It's the end of Summer and there are few things on my mind. Yes the rush of back to school preparations usually takes my family by storm, but I am pretty dull lately due to my unwavering focus and inability to talk about anything else. I am obsessed with harvest season.
Ask how I'm doing, I'll tell you my zucchini is doing great, but my pumpkins are coming in very slow and I'm afraid they won't beat the frost.
Ask me how I feel, I'll tell you the yellow pear tomatoes are a little bitter, but the grapes and romas are very sweet.
Ask how the kids are, I'll tell my oldest daughter wants to make pickles, or show you pix of my youngest proudly holding her cluster of baby carrots.
My rituals lately are short on liturgy and long on feasting. This is the time of year where every ritual—Lugh, Mabon, the Esbats—is accompanied by an early morning trip to the farmers market and an aggressive dash to get the food done in time for coven to arrive. Don't let me fool you into thinking I don't absolutely love the mad dash to get the feast on the table: it's one of my unsung, personal traditions that always accompanies days of celebration and reverence.
And it's not just having the food ready for the ritual feast. This time of year the food is the magick and the feast is as much a part of the sacred rites as purifying or divinations. At Lugh we bless our oven and bake our first bread. We form a mannikin of dough and wishes, and bake him in the circle fires, and then share him around, taking in this nourishment and giving thanks for his sacrifice. At Mabon we slice the apple to reveal the Goddess's fingerprint, the pentad of seeds that is the sign of the Great Star Goddess, the Great Earth Mother, and the benevolent spirit of the apple tree. The world is lush and our cups are running over, as the Summer pours out her last precious days in a riot of abundant luxury.
In the midst of this beauty and fullness, can we ask ourselves: what am I truly hungry for? Am I fully nourished and energized? If not, what do I need to be nourished? What is my spirit hungry for?
At the Mabon feast, we are nourished in many ways. We are nourished through fellowship and community, through the sharing of food and laughter, through connecting with the energies of the Earth in transition. When I find myself wrapped up in my garden and my kitchen, I am grounding into the magick of my life, and being present to the beauty of the abundant Earth.