The Wheel of the Wiccan Year

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Starhawk (1979). The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess (1989 reviseded.). New York, New York: Harper and Row. pp. 7–186, 246. ISBN 0-06-250814-8. Suggested Celebration Timing: Observe the Friday night before after the moon enters Virgo at 8:25 pm until 4:17 am tomorrow morning at exact conjunction. Pronounced “saa-win”, this day marks the beginning of a new annual cycle in nature and the start of the Wheel of the Year. Halloween and all Saints Day is a direct derivative from Samhain and has maintained much of the same symbolism through the years. In the southern hemisphere Samhain falls on April 31st and May 1st.

Sermon, Richard (3 April 2022). "Eostre and the Matronae Austriahenae". Folklore. 133 (2): 139–157. doi: 10.1080/0015587X.2021.1959143. ISSN 0015-587X. S2CID 249536135. We have seen how the four fire festivals demonstrate a cycle related to the phases of our life on earth. The four solar festivals represent, at a psychological level, four key functions or processes: Inspiration, Reception, Expression, and Recollection. August 1 (calendar) – August 6 (cross quarter) – The First Harvest (Lammas; Lughnasa). Celebrate the spiritual harvest of your witchcraft. Read more here.If for pagans the spring equinox represents a sexual union, the autumn equinox is a mystical one. Reincarnation and the spiral of life are strong themes too: seed and grain, life and death, womb and tomb. Through understanding these mysteries of nature, the God reaches a state of mystical enlightenment and enters the underworld. Here the God dwells with the Goddess, now the ‘hag’, the queen of the underworld. Samhain Ember days, quarterly periods (usually three days) of prayer and fasting in the liturgical calendar of Western Christian churches. In Roman traditions additional festivities take place during the six days leading up to Midwinter. [17]

May 22 – New Moon in Gemini. The Agape Phoberos Ritual will guide you towards understanding the power of love and fear. Go Deeper Observing the cycle of the seasons has been important to many people, both ancient and modern. Modern pagan festivals that rely on the Wheel are based to varying degrees on folk traditions, regardless of actual historical pagan practices. [2] Some Wiccans use the term sabbat ( / ˈ s æ b ə t/) to refer to each festival. [3] Origins [ edit ] In Wicca, the narrative of the Wheel of the Year traditionally centers on the sacred marriage of the God and the Goddess and the god/ goddess duality. In this cycle, the God is perpetually born from the Goddess at Yule, grows in power at the vernal equinox (as does the Goddess, now in her maiden aspect), courts and impregnates the Goddess at Beltane, reaches his peak at the summer solstice, wanes in power at Lammas, passes into the underworld at Samhain (taking with him the fertility of the Goddess/Earth, who is now in her crone aspect) until he is once again born from Her mother/crone aspect at Yule. The Goddess, in turn, ages and rejuvenates endlessly with the seasons, being courted by and giving birth to the Horned God. [13] [55] [56]But over the past few years, I have noticed how out of alignment I feel with holidays like Christmas, Halloween, and Easter. They feel like props, made to distract and disconnect me from the real celebration and gifts of those times, which can all be found within ourselves, and in nature. Beltane and Samhain are the points in the year where the veil between this world and the Otherworld was at its thinnest, enabling comingling and communication between the living and the dead. Midsummer Nordberg, Andreas (2006). "Jul, disting och förkyrklig tideräkning". Acta Academiae Regiae Gustavi Adolphi. 91: 155–156. By contrast, we’d celebrate the grand sabbats anytime during the week before the peak, because we are using this swelling energy to grow our Great Work intention with the fixed energies of the seasonal high tides.

What is trying to come through you? What wisdom is stirring and rising from your womb? Yule (Winter Solstice) – 20th-23rd DecemberWe move from conjunction to the fruits of that conjunction with the festival time of Lughnasadh – the harvest being that of either children or of creative works. This is a time of satisfaction in our accomplishments – whether that means gazing into the face of our child or feeling the warm satisfaction that comes when we achieve an objective in our field of endeavour. It is at the time of the festival of Lughnasadh that we can invoke the powers of accomplishment to nourish the need that we all have to achieve something in this world. If we feel that we have achieved something, we can use this time to open ourselves to the satisfaction this brings. So often we rush through life that we do not even pause to enjoy those things which we have around us – our family or home, for example. If we feel that we have not yet achieved anything, now is the time to open ourselves to our potential for achievement. Acting ‘as if’ is a powerful way to mould our future. If we spend time opening ourselves to the feeling of family or accomplishment, even though we do not apparently have these things, we help to invoke these realities for the future.