The Scales of Justice (September 23 — October 22)

The infant Narcissus is presented to the aged prophet Tiresias. Tiresias the prophet was placed in the sky as the constellation Libra by Hera.

The scales of Libra are sometimes associated with Tiresias, the aged prophet — shown here being presented with the child Narcissus. Tiresias is presented as a complexly liminal figure, with a foot in each of many oppositions, mediating between the gods and mankind, male and female, blind and seeing, present and future, and this world and the Underworld.

Libra, the scales of justice, is the astrological sign that governs those born September 23 to October 22 each year.

It has been suggested that the scales are an allusion to the fact that when the sun enters this part of the ecliptic at the autumnal equinox, the days and nights are equal. In Roman mythology, Libra is considered to depict the scales held by Astraea (identified as Virgo, the previous sign of the zodiac), the goddess of justice. Because scales always seek balance, they are associated with oppositions: life/death, earth/otherworld, sight/blindness, ignorance/foreknowledge, male/female, humanity/divinity, and so on. Because the mythological prophet Tiresias was said to be both blind and foreknowing as well as having lived for 7 years as a woman who had 3 children (the result of a curse by Athena or Hera), he was also associated with these oppositions and balances.

In one version of the sex-change story, Tiresias sees 2 snakes copulating and he strikes them with his staff. For some reason, this offends Hera who punishes him by changing him into a woman. The association of his staff with the 2 snakes has also led to his association with the caduceus (the 2 snakes winding about a staff, a symbol of communication but often confused with the single-snaked symbol of healing).

Mabon, the first day of Autumn

Goose and apples are traditional foods for the celebrations of the autumnal equinox, Mabon, and Michaelmas.

Goose and apples are traditional foods for the celebrations of the autumnal equinox, Mabon, and Michaelmas.

The sky is darker now when I get up in the morning because the sun rises later in the morning(though I do not)! This year, the NYC weather reports all say that the equinox happens Monday night (Sept. 22) at 10:29 p.m. In many cultures, the September equinox is a sign of fall (autumn) in the northern hemisphere. In Greek mythology fall is associated with when the goddess Persephone returns to the underworld to be with her husband Hades. It was supposedly a good time to enact rituals for protection and security as well as reflect on successes or failures from the previous months.

In the Celtic pracitce, the autumnal equinox, is also known as ‘Mabon,’ the Welsh God who symbolized the male fertilizing principle in the Welsh myths. Some mythologists equate him as the male counterpart for Persephone.

Mabon ap Modron is a figure of Welsh mythology, the son of Modron. Both he and his mother were likely deities in origin, descending from a divine mother–son pair. His name is related to the Romano-British god Maponos, whose name means “divine son”; Modron, in turn, is likely related to the Gaulish goddess Dea Matrona.

Mabon was a common name in medieval Wales, and it is difficult to determine whether the various references to Mabons in poetry and the Triads are to the same character. The most important appearance of Mabon ap Modron is in the prose tale Culhwch and Olwen, associated with the Mabinogion and perhaps authored around 1100. King Arthur’s men must recruit Mabon to fulfill the demands of Ysbaddaden the giant before he will allow his daughter Olwen marry the protagonist Culhwch. Mabon is the only one who can hunt with the dog Drudwyn, in turn the only dog who can track the great boar Twrch Trwyth.

However, Mabon has been missing since he was three nights old, when unknown intruders stole him from between his mother and the wall. Arthur determines that he and his men will find and rescue Mabon. Mabon’s whereabouts are unknown even to Britain’s oldest and wisest animals, but finally Arthur’s followers are led to the Salmon of Llyn Llyw, the oldest animal of all. The enormous salmon carries Arthur’s men Cei and Bedwyr downstream to Mabon’s prison in Gloucester; they hear him through the walls, singing a lamentation for his fate. The rest of Arthur’s men launch an assault on the front of the prison, while Cei and Bedwyr sneak in the back and rescue Mabon. Mabon subsequently participates in the hunt for the Twrch Trwyth.