Mabon and the Art of Letting Go: What Are You Ready to Release?
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There is something about autumn that makes letting go feel a little more natural.
The leaves begin to change. The days grow shorter. The air gets cooler. The world around us begins its slow movement toward stillness.
Nature doesn’t fight the change. It just happens.
The tree doesn't try to hold every leaf forever.
It simply lets go.
Mabon arrives around the Autumn Equinox, when day and night are in balance.
Traditionally, it is a time associated with the harvest, gratitude, reflection and the transition from the abundance of summer into the darker half of the year.
And I think there is something beautiful we can learn from that transition.
Because sometimes we need to let go too.
Not because something didn't matter.
Not because we weren't hurt.
Not because we suddenly stopped caring.
Sometimes we let go because continuing to hold on is keeping us from moving forward.
Letting Go Doesn't Mean It Didn't Matter
I've been thinking about this a lot lately.
In my first post, When Someone Ghosts You: Reclaiming Your Power After Being Left Without Answers, I wrote about what happens when someone leaves without giving you the answers or closure you wanted.
But what happens after that?
What do we do with everything we're left holding?
The questions.
The memories.
The disappointment.
The things we wish we had said.
The relationship we thought we would have.
Sometimes letting go gets confused with not caring.
But that's not necessarily what it is.
You can care about someone and still let go.
You can love someone and recognize that the relationship isn't healthy for you anymore.
You can be grateful for what something once was and still understand that it has changed.
You can miss someone and still choose not to go back.
Letting go doesn't erase what something meant to you.
It simply means you're no longer allowing it to determine where you go next.
You’re not holding onto something that isn’t yours to hold onto.
What Are You Carrying That You No Longer Need?
Mabon gives us a beautiful opportunity to ask ourselves this question.
What am I still carrying?
Maybe it's anger.
Maybe it's guilt.
Maybe it's the need to understand why someone treated you the way they did.
Maybe you're holding onto an old version of yourself because you're afraid of who you'll become without it.
Maybe you're holding onto a relationship because you're remembering what it used to be rather than seeing what it is now.
Or maybe you're simply exhausted from carrying something you've been carrying for a very long time.
We don't always realize how much emotional weight we're carrying until we finally put some of it down.
And sometimes the first step isn't actually letting go.
It's acknowledging what you're holding.
The Harvest Isn't Just About What You're Releasing
One of the things I love about the symbolism of Mabon is that the harvest isn't only about what we leave behind.
It's also about what we've grown.
What did you learn?
What did you survive?
Where did you become stronger?
What boundaries did you learn you needed?
What did you discover about yourself?
Maybe an ending taught you that you need reciprocity in your relationships.
Maybe disappointment taught you to trust your intuition.
Maybe losing someone showed you how often you were putting everyone else's needs before your own.
Maybe a difficult chapter forced you to become someone you hadn't realized you were capable of becoming.
Those lessons are part of your harvest too.
You don't have to carry the pain forward to keep the wisdom.
That's an important distinction.
You can release the experience while keeping what it taught you.
What Tarot Can Teach Us About Letting Go
Tarot isn't here to tell you what you should release.
And it isn't a way to force an answer when you're not ready to hear one.
For me, tarot is a tool for reflection. It helps us slow down, look at a situation from another perspective, and sometimes notice the things our intuition has already been trying to tell us.
For me, tarot is like chatting with a trusted friend.
When you're thinking about letting go, the cards can help you ask better questions.
Not:
“Will this person come back?”
But:
“What do I need to understand about this experience?”
Not:
“Why did they do this to me?”
But:
“What is this experience showing me about what I need?”
And not:
“How do I make this stop hurting?”
But:
“What would help me begin moving forward?”
That's where tarot becomes a tool for reclaiming your power.
It’s about taking the lessons and learning where to go from here. Let's take a look at a few cards and how we can use them to reclaim our power when letting things go. Pictures of cards are from the Cosmic Tarot Deck.
Tarot Cards for the Art of Letting Go
Death — Transformation
The Death card can look intimidating and often makes people a bit uneasy.
But it isn't necessarily about literal death.
In tarot, the Death card often represents endings, transformation and the closing of one chapter so another can begin.
Sometimes something has simply reached the end of its season.
And that doesn't mean it was a mistake.
It means it changed. Just like summer changes into fall.
Eight of Cups — Walking Away
The Eight of Cups is one of the cards I think of when talking about emotionally letting go.
It can represent walking away from something that no longer fulfills you, even when you still have feelings attached to it.
And that can be incredibly difficult.
Sometimes we leave because something is terrible.
And sometimes we leave because we finally understand that something isn't enough anymore.
It may not fill your needs the way it once used to.
You may need to sit with that for a moment. Grieve what was, but be prepared to move on.
Four of Pentacles — Holding On
The Four of Pentacles asks us to look at what we're gripping onto tightly.
Are you holding onto a person?
A memory?
An apology you may never receive?
An old version of yourself?
Sometimes we hold on because we're afraid that releasing something means losing it forever.
But holding something tightly doesn't necessarily keep it from changing.
Ruminating only keeps us stuck in a loop.
Sometimes you need to let go so you can let the future happen.
Ten of Wands — Carrying Too Much
The Ten of Wands reminds us that we can become so accustomed to carrying something that we forget we are allowed to put it down.
What responsibilities are actually yours?
What emotional burdens have you picked up for other people?
What are you carrying because you feel like you should?
You don't have to carry everything simply because you've carried it for a long time.
Or because you are the one who always does so.
You don’t have to carry burdens that don’t belong to you. You don't have to feel trapped.
The World — Completion
The World can represent completion, integration and the closing of a cycle.
Sometimes closure doesn't come in the form we expected.
Sometimes there isn't a final conversation.
Sometimes there isn't an apology.
Sometimes you don't get the closure in the way you wanted.
Sometimes you become the person who decides that the chapter is complete.
There is power in moving forward.
You get to decide how the chapter ends.
The Star — Hope
And after all of that letting go, there is The Star.
Hope.
Healing.
A sense that there is still something ahead of you.
Because releasing something isn't the end of your story.
Sometimes it's what finally gives you room to begin writing the next part.
If we hold onto things simply because we are used to it, we are holding ourselves back from what could be something truly beautiful.
A Simple Mabon Tarot Ritual for Letting Go
You don't need an elaborate altar or a complicated ritual to mark the season.
Find a quiet space where you won't be interrupted.
You might light a candle, place a favorite crystal nearby, make yourself a cup of tea and have your tarot deck and journal ready.
Take a few deep breaths.
Think about the past season of your life.
What has changed?
What have you learned?
What are you ready to stop carrying?
Then shuffle your cards and ask: What am I ready to release?
Pull one card.
Don't immediately try to figure out what the card means.
Look at it.
What catches your attention?
What emotion does it bring up?
What does your intuition tell you?
Write down what comes to you.
Then ask: What have I learned from this experience?
Pull another card.
And finally: What am I making space for?
Pull one more.
You can sit with those three cards for as long as you need.
There is no deadline for healing.
Write your reading and impressions in your tarot journal.
A Mabon Tarot Spread for Letting Go
If you'd like to go deeper, try this seven-card spread.
We are using the same layout from When Someone Ghosts You: Reclaiming Your Power After Being Left Without Answers.
This time though, we are asking different questions and moving more into your next chapter.
1. What am I still holding onto?
2. Why has it been difficult for me to release it?
3. What has this experience taught me?
4. What does my intuition want me to see?
5. What am I ready to leave behind?
6. What am I taking with me into the next chapter?
7. What am I making space for?
This isn't about forcing yourself to let go of something you're not ready to release.
Sometimes the most honest answer is simply: I'm not ready yet.
And that's okay.
Awareness is a beginning, too.
What Will You Carry Forward?
As the seasons change, we're often encouraged to think about what we're releasing.
But I think Mabon asks another important question: What are you keeping?
Keep your wisdom.
Keep the boundaries you fought to learn.
Keep the parts of yourself you rediscovered.
Keep the lessons.
Keep the love that was genuine.
Keep the memories that still make you smile.
You don't have to throw away everything connected to a chapter simply because the chapter has ended.
Take what is yours.
Leave what isn't.
And step forward.
I have found with each person that has entered and left my life, I learned more about myself.
I may have tried different foods or learned about something I never would have had an interest in otherwise.
When someone enters our life and then leaves, sometimes we’re left with a new part of ourselves that we discovered.
Letting Go Is an Act of Trust
The trees don't know exactly what next spring will look like.
They let go anyway.
Maybe that's part of what makes autumn so beautiful.
There is trust in releasing something before you know exactly what comes next.
If you've been holding onto something that no longer belongs in your life, Mabon can be an invitation to look at it honestly.
Not with judgment.
Not with shame.
And not with the belief that you should already be over it.
Just honestly.
Ask yourself: What am I ready to release?
And then ask: What becomes possible when I finally do?
You don't have to have all the answers.
You don't have to let go of everything at once.
You can simply begin.
Because sometimes reclaiming your power isn't about fighting for something to stay.
Sometimes it's about knowing when you're ready to open your hand.
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