Mabon Journal Prompts: 25 Questions for Tarot Reflection

Writing at the balance point

There is something about the equinox that makes writing easier. Maybe it is the quality of the light — September’s light is honest in a way that summer’s never was. Maybe it is the coolness in the air, which clears the mind the way a cold glass of water clears the palate. Maybe it is simply that the year has turned far enough for you to see what it has actually been, instead of what you hoped it would be.

Mabon is the moment of weighing. And a journal is a scale.

These 25 prompts are organized around the five core themes of Mabon: harvest, balance, gratitude, release, and descent. Each one can be used on its own, or paired with a tarot card for deeper reflection. Pull before you write. Let the card and the question work together.

There is no right order. Start wherever your eye lands. Trust the pull.

Harvest: What grew

1. What is the most unexpected thing that grew in your life this year? The thing you did not plant, did not plan for, but somehow tended anyway?

2. Look at your life as a garden. What is ripe right now? What is ready to be picked — a project completed, a relationship that deepened, a skill that matured?

3. What harvest are you most proud of — and why does it matter to you specifically, not in a way that would impress anyone else?

4. What did you work hardest for this year? Was the effort worth the result? Be honest — sometimes the answer is no, and that is important information too.

5. What grew that you did not expect to let go of? Sometimes the harvest includes things that were only meant for this season, not forever.

Tarot pairing: Pull a card from the Pentacles suit. Read it as a letter from your harvest to you — what does it want you to know?

Balance: What is equal, what is not

6. Where in your life are you perfectly balanced right now? Name the area where the scales are genuinely even — where you give and receive in equal measure.

7. Where are you most out of balance? What has too much weight? What has too little? Write about what it would take to shift even slightly toward center.

8. The equinox holds light and dark equally. What are you holding equally — two truths, two feelings, two desires that seem to contradict each other but are both real?

9. If you could redistribute your energy the way the equinox redistributes light, where would you take some away and where would you add more?

10. What relationship in your life feels most balanced? What makes it work? And what relationship feels most uneven — and what would it take to name that honestly?

Tarot pairing: Pull Temperance or Justice from your deck intentionally. Set it in front of you and write about what balance means to you right now — not in theory, but in practice.

Gratitude: What you received

11. Write a thank-you letter to the most difficult experience of your year. What did it teach you that nothing easier could have?

12. Name five small things you are grateful for that you have never said out loud — the ones that seem too minor to mention but genuinely make your life better.

13. Who gave you something this year that you did not earn — kindness, patience, a second chance, trust? What did it feel like to receive it?

14. What about yourself are you grateful for? Not your accomplishments — you, the person. What quality or trait of yours served you well this year?

15. The Witch’s Thanksgiving asks you to name what you received. Name it — all of it, big and small, easy and hard. Let the list be longer than you think it should be.

Tarot pairing: Pull a card and ask it: “What gift did I receive this year that I have not yet fully acknowledged?” Write whatever comes.

Release: What is ready to go

16. What belief are you carrying that expired months ago? The one you already know is not true anymore but have not had the courage to set down?

17. What habit is ready to be composted — turned into soil for something better? Describe it without judgment. It served you once. It does not anymore.

18. Write a goodbye letter to something that is ending. A phase, a pattern, a version of yourself. Let it be kind. Let it be honest. Let it be final.

19. What fear has been your companion this year? If you set it down today — just for the equinox — what would you feel in its absence?

20. The trees release their leaves without apology. What would it look like if you released your “leaves” — the things that are beautiful but finished — with the same grace?

Tarot pairing: Pull the Death card intentionally from your deck. Set it face up and write about what it means to you today. Not what the books say. What your gut says.

Descent: Preparing for the dark

21. The dark half of the year begins. What do you want to take with you? If you could carry only three things — a strength, a lesson, and a love — into winter, what would they be?

22. What does rest look like for you — real rest, not just the absence of work? Describe the winter rest you actually need, not the one you think you should want.

23. Persephone chose the pomegranate. What is your pomegranate — the thing that ties you to the underworld, the shadow work you know is waiting, the deep question you have been avoiding?

24. What do you want to grow in the dark? Seeds germinate underground. What idea, project, or change do you want to plant now, knowing it will not show above ground until spring?

25. Write a letter to your future self on the Spring Equinox (Ostara). Tell them what you are releasing, what you are carrying, and what you hope the dark half of the year will teach you. Seal it. Open it in March.

Tarot pairing: Pull one card with the question: “What will the darkness teach me?” Do not try to understand it fully now. Write your first impressions and trust that the meaning will deepen over winter.

How to use these prompts

There is no formula. But here are some approaches that work well:

The daily practice: One prompt per day from September 17 to October 11 — the full Mabon season. Pull a tarot card each morning and let it flavor the prompt.

The equinox deep dive: On the day of the equinox, choose five prompts (one from each theme) and write for an hour. Let the themes weave together.

The card-first approach: Pull a tarot card first. Then scan the prompts and choose the one that resonates most with the card you drew. Let the card pick the question.

The avoidance method: Read through all the prompts. Notice which one you least want to answer. Answer that one. It is almost always the most important.

Whatever you choose — write honestly. The equinox is the most truthful day of the year. The light hides nothing, because it is equal. Write in that light. Let the journal hold what you find.