Welcome (almost!) to Fall! We’re turning the Great Wheel once again, toward autumn here in the northern hemisphere. Autumn in magical traditions is a potent time of deep spiritual contact. It’s no coincidence that Halloween comes this season and we do our best to scare the ghouls and ghosts away; the spirits are in fact closer to us in the next 6 weeks than they are at any other time of the year. Rather than be afraid, some traditions (like Dia de los Muertos, as an example) encourage us to look at death, spirit, and transformation as natural parts of our evolutionary cycle. Underneath our flesh lies a skeleton, after all, waiting to return to the Earth.

Mabon, or the Fall Equinox, is our first step toward this season of transformation. Now that the harvests are complete, we celebrate the lengthening of night and the darkening of the northern hemisphere. Ceres and Demeter, goddesses of hearth and grain, hand us over to Hecate and Nyx, goddesses of the cauldron and the night sky. 

To honor this sacred time, get out all your gorgeous fall decorations and make your space come alive in the colors of autumn – think aubergine and wine, cabernet and forest green. Add all the golds and taupes, the deep pumpkins and rich browns. Are your trees heavy with figs and autumn fruits? Gather them too, along with their leaves. And make your sacred space a living, breathing space of personal restoration.

Good gem allies for fall are amber, purple jasper, obsidian, honey calcite, garnet, and all the gems in the third-eye chakra family: Sapphire, azurite, lapis lazuli, blue chalcedony. You might consider gridding them in a formal or informal structure to suit your style.

You might consider doing a creative visualization around the sacred hearthfire and focus on what you will use these extra hours of darkness to manifest in the coming months. What magic is stirring within you? And what needs to be released before it can commence?

Enjoy Mabon and the mystery of autumn. As the winds begin to blow through the trees, the air grows crisp and temperatures fall, prepare yourself and your space for the magic ahead. And so, it is.