Mabon: The Ultimate Guide You've Been Looking For 🍂

If there's one sabbat I celebrate for an entire month, it's Mabon—I won't deny it. This is where my favorite part of the wheel begins. That part of the wheel when everything turns brown and dark, leaves fall, coffee tastes richer, and rain boots await their moment. For me, Mabon—along with Samhain and Yule—is one of my favorites. It's part of that timeline that resonates with my whole being: the routine, the order, the meaning, the path, and the shedding of everything I don't need. It's the rest after summer months, the understanding that everything has balance, and Mabon is literally that balance. It's the sunset after a hot summer day when the beach or lake falls empty and silent, and the last rays of sun blanket the water's surface. Mabon is a welcome embrace or a farewell hug. It's breaking in a new journal and beginning the descent, flavored with spices, wood, and pumpkin latte.

That's what Mabon is for me, but speaking generally, this sabbat corresponds to the autumn equinox, which takes place between September 20-23 if you live in the Northern Hemisphere and March 20-23 in the Southern Hemisphere. Day and night begin to have equal length, which is no coincidence when I tell you that for me Mabon is balance—it's a time of "fallow," and we learn that the Horned God is approaching the end of his existence.

What can I do to resonate with the Mabon celebration?🥮🍄‍🟫

I always tell you the same thing: trust your instinct—you know best what you need for this celebration. But we must understand that each part of the wheel has its own touch, its distinction, or its signature activities, and I'll tell you all about them.

1. Prepare your home. There's nothing like a good cleansing, both physical and energetic. You can cleanse your house or "habitat" with air element-based methods like burning rue, palo santo, or white sage. Add a pinch of salt and vinegar to your mop bucket and donate all that clothing you no longer want. ⚠️ But be very careful—I always warn you that your health comes first. If you're asthmatic, don't use cleansing rituals based on burning herbs or palo santo. Don't do it around vulnerable people like children, the elderly, or pets, and don't perform rituals or light candles if the environment isn't safe ⚠️
2. Magical recipes. Use local seasonal products or those aligned with the calendar, such as pumpkin, walnuts, chestnuts, grapes, wine... (in another article I'll give you several Wiccan recipes)
3. Inspiration altar—your altar doesn't have to be a precious perfect mahogany table with 50 different types of candles and 140 crystals (or it can be). The altar should reflect the witch who inhabits the house and should occupy whatever space they want within the possibilities of their home. You can decorate it with leaves you find, seasonal flowers, brown, orange, or yellow candles, or with something that reminds you of this time of year.
4. Journaling—this is something I highly recommend if you have a restless mind or need to get your thoughts in order. The autumn equinox is a time for letting go, for setting medium and long-term goals, and although technology is inevitably present in our lives, there's nothing better than good paper or a beautiful notebook and pencil to write each morning or night and do the following exercise. Make two columns: in one, write three goals or wishes you need to materialize this autumn, and in the other, three things or feelings you want to release. Read them when you need to and burn them at Samhain.
5. Be grateful, always be grateful—for being here, for being present, for following another turn of the wheel, for what you've lived, for what you've learned, for the laughter and tears, for all the people around us and, most importantly, thank yourself for the wonderful person you are ✨🤍

Special Mabon Bath 🛁 🍂

Some of you might wonder what I'll do this equinox, what my body is asking for, or how I incorporate this celebration into my routine.

Apart from decorating my house and cleansing my altar, buying flowers from my local shop and cooking with lots of intention, I'm going to incorporate a special bath into my routine to cleanse and eliminate negativity, making space for the good things to come.

You'll need: dried mint and spearmint, lemon oil, melissa oil, and Epsom salts. For the melissa and lemon oils, 5-10 drops for the whole bathtub will be enough. Mix all of this in your bathtub and submerge yourself in the warm water for a few minutes, imagining how the water purifies you from within, then continue with your regular bath.

⚠️Be careful with oils if you don't know how they'll affect your skin. If you get skin reactions easily or are a minor, it's better not to use them. I must also point out that essential oils MUST be diluted in water—don't use them undiluted as they can damage your skin.⚠️

I hope this guide has been helpful. See you soon in the next article: "Wiccan Recipes for Mabon"

Siena ✨🤎

P.S.: The photograph is my own, a September sunset in the city where I live