at fall equinox. Powerful changes come to me now in the fall. I quit smoking for good at equinox, as I said, after dozens of other attempts. I wondered then where I would be a year later. When the wheel had turned, I stood in circle, holding hands, as a group of us honored a dear friend and mentor. Her two year old danced in the redwood grove while we remembered her mother and I thought "Carpe Diem". I think that every year around this time. That girl is in her 20's now, happy and healthy and tending to children of her own. Mary, if you're watching, you must be pleased.

Mary was smarter then me in many ways. She never smoked. Nevertheless, she died of heart disease - another cruel killer of women - when she was only 40. So today, in her honor, I'm going to ask, "How is your heart health?" If you don't know that answer to that question, maybe it's time you saw your doctor. Like my own said, learn and live.

Many years ago at this time I also forgave some childhood hurts that had been a difficult burden. I've felt lighter ever since. Soon after another equinox, I left a long relationship and began a Saturn Return that left me breathless and shaken, but whole. Years later when I was living more of my life, and not someone else's, I began new work worth doing. The harvest that choice produced has blessed me to this day. So that's how it goes; change comes to me in the time when the apples ripen and fall. As I scatter small Gala apples for the deer who come to our meadow, and begin to make Pink Lady pies, I watch and wait for the lesson.

Meanwhile, dog and I are going on the road. We'll be staying with old friends and hiking in well loved places during the fall holidays. Dog wants me to take a rest from the computer. Madame, I hear and obey. I'll take up the blog again when I get back.

All good things,

Sia Vogel

Fall Equinox Celebrations - A Cultural Overview

Mabon Offering and Gratitude

An Apple Harvest Rite

How Can I Keep From Singing by Sarah Sutterfield Winn
Excerpt: It’s amazing how quickly the oppressive thoughts of late summer evaporate as the world opens and shines holy like a morning glory in mid-September. I am half rock n’ roll and half gregorian chant as I stare down the long, golden road of fall - noticing as I drive the long dusty farm roads to various appointments, how the corn turns a rusty shade of red and blushes new as a peach at sunset. How the rain comes cold and sweet like a lemon. How the creeks lap at the grass and wax blue as the best evening sky.

And here I sit in the breathless perfection of creeping spectacular death - the tending to the sleeping bed of the Mama before her long, ancient nap - and….well, it’s hard to stay irritated when the world is just so freakin’ gorgeous.

Mabon by Hecate
Excerpt: I swear by all that's holy (and, let's face it, I'm a witch.I think that it's all holy. The pretty stuff: the flowers and the mountains and the flowing river and the sunlight on the water and the softness of a baby's cheek and the maiden's blush and an eagle and waves and firelight and brave deeds, and the widdershins stuff: the worms and the decay and the mold and the spiders and the cold and the dark and the crone's greed for the warm spot by the fire and the fear and the death. So, it's a lot to swear by) that yesterday, when I drove home from work, the trees along the Potomac River were green. And, tonight, literally overnight, they've begun to turn yellow and brown. As if Mother Earth were saying: here. Here's the boundary.

Mabon and the Harvest in Modern Times by the Tarotlaydee
Excerpt: In these modern times, a spiritual way to look at this time of year is, what did you harvest and bring to your hearth this year? Give thanks to the God and the Goddess for what you have been able to accomplish. Cut away the chaff, the useless things and situations that are slowing your life down. Since we are coming to the end of our Pagan year, what can you hope and plan to accomplish next year? How can you spread some of your good fortune around to others who are needy? How can you work to balance any conflict that is around you? ... It is also time to thank the God and the Goddess for the special people in your life. These things are your modern day "Harvest."

Wabi Sabi at Molly's Blog
Elizabeth’s pictures suggest there is no obligation to strive for something other than what is or to strive to explain everything fully. They have an acceptance of transience. the illusive, and the natural processes that break down everything except the loving eye that bears witness to this brokenness...Flowers never try to hold onto this peak moment, because going to seed is as important to them as their peak moment of beauty. Unlike our culture, they make no effort to hold onto some impossible moment of eternal youth. And this surrender is not a loss. The gardens have a deep beauty and gravitas as they pass into fall and winter. Plant architecture may be broken, but in fall, the gardens have great heart and wisdom.

(My thanks to Hecate for pointing me to this blog)

Recipes:

Recipes from 2 Witches Blog

Incense mixtures & recipes

Sea Turtle Wisdom Bread and Harvest Morning Muffins

Irish Herb Scones, Apple Butter & more

Chedder Cheese Bread and Fall Leaf Cookies (Pagan recipes for the holidays)

Off the Shelf

An Apple Harvest

Autumn Equinox: The Enchantment of Mabon

Mabon: Celebrating the Autumn Equinox


Happy Fall Equinox and Blessed Mabon to all here.

Go well, stay well, Sia

Images

Norse Goddess Idun by Kris Waldherr

Apple Harvest by David Lawton. Prints are available at Foxhall Gallery

Fall Equinox & Mabon: Rituals, Recipes and Gratitude Lists

This post is my offering to you all for Mabon & Equinox. It contains some links, articles and recipes to inspire you as we enter Fall.

I have many things to be grateful for this year, including that fact that today makes it 24 years since I quite smoking. People I love who did not do so are gone now. I allow little room in my life for hate, but I do hate cancer. This post is dedicated to those in the Earthwise Community who seek health and healing. May they find the tools, the teachers and the courage they need to face change. I say this as someone who needs to visit the gym and put in those yoga tapes more often then she does....

Have you ever made such a powerful change that it leaves an imprint, not only on your life, but on the very time of year it happened, for many years after? It's that way for me at fall equinox. Powerful changes come to me now in the fall. I quite smoking at equinox, then stood in cirlce at a dear friend's memorial the year after as her two year old dance in the redwood grove while we remembered her mother. That girl is in her 20's now, happy and healthy and tending to children of her own. Mary, if you're watching, you must be pleased. I forgave some hurts that had been a long and difficult burden many years ago at Mabon and I've felt lighter ever since. I left a long relationship as well, and then, years later when I was living more of my life and less of his, I began work that has blessed me to this day. Change comes to me in the time when the apples ripen and fall. As I scatter small galas for the deer who come to our meadow, and begin to make pink lady pies I watch and wait for the next one.

Meanwhile, dog and I are going on the road. We'll be staying with old friends and hiking in well loved places during the fall holidays. Dog wants me to take a rest from the computer. Madame, I hear and obey. I'll take up the blog again when I get back.

All good things,

Sia Vogel

Fall Equinox Celebrations - A Cultural Overview

Mabon Offering and Gratitude

An Apple Harvest Rite

How Can I Keep From Singing by Sarah Sutterfield Winn
Excerpt: It’s amazing how quickly the oppressive thoughts of late summer evaporate as the world opens and shines holy like a morning glory in mid-September. I am half rock n’ roll and half gregorian chant as I stare down the long, golden road of fall - noticing as I drive the long dusty farm roads to various appointments, how the corn turns a rusty shade of red and blushes new as a peach at sunset. How the rain comes cold and sweet like a lemon. How the creeks lap at the grass and wax blue as the best evening sky.

And here I sit in the breathless perfection of creeping spectacular death - the tending to the sleeping bed of the Mama before her long, ancient nap - and….well, it’s hard to stay irritated when the world is just so freakin’ gorgeous.

Mabon by Hecate
Excerpt: I swear by all that's holy (and, let's face it, I'm a witch.I think that it's all holy. The pretty stuff: the flowers and the mountains and the flowing river and the sunlight on the water and the softness of a baby's cheek and the maiden's blush and an eagle and waves and firelight and brave deeds, and the widdershins stuff: the worms and the decay and the mold and the spiders and the cold and the dark and the crone's greed for the warm spot by the fire and the fear and the death. So, it's a lot to swear by) that yesterday, when I drove home from work, the trees along the Potomac River were green. And, tonight, literally overnight, they've begun to turn yellow and brown. As if Mother Earth were saying: here. Here's the boundary.

Mabon and the Harvest in Modern Times by the Tarotlaydee
Excerpt: In these modern times, a spiritual way to look at this time of year is, what did you harvest and bring to your hearth this year? Give thanks to the God and the Goddess for what you have been able to accomplish. Cut away the chaff, the useless things and situations that are slowing your life down. Since we are coming to the end of our Pagan year, what can you hope and plan to accomplish next year? How can you spread some of your good fortune around to others who are needy? How can you work to balance any conflict that is around you? ... It is also time to thank the God and the Goddess for the special people in your life. These things are your modern day "Harvest."

Offerings and Harvest: Pagan Thoughts at Mabon by Sia Vogel
Sacrifice, balance, effort and change: Misconceptions abound around these themes. They are not shiny or sexy. They are not easy to grasp, easy to teach or easy to live. They will not help to sell your next book or workshop. The term sacrifice especially, carries with it a dysfunctional ideal of martyrdom, or worse, it conjures images of innocents lying slain on a bloody altar, the lives of others callously wasted in order to appease a vengeful, angry and jealous god. Pagans have no such deity, so is it any wonder that most Pagan teachers and writers don't address these issues, loaded and ill used as they are? Yet sacrifice and the need for change are something that adult Pagans deal with every day.

Recipes:

Recipes from 2 Witches Blog

Incense mixtures & recipes

Sea Turtle Wisdom Bread and Harvest Morning Muffins

Irish Herb Scones, Apple Butter & more

Chedder Cheese Bread and Fall Leaf Cookies (Pagan recipes for the holidays)

Off the Shelf

An Apple Harvest

Autumn Equinox: The Enchantment of Mabon

Mabon: Celebrating the Autumn Equinox


Gratitude at Mabon - Originally posted at this blog on 9/07

The maple leaves are turning all around us, and apples are ripening in the farms below. I breath in the rich scents of hay, horse farms and mountain grass. I can see the red tailed hawks turning, wheeling and rising in the early morning light. I feel the kiss of the wind that allows them to rise, and I imagine that I am flying alongside them on warm currents of air, currents that take us all the way up to the sun. It will be some time before we feel it's warmth again, and I will cherish this feeling. The growing light will glisten off the lake and turn what clouds there are pink and red; the colors of those apples I will use in my ritual that day. If I sit very still I may see Mamma bobcat again, out hunting for her young, or share the morning peace with a flock of mountain quail or a white tailed deer and her doe out foraging for food. My thoughts will be with our loved ones, human and non, with our dear friends, both close by and far away.

Later on, I will do some gardening and perform a small dedication on our land, before joining friends and loved ones for a feast. Before the sun sets, I will sit out on our deck with a strong, dark cup of coffee and write both my Gratitude List and my list of Intentions; two things I use in rituals this time of year. It's important to keep these lists in my heart as the wheel turns. I want the perspective a Gratitude List brings and the focus of will my Intention List offers as I enter the dark labyrinth of winter. I never go in but I come out changed. I will later burn both lists at Samhain, as dedication and cleansing.

I will also make up my book list and my writing list. The book list is a reference to the glorious tower of books I will now have time to read when the dark and cold keep us indoors. My writing list includes all those articles and essays I hope to gather in book form. I have finally carved out enough time in my life to do this work. It's something I've been saying I want to do for many years now - Let's see if I really mean it.

This is a special time for me. I will get up early to watch the sun rise over Mt Hood, which lies east of our own little mountain. The place I go to is a small, high, open set of hay fields bordered by fir trees. This spot lies just off our maintain road, on a ridge line near the summit. It has a clear view both east and west, and down into the valleys below us. It's a spot I have visited many times. Few people know of it and fewer visit it, except for those of us who live nearby. Day Trippers will sometimes find it, and pull over to enjoy the view, as will local drivers of small trucks who use our mountain pass or hard bodied cyclists out on training runs but I usually have this spot all to myself. Most times these people respect the place, but sometimes not, and I never leave there without picking up any litter I find. It's a deal I have with the place. I protect this little bit of paradise, and I am gifted in turn with hawk and blue jay feathers and the odd, discarded snake skin. I leave nothing behind and take nothing away that grows there. Sometimes I go up there to see the moon rise at night, and I might meet amateur astronomers, pleasant folks who come to our mountain with their large telescopes to do some star gazing well away from city lights. They often offer to let me look and treat me to sights of colored stars and spiral nebula. Since I always travel with a pack of food, I offer them baked goods, in turn. We don't talk very much, these folks and I, it's enough to share chocolate squares and awe.

Sometimes I go to see the sunset and sometimes I go at dawn. This place and I have come to know each other's moods, the way loved ones will. It will be cold up there tomorrow, just before sunrise, and I hope it will be clear. Most days now are glorious and you can see for miles. But fog or no, I'll go up just the same.

I would like to take this time to wish a Happy Fall Equinox and Blessed Mabon to all here.

Go well, stay well,

Sia

Painting: Apple Harvest by David Lawton. Prints are available at Foxhall Gallery