Fall                                                                           Harvest Moon

Michaelmas is here, the springtime of the soul.  This is a new entry for the Great Wheel series and begins time with the four quarter days of the British old calendar (see information from Historic UK below*).

(delacroix eugene  st. michael defeats the devil)

These quarter day are close to the equinox and solstice days, following the actual occurrence by a few days and having the advantage of a fixed date on the calendar for festivals and other events rather than relying on variable astronomical conditions.

Our Supreme Court begins its new term on October 1st and the government fiscal calendar restarts then, too, a shadow of this tradition well in place at the time of the American Revolution.  If you read books that relate matters of witchcraft, they will sometimes refer to these quarter days and/or the Catholic holidays for the cross-quarter days.  That is, Lughnasa, August 1, for example, was Lamas, a mass for the first loaves of bread made from the new harvest.

I love the imagery recounted below about Lucifer expelled from heaven and landing on a blackberry bush.  Of course, the implication is that it was the Archangel Michael who booted him out.

By now, a full week after the fall equinox or Mabon, there are already 21 more minutes of darkness than light.

(raphael-st-michael-and-the-dragon)

*”There are traditionally four “quarter days” in a year (Lady Day (25th March), Midsummer (24th June), Michaelmas (29th September) and Christmas (25th December)). They are spaced three months apart, on religious festivals, usually close to the solstices or equinoxes. They were the four dates on which servants were hired, rents due or leases begun. It used to be said that harvest had to be completed by Michaelmas, almost like the marking of the end of the productive season and the beginning of the new cycle of farming. It was the time at which new servants were hired or land was exchanged and debts were paid. This is how it came to be for Michaelmas to be the time for electing magistrates and also the beginning of legal and university terms.”

“St Michael is one of the principal angelic warriors, protector against the dark of the night and the Archangel who fought against Satan and his evil angels. As Michaelmas is the time that the darker nights and colder days begin – the edge into winter – the celebration of Michaelmas is associated with encouraging protection during these dark months. It was believed that negative forces were stronger in darkness and so families would require stronger defences during the later months of the year.”

“In British folklore, Old Michaelmas Day, 10th October, is the last day that blackberries should be picked. It is said that on this day, when Lucifer was expelled from Heaven, he fell from the skies, straight onto a blackberry bush. He then cursed the fruit, scorched them with his fiery breath, spat and stamped on them and made them unfit for consumption! And so the Irish proverb goes:

“On Michaelmas Day the devil puts his foot on blackberries”.  Historic UK

Fall                                                                  Harvest Moon

Yes, today we move beyond the first harvest festivals, the fairs and markets of August, into the period most folks associate with the harvest, the time when farmers all over the Midwest are in their fields with combines and corn pickers, gathering in food from one of the largest areas of food production in the entire world.  And, yes, we can certainly agree that the form of this agriculture is not sustainable and further that the amount of the corn crop turned toward corn syrup or ethanol makes no sense (and it doesn’t), but those of us who grew up here and continue to live here feel a certain synchrony with the land at this time.

As I’ve said here for the last six weeks, at the garden level, most of the  harvest is already done, but the big cash crops like wheat, corn and soybeans aren’t ready until late September or early October.  This is the time, in the plains states, when the huge custom combine companies will sweep the fields of wheat.  It is also the time when the corn pickers and soy bean harvesters enter the fields.  These crops are the chief cash crops in Minnesota.  So, it’s the harvest moon that hangs over this work, which often goes into the night, not over the warmer nights of August.

The harvest moon is the full moon nearest to the fall equinox.  The moon today is 90% full and waning and today is the autumnal equinox or what neo-pagans call Mabon.  The aspect of the equinox that speaks most deeply to me is the transition I mentioned yesterday from a day dominated by light toward a day dominated by dark.  This process now tips over in favor of the dark, though today is, roughly, a day when the two balance, 12 hours for each.

The Crone, Ian Harriot

But there are other ways of marking Mabon.  The Wiccans celebrate Mabon as the transition from Mother to Crone for the Goddess and the preparation for the death of the God.  You may recall from earlier writing about the Third Phase that the Wiccans mark the year into thirds:  Maiden-Mother-Crone.  So we now enter the seasonal equivalent of the Third Phase, the harvest either full in or almost so and a time of enjoying the fruits of the harvest, of resting, of concentrating arrives.

(Hades and Persephone in the underworld Seated on A Throne in the form of an Eagle’s head with Cerebus before Them.  Artwork Location  Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France)

An ancient Greek myth, the story of Demeter and Persephone, explains this seasonal turn, too.  This is the time when Persephone pays for having eaten the pomegranate seeds while in the underworld.  She returns to live with her husband Hades and reign as his queen.  Her mother, the goddess of grain, of the harvest and fertility, goes into mourning as her daughter disappears.  Plant life shrivels as she withdraws from it, only reviving when Persephone returns in the Spring and with her Demeter’s joy.