Democratic Forest Trusts (PDF)in Watson, Alan; Dean, Liese; Sproull, Janet, comps. 2006. Science and stewardship to protect and sustain wilderness values: Eighth World Wilderness Congress Symposium; 2005 September 30-October 6; Anchorage, AK.Democratic trusts with leadership elected by citizen-members promise to solve many of the problems afflicting both traditional government and corporate ownership of forestlands. This article explores these issues in some depth.Complexity and the Dream of Human Control of Eco-Systems (PDF)in Watson, Alan; Dean, Liese; Sproull, Janet, comps. 2006. Science and stewardship to protect and sustain wilderness values: Eighth World Wilderness Congress Symposium; 2005 September 30-October 6; Anchorage, AK.The title captures it. I then explore the kinds of institutions compatible with both nature and the modern world that are implied from this analysis.Rethinking the Obvious: Modernity and Living Respectfully With Nature (PDF)The Trumpeter: Journal of Ecosophy, Winter, 1997.Modernity is usually considered a wrong turn in terms of respect for and sustaining the environment. I argue the reality is more complex, for modernity has freed us from personal dependence on agriculture, ended the economic value of children, radically reduced the likelihood of large scale wat, and shifted much production to intellectual rather than material capital. This partially decouples society from nature, which gives us important opportunities as well as problems.Towards an Ecocentric Political Economy (PDF)The Trumpeter, Fall, 1996.This paper begins my effort at showing how liberal modernity can be harmonized with an ecocentric perspective on our relationship with the natural world. It is a corrective to much “free market environmental” literature that sacrifices Nature to money as well as to anti-liberal attacks by well-meaning but economically naïve environmentalists.Unexpected Harmonies: Self-Organization in Liberal Modernity and Ecology (PDF)The Trumpeter, Journal of Ecosophy, 10:1, Winter 1993This is my initial paper exploring how what I term ‘evolutionary liberal’ thought can be an important means by which society and nature can be brought into greater harmony. The other Trumpeter papers build on it.Deep Ecology and Liberalism: The Greener Implications of Evolutionary Liberalism (PDF)Review of Politics, Fall, 1996.Liberal thought and deep ecology are usually regarded as mutually exclusive. But the “evolutionary” tradition offers a way to integrate the two through commonalties in the work of David Hume, Michael Polanyi, Arne Naess, and Aldo Leopold, providing a stronger foundation for liberalism while strengthening the case for an ecocentric ethic.(Related subjects: Ecology)Saving Western Towns: A Jeffersonian Green Proposal (PDF)in Writers on the Range, Karl Hess and John Baden, eds., University Press of Colorado, 1998.Developmental pressures in the rural and small town West involve three groups: long term residents, new arrivals, and environmentalists. Today their interests often conflict. This conflict is in part the outcome of institutions which prevent harmonizing competing interests. The concept of developmental trusts, both for rural regions and for small communities offers a means whereby these interests can be harmonized for the benefit of all concerned.(Related subjects: Politics)Social Ecology, Deep Ecology, and Liberalism (PDF)Critical Review, 6: 2-3, 1992.Murray Bookchin is considered a leading radical environmental theorist. However, his analysis is incapable of leading humankind towards a more respectful and sustainable relationship with the natural world. Criticisms of Bookchin from both the deep ecology and evolutionary liberal perspective complement one another, pointing the way towards a better understanding of how modernity relates to the environment.The paper as a whole offers an early discussion of issues that are more clearly addressed in later papers, particularly Deep Ecology and Liberalism (1996) and the three Trumpeter articles in 1997, 1996, and 1993. However, there are other ideas in the article which have not been developed more thoroughly elsewhere.
The Fall Equinox has arrived, and with it the final Wiccan
Sabbat celebrating the harvest, the reaping of the riches produced throughout
the year. Like the Spring Equinox,
Mabon is a time of balance, but balance with a different flavor. In the wheel of the Year the powers of
life stand in balance with the powers of death.
In many parts of the country our gardens are still producing
abundantly, but if you live in a temperate zone with a real winter, look
closely. Signs of declining vigor
and abundance are everywhere.
Plants are showing wear and tear, their growth not as exuberant as it
was not long ago. Many flowers are
long gone, having wilted, their centers turned to seeds. Other plants often just look
exhausted. The squash are heavy
with their fruits, but often their leaves are past their peak. In many places, here and there touches
of color are appearing on particularly sensitive trees.
The times are still good in terms of the harvest -
especially the tomatoes and peppers and corn – but in most places the harvest
is starting to wind down. By the
end of the month it will be obvious.
Mabon celebrates and honors the final harvest.
Here in Sonoma County where the cycles of our seasons dance
to different steps than to the East, traditional symbols still fit, though they
manifest differently. September is often our hottest month, life-giving rain is
a distant memory and future promise, though a freak storm sneaked through last
week. But the water it dropped
will soon be baked out of the earth.
With the aid of human-supplied water our farmers’ market is at its
height in productivity and beauty.
But when we look into the wild world, the declining energies are very
much to be seen. The growing
season is over.
More importantly than the exact agricultural line up between
Sabbat and season is what Mabon honors: the last abundance of life before it
passes into death. It is a time of
balance, but the movement is now from life to death. Mabon honors stock-taking more than promise-making. Promises and plans were made – how well
have they been kept?
In societies which honored wisdom as well a knowledge, the
elders were always accorded positions of respect. They might not have the vigor of younger people, but they
had accumulated the years of experience to be better able to judge what to do
with their vigor. They had the
biggest contexts within which to make their judgments.
Our youthful oriented (though hardly youth-honoring) culture honors knowledge and
technique, and these skills are more easily acquired when young. I am far from denigrating either youth
or the unique strengths that come with it. But a society in balance, a society unlike ours, also honors
experience, and the wisdom accumulated by that experience. That even our conservatives have
respect for neither genuine tradition nor the lessons of the past says volumes
about this lack of balance.
Perhaps this is why Mabon is not one given the emphasis we give to many other Sabbats.
Mabon is the Sabbat to honor in particular the fruits of a
lifetime, of a season, of the turning of a wheel. It is easy to feel regrets over possibilities not attained, but there are always possibilities not attained. More important, like the harvests around us, what are the possibilities we have attained? This is the time to honor those. Our next Sabbat will have quite a different tenor.
What have you achieved over the past year? How can you honor it? If you are on the downhill side of
life, with fewer years ahead than behind, this is especially the time to honor
the wisdom you’ve gained, the different perspectives you can bring to problems
compared to when you were young.
For these are the genuine riches you, and all of us, will take with us
when our time of passing comes.
posted September 20, 2009 at 4:13 pm
I always thought of Samhain as being a harvest sabbat too, so to me Mabon is not the “last” one unless we consider Samhain to be the beginning of the new year (as I know some do.) If Samhain is really the start of the new year then perhaps Mabon is just the last sabbat and happens to be a harvest one as well.
If we look at the sabbats with an eye for harvest themes then it might be worth noting too that almost all the sabbats are really harvest festivals of one type or another. The spring equinox is a celebration of the very first fruits of Spring. Beltane celebrates the fruits of Spring in full bloom (blooming sexuality as well as blooming literally.) Midsummer and Lammas are clearly celebrations of Nature’s bounty. Even Yule has a very bountiful nature to it although I think it’s more in tune with the hunter/carnivore harvests than one based on the vegetable kingdom.
Perhaps Imbolc is the only sabbat that isn’t overtly a harvest festival. If we look at it more carefully I expect we could identify harvest aspects to it as well (such as the harvest of ideas, the harvest of introspection from the long winter nights, etc.)
Just some food for thought!
posted September 20, 2009 at 9:03 pm
I look to Mabon not only with regard to second Harvest, but also as one of the two Sabbats of balance. The equal hours of daylight and darkness in our world now is a good time to take stock of my life to see where I’ve been thrown off-balance and what needs to be adjusted to keep my physical, emotional and spiritual equilibrium.
What in my life is off-kilter and needs adjusting? Upon what do I need to work to strike a better balance?
Meditating upon those questions and listening to the response from the Gods will give you insight as to any adjustments you need to make.
posted September 20, 2009 at 9:20 pm
I, too, looked to Mabon, as the second harvest. In the Tradition I was taught, that there are three harvest festivals, Lughnasadh – the fruit harvest, Mabon – the grain harvest and finally, Samhain – the meat harvest. Samhain of course has other meaning as well but it was the final of the three harvest festivals.
In our feasts, after each ritual, there is always food there to represent that particular harvest festival. To keep in remembrance to us as well as to honor those who have gone before us.
posted September 21, 2009 at 11:19 am
Those who see Samhain as a harvest Sabbat – are you Celtic Reconstructionists?
Certainly British Traditional Wiccans generally see the Wheel of the Year and the phases of the moon as symbolic of life. Birth, growth, adulthood, harvest, death, and again. Sounds like your traditions have no place that explicitly honors death
That’s not necessarily a shortcoming in my view – the Sacred can be honored in many ways – but it’s certainly different from what I am used to.
posted September 21, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Hi Gus,
I was taught a family tradition from Ireland. They always said it was something brought down in the family but because the family line was ending, they wanted it continued.
They always said that the tradition also had druidic teaching in it. Now what that specifically meant…don’t know. They read from the family book of shadows and i wrote it into mine.
Samhain was also taught as a time to celebrate, remember, contemplate, and honor death.
To me as well as to those in the Tradition, Samhain is the most sacred of Sabats. It reflects our human nature of being born, of life and of dying. That we are all mortal and at sometime, must die but that this is not something to fear but rather a continuation of the cycle of life, in its cyclical understanding. I was born, lived, loved and grew and will die but also to realize that this is not the end but a new beginning. I will go to the Summerland, rest, recoup, learn and be reborn.
Samhain, for us, is also times of remembrance of those friends and family who have passed on. During our ritual, we cast a 3-fold circle and then open a gate to the west, inviting those who we call to join us in celebration and remembrance. It is a happy yet solemn time.
I remember my first Samhain, where amongst fallen and decaying leaves, I called to my grandmother, who always wore rose perfume. During this time, people started asking why they smelled roses, especially since there were none around. It was pleasant to spend time with grandma again. Anyway, no, I’m not a Celtic Recon.
To you and yours, a Blessed Mabon.
posted September 22, 2009 at 12:03 am
Here in the breadbasket of Ontario, we are in the 2,nd harvest. Although we start harvesting asparagus and strawberries fairly early the real first real harvest hits in late July/August when the corn crop really hits stride. September brings the other vegetables, the last of the fruit trees, the last of the tobacco harvest, October brings the final root cops and such things as cabbage which need that final nip of frost.
But that same ‘death’ brings corn mazes, pumpkin festivals, Fall Fairs. Death is but a step. By Samhain, as the world goes to sleep, it’s easy to turn to thoughts of death as a resting time, a time of regeneration, of moving past the immediate with promise of the future.
Although I do a lot of muttering about snowbirding in Arizona as I spend 2 hours digging my car out of the snow (how many times each winter?), I love the change of seasons. Samhain is indeed a reflection of death in a very positive way. I do love the Fall in this part of the world; it’s my very favourite time of the Year.
posted September 22, 2009 at 9:56 am
I’m not Celtic Recon. Samhain to me is the final harvest; as LadyHawke4 mentioned it’s the harvest of the root vegetables, cabbage, brussels sprouts and the like. It’s also the “harvest” of the domestic animals that won’t make it through the Winter. The weaker/older animals are slaughtered and the meat preserved to ensure there is enough fodder to feed the animals that remain, and meat for the people who depend upon those animals to survive.
So for me, Samhain represents the final harvest and celebration of Death when the veil between the worlds is thinnest. We honor our family and friends who have passed through that doorway.
Gwyddion9, your story of picking up the scent of your grandmother’s perfume is beautiful. For me, it was the scent of my father’s Old Spice aftershave that was suddenly noticed, lingered, then just as suddenly gone.
Death is not a destination. It is a transition, the same as Birth.
posted September 22, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Great comments. Many thanks. For me Samhain is about honoring death on the Wheel, Mabon, the final harvest. They flow together, but in truth all the stations on the Wheel flow together.
It is just that there is a rough fit between the Wheel of Life and the seasons in those parts of the country where there are four strong ones. It gets more difficult to integrate the two sets of symbols of the cycle of life and the turning of the year when we live in the far north (May Day in the snow) or deep south and So. Calif where the flowers blooom all year (your Samhain roses)or here on the California coast where winter is wet, and things start to green up wonderfully.
I hope in time Pagans – not just Wiccans – will ultimately adapt our celebrations of time and place to the place. It will show we have filly arrived. This gives me an idea for a post…