Mabon scented jar candle

How to Use It

Witchcraft & Folk Magick

• Harvest altar: light the candle among apples, squash, grain, nuts and autumn leaves and give thanks for what the year has brought.
• Balance: burn it with one black and one white candle on either side, naming what you are keeping and what you are letting go.
• Prosperity: set a jar of grain, rice or coins beside it to bless the household stores for winter.

Ceremonial & Occult Magick

• Equinox rite: burn it at the moment of the equinox, with offerings of wine and bread for the land and the ancestors.

A Simple Working

• On the equinox, set an apple, a handful of grain and a small loaf on your altar.
• Light the candle and speak aloud three things you are grateful for this year.
• Cut the apple crosswise to show the five-pointed star of seeds inside.
• Eat half and set the other half aside as an offering.
• Let the candle burn for a few hours that evening.
• Leave the apple half and some bread crumbs outside under a tree.

Pairs Well With

• Mabon oil: the matching oil for dressing the candle and altar.
• Apples: the classic fruit of the autumn sabbat.
• Dried corn or wheat sheaves: for the harvest altar.
• Black and white chime candles: for equinox balance work.

What You Receive

One Mabon ritual jar candle topped with a scent and herb blend; colours vary from candle to candle; burns approximately 3 1/2 days.

Origin & Lore

The autumn equinox, around 21 to 23 September, is the second harvest in the modern pagan Wheel of the Year, the moment of balance when day and night are roughly equal before the dark half takes over. Its roots are the harvest-home feasts and Michaelmas customs of rural Europe, and in modern witchcraft it is kept for gratitude, abundance and the honouring of what has been gathered.

The autumn equinox only acquired the name Mabon in the 1970s, borrowed from a Welsh hero who had been stolen from his mother when he was three nights old.

The American pagan Aidan Kelly gave the name Mabon to the autumn equinox in the early 1970s, taking it from Mabon ap Modron, son of the divine mother Modron in Welsh legend. In the tale of Culhwch and Olwen, Mabon is found by asking the oldest animals in the world, ending with the Salmon of Llyn Llyw, who carries the heroes to his prison at Gloucester.