Fall is here finally!!! Those who know me better, know that this is my most favorite time!!! Autumn... falling leaves, soothing rain, the smell of coffee, the piles of books and the divine palette of colors everywhere! I couldn't stay idle as a blogger. I'll ask you to forgive me for not writing for a while, but personal reasons got all my time lately! Well.. I'm back now and Fall did its part. ;)
I decided to write a different article today, since I do feel different and I know most of you are as well. Fall is the beginning of things... and to some people it is considered to be the start of the year. So today... I'm going to tell you about a few of my favorite books, listen some of my favorite music with you and share enchanting Fall pictures. But also... I want to talk about Mabon. One of the most beautifully scented Celtic celebrations, which starts on the 21st of September and end on the 29th of the same month. Some people celebrate it until the 24th. It is the Autumn equinox and the great feast of the second Harvest. We take delight from the summer's harvest in order to have an abundant and happy winter ahead!
But let us see more about Mabon...
It's a very important time in the Wheel of the Year for the Celts and modern paganists and us, who love the beautiful feasts, wherever they come from! The Wheel of the Year consists of the equinoxes and solstices and the mid-points between them. Mabon is the celebration of Autumn, also know by the names:
-The feast of the ingathering
-Meán Fómhair
-An Clabhsúr
-Alban Elfed
-Harvest Home
-The Second Harvest
We celebrate the harvest of fruits, vegetables and other goods that Mother Earth provided, and we recognise the need to share them, in order to secure the Blessings of the Goddesses and Gods for the coming Winter months.
Modern people forgot about those ancient feasts and celebrations. They don't thank the Earth for providing... nor the Gods .. even if they are religious or not. These special days during the year, where made to remember who we really are, to be thankful, to be thoughtful and to feel blessed, no matter what, but also to know and remember the cycles of life and Earth.
Mabon is the middle of the three Harvest festivals, preceded by Lammas/Lughnasadh and followed by Samhain-Halloween.
Believers as well as ancient and modern practitioners, usually give offers of fruits, vegetables, nuts, drinks-mostly associated with grapes, like wine- milk, insense and baked goods. Usually the offering is complete by burning the goods but some also leave them under a tree or a natural altar, in order to show gratitude, give something back and strenghten the bond between human and divine, asking for blessings among the community!
Druid and Gaelic Mabon depict the Wheel of the Year also in terms of Gods and Goddesses. For example in Mabon, The Oak King begins to regain his power as the sun begins to wane. The festival is named after the God Mabon of the Welsh mythology, the son of the Mother Goddess of the Earth, Modron and he was also called the Child of Light. The symbolism of the festival has now too many extensions such as the balance between light and dark, night and day having equal lenght, masculine and feminine and so forth.
Nights grow longer from now on and the favorite time of booklovers begins! Soft and warm blankets, hot cocoa, coffee or tea, a pile of books near.
Rain beating the windows and singing in aetherical voices! Mother Nature is dancing since she breathes in the crisp air, getting ready for the sweet slumber before the Great Renewal. The Goddess shines brightly, carrying the silver droplets on her in pride and dresses herself in vibrant colored leaves!
Now is the time to rest, plan what's coming next, evaluate what has come to pass and reap what we sown. New beginning are ahead and we need to calm down and enjoy it all!
I'd love to share some of my favorite music with you at this moment.. I hope you enjoy those tracks as much as I do...
Well.. we talked about how the Fall is bookworms' favorite time.. and I wanna share with you a few of my favorite books. Titles I always remember when Autumn starts. I'd love your opinion of them, if you read them or want to read them and as always, accept proposals :D
1) The Green Rider series (Kristen Britain)
Karigan G'ladheon, a merchant's daughter, is cast out of her school in Selium by Dean Geyer following a duel in which she bested a wealthy aristocrat.
Running away from the shame of her expulsion, she travels into the forest called the Green Cloak. She meets a Green Rider (one of a group of legendary elite messengers in the king's service) who is dying with two black arrows protruding from his back. The Green Rider, F'ryan Coblebay, makes Karigan swear to carry a message to Sacor City for the 'love of her country', and there to deliver it into the hands of either Laren, the Captain of the Green Riders, or the king himself. He also orders Karigan not to read the letter for the sake of her life. Coblebay entrusts a second more private letter to her care also. As his life passes, he whispers with his last breath; "beware the shadow man...". She also takes the gold winged horse brooch that is the symbol of his office as a Green Rider.
I could definately write more about it, since it's my favorite modern series.. but we need to see some more titles!
2) The Lord of the Rings (J.R.R.Tolkien)
I should have placed this on no.1... but it would be so predictable and it would be obvious I'm a crazy fan of all Tolkien's works. Hehe... Should be first though anyway. But do I really have to say anything about the trilogy?? Really now??
The Lord of the Rings is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, a place like Earth at some distant time in the past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book The Hobbit, but eventually developed into a much larger work. Written in stages between 1937 and 1949, The Lord of the Rings is one of the best-selling books ever written, with over 150 million copies sold.
The title refers to the story's main antagonist, the Dark Lord Sauron, who in an earlier age created the One Ring to rule the other Rings of Power given to Men, Dwarves, and Elves, in his campaign to conquer all of Middle-earth. From homely beginnings in the Shire, a hobbit land reminiscent of the English countryside, the story ranges across Middle-earth, following the quest to destroy the One Ring mainly through the eyes of the hobbits Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin.
I honesty must say no more... I truly believe one's spiritually dead if he/she is not familiar with Tolkien's work.
3) Jitterbug Perfume (Tom Robbins)
Tom Robbins' fourth novel and was listed on the New York Times Best Seller list in 1985. The book follows two interweaving storylines, one in Ancient Eurasia and one in the present day. The story connects dueling perfumers in Seattle, Paris and New Orleans to a bottle of incomparable perfume created by two unlikely but defiant lovers of the past who seek immortality. Orchestrated by a mysterious Irish philosopher, the past and the present collide when the characters come together and discover the unexpected path to life-everlasting. The book was first published in 1984 by Bantam Books and later published by Random House.
A powerful and chiseled 8th-century king named Alobar narrowly escapes regicide at the hands of his own subjects, from a custom of killing the leader at the first sign of aging. After fleeing, no longer a king but only a man, he travels through Eurasia, on a newfound quest for the secret to longevity. Eventually he stumbles upon the stamping grounds of the pungent goat-god Pan, who is slowly losing his godly powers as the world turns toward Christianity. Pan encourages Alobar to continue East in search of the masters of immortality.
Meanwhile, in the present day, Priscilla, a part-time waitress and amateur perfumer, is stalled in re-creating the fragrance from the last remaining drops of a three-hundred-year-old perfume bottle in her possession. She rejects the sexual advances of her co-worker Ricki. She begins an affair with an eccentric Irish philosopher, Wiggs Dannyboy, who runs a clinic for immortality research called the Last Laugh Foundation. She attempts to ignore the mysterious deliveries of beets she keeps receiving at her apartment.
I'll stop here,,, as I believe this book is a major MUST!!! Go and get it then!!!
I guess that's enough for now... as I'll come back for an extra, special article on fantasy books!
I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did my fellow bookworms and take pleasure of everything autumn-ish! Wonderfully-scented crisp air maybe bless your day!!!
Keep it up, always read past your bedtime, and don't forget to share our articles. You can send and post invites too you know!
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