Mabon Stag Meditation
By Blayze
Close your eyes and make yourself comfortable. Feel the lines of power flowing throughout the land. Feel the balance of day and night within you and around you. 
Become aware of your breath, become aware of the ground beneath you.
Concentrate on your breathing, in and out, in and out. 
You are sitting on the ground and feel leaves beneath you. Mist swirls around you. Slowly you stand up. Dappled sunlight shines down on you through the branches of tall forest trees, bare branched except for a few leaves still clinging to twigs here and there.
Through the swirling mist, you can see that you are standing on a path that runs through the forest. The ground rises and falls, and at the top of a crest along the path you can see the silhouette of a mighty Stag. The Stag turns his head towards you and then begins to move away from you along the path. You follow. The mist swirls around you and the leaves crunch beneath your feet.
You follow the stag up the rise and down a slight slope amongst the trees. The light becomes brighter as the trees thin out and you find yourself on the edge of a clearing.
In the centre of the clearing are two trees that form an archway. Their limbs are entwined across the space, their gnarled roots protruding from the brown grass as they make their way deep into the earth.
Through the archway, on the other side of the clearing, you can see a jagged cliff-face with the darkened arch of a cave entrance just visible between the jutting rocks. Small plants provide a splash of green against the grey and browns. The cave entrance mirroring the arched trees in the clearing.
The Stag walks into the clearing and passes between the archway of trees, tossing his mighty head to and fro, his antlers brushing the trunks of the trees. From your place on the edge of the clearing, you feel the earth shudder slightly and you become aware of lines of light pulsing along the ground, beams of barely glimpsed gold that radiate from the point exactly under the centre of the arch, overlayed upon the floor of the clearing. The Stag, with one more toss of his head, moves through the archway and goes to the cave entrance in the cliff wall. He turns to face the clearing. His eyes meet yours for a fraction of a second, and then he steadies himself, standing firm as he watches the entwined trees. 
Slowly the trees begin to writhe and to separate. The branches shrink to arms and legs, the trunks untwist into torsos. A loud cracking sound is heard as the last of the bark falls away. Standing straight and tall in the centre of the clearing, are two men, both golden of skin and hair. They are naked except for antlered crowns upon their heads. Their bodies strongly muscled, their skin tattooed with the silhouettes of copper and bronze leaves. There is a strong familial resemblance between the two men, although one has streaks of grey throughout his golden hair and scars of old wounds show through the tattoos. Both carry long bronze tipped spears. 
Slowly they bow to each other and then begin to circle each other around the clearing, passing quite close to where you stand, but intent upon their coming battle, they do not see you.
You see sadness in the eyes of the elder, and determination in the eyes of the younger, glinting with an inner flame. The sun is overhead now, and it shines down upon the spears as they begin to flash, as the two men swing their spears around and around, thrusting the wicked points at each other. They duck and weave, each parrying the blows of their opponent. Wooden haft crashes against wooden haft. The men come together and then separate, to circle each other once more. All the while they are watched by the ancient eyes of the Stag who guards the cave.
The elder is more precise in his movements, stillness at his core. The younger leaps over the elder’s spear haft or rolls underneath it, his body a spinning windmill of limbs and spear. Yet neither lands a blow.
The sun moves across the sky above the clearing, sweat begins to sheen the fighters’ golden bodies. The hafts lock and their antlered crowns entwine, each trying to throw the other off balance.
The pair separate and circle each other once again. The elder is moving more slowly now, his hair clinging to his face and neck in sweat-soaked locks. Yet still he moves with grace and dignity. There is anger and frustration building in the face of the younger, his movements becoming wilder with every thrust of his spear. The spears lock once more, the younger man slips and falls down upon his knees. His spear pointing upwards, pierces the heart of his opponent, just as the elder’s spear thrusts downwards pinning the younger to the ground, bright red blood welling upon his chest. 
They stand locked in a deadly embrace, entwined once again by limbs of wood. The father steps forward to embrace his son, the spear now protruding from his back. He kisses the brow of his child, no longer his foe, but his equal in death. As the father holds his son, both of them crumple to the ground stained red by their blood, lit by the multi-hued rays of the setting sun.
The Stag walks forward to stand before the bodies. He bows his head and touches each of the men with his antlers. The shades of the men stand up, translucent in the approaching darkness, but whole once more. The Stag turns towards the cave and each man places his hand upon the Stag’s mighty shoulders. Slowly the three of them move to the cave’s entrance. The two men appear to balk slightly at the threshold, but holding to the Stag they all move within, lost to sight in the darkness of the world beyond.
The shape of a woman detaches itself from the trees. She is veiled in black with dark jewels and berries bound about her brow. Hanging from a girdle of vines is a golden pouch and a small sickle. She carries a wooden bowl and a besom. She walks to the centre of the clearing and places the bowl between the heads of the fallen and the broom at their feet. She bends down and kisses both of them, smoothing back their hair. With her sickle, she scrapes away a small plot of earth, one on either side of the bodies. She removes the antlered crowns and places one each upon a plot of exposed earth. Watching from the edge of the clearing, you realise that the crowns now sit at the precise spots where each of the twined trees were rooted in the earth. 
Picking up the besom, the woman sweeps the clearing and its edges of fallen leaves. Around and around she goes, you withdraw further into the shadows of the forest as she passes, not wanting to interrupt her ritual of grief. You move back to the edge to watch when she moves on.
She piles the leaves in great drifts upon the bodies of her husband and son. A mound of leaves guarded by two antlered crowns upon the earth.
She takes up the bowl and moves to the cave’s entrance. She places the broom across the threshold and then places the bowl before it. From the pouch about her waist, she takes an object and lays it in the bowl. 
Slowly she stands up, and makes a gesture with her hands towards the cave. She then walks slowly back across the clearing and into the dark forest. 
You feel the power of an ancient cycle that has woven itself around you. You walk around the edge of the clearing to the entrance of the cave. Upon the ground is the offering bowl. You put your hands out, palm up above the bowl and you find that you are holding an object. 
You look at the object, and place it into the bowl. You take note of what is already within the bowl and your own gift of offering to the fallen, to those who have become the Lord Of Death and Resurrection.
What is the offering you make? Remember it.
Slowly you make your way back around the clearing. You see that where the two antlered crowns once stood, there are two mighty trees, entwined around each other to form an arch. Scattered leaves coat the ground between them.
You make your way back down the path. You glimpse the Stag standing upon the pathway. As you move closer, his image fades away. You go to the place where he stood, you sit down and feel the peace of the place. You feel the leaves upon the ground and you close your eyes.
You become aware of your breathing, of the ground beneath you. You become aware of the sound of my voice. When you are ready, open your eyes.