Mabon is the gateway to the true holiday season, if you ask this witch. It’s the day I really come alive in my witchiness. And I feel as though there’s magic undulating in the crisp breeze and flowing all around me. Maybe you feel that way about Mabon too. So how do we prepare for the most magical Autumn Equinox ever? By deciding on what rituals we will perform, what foods to eat, and spells to cast. Here, we offer you our favorite Mabon blessings to pass on to your family and friends, as well as Mabon symbols, spells and divination methods ripe for the Autumn season.

First, What is Mabon?

Mabon is the Wiccan term for the Autumn Equinox that occurs annually between September 21st and 23rd. It’s the first official day of Fall, sometimes known as the Witches’ Thanksgiving. Mabon is the second of three harvest festivals for many Wiccans, witches and neo-pagans (Lughnasadh and Samhain are the other two). Mabon is a reaping of some of the harvest, and our last farewell to the long days of Summer. Because following the Autumn Equinox, the days will start to fall shorter than the nights. 

Certain deities are directly linked to this sabbat including Mabon (the sabbat’s namesake), Mabon’s mother Modron, Rhiannon, Demeter, Persephone, Inanna, and others. If you’d like to learn more about the traditions and history of Mabon click here.

Mabon Blessings for All

Mabon blessings are as simple as granting someone good wishes and prayers for prosperity, health, long life, love, and all the things that bring joy in life. You don’t have to write fancy Mabon blessings, if you don’t want to. You can even use a few of our own blessings and prayers below, if you’d like:

“Autumn is upon us,
Mabon blessings be brought to us,
Through the harvest season,
Health and prosperity from now through Samhain.”

To give Mabon blessings to a newborn child or newly wed couple:

“Who’s that knocking at joy’s door?
Life has just begun
And will be blissful ever more.
From Mabon to Mabon,
As the gods will it,
so mote it be.”

From Laurie Cabot’s Celebrate the Earth, Mabon Blessings for Health:

“Oh Great Mother, speak your farewell anew, anew.
As the wheel spins round, is marked by the sound,
Anew, anew, adieu! Adieu!
from the wells come the healing powers of Mabon.”

Mabon Symbol and Magical Associations

We are human and we use symbols in our daily lives for many reasons: to communicate, to understand, to mark what is ours. We also assign symbols and representations to holidays and sabbats. Mabon has its own symbols and associations. Find the symbol below, as well as a table of Mabon associations and properties.

Mabon Magical Associations

2 POWERFUL Mabon Spells for Prosperity and Balance

Mabon is a great time to cast spells for balance, peace, healing, and prosperity. This witch likes to plan and prepare for my Mabon spells beforehand, gathering ingredients from nature and from my own stock. I let Mabon’s symbols and magical associations inspire my spell-crafting, and I choose an intention that best fits my situation. Here’s a few Mabon spells I’ve cast before. Feel free to adapt and change them to fit your specific needs and wants.

An Acorn Mabon Spell for Prosperity

You won’t need much for this spell:

• An acorn
• Marker or paint with paintbrush
• Small spell bag or sachet
• Small bell (you can get these from craft shops. Walmart has them too)

How to cast the acorn Mabon Spell for blessings of prosperity:

1. Cleanse your space in whatever way you prefer. For Mabon, I typically do a smoke-cleanse with rosemary or use my besom.
2. Set the magical Mabon mood – turn on music, burn incense, light a few candles, etc.
3. Gather your ingredients and tools.
4. Cast a circle, if you so choose, and invoke the elements.
5. Hold your acorn in your hands and envision prosperity flowing from the acorn into your hands and through your entire body like a soft orange light.
6. Keep the acorn in your left hand and pick up the little bell in your right.
7. Say the following 9 times:
   “Blessings of oak, earth and the Mabon season.
   Flow through this acorn into my home.
   Each time the front door opens,
   The Mabon bell rings and prosperity flows in.”
8. Now draw or paint the Mabon symbol onto the acorn (see the Mabon symbol in the graphic above).
9. Place the acorn and bell in the small bag.
10. Thank the earth, Mabon spirits, and energies present. (Release your circle if you cast one).
11. Hang the Mabon spell bag on your front door, until the Autumn season has ended.
12. Then bury the acorn near the front door. Cleanse and re-use the bell.

A Mabon Bath Spell for Balance

As the Autumn Equinox is a day of balance, it’s only an appropriate sabbat to cast spells when balance is needed in our lives. Maybe you need balance within your body, mind, or outwards in your work-homelife balance. Or maybe you need balance within your relationships. Wherever balance is needed, decide you’re ready to improve those things and cast this Mabon spell.

What You’ll Need:

• Sunflower petals: linked to the Sun and properties include good luck and joy. Also a traditional herb used on Mabon.
• Chamomile: also linked to the Sun and properties include prosperity and warding off negative energy.
• Rosemary: for purification, health, and clarity of mind and memory
• 3 crystals (of your choice, but we recommend clear quartz, citrine, and amber)
• Muslin bag (optional)

What To Do:

1. Cleanse the space and set the mood. Turn down the lights and turn on some music, if you choose.
2. Light a candle or two.
3. Draw a warm bath and add the herbs to the water (if you have a bag, add your herbs to the bag and then to the water. This makes clean-up much easier!)
4. Place the 3 crystals around 3 sides of the bathtub (not in the water, but on the tub itself).
5. Get in and soak while focusing on balance. Meditate on what balance means to you and how you could use more of it.
6. You can chant or repeat the following incantation:
   “I invoke the energies of Mabon,
   On a day of balance,
   We welcome the Autumn season,
   May the balance of night and day
   Bring my life balance in every way.”
7. Soak in the bath for as long as you feel it’s necessary.
8. Then emerge feeling balanced within yourself and all around you.

Mabon Divination

One of our favorite things to do on sabbats like Mabon is to divine. Divination is a method used by magical practitioners to see into the past, present and future. And it allows us to speak to the spirit world: to the gods, ancestors, fairies, angels and more. On a day like Mabon, where the energies of the earth are balanced with the energies of the Otherworld, divination is that much more powerful. And accessible.

Here’s a few suggestions for Mabon divination:

• Reading Tarot Cards, especially if they are Autumn or Mabon themed
• Reading Oracle Cards, Autumn or Mabon themed
• Osteomancy: throwing the bones or throwing charms. Mabon is a kick-off to the Samhain season, in my opinion, and so throwing bones is a great way to get in touch with the ancestors and Otherworld.
• Oneiromancy: by paying attention to, recording and interpreting your dreams. You’ll notice from Mabon on until Winter, your dreams will become more frequent and more vivid as we head into a season when the night grows longer.
• Aleuromancy: divination by patterns in flour or by adding charms to loaves of bread, etc.
• Bobbing for apples: adding symbols to the bottoms of the apples and each symbol means something to the player who pulls it out of the water

Mabon Fortunetelling by STORM (A Great Ritual For a Rainy Equinox)

Meteoromancy is a special kind of divination method for Mabon. This is particularly helpful if the sun isn’t shining on the sabbat and you have a thunderstorm rolling in instead. At first glance, maybe you’re thinking, I highly doubt I’ll see any meteors tonight. But meteoromancy actually means to read thunder and lightning patterns. Where I live, we get quite a few thunderstorms in the Autumn, so this is a practice I start near Mabon and continue throughout the season.

1. Once a storm rolls in, turn off your electronics, lights, and anything making noise that could distract you.
2. If you can open a window safely to listen/observe, do so. If not, that’s okay as safety comes before divination!
3. Close your eyes and just listen. Breathe in and out slowly, and be open to receiving.
4. There’s a few ways to read the patterns of thunder and lighting.
   a. Count the length of each thunder-crack.
   b. Count how many lightning strikes you see.
   c. Determine in which direction the lightning strikes and record it (N, S, E, W?)
   d. Count the length of time between a thunder-crack and a lightning strike.
   e. Add up the seconds of each like this: 3 (secs) + 2 + 3 + 2 = 10. Then reduce a double digit down to one number by adding it again 1+0=1. One is your number and your divine message from the storm. Research the number 1 in the occult, symbolism, and in numerology.
   f. If the method above doesn’t work for you, and you get an image or word or sensation while listening to the storm, always go off of your experience first.

MORE for Mabon:

• Mabon Crystals and Herbs: 20 for the Mabon Season
• What is Mabon? The Autumn Equinox Basics and Ways to Celebrate
• 10 Delicious Mabon Foods Your Whole Family Will Love
• Pumpkin Magic: 11 Ways to Use Pumpkins in Your Spells