By Katrina Rasbold
I have been so busy reveling in my harvest that I have simply not had time to do a Mabon post before now, so here it is almost a week late, but still heartfelt and joyous.
Mabon is, of course, the time in our harvest year when the larders are starting to fill from 6 weeks of harvesting from our fields. While the fields continue to produce over the coming 6 weeks, we also now have the second harvest, which is considered to be the boon from the God and Goddess for a job well done. Sometimes, if our harvest did not manifest during the first harvest, this boon is what sustains us through the cold winter.
This time is thought of as “the boon” because the crops that would grow with our without our own nurturing, such as apples, nuts, blackberries, etc, are coming ripe and can be picked from the trees and bushes having grown there almost like magic. These supplemental foods often filled in the gaps for those who depended on their agricultural success to keep them fed until the next harvest arrives.
In CUSP life, the things that are to be manifested by our own involvement and energy tends to show up between Lammas and Mabon, with some of it continuing through the Fall until Samhain. Mabon through Samhain is a very special time when blessings seem to come to us from unexpected sources through the sheer grace and love of Deity. Those goals and surprises that need a little divine assistance are the ones that tend to manifest during this time.
That makes this a particularly special and exciting time. For me, it’s like waking up to Christmas day every day, wondering what I’ll find under the tree. Sometimes, it’s something small and sweet and other times, it’s a huge blessing that cannot be denied. I love them all.
I have already received several tokens of affection from Deity and I cherish each and every one. I look forward to what the remainder of the harvest period brings.
On November 1st, it was traditionally believed that whatever was left in the fields unharvested could no longer be used as it was “poisoned.” Although this might seem rather arbitrary and nonsensical when there are perfectly good cucumbers, pumpkins, beans and such out there waiting to be picked, it’s actually a fairly sophisticated form of good sense. It teaches us to “make hay while the sun shines” and be invested in the time of the harvest in a sweaty, back-breaking fashion. To everything, there is a season and when the season of harvest has gone, it’s time to let go. It teaches us not only discipline, but to know when to release what we cannot have. Just like the Christian premise says, “God always answers prayer, but sometimes, the answer is no.” Samhain tells us that it’s time to stop the part of our lives where we take and expect and to begin the part where we settle and adjust to the new factors harvest has produced in our lives.
But what if what you planted in the Spring has not manifested by the time November 1st rolls around? That is the curse that has plagued us since this path first revealed itself to us back in 97. While there have been MANY times that a goal manifested for harvest in a fashion that was very different (usually better) than the practitioner intended or expected when they planted, there are a few times we’ve seen where the anticipated goal just never manifested at all. There was a deafening silence. Usually, in retrospect, the person doing the planting could see where there were clear redirects from The Universe that were either missed or ignored. Sometimes, we want a thing so very much that we intentionally or subconsciously ignore the signs that we should be working in a different direction.
Sometimes, the message is not that you’re not going to get what you planted, but more that “You will get it, but it’s not quite time yet.” CUSP works from the energy that is stored into the collective consciousness of humans from repeated ceremony and practice over thousands of years by humankind. This is imbued the touch point days we celebrate with a particular energy that we are attuned to because it is embedded in our DNA structure to react to those energies.
All of that, however, is a man-made concept. Time itself is a man-made concept. The Universe and “The Process” knows no time constraints. While you may have put a goal out there at Spring Equinox, right on schedule, and dutifully followed the cycles of the year toward the nurturing of that goal, you are still following a man-made premise while dealing with divine influence. That’s the wild card. Magic takes the path of least resistance and most of the time, the path of least resistance is what follows the natural course of human existence. Every now and then, however, The Universe plays a “not quite yet” card, basically “pulling rank” and refusing to follow the box we try to put it in with our man-made time frames. When this happens, after you have had a good sit in your mud puddle of sorrow and had your pout, you will usually recognize the inherent power in the moment, provided you are plugged in magically and in tune with the flow. When The Universe takes hold and begins controlling things, all bets are off and it’s anyone’s ballgame. If this happens, meditate and/or use a divination tool for clarity and know that you are in the supremely magical moment of being held in the hands of the God and Goddess. They have singled you out for special care and you can bet that your goal is going to manifest in a profound way, likely when you least expect it.
Or, as I said, you might have just jacked up the re-directs between Candlemas and Spring Equinox.
Eric and I have been flying through yet another amazing harvest time. He planted something very simple: reveal to me my passion and allow me to make money to support my family while doing it. I did a ritual in tandem with his planting to vow my support to this goal since he has been very unhappy in his profession (he’s an electrical contractor who owns his own business) for some time now.
His initial thought when he planted this year were that it would manifest in the form of gold mining (he has many, many claims that are local to our home and loves to mine), the California Highway Patrol (out of nowhere, he got several indicators that he should apply) or that his business would take off and come up out of the ditch it had been languishing in for several months.
It is natural that when you plant, you have some degree of speculation on how your goal will manifest, but since we are not the be all and end all, you always include disclaimers like “this or better.”
He pursued the Highway Patrol aggressively, even cutting off his beloved long hair for his final interview. He got far into the process before information came up that confirmed to us that this was not the path he was to follow. Of this choice, he had said all along that his feeling was that he had to be willing to take the leap of faith and try, not that he had to actually do it and that ended up being exactly what happened.
He mined for gold aggressively through the year with minimal results. Like a harpie no one wants to hear, I kept pointing out apparent redirects and he would acknowledge them and press forward anyway. The fact was that he really, really, really wanted it to be the mining that got the Universal endorsement. It finally took Governor Schwarzenegger, in a surprise move, signing into law a bill that was expected to not hit actuality until next year, banning all gold mining dredging. Effective immediately, penalties would ensue and they were harsh ones. He piddled around a bit after that, but he was done.
His business folded just after Beltane. He completed a major project he was doing for Beale AFB and then no more work came. He later learned that electrical contractors are the #1 most displaced employees in California.
With his three main ideas now squashed, he began to look in other directions and learned that he can still use his Montgomery GI Bill to go to college and that a number of other benefits are available to him as a disabled veteran that will allow his tuition and books to be covered for certain certifications and degrees, plus he can get paid directly for going to school. This got him extremely excited. He has been an inch away from his AA for almost as long as I’ve known him and just never got around to finishing it. He also learned that a pilot school is included in the choices and that is a lifelong dream of his. In fact, he was actually only enrolling in the Highway Patrol in order to put in the year on the highway he had to complete before training to become a helicopter pilot. This gets him in the seat even faster.
He gets home from a wonderful trip back East (part of his “boon package”) to visit his family tonight and then he starts aggressively working to get into the Winter semester for school
That’s his deal.
Normally, we could not afford for him to go to schools as his “vocation,” but that is where my own harvest comes in.
What’s funny is that I completely forgot one of the goals I planted while I focused on another one and it still happened. God is efficient, I tell ya.
I planted three things this year: to lose a significant amount of weight and to get a job that brought my own financial security and contributed to the family income and was also something I enjoyed doing. I also planted financial security for our family.
I began losing weight right away and was led to a number of different tools to help me do that. I did not lose as much as I wanted to by this time, but I am down by around 40 pounds and feel wonderful. I also feel very optimistic about the rest coming off throughout the course of the next year.
The financial security still is working out some bugs.
I completely forgot that I planted a job. I only wanted the job at the time of planting because a few days before, Eric had been “in a mood” and had said some things that had really pissed me off. I quit my very lucrative civil service job in 1998 to become an official stay at home mom for the first time in my life. I loved it completely. When my kids were all in school, I suggested to Eric that maybe I should go back to work to help with finances, which, as usual, were limping. He pssshawed the idea and said that he really wanted me to be at home and I wholly endorsed that idea. I was bringing in some money from my website design business, plus we only had one car that he was using for work, plus we live a bajillion miles away from anywhere with no public transportation. It seemed like a done deal and I was perfectly good with that. He and I enjoy spending time together and not having to coordinate work schedules to do that was a good thing.
But then he pissed me off and I said, “Harrumph, I’m going to find a way to take care of my damned self” and planted the job.
And forgot about it because he apologized.
Around seven nanoseconds before Lammas hit, I came across a Yahoo news piece on the best jobs to have working from home. A consultant on the article was the guy who developed the website www.ratracerebellion.com, which lists a ton of stay at home jobs and how to apply for them. Just for fun, I went to the website and saw that there were two links there to apply for jobs working on a psychic hotline. Just for more fun, I filled out the applications and submitted them since I’ve been doing Tarot readings for 26 years and have done them professionally since 1993.
Then I forgot about that too. Menopause does crazy things to you.
Around 8 nanoseconds after Lammas, I was working away on someone’s website and got a call from a guy asking if we could schedule and interview and sample reading. I was stunned, to say the least. We set it up for that evening and I figured I should let Eric in on what was going on by then, mostly so he could keep the kids out of my ass while I did the reading. He was completely shocked, but very supportive.
I did the reading, got the job and started on August 14th. I had no idea what to expect from such a job, but I do enjoy it. Although it does involve a good bit of intuitive work and card reading, I quickly learned that a whole lot of it is listening to people and giving them advice based on what you see in the cards and such. Sit around and talk to people all day, telling them what to do? It’s a job match made in heaven.
The only two days I’ve had off work since then were August 15th and 16th because my grandkids were visiting during that time. I work pretty much whenever I can. That is the main reason for this entry being late, as well as typical Mercury Retrograde stuff.
I hate talking on phones, as anyone who knows me can attest, so it’s kind of ironic. I have several regular callers now and it’s always good to hear from one of my return clients. I think I make a pretty good counselor. There is a lot of path work involved of clarifying where the person is now and what their best route of the situation is. Most calls are about love life issues.
Most importantly, I am making a good bit of money doing this. Unfortunately, we were so far into the hole that we aren’t really safe yet, but we’re getting there, slowly but surely.
Even if we do get safe and Eric begins to make a lot of money, I don’t expect to let this job go. It works for me.
All that has happened and we are just beginning the time of the boon! I am very excited for what it will bring and despite dealing with the snow, which I hate, I do look forward to the introspective time of Winter this year.
Happy boon to you!
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