Playlist for the Wheel of the Year: Autumn Equinox

Over the years, I have created rituals to celebrate the Wheel of the Year with my wife and children. Music has been an essential part of the experience. Without it, it would be much more difficult to create the sense of sacred time and space and to evoke the experience I desire for each ritual. So I want to share with you my playlist for each station on the Wheel of Year. Here’s the sixth list. Enjoy! And share your suggestions in the comments below.

The Autumn Equinox/Mabon

Mythologically, at Mabon, the Sun King is interred. The Goddess laments the loss of her Consort and descends to the Underworld in search of him. There she encounters the Dark God and submits to him. The two are united, representing the union of Thanatos (death) and Eros (love). However, the Dark God is sterile, so no child can be born from their union. In another version, the Dark Child is conceived. The Goddess assumes the aspect of the Dark Queen.

“Noon of the Solstice” by Damh the Bard

In times long past
lived a Man of green,
And his footsteps brought life wherever he’d been.
In the deepest wildwood
was the place he was seen,
And the people did love
and protect him.
And they saw his face change,
with the turn of the Wheel
of the Seasons,
They heard his voice sing.

(Chorus)
I’m the Horned God,
I’m the face in the trees,
I’m the breath of the wind that rustles the leaves,
I’m the Green Man
in the wildwood I roam,
Cernunnos, I’m Pan and I’m Herne.

I shall be as the Dark Holly King,
Darkness and cold
in my cloak I will bring,
And on Winter’s nights
to me you will sing,
Till the air around me starts changing,

And on the noon of the solstice
I’ll give up my crown,
To the Light
and the Mighty Oak King.

All Summer long
I shall rule just and fair,
Bring your crops to fruit
with the light that I share,
With fire and water,
from earth into air,
But the Wheel it keeps
steadily turning.
And on the noon of the Solstice
I’ll give up my crown,
To the cold and the Dark Holly King.

T’is now modern times
and the Summer is here,
The Winter has gone
and the air it is clear,
On a fine day I walked
through a woods I live near,
When a battle I spied
through a clearing,
Two giants of leaves,
one light and one dark,
Even now the Wheel it is turning!

“Rise of the Corn” by Carolyn Hillyer

I sing the ripening corn to you
I sing this pathway to you
that you may come where two hills meet
and I wait at water’s edge.
I hear your heartbeat through the earth
sitting in my joy of you
sitting in my joy of you
wind brings your whisper.

I watch the horizon
and feel my blood’s deep pulse
I sing the ripening corn to you
that you may come.
I hear your heartbeat through the earth
sitting in my joy of you
I sing the ripening corn to you
that you may come.
I sing the ripening corn to you
that you may come [repeat 4 times]

“Osiris Lives” by Sharon Knight and Thorn Coyle

Red barley and grape on the vine
Green waters of the rising Nile (sing 2 times)
Osiris lives, Osiris returns, what is true will never die. (sing 2 times)
(What is true will live forever, what is true will always be.)
(Osiris lives, the God returns, Osiris lives, the God in me.)

“Nature’s Bounty” by Thorn Coyle and Sharon Knight

Let’s give thanks for the bounty of the harvest
The Barley King has bowed his head
Let’s give thanks for the beauty all around us
Pour the wine and break the bread!

Oh – Pass the horn of plenty
Oh – Thanks be for nature’s bounty