The Wheel of the Year

There are eight Sabbats during the year.� On these days a ritual is performed to realign ourselves with the Earth and Her cycles.� There are many different stories about each sabbat and about all of the Sabbats together.� The New Year is often celebrated at Samhain, Yule, or Imbolc, depending on tradition.� Sabbats are not usually for magick working, but sometimes spells are cast for something that corresponds to the holiday itself, like a cleansing spell for Yule (rebirth, newness, light, etc.) or a fertility spell for Beltane (sex, spring, luck, etc.)� I personally celebrate the New Year at Yule, so that holiday is the first listed.� It really doesn't matter anyway; it is called the Wheel of the Year, no beginning, no ending, just a circle spinning round.

December 20 -23 -- Winter Solstice -- Yule

The sun is at its nadir, the year's longest night. We internalize and synthesize the outward-directed activities of the previous summer months. Some covens hold a Festival of Light to commemorate the Goddess as Mother giving birth to the Sun God. The Mother Goddess, after giving birth, becomes the Crone, and sinks to the Underworld to rest and be reborn as the Maiden at Imbolc. Others celebrate the victory of the Lord of Light or Oak King over the Lord of Darkness or Holly King as the turning point from which the days will lengthen. The name "Yule" derives from the Norse word for "wheel", and many of our customs (like those of the Christian holiday) derive from Norse and Celtic Pagan practices (the Yule log, the tree, the custom of Wassailing, (caroling) the day of celebration� (who watches their flock in the dead of winter anyway?) and others.)� The celebration often includes both watching the sunset and waking up to watch it rise also.� Quiet, peace, the womb of the Mother, rebirth, life springing from the death (at Samhain) and other symbols all represent Yule.� Personally, I think staying up all night to greet the sun would be a terrific ritual.

February 2nd -- Imbolc, Oimelc, or Brigid

As the days' lengthening becomes perceptible, many candles are lit to hasten the warming of the earth and emphasize the reviving of life. "Imbolc" is from Old Irish, and may mean "in the belly", and Oimelc, "ewe's milk", as this is the lambing time. It is the holiday of the Celtic Fire Goddess Brigid, whose threefold nature rules smith craft, poetry/inspiration, and healing. Brigid's fire is a symbolic transformation offering healing, visions, and tempering. Februum is a Latin word meaning purification -- naming the month of cleansing. (Spring cleaning) The thaw releases waters (Brigid is also a goddess of holy wells) -- all that was hindered is let flow at this season. Spring, celebration of returning life, the Crone is reborn as the Maiden, revitalizing, looking toward the next year, planning what to do, resolutions, and even though we live in Minn. and this is a very cold time of year, it is full of light.� Groundhog's day is celebrated, the groundhog sees his shadow and gets scared, or he sees nothing and leaves his burrow.� Light is the main feature of this holiday.� For me, this is the Festival of Light, not on Yule.

March 20 - 23 -- Vernal Equinox -- Ostara

Day and night are equal as Spring begins to enliven the environment with new growth and more newborn animals. Many people feel "reborn" after the long nights and coldness of winter. The Germanic Goddess Ostara or Eostre (Goddess of the Dawn), after whom Easter is named, is the main deity of this holiday. It is she, as herald of the sun, who announces the triumphal return of life to the earth. Witches in the Greek tradition celebrate the return from Hades of Demeter's daughter Persephone; The enigmatic egg, laid by the regenerating snake or the heavenly bird, is a powerful symbol of the emergence of life out of apparent death or absence of life. The Maiden walks through the fields, awakening the flowers, and bringing fertility to the earth.� The Sun God is now a little boy, and he walks with her, warming the soil, and melting the waters.� There is a sweet faerie tale about a little rabbit that joins the two of them, and he gives eggs to the children. (sound familiar?) Growth, beginnings, new life and awakenings are all part of this holiday.� I often go outside and explore the woods and swamps if it is warm enough on this day.� You can smell Spring in the air, and a meditation done outside, with the sounds and smells all about you is especially invigorating on this day.

April 30 --Beltane -- May Eve -- Beltaine

�As the weather heats up and the plant world burgeons, an exuberant mood prevails. Folk dance around the Maypole, emblem of fertility (well, look at it, what does a long pointed thing remind you of?� Ok, now think, the Earth is viewed as female, right? ok, there's a big pole stuck in the earth what does that say to you?) The name "May" comes from a Norse word meaning "to shoot out new growth." May 1st was the midpoint of a five-day Roman festival to Flora, Goddess of Flowers. The name "Beltaine" means "Bel's Fires"; in Celtic lands, cattle were driven between bonfires to bless them, and people leaped the fires for luck. The association in Germany of May Eve with Witches' gatherings is a memory of pre-Christian tradition. "Wild" water (dew, flowing streams or ocean water) is collected as a basis for healing drinks and potions for the year to come.� This is the day of marriage of the God and Goddess, the day of sacred union, weddings and the Great Rite are often performed on this date.� Fertility, sex, life, celebration, and love are all symbols of this day.

June 20 - 23 -- Litha -- Summer Solstice� -- Midsummer

On this day, the noon of the year and the longest day, light and life are abundant. We focus outward, experiencing the joys of plenty, tasting the first fruits of the season. In some traditions the sacred marriage of the Goddess and God is celebrated (in others, this is attributed to the springtime holidays). Rhea, the Mountain Mother of Crete, has breathed out all creation. It is also the festival of the Chinese Goddess of Light, Li. The Oak King reaches the peak of his maturity and is defeated and the Holly King takes the throne until Yule.� The Goddess knows she has conceived the Divine Child who will be born at Yule and she celebrates in this knowledge.� Love, warmth, enjoying life, blessings, the veil between our world and the Fey World is very thin on this day. This is my favorite holiday, it represents all I love.

August 1st -- Lammas -- Lughnasadh

This festival has two aspects. First, it is one of the Celtic fire festivals, honoring the Celtic culture-bringer and Solar God Lugh (Lleu to the Welsh, Lugus to the Gauls). In Ireland, races and games were held in his name and that of his mother, Tailtiu (these may have been funeral games). The second aspect is Lammas, the Saxon Feast of Bread, at which the first of the grain harvest is consumed in ritual loaves. These aspects are not too dissimilar, as the shamanic death and transformation of Lleu can be compared to that of the Barley God, known from the folksong "John Barleycorn". This time is also sacred to the Greek Goddess of the Moon and the Hunt, Artemis.� This is the first harvest of the year.� For me, this is the day of my "formal" dedication to Wicca, and along with the harvest I also celebrate the finding of a new spiritual path, the past, and the future. (strange on a holiday that leads to the darker half of the year, but that's just the way it turned out.) (Be careful what you say about this holiday, for as someone's mother once asked, �You worship llamas??!�)

September 20 - 23� -- Mabon -- Autumnal Equinox� --� Harvest Home

This day sees light and dark in balance again, before the descent to the dark times. A harvest festival is held, thanking the Goddess for giving us enough sustenance to feed us through the winter. Harvest festivals of many types still occur today in farming country, and Thanksgiving is an echo of these.� Persephone is kidnapped by Hades and Demeter stops taking care of the plants to search for her. This is the second harvest, the Great Feast, and a time for reflection on the past year, a time to slow down a bit and ponder on the meaning of life and death.

October 31 -- Samhain -- All Souls Eve -- Halloween -- Day of the Dead -- Sowen

The night lengthens and we work with the positive aspects of darkness in the increasing star and moonlight. Many Craft traditions, following the ancient Celts, consider this the eve of the New Year (as day begins with sundown, so the year begins with the first day of Winter). It is one night when the barriers between the worlds of life and death are uncertain, allowing the ancestors to walk among the living, welcomed and feasted by their kin, bestowing the Otherworld's blessings. We may focus within ourselves to look "through the glass darkly", developing our divination and psychic skills. The Sun God dies, to be reborn at Yule and though the Goddess mourns his loss, she can feel the child conceived at Beltane moving inside her and knows that the Sun God will not be gone long.� Death, reincarnation, silence, darkness, psychic skills and in a way, hope all represent this holiday.

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In this way the Wheel turns, bringing us back to Yule where we began our cycle. Many of the festival days coincide with holidays of the Jewish and Christian calendars. This is no accident; these points in the year were important community celebrations, and were kept largely intact although they were rededicated to the Christian God or a saint. The names may have changed, but the old Pagan practices still show through.

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