This year, Mabon (Autumnal Equinox) falls on Sunday, September 22nd. At Mabon, the power of the Sun King is waning, and the harvest is in full swing. On September 21st, the energies are fire and air and the Moon is full. This is a wonderful year to celebrate this Sabbat the night before, as the Harvest Moon begins to rise. Cover your altar with fall leaves and sumac berries. Bake nut bread as a symbol of the season.
To make a fall chaplet, measure floral wire around your head and wrap the oval with brown floral tape. Using fall leaves and tape, carefully secure short stems or single leaves closely around the tapes wire. Use leaves that you have dried or preserved. The hips of wild roses can add color. Tie a ribbon to drape down your back.
Mabon Incense
2 parts benzoin
2 parts myrrh
1 part hazelwood
1/2 part corn
1/2 part cornflower
1/2 part ivy
1/2 part red poppy flowers
In a bowl or with mortar and pestle blend benzoin and myrrh with hazelwood. Next add cornflower, and stir until thoroughly mixed. Crush dried corn and ivy into the mixture, and add poppy flowers. Burn on a small charcoal block.
K.D. Spitzer, excerpt from Llewellyn's Witches' Datebook 2002
Two thousand years ago, elder women-crones-were honored members of their communities. The newer generations learned from them about herbs and cures for the many illnesses, and they watched as the respected ones helped the dying pass out of this life. By watching and listening, the young grew in wisdom. The crones were the storytellers, and the young would listen carefully to their wisdom so it would not be lost forever. Young women usually gave birth with a distinguished crone in attendance.
Each gender had their own responsibilities, but it was the female-the crone-who nursed, comforted, birthed and attended the dying. Her abilities to relate to those approaching death, and to heal and care for the sick, earned her much respect.
The ancients thought that after menopause the crone became a person of power and wisdom, because she retained her menstrual blood. They saw the blood as the source of the crone's power and wisdom. The crone was supported and esteemed. Gray hair and wrinkles were worn with pride, and old women boasted of their age. Younger women waited all of their lives to advance to that place of honor and finally be called "Crone."
But as time passed, respect and love for the old waned. Eventually, in many cultures, the old were shown disrespect, cast out, and ignored. Foolish folks began to believe that the old ones had no value and were only a burden. Healing recipes were lost and clan memories forgotten. People feared dying instead of seeing it as another passage, and women, strapped down for the delivery of their babies, experienced the birthing process as unnatural and painful.
Then a new day began to dawn. Old women said, "ENOUGH!" They began to take their rightful place in the world again. It is a slow-moving crusade, but the wise women have persisted. They are deliberately reclaiming the title "Crone." They are denying those who see them as useless and remembering that they are persons of value with important memory and experience. They are demanding to be seen, accepted and heard-to be croned. To crone means to enact a ritual announcing that the subject has learned to integrate her many years of seasoning into wisdom and compassion, and to express her fullness for the good of all.
The Croning Ritual
Looking to the future, the day may not be far away when most old women forsake keeping their age a secret, becoming the storytellers and counselors as they take up their responsibilities and the sharing of their wisdom. Now as then, a croning ritual is becoming part of a woman's passage to being an elder.
In ancient times, women were often the drummers. Today, the drums are played to call back genetic memories of that joyful time; they are played to release, to give, to share, to remember, and to unite. Rattles and bells are played, chants are sung, and the women dance and play. The crone, perhaps dressed in traditional purple and black, and wearing a glorious, brilliant amethyst, is gorgeous as the queen she is.
The crone may be crowned with a wreath of flowers or small fruits, symbolic of the elevated status she has achieved; or draped with a shawl, which symbolizes a mantel of knowledge; or a braid that betokens the many strands of wisdom and experiences that have made up her life. The ritual can include singing, dancing, laughing, feasting. There may be testimonies and affirmations by others present, reminding the new crone of her value, praising her, congratulating her, and showing her life. Those in attendance testify to their memories of the crone's past, of her accomplishments and achievements. Some crones honor their daughters and/or other family members by inviting them to participate in the ceremony
The final thread is feasting. Croning rituals are almost always accompanied by lots of wonderful food. Celebrants may feast all day, for an afternoon, or just an evening. They may dance all night of for just a few minutes. A croning may continue for a whole weekend, or perhaps last no more than fifteen minutes.
Croning is a personal celebration structured to suit the individual woman. It can be a public rite-of-passage or a private ritual for a solitary croning. It is always a special time of honoring gray hair, wrinkles, memories, achievements, sacrifices, and the sharing of one's number of years with pride. All women, if they so choose, can joyfully anticipate the future, when they will be known as "Crone."
Ruth Gardner, excerpt from Llewellyn's Witches' Calendar 2002
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