The autumn equinox and genuine balance

Gaining momentum again on the Wheel of the Year, we approach autumn and its opposite: the moment of genuine balance, called Mabon in modern pagan practice, but which is only very recently named as such — this is in fact a twentieth-century innovation. I will try to consider what makes this point on the cycle special and why it is invested with meaning. A moment of genuine, measurable balanceUnlike all the other points on the Wheel, the equinoxes are the only ones marking a genuine moment of balance — the amount of light and darkness are equal, theoretically if not practically — hence the name. And this is the only point on the cycle where this balance occurs immediately before one of them, the darkness, grows immeasurably stronger for the entire year. I think that this is the reason why the traditions of this day, and this point on the cycle, are loaded with symbolism of assessment, of taking stock — because this is the only point where such a genuine, physically measurable balance…