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i felt mabon's presence with me while watching game grumps and having some whiskey, strangely. i could feel him laughing, so I poured him a bit of my whiskey, and we spent an hour or two together. how lovely is that!

#mabon deity #deity diary #mabon ap modron #welsh polytheism #welsh paganism #celtpol #celtic polytheism #celtic reconstructionist

⪻ Mabon ap Modron ⪼

Pre-christian Welsh god, and son of Modron in the myths of King Arthur, Mabon pulled the razor from betwixt the boar’s scalp. He was stolen from his mother's arms when he was three nights old. Mentioned in the myths of King Arthur as a member of his party, the salmon of Llyn Llyw was the only one who knew of his prison. Arthur’s men were led to him, Mabon singing his lamentations and griefs of his fate. He is retrieved in a daring rescue.

Mabon has origins as a deity associated with love, youth, and as the Great Son/Divine Youth as his name implies. There is little evidence that Mabon was celebrated in Celtic countries and the term Mabon as a wiccan holiday was applied as recently as the 1970's. In modern UPG, he is associated with the autumn equinox/Alban Elfed, love, sex, fiery red hair, warriors, hounds, the final harvest of the year, and the human rights of prisoners and refugees.

might be a dumb question, but do you work with Mabon at all ? super interested in Him but most places seem pretty empty of any personal experiences w Him and have very, very little historical info if any. ty in advance for your time !

not dumb at all, at all! i do work with mabon in my personal practice, yes. for personal experience i can tell plenty! but as for historical information there's hardly anything at all. i’ll give it a goo and tell all i can! i’m about to ramble on it, so hope my thoughts and research are helpful. grab a pint o’ the black stuff and saddle up!

history wise: there's the legends of king arthur, and slight implications that he was a minor pre-christianization god.

here's a pdf with the majority of well-known king arthur legends. mentions of mabon are sprinkled throughout. mabon ap madron as he’s known in said legends, is the only surviving version of mabon we have aside from incredibly sparse factoids and speculation about how he was worshiped. it’s very likely that mabon ap madron is mythologically descended from a divine mother-son pair. he is mentioned as early as the tenth century poem Pa Gur, but only as a follower of arthur.

quote from wiki (sources provided & seems to be accurate, thank fuck) “his name is related to the romano-british god maponos, whose name means "great son". modron, in turn, is likely related to the gaulish goddess dea matrona.” there’s only a few remnants of maponos as well, three statues and few brief mentions, one statuette involving him depicted as a harper and standing opposite a likely diana-adjacent huntress figure speculated to be a depiction of dea matrona or an unnamed celtic goddess.

he’s also thought to be, from what i’ve read in my 7 years researching (too many sources spewing the same ting for me to link honestly), to be the welsh equivalent of the irish god aengus og, bless him. they have similar epithets and almost the exact same name when translated to english. considering two people with the same name to be the exact same lad is super anglocentric though, and the few mabon venerators tend to think that’s brits makin utter bags out of it.

i’ll reiterate here: there is NO historical evidence or support of him having dedicated feasts, dedicated festivals, or anything even similar to the wiccan “mabon sabbat.”. there is no evidence of him being connected to autumn though neodruids do associate him with the autumn feast. given his epithets and associations, he’s probably more likely associated with spring since as a god he is likely to have been part of a mother-son pair.

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my personal practice: mabon is not well known, and hard to place. when i first tried to make contact, it felt like waiting for a snail to come out of it’s shell when it feels safe enough. i approached cautious, kind, with offerings the poor chiseler probably hadn’t seen in centuries! i offered traditional things, nothing fancy. milk, bread with some honey, and some seared beef. it felt slow, and it felt at first like i’d chosen a truly dead god. but then, i felt him there. warmest, softest feeling i’d ever felt, like the excitement, the wonder, the caution, the joy, of meeting a long distance partner for the first time. i instantly felt known, cherished, thanked beyond any gratitude a human could show. i’m normally very cautious with new entities, but i knew i’d got the real mabon then. delira, telling ye.

after that, i began building a relationship. i used what’s known in the community as a ‘godphone’ to learn more about him, what he liked as offerings, what he wanted from this, what he associated himself with... through that and talking with the few other followers and some neodruids (and one very sweet old welsh woman who told me “the Neighbors will find me where the lord left me”) i’ve found some common UPG associations such as the ones listed in my devotional moodboard/info post.

mabon, as a deity, is very pleasant and genial in my experience. kind-eyed, sad, fretting of suffering, and such a mumma’s boy! you’ll find he’ll be very welcoming and excited to have followers, very eager to give signs and messages, and accepting of almost any offerings. in my time with him, i’ve found him to particularly enjoy traditional irish and welsh food! scrans picau ar y maen like a mad man. lamb soup and shepherd’s pie are other favourites. selsig morgannwg is one i love to cook up and share with him!

do not eat food that’s been offered. in generalized celtic tradition, food offered up to our good neighbors or deities are spiritually dead & are eaten by the spirit, and would make you feel drained and bone tired if eaten.

if you have other questions feel free to ask about it! i love talking and informing about mabon so much, i never mind it. also if anyone has more info or corrections, i’d be happy to hear it! i love learning new things since pre-christian wales is so rarely spoken about.

EDIT, GOOD SOURCES ON MABON:

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/agora/2018/09/mabon-is-a-god https://www.maryjones.us/jce/mabon.html http://www.godeeper.info/blog/who-is-mabon

both can't afford and don't have space for a proper Mabon altar right now, but i found this picrew and made a digital altar in His name! He was there with me, helping me choose the things He likes the most.