So a couple weeks ago, I was gearing up for Mabon when, unfortunately, I hurt my back at work. It messed up my plans, and sadly I had to sit it out in a fair amount of pain and heartbreak. My girlfriend and meta had to move back to Knoxville, and I took it poorly... Thankfully, I saw the error of my ways, and so it was time to get back to work.

As an archetype of The Crone, Aunt Lili is the Lady with whom I celebrate Mabon.

Being the festival of the second harvest, when the time of abundance ends and the long march toward Renewal begins; now is the time to reflect upon that sojourn.

While Spring and Summer are most surely the days of Mama Evie's reign, when all to blessings of Her green Earth explode into vibrance about us; She cannot achieve this alone. Though She be the Lady of Flowers and crops, and therefore the backbone of our world, in order to bring her blessings unto us; She must work hand in hand with Lili's children, the beasts of our world.

And having no crops nor any ability to get out and about, I needed to exercise a bit of creativity.... and what better way, though, to honor Aunt Lili than to go widdershins, and speak of the Lady of Fate's grim warning?

Today I did.

One terrible flaw about humanity, and Americans in particular, is our startling tendency to take things for granted. We assume that just because our world has been so abundant, that it always was this way, and always will be. This is most certainly not the case.

A brief foray into history:

Whilst everywhere you look, you can find soil, it wasn't always here. The soil beneath your feet is in fact the result of decaying plant matter. When a life ends, its remains are recycled through chemical and physical processes, whereby they feeds the next generation of life; a sacred and primal rejuvenation so utterly fundamental to our world. So as plants do die and rot, the next Spring can begin.

But the plants were not the first life on Earth. They are dependant on both water and carbon dioxide, which is itself the result of billions of years of cyanobacterial life, tiny beasts whose waste products built our atmosphere, and verily changed the physical structure of our world, creating the conditions by which the Mama Evie's blessings could then grow to fruition. It is this interplay, between Evie's fruits and Lili's beasts; upon which our world of abundance has come to be.

In short, Evolution literally built the ground beneath your feet. And yet ofcourse, there is more to the story...

courtesy of Unsplash.

For where you find fruits, you will most certainly find beasts.

A staggering array of staple crops in our food chain are largely dependent on the harvesting of fruits pollinated by bees. These tiny insects are the means by which Lili and Evie have worked in harmony for millenia, bringing unto us virtually everything we see, smell, and taste at the dinner table.

And though we might like to ignore it, we live in a time of terrifying crisis. Pesticides based on nicotenoid molecules present an apocalyptic threat to bee colonies the world over.

While humans are pretty clever when it comes to finding ways to prosper on the exploitation of the world, we aren't too good at accepting consquences until those consequences come smashing down with a force that cannot be denied... as has always been Aunt Lili's way. As the Crone herself, she doesn't pull punches, she doesn't give second chances, and overall, she doesn't give a damn. For wherego her beasts, from the great mammoth to the tiniest of honey bees, so will follow mankind.

Pollination.

As previously mentioned, people are awfully good at ignoring things. Though we have doubtlessly heard of colony collapse disorder hundreds of times over the decades, and click/shared many a article and informative meme, it really never makes an impact. The outrage industry will always generate another article, another meme, and a scant few moments later, it has completely skipped our mind. Though blatant and in your face, we simply overlook it.

Yet, when presented with a riddle, the human animals' cleverness tends to spring into action. When that riddle itself is tied to a physical object, a curiousity to be shown and shared with others, that's when you can truly foment engagement. By making a mystery, I could hijack the 21st century's obsessive Fear of Missing Out.

So I did precisely that...

These are photos of my first foray of my offering to Aunt Lili for Mabon. Though I had planned to spread this riddle at the local college, construction prevented me from doing so...

Therefore I went about to the local hangouts on the down strip, swung by the park behind our library, and then two more parks for good measure. I placed them in numerous out of the way locales, so they wouldn't be swept away by maintenance workers or taken by a covetous few.

And ofcourse, how could I resist this one?

Blessings to the blissful.

Silas Danois