Foodies Guide to the Tarot: Mabon 2016 - Tarot Blog Hop

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Hello Dear Ones,

I have been curiously waiting for this Blog Hop occasion again - such a great and funny topic we have, thank you, dear Wranglers, Jay Cassels & Co-Wrangler Arwen Lynch Poe! 

As you can see, I am using another blog this time - and from this time on -, it will be better to keep this one for English posts and my old one for Hungarian ones, and well, that flowery background of the other one would have been too sugary for my topic this time: yay, the pre-Halloween Cooking Competition! You will soon meet the contestants. :)

But before I jump into it, I would like to say a few words to the newcomers about what this blog post will be about, also, about what a Tarot Blog Hop is. 

From time to time - usually at great and important feasts of the year -, a topic is chosen by Wranglers, and everyone that participates in Blog Hopping has to post their writings on their blogs at the very same time - so people from different Times Zones will have different hours when they are due to make their posts public. In the top and last line of a post, you can see labels saying PREVIOUS BLOG, MASTER LIST and NEXT BLOG - this is how hopping happens. :)

The topic for this time, 23 September 2016 is Mabon, also known as Harvest Home, Harvest Tide, Fall Equinox, Autumn Equinox. It usually takes place between September 21-24 every year. Mabon marks the middle of harvest. It is also a time of equal day and night, and Nature on such days is in balance.

This is a perfect time for magic if you want to call in abundance, and this is not only a time when we look back on the past year and on what we can harvest from it, but also a time that is great to make plans for a better-balanced, healthier and more abundant future. Mabon is for celebration and having a good rest after the hard work of the year, and after the hard work of harvest itself, as well. For the next couple of months, daylight hours will be shorter - even Mother Gaia is going to have a good rest.

We, humans have the pleasure to enjoy clear and fresh chilly weather, to admire the wonderful colors of Nature, to have a nice hot cup of spicy tea at the end of the day when we cuddle up in our comfy armchair near the fireplace so as to knit a pair of soft warm socks or read a good book, and the wind is whistling outside in the meanwhile.  

Spirits wake up, yay... Their time is coming. The wind is cold and sharp, shaking the shutters of your window. Then you suddenly hear that the old wooden door of the barn in the yard starts to creak. You unwillingly get up to go out and close it. As you open the front door, the harsh wind hits your face, and not just that, but also an advertisement that has been lying on the porch is grabbed up by the wind, blown straight into your hands. It says:

Oh, sweet old nostalgia, yes... Mortality... What a weird girl she was. You used to attend school at the same class. No one wanted to sit next to her. In your weakest moments, you felt terribly compassionate for her. Once you even invited her at your parents' home. Mom was not happy... She kept on repeating what a bad influence Mortality could have on you. But you were secretly admiring her. She had such weird dolls that no one else had. Glassy eyes, no eyes, sometimes the dolls had bloody teardrops painted on their cheek. She said her Granny fancied these dolls - Mom had a suspicion that it was Mortality's Granny to whom the weird dolls could thank their unique appearance. You always wanted such a doll - but never got it. Mom was happy when you finished school and Mortality was out of sight. Then she fell in love with a simple guy. Such a goodhearted boy he was, yes. But he died from a mysterious disease at the age of nineteen. Mortality was also nineteen at that time. Well, it was almost fifteen years ago... Since then, Mortality has been living in the churchyard. The vicar was also very compassionate with her, this is why she has been allowed to stay there for such a long time. Who could have persuaded her to participate at the competition, no one knows. But she is just one more reason for you to send your application. This is always good to meet old friends. And Mortality really loved Auntie, yes... She would be happy to taste that soup again. Auntie's soup... With all her heart in it.

(Card: XIII. Death, Ludy Lescot Tarot) 

Good old Donna Regina, what a sweet Italian lady she is! No one will starve in her presence. Latin blood in her veins, her tongue is a bit sharp sometimes, as well as her mind. But she is a sweetheart. Even if she is no longer that young, and has the look of a good old village wife, she still charms every man. Who knows where her talents come from, but besides that she is a true professional cook - no one doubts it -, and she bakes the most perfect cakes (and she even brings them at church every Sunday to invite the town-inhabitants for a tea), she has mystic and scary clairvoyant abilities. She also has a black cat, a real lord, Wilson, but the more he ages, the more hates to be seen in daguerreotypes. Donna Regina met her husband in a mystical way, as well. She has a peculiar deck of cards, she calls them Tarocchi. She predicted to herself when and how she would meet the One, and it happened so. Even the vicar asks Donna Regina for Tarocchi readings from time to time (as well as most church members). She willingly feeds stray cats and dogs, and all the doves of the town - they love to sit on her shoulders. Donna Regina's husband is really grateful for her. He is no longer young, either, but quite a handsome man, sometimes fiery, but usually calm. Their children come home once or twice a year - usually at Mabon and some time in the spring. Her husband, well, he is the one that still kisses Donna Regina's hands after a delicious meal.

(Card: Queen of Wands, Tarot of the Gnomes)

And well, this majestic sad lady will understandably participate, as well. She needs to socialize. Signora Sette di Coppe, the poor soul. Really bad fate for her. Every year, at about the same time, she loses a husband. No one has any ideas why, but all the people at church agree that bad fate is haunting her. The only exception is Donna Regina - she cannot help thinking about something sinister here. Poisons... - uh, how can she read something like that from a deck of weird cards? Signora Sette is such a sophisticated woman. Regardless of her kind heart, Donna Regina sometimes seems to be like an obsessed witch. Even creepier than that, Signora Sette's name means 'Seven'. She was given this name by her father, as she was the seventh daughter - and the youngest one - in the family. She has lost six husbands so far, and again, that crucial time of the year is coming. Luigi di Coppe, her husband has not felt well recently. He has not been able to attend a single church ceremony for weeks. Signora Sette says she thinks he is getting better. Town people hope that her bad fate will go now that she is married for the seventh time. Everyone seems to believe in the magical number of seven, yes. Signora Sette met Luigi in a library - he was the chief librarian. It was love at first glance. She just went there to hire some books about venomous plants, and they fell in love with each other. Luigi has always said she was his Destiny.  

(Card: 7 of Cups, Mona Lisa Tarot) 

How sad Auntie is no longer among us... But the smell and taste of her pumpkin soup will be an everlasting memory to everyone that has ever tasted it. No one in the family has had the strength to cook that soup since Auntie closed her eyes for good. But maybe now... Yes, that old drawer still keeps that recipe with Auntie's pearl-like handwriting. What if this is not by chance that the advertisement for the Halloween Cooking Competition was there, right there, blown there by the wind - what if it was Auntie arranging for it like this? Auntie has always been tricky, no doubt it was her! Okay, let us take that recipe out of the bottom of the old drawer. Sigh... The wind is hurling. The door of the barn is still creaking - but here is Auntie's magic pumpkin soup recipe, and you are standing in your kitchen, in front of a whispering stove. Beware! Once you taste this soup, you will be haunted by its smell and taste - maybe even by Auntie...

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