Mabon Wicca

Sunday, 27 January 2013

Witchcraft, Pagan & Wiccan: Sabbats Explained - Mabon (Autumn Equinox)

Mabon Ritual Performed By Y Gwyr Yn Erbyn Byd

Wiccan Holidays: Mabon and Christmas Question?

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Australia
Australia ( /əˈstreɪljə/), officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent as well as the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area. Neighbouring countries include Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea to the north; the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia to the north-east; and New Zealand to the south-east.
For at least 40,000 years before European settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who belonged to one or more of roughly 250 language groups. After discovery by Dutch explorers in 1606, Australia's eastern half was claimed by Great Britain in 1770 and settled through penal transportation to the colony of New South Wales from 26 January 1788. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades; the continent was explored and an additional five self-governing Crown Colonies were established.

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Canada
Canada ( /ˈkænədə/) is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean. Spanning over 9,900,000 km² (3,800,000 sq mi), Canada is the world's second-largest country by total area, and its common border with the United States is the longest land border in the world.
The land that is now Canada has been inhabited for millennia by various Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French colonial expeditions explored, and later settled, along the region's Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces. This began an accretion of provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy; the Canada Act 1982 severed the vestiges of legal dependence on Britain.

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Isle of Man
The Isle of Man ( /ˈmæn/; Manx: Ellan Vannin, pronounced [ˈɛlʲən ˈvanɪn]), otherwise known simply as Mann (Manx: Mannin, IPA: [ˈmanɪn]), is a self-governing Crown Dependency of the United Kingdom, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is represented by a Lieutenant Governor. The island is not part of the United Kingdom, but its foreign relations and defence are the responsibility of the UK Government. Although the United Kingdom does not usually interfere in the island's domestic matters, its "good government" is ultimately the responsibility of the Crown (that is, in practice, the Government of the United Kingdom).
The island has been inhabited since before 6500 BC. Gaelic cultural influence began in the 5th century AD, and the Manx language, a branch of the Gaelic languages, gradually emerged. In the 9th century, the Norse began to settle there. A Norse-Gaelic culture arose and the island came under Norse control. In 1266, the island became part of Scotland as formalised by the Treaty of Perth. After a period of alternating rule by the kings of Scotland and England, the island came under the feudal overlordship of the English Crown in 1399. The lordship revested into the British Crown in 1764 but the island never became part of Great Britain or its successor the United Kingdom and retained its status as an internally self-governing Crown dependency.

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Museum of Witchcraft
Coordinates: 50°41′20″N 4°41′31″W / 50.689°N 4.692°W / 50.689; -4.692
Museum of Witchcraft in Boscastle, Cornwall, England is a museum dedicated to witchcraft and has the largest collection of witchcraft and Wiccan related artifacts in the world. It is one of Cornwall's most popular museums, though it had opened initially not in Cornwall but on the Isle of Man in 1951, moving to its current location in 1960.
The museum holds a large number of artifacts, much of which once belonged to the museum's founder Cecil Williamson, including human remains, and currently also holds the Richell collection of witchcraft regalia that was loaned to the museum in 2000 from The Netherlands.
Neopagan Witch Cecil Williamson tried to open a museum to hold his collection of witchcraft and occult artifacts in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1947, but faced local opposition and had to abandon his plans.
In 1951, Williamson opened the museum, under the name of the Folklore Center of Superstition and Witchcraft at Castletown on the Isle of Man. He had it set up in a dilapidated old mill known locally as the Witches' Mill which he had purchased in 1948, and, at the advice of his wife, opened an adjacent restaurant, known as the Witches' Kitchen.

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Northern Hemisphere
Coordinates: 45°0′0″N 0°0′0″E / 45°N 0°E / 45; 0
The Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of its equator—the word hemisphere literally means “half sphere”. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator. Earth's northern hemisphere contains most of the planet's land, and roughly 90% of its human population. See also Arctic, Temperate zone, Tropics, Seasons and Climate
Due to the Earth's axial tilt, winter lasts from the winter solstice (typically December 22) to the vernal equinox (typically March 20), while summer lasts from the summer solstice (typically June 21) through to the autumnal equinox (typically September 21).
The Arctic is the region north of the Arctic Circle. Its climate is characterized by cold winters and cool summers. Precipitation mostly comes in the form of snow. The Arctic experiences some days in summer when the Sun never sets, and some days during the winter when it never rises. The duration of these phases varies from one day for locations right on the Arctic Circle to several months near the North Pole.

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Southern Hemisphere
Coordinates: 45°0′0″S 0°0′0″E / 45°S 0°E / -45; 0
The Southern Hemisphere is the part of Earth that lies south of the equator. The word hemisphere (from the Greek word σφαιρα (sphere) +ημι (half)) literally means 'half ball' or "half sphere". It is also that half of the celestial sphere south of the celestial equator.
The Southern Hemisphere contains all or parts of four continents (Antarctica, Australia, most parts of South America and southern half of Africa), four oceans (South Atlantic, Indian, South Pacific, and Southern) and most of Oceania. Several islands off the Asian continental mainland are also in the Southern Hemisphere. Due to the tilt of Earth's rotation relative to the Sun and the ecliptic plane, summer is December to March and winter is June to September. September 22 or 23 is the vernal equinox and March 20 or 21 is the autumnal equinox.

Climates in the Southern Hemisphere overall tend to be slightly milder than those in the Northern Hemisphere at similar latitudes except in the Antarctic which is colder than the Arctic. This is because the Southern Hemisphere has significantly more ocean and much less land. Water heats up and cools down more slowly than land.

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Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley (/ˈkroʊli/ KROH-lee; 12 October 1875–1 December 1947), born Edward Alexander Crowley, and also known as both Frater Perdurabo and The Great Beast, was an influential English occultist, mystic, ceremonial magician, poet and mountaineer, who was responsible for founding the religious philosophy of Thelema. In his role as the founder of the Thelemite philosophy, he came to see himself as the prophet who was entrusted with informing humanity that it was entering the new Aeon of Horus in the early 20th century.
Born into a wealthy upper class family, as a young man he became an influential member of the esoteric Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn after befriending the order's leader, Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers. Subsequently believing that he was being contacted by his Holy Guardian Angel, an entity known as Aiwass, while staying in Egypt in 1904, he "received" a text known as The Book of the Law from what he believed was a divine source, and around which he would come to develop his new philosophy of Thelema. He would go on to found his own occult society, the A∴A∴ and eventually rose to become a leader of Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), before founding a religious commune in Cefalù known as the Abbey of Thelema, which he led from 1920 through till 1923. After abandoning the Abbey amid widespread opposition, Crowley returned to Britain, where he continued to promote Thelema until his death.

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Bede
Bede ( /ˈbiːd/ BEED; Old English: Bǣda or Bēda; 672/673 – 26 May 735), also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede (Latin: Bēda Venerābilis), was an English monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow (see Monkwearmouth-Jarrow), both in the Kingdom of Northumbria. Bede's monastery had access to a superb library which included works by Eusebius and Orosius among many others.
He is well known as an author and scholar, and his most famous work, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (The Ecclesiastical History of the English People) gained him the title "The Father of English History". In 1899, Bede was made a Doctor of the Church by Leo XIII, a position of theological significance; he is the only native of Great Britain to achieve this designation (Anselm of Canterbury, also a Doctor of the Church, was originally from Italy). Bede was moreover a skilled linguist and translator, and his work with the Latin and Greek writings of the early Church Fathers contributed significantly to English Christianity, making the writings much more accessible to his fellow Anglo-Saxons.

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Charles Cardell
Charles Cardell (1892–1977) was an English Wiccan who propagated his own tradition of the Craft, which was distinct from that of Gerald Gardner. Cardell's tradition of Wicca was based around a form of the Horned God known as Atho, and worked with a coven that met in the grounds of his estate in Surrey. His tradition of Wicca was continued through Raymond Howard's Coven of Atho. Indeed it was Cardell who coined the term "Wicca", and referred to its followers as "Wiccens".
Cardell was born in 1892, in East Sussex, as Charles Maynard. He went on to join the British army, serving in India where he became a major. After this, he went on to become a stage conjurer (using the stage name Cardi) and also a professional psychologist, dealing especially in people's bad experiences with the occult, during the 1950s and 1960s.
When he changed his name to Cardell, he was joined by a woman known as Mary Edwards, and the two from then on claimed to be siblings. They lived together on a large estate, Dumbledene, in Charlwood, Surrey, from where they ran Dumblecott Magick Productions, which sold various potions and charms.

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Doreen Valiente
Doreen Edith Dominy Valiente (4 January 1922 – 1 September 1999), who also went under the craft name Ameth, was an influential English Wiccan who was involved in a number of different early traditions, including Gardnerianism, Cochrane's Craft and the Coven of Atho. Responsible for writing much of the early Gardnerian religious liturgy, in later years she also helped to play a big part in bringing the Neopagan religion of Wicca to wider public attention through the publication of a string of books on the subject.
Having been born in south London, she first became involved in the Craft after being initiated into the Gardnerian tradition in 1953 in a ceremony performed by Gerald Gardner, in which Edith Woodford-Grimes was also present. Subsequently becoming the High Priestess of his Bricket Wood coven, she helped him to produce many important scriptural texts for Wicca, such as The Witches Rune and the Charge of the Goddess, which were incorporated into the early Gardnerian Book of Shadows. Splitting off to form her own coven in 1957, she went on to work with Robert Cochrane in his coven, the Clan of Tubal Cain, till the mid 1960s when she began working as a solitary practitioner. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s she penned a number of books on the subject of Wicca - which she always called "witchcraft" - including An ABC of Witchcraft (1973) and Witchcraft for Tomorrow (1978), as well as being an early proponent of self-initiation into the Craft.

wn.com/Doreen_Valiente
Gavin Bone
Gavin Bone is an author and lecturer in the fields of magic, witchcraft, Wicca and Neo-Paganism, and an organizer in the Neo-Pagan community. He was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire in England, in 1964.
He trained as a registered nurse and has studied complementary healing methods such as reflexology. He was initiated into Seax-Wicca in 1986. He is currently developing the theory that Wicca may have some roots in tribal shamanistic healing traditions, as opposed to medieval ritual magic.
Bone first met Janet Farrar and Stewart Farrar in 1989 at a Pagan camp at Groby, near Leicester, where they struck up a friendship. He accompanied them on a tour of the United States in 1992, and on their return he moved to Ireland and became their business partner. He joined the Farrars as part of a "polyfidelitous relationship", and has continued in both the personal and professional relationship since Stewart's death on February 7, 2000. He co-authored several books with the Farrars, and he is the production manager for their videos. He also set up their website in 1996, which has become the “Pagan Information Network”, a contact network for Pagans across the Republic and Northern Ireland, for which Gavin and Janet Farrar are the primary coordinators.

wn.com/Gavin_Bone
Jacob Grimm
Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm (also Karl; 4 January 1785 – 20 September 1863) was a German philologist, jurist and mythologist. He is best known as the discoverer of Grimm's Law, the author (with his brother) of the monumental Deutsches Wörterbuch, the author of Deutsche Mythologie and, more popularly, as one of the Brothers Grimm, as the editor of Grimm's Fairy Tales.
Grimm was born in Hanau, in Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel). His father, who was a lawyer, died while he was a child, and his mother was left with very small means; but her sister, who was lady of the chamber to the Landgravine of Hesse, helped to support and educate her numerous family. Jacob, with his younger brother Wilhelm (born on 24 February 1786), were sent in 1798 to the public school at Kassel.
In 1802 he proceeded to the University of Marburg, where he studied law, a profession for which he had been destined by his father. His brother joined him at Marburg a year later, having just recovered from a long and severe illness, and likewise began the study of law.

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Janet Farrar
Janet Farrar (born Janet Owen on 24 June 1950) is a British teacher and author of books on Wicca and Neopaganism. Along with her two husbands, Stewart Farrar and Gavin Bone, Farrar has published "some of the most influential books on modern Witchcraft to date." According to George Knowles, "some seventy five percent of Wiccans both in the Republic and Northern Ireland can trace their roots back to the Farrar's [sic]."
Farrar has been one of the most public faces of Wicca, having appeared as a model for book covers and illustrations in several of the best-read books on the subject. Farrar is a frequent guest lecturer on the subjects of Wicca, Neopaganism and witchcraft in North America and Europe.
Farrar was born in Clapham in 1950. Her family, of mixed English, Irish and Welsh descent, were members of the Church of England. Farrar attended the Leyton Manor School, and the Royal Wanstead High School girls' school. After high school, Farrar worked as a model and receptionist.
Farrar was initiated into Alexandrian Wicca by the tradition's founders, Alex and Maxine Sanders. Farrar met the Sanders in 1970 through a friend who had become interested in exploring Wicca. Farrar accompanied her friend in order to keep the friend "out of this weird cult", but Farrar instead joined the Sanders coven, and would go on to become, in the words of Knowles, one of "England’s most eminent and respected modern day witches." In the coven she met Stewart Farrar, her future husband and co-author.

wn.com/Janet_Farrar
Leo Ruickbie
Leo Ruickbie is an historian and sociologist of magic, witchcraft and Wicca. He is the author of several books, beginning with Witchcraft Out of the Shadows, a 2004 publication outlining the history of witchcraft from ancient Greece until the modern day. Ruickbie was born in Scotland and took a Master's degree in Sociology and Religion at the University of Lancaster. He then studied at King's College London and was an awarded a PhD for his thesis entitled The Re-Enchanters: Theorising Re-Enchantment and Testing for its Presence in Modern Witchcraft. On Samhain 2007 he launched Open Source Wicca, a project inspired by the Open Source software movement aimed at making the founding texts of Wicca more readily available by releasing them under a Creative Commons licence. In 2008 and 2009 he exhibited on the subject of witchcraft in France.
Witchcraft Out of the Shadows begins with a survey of historical influences from classical times, northern European paganism, and medieval and early modern Europe. It then describes the roots of modern neopagan witchcraft in groups such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and individuals such as Aleister Crowley and Doreen Valiente. Particularly important is the critical analysis of the claims made by Gerald Gardner about Wicca, as well as a detailed discussion of the liturgical content of Gardner's Ye Bok of Ye Art Magical and its sources.

wn.com/Leo_Ruickbie
Lois Bourne
Lois Bourne is an influential figure in the Neopagan religion of Wicca, having been involved in it from the early 1960s, and has written a number of books on the subject. Originally initiated into Gardnerian Wicca by Gerald Gardner, she rose to become the High Priestess of the Bricket Wood coven, working alongside the High Priest Jack Bracelin.
She was a High Priestess of the first Wiccan coven started by Gerald Gardner, which was based in Bricket Wood in Hertfordshire and says she was friends with both Gardner, and Aldous Huxley .
But over the years too disagree with the thought of which I think Gardner was homophobic and racist, their test is more accurate than any priest ever ordered color and denied entry to homosexuals calling them eyesores of nature
She currently resides in Hertfordshire, and is the Magistra of a coven of Witches in St Albans.

wn.com/Lois_Bourne
Margaret Murray
Margaret Alice Murray (13 July 1863 - 13 November 1963) was a prominent British Egyptologist and anthropologist. Primarily known for her work in Egyptology, which was "the core of her academic career," she is also known for her propagation of the Witch-cult hypothesis, the theory that the witch trials in the Early Modern period of Christianized Europe and North America were an attempt to extinguish a surviving pre-Christian, pagan religion devoted to a Horned God. Whilst this theory is today widely disputed and discredited by historians like Norman Cohn, Keith Thomas and Ronald Hutton, it has had a significant effect in the origins of Neopagan religions, primarily Wicca, a faith she supported.
Her work in Egyptology took place largely alongside her mentor and friend, the archaeologist Sir Flinders Petrie, whom she worked alongside at University College London. One of the earliest women to "make a serious impact upon the world of professional scholarship," she was also an ardent feminist, being actively involved in the Suffragette movement. From 1953 to 1955, she was the president of the Folklore Society, although since her death various members of the society have attempted to dissociate the organisation from her and the Murrayite theory of the Witch-Cult.

wn.com/Margaret_Murray
Margot Adler
Margot Adler (born April 16, 1946) is an author, journalist, lecturer, Wiccan priestess and radio journalist and correspondent for National Public Radio (NPR).
Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, Adler grew up mostly in New York City. Her grandfather, Alfred Adler, was a noted Austrian Jewish psychotherapist, collaborator with Sigmund Freud and the founder of the school of individual psychology.
Adler received a bachelor of arts in political science from the University of California, Berkeley and a master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York in 1970. She was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 1982.
Adler first worked for WBAI, FM 99.5, the Pacifica Radio outlet in New York City. She created the talk shows Hour of the Wolf in 1972 (still on the air as hosted by Jim Freund) and later Unstuck in Time.
Adler joined NPR in 1979 as a general assignment reporter, after spending a year as an NPR freelance reporter covering New York City, and has since worked on a great many pieces dealing with subjects as diverse as the death penalty, the right to die movement, the response to the war in Kosovo, computer gaming, the drug ecstasy, geek culture, children and technology, and Pokémon. Since 9/11, she has focused much of her work on stories exploring the human factors in New York City, from the loss of loved ones, homes and jobs, to work in the relief effort. She was the host of Justice Talking up until the show ceased production on July 3, 2008. She is a regular voice on Morning Edition and All Things Considered. She is also co-producer of an award-winning radio drama, War Day.

wn.com/Margot_Adler
Philip Heselton
Philip Heselton (born 1946) is a retired British Conservation Officer, a Wiccan initiate, and a writer on the subjects of Wicca, Paganism and Earth mysteries. He is best known for two books, Wiccan Roots: Gerald Gardner and the Modern Witchcraft Revival and Gerald Gardner and the Cauldron of Inspiration, which gather historical evidence surrounding the New Forest coven and the origins of Gardnerian Wicca.
In his non-literary life his interest in landscape led to a degree in Geography and a career in Town and Country Planning; eventually he became a Conservation Officer for Hull City Council before his retirement in 1997.
Heselton has been described by Allen Watkins, son of Alfred Watkins, as the person who "...led the post-war revival of academic and practical interest in Leys". In 1962, Heselton and others collaborated to form the Ley Hunters' Club, a revival of Alfred Watkins' Straight Track Club. The Ley Hunters worked on a hypothesis that Ley lines were not just prehistoric trackways, but were in some way connected with UFOs. Heselton edited the first issues of the club's journal, The Ley Hunter, in 1965-66 and frequently contributed articles to the journal when it reappeared between 1969 and 1976.

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Phyllis Curott
Phyllis Curott (born in New York) is a Wiccan priestess, attorney, and author [1].
Her parents were agnostic-atheist, socially liberal intellectuals who encouraged her to make her own decisions regarding theology but taught her to adhere to the Golden Rule. Her father, who had gone to work at sea aged twelve, worked as a trade union organizer, whilst her mother, who had come from a wealthy and well-educated background, was a diplomat involved in the civil rights movement for racial equality in the United States.
Curott went on to gain a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Brown University before going on to study for a Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law.
In 1978, Curott was studying for her final year at New York University School of Law when she came to believe that she was experiencing psychic phenomenon, primarily through premonitions, later commenting that "My sixth sense had begun with small things - like knowing that the phone was going to ring before it did. And then knowing who was on the other end of the line." She developed a preoccupation with the Ancient Egyptian goddess Isis, leading her to visit the Egyptian collections in New York museums and to read E.A. Wallis Budge's translation of The Egyptian Book of the Dead, which contained stories of Isis and her consort, the god Osiris. Around the same time, she became interested in quantam physics and the idea that there is an underlying reality of interconnected quantum matter throughout the universe after reading books in the library which dealt with the subject.

wn.com/Phyllis_Curott
Raven Grimassi
Raven Grimassi (born 1951) is the pen name of an Italian-American author, publishing on the topics of Neo-paganism and witchcraft. He is perhaps best known for work related to Stregheria, the religious practice of witchcraft with roots in Italy. Grimassi popularized a Neo-Paganism version through his published works.
Grimassi won "Book of the Year" and "First Place - Spirituality Book" from the Coalition of Visionary Retailers in 1998 for his book The Wiccan Mysteries, and his book Encyclopedia of Wicca & Witchcraft was also awarded "Best Non-Fiction".
Grimassi became involved with Wicca in 1969. He created his own system of witchcraft known as the "Aridian Tradition" ten years later, publishing it in print beginning in 1981. He is currently the directing elder of the Ash, Birch and Willow tradition, and co-director of the Fellowship of the Pentacle, a Mystery School tradition of pre-Christian European beliefs and traditions."Fellowship of the Pentacle". http://www.fellowshipofthepentacle.com/. In 1994, the new age publisher Llewellyn Publications accepted his manuscript for Ways of the Strega, which was reprinted the following year as Italian Witchcraft: The Old Religion of Southern Europe .

wn.com/Raven_Grimassi
Raymond Buckland
Raymond Buckland (born 31 August 1934), whose craft name is Robat, is an English American writer on the subject of Wicca and the occult, and a significant figure in the history of Wicca, of which he is a High Priest in both the Gardnerian and Seax traditions.
According to his written works, primarily Witchcraft from the Inside, published in 1971, he was the first person in the United States to openly admit to being a practitioner of Wicca,^{[citation needed]} and he introduced the lineage of Gardnerian Wicca to the United States in 1964, after having been initiated by Monique Wilson in Britain the previous year. He later formed his own tradition dubbed Seax-Wica which focuses on the symbolism of Anglo-Saxon paganism.
Buckland was born in London on 31 August 1934, to Eileen and Stanley Buckland. Buckland was of mixed ethnicity; his mother was English, but his father was Roma. He was raised in the Anglican Church but developed an interest in Spiritualism and the occult at about age 12, after encountering it from a Spiritualist uncle.

wn.com/Raymond_Buckland
Ronald Hutton
Ronald Hutton (born 1953) is an English historian who specializes in the study of Early Modern Britain, British folklore, pre-Christian religion and contemporary Paganism. A reader in the subject at the University of Bristol, Hutton has published fourteen books and has appeared on British television and radio. He has held a fellowship at Magdalen College, Oxford and is a Commissioner of English Heritage.
Born in Ootacamund, India into a middle class English family, Hutton subsequently returned to England, attending a school in Illford and getting particularly interested in archaeology, taking part in a number of excavations until 1976 and touring the country's chambered tombs. Ultimately he decided to study history at Pembroke College, Cambridge and then Magdalen College, Oxford before gaining employment as a reader in history at the University of Bristol in 1981. Focusing his efforts on Early Modern Britain, he published a trio of books on the subject during that decade; The Royalist War Effort (1981), The Restoration (1985) and Charles the Second (1989).

wn.com/Ronald_Hutton
Ross Nichols
Ross Nichols (1902–1975) was a Cambridge academic and published poet, artist and historian, who founded the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids in 1964. He wrote prolifically on the subjects of Druidism and Celtic mythology.
He revived the interest in Celtic spirituality and Druidry in the 20th century. Nichols was a Member and Chairman of the Ancient Druid Order which traces its lineage to a meeting at the Apple Tree Tavern in Covent Garden, London, in 1717.
Nichols was a friend of Gerald Gardner, and while Gardner worked to introduce Wicca to the modern world, Nichols worked to change the practice of modern Druidry. He introduced a concern for Celtic mythology and Bardcraft, and the celebration of the full eight seasonal ceremonies in addition to arranging the teachings into three grades, in accordance with classical accounts of the three divisions of the Druids.
Nichols also translated Jean Baptiste's (aka Paul Christian) book "The History and Practice of Magic" in 1969.
In 1988 one of his students, Philip Carr-Gomm, was asked to lead the Order.

wn.com/Ross_Nichols
Scott Cunningham

Scott Douglas Cunningham (June 27, 1956 – March 28, 1993) was a U.S. writer. Cunningham is the author of several books on Wicca and various other alternative religious subjects.
His work Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner, is one of the most successful books on Wicca ever published; he was a friend of notable occultists and Wiccans such as Raymond Buckland, and was a member of the Serpent Stone Family, and received his Third Degree Initiation as a member of that coven.
Scott Cunningham was born at the William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan, USA, the second son of Chester Grant Cunningham and Rose Marie Wilhoit Cunningham. The family moved to San Diego, California in the fall of 1959. The family moved there because of Rose Marie's health problems. The doctors in Royal Oak declared the mild climate in San Diego ideal for her. Outside of many trips to Hawaii, Cunningham lived in San Diego all his life.
Cunningham had one older brother, Greg, and a younger sister, Christine.

wn.com/Scott_Cunningham
Silver RavenWolf
Silver RavenWolf (born September 11, 1956), born Jenine E. Trayer, is an American New Age author and lecturer who focuses on Neopaganism.
RavenWolf was a member of the Serpent Stone Family, and received her Third Degree Initiation as a member of that coven. She is the leader of the Black Forest Circle and Seminary, an organization containing several covens spanning the United States and Canada. She has appeared as a lecturer and workshop facilitator at events in the Neo-Pagan community. She has been active in Wiccan anti-discrimination issues. She is also a Powwower, having adopted the Pennsylvania Dutch practice in a neo-Pagan context.
RavenWolf is the author of seventeen books on Wicca and Paganism in general. She has also written several novels. Currently, her books have been translated into Czech, Spanish, Italian, German, Russian, Hungarian and Portuguese. She is the director of the Wiccan/Pagan Press Alliance Midnight Drive.
She is married and has four children. She currently resides in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania.

wn.com/Silver_RavenWolf
Starhawk
Starhawk (born Miriam Simos on June 17, 1951) is an American writer and activist. She is well known as a theorist of Paganism, and is one of the foremost popular voices of ecofeminism. She is a columnist for Beliefnet.com and for On Faith, the Newsweek/Washington Post online forum on religion. Starhawk's book The Spiral Dance (1979) was one of the main inspirations behind the Neopagan movement. In 2012, she was listed in Watkins' Mind Body Spirit magazine as one of the 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People.
Starhawk was born in 1951 in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Her father, Jack Simos, died when she was 5. Her mother, Bertha Claire Goldfarb Simos, was a professor of social work at UCLA. Both her parents were the children of Jewish immigrants from Russia.
Starhawk received a BA in Fine Arts from UCLA. In 1973, while she was a graduate student in film at UCLA, she won the Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award for her novel, A Weight of Gold, a story about Venice, California, where she then lived. She received an MA in Psychology, with a concentration in feminist therapy, from Antioch University West in 1982.

wn.com/Starhawk
Stewart Farrar
Frank Stewart Farrar (28 June 1916 – 7 February 2000), who always went by the name of Stewart Farrar, was an English screenwriter, novelist and prominent figure in the Neopagan religion of Wicca, which he devoted much of his later life to propagating with the aid of his seventh wife, Janet Farrar, and then his friend Gavin Bone as well. A devout communist in early life, he worked as a reporter for such newspapers as the Soviet Weekly and the Daily Worker, and also served in the British army during the Second World War. He was responsible for writing episodes for such television series as Dr. Finlay's Casebook, Armchair Theatre and Crossroads, and for his work in writing radio scripts won a Writer's Guild Award. He also published a string of novels, written in such disparate genres as crime, romance and fantasy.
After being initiated into Alexandrian Wicca by Maxine Sanders in 1970, he subsequently published one of the earliest books to describe this newly burgeoning religion, What Witches Do (1971). Within only a few months of being initiated, he had risen to the position of High Priest and founded his own coven in south London, with Janet Farrar, whom he would later handfast and then legally marry, as his High Priestess. In 1976 the couple moved to Ireland, where they went about founding new covens and initiating new people into Wicca - according to George Knowles, "some seventy five percent of Wiccans both in the Republic and North of Ireland can trace their roots back to the Farrar's [sic]". With Janet, he also set about writing books about the subject, most notably Eight Sabbats for Witches (1981) and The Witches' Way (1984).

wn.com/Stewart_Farrar
Sybil Leek
Sybil Leek (February 22, 1917 - October 26, 1982) was an English witch, astrologer, psychic, and occult author. She wrote more than sixty books on occult and esoteric subjects.^{[citation needed]} She was dubbed "Britain’s most famous witch" by the BBC.^{[citation needed]}
Because she rose to media fame in the 1950s, after the repeal of the 1735 Witchcraft Act in 1951, she had an effect upon the formation of neopagan witchcraft, mainly the religion of Wicca.^{[citation needed]}
Sybil Leek was born on 22 February 1917 in the village of Normacot in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England to a well-to-do family. Sybil claimed to have a long family history of witchcraft which she traced back to the 16th century and to her ancestor Molly Leigh, who had been accused during the witch hunt.
Sybil’s immediate family all played a part encouraging her to follow the craft. She learned much from her father about nature, animals and the power of herbs, and even discussed eastern philosophies. Her grandmother taught her astrology, by decorating biscuits and cakes with astrological symbols and asking Sybil to put them in order and describe what each symbol meant.

wn.com/Sybil_Leek
Zsuzsanna Budapest
Zsuzsanna Emese Mokcsay (born 30 January 1940 in Budapest, Hungary) is an American author, activist, journalist, playwright and song-writer of Hungarian origin who writes about feminist spirituality and Dianic Wicca under the pen name and religious name Zsuzsanna Budapest or Z. Budapest. She is the High Priestess and the founding mother of the Susan B. Anthony Coven #1, the first feminist, women-only, witches' coven. She is the founder and director of the Women's Spirituality Forum, a nonprofit organization featuring lectures, retreats and other events, and was the lead of a cable TV show called 13th Heaven. She has an online autobiography entitled Fly by Night, and writes for the religion section of the San Francisco Examiner on subjects related to Pagan religions. Her play The Rise of the Fates premiered in Los Angeles in the mid-seventies. She is the composer of several songs including We All Come From the Goddess. She lives in Oakland, California.
Z. Budapest was born in Budapest, Hungary. Her mother, Masika Szilagyi, was a medium, a practicing witch, and a professional sculptress whose work reflected themes of Goddess and nature spirituality. In 1956, when the Hungarian Revolution broke out, she left Hungary as a political refugee. She finished high school in Innsbruck, graduated from a bilingual gymnasium, and won a scholarship to the University of Vienna where she studied languages. In The Holy Book of Women's Mysteries, Z. Budapest claims that her maternal grandmother was born by parthenogenesis (or virgin birth).

wn.com/Zsuzsanna_Budapest

A Wiccan Ritual For Mabon

...

published: 07 Nov 2009

author: David Maddux

Wicca: My Mabon altar 2010

A quick view of my altar. :)...

published: 22 Sep 2010

author: ceriadwen

Witchcraft, Pagan & Wiccan: Sabbats Explained - Mabon (Autumn Equinox)

Link to my facebook page: www.facebook.com Link to my twitter page: twitter.com...

published: 19 Apr 2011

author: TheShoeWhisperer

Mabon and The Season of "Change"

**Sorry about my cam it had a fidget apparently and wanted to go in and out of focus!! LOL...

published: 20 Sep 2012

author: TipToeChick

Mabon Slideshow

some photos from our Mabon celebration 2010. Happy Harvest and Blessed Be!...

published: 24 Sep 2010

author: Wiccan Alex

Mabon Ritual Performed By Y Gwyr Yn Erbyn Byd

Y gwyr Yn Erbyn Byd was asked to Perfomr this 2006 Mabon for a Local Community effort Grou...

published: 26 Oct 2006

author: DragoNPhoenix

The Mabon

Song: The Mabon Artist: Damh The Bard Album: The Hills They Are Hollow Twisting shapes In ...

published: 16 Jan 2009

author: KeepMusicPagan

What or WHO is Mabon???

Most likely culprit of the "Mabon" festival is Aidan A. Kelly (born October 22, 1940) an A...

published: 21 Sep 2012

author: OathBoundSecrets

Mabon 09 Part One

Better late than never. Our Mabon episode, sorry for the tardiness folks! Come enjoy PPD i...

published: 11 Nov 2009

author: circleroundtv

Happy Mabon and the Wiccan Rede

Some Mabon info and some thoughts on the Wiccan Rede....

published: 21 Sep 2011

author: ThatTattooChick

Mabon - Mynkie

i am renewed by death in a season of half-sun and low fire I breathe my final breath to th...

published: 21 Sep 2008

author: Jen Minkman

Wiccan Holidays: Mabon and Christmas Question?

www.youtube.com/kvegirldisney...

published: 15 Sep 2012

author: kvegirl

Lisa Thiel - Mabon (Autumn Equinox)

Song: Mabon (Autumn Equinox) Artist: Lisa Thiel Album: Circle Of The Seasons # song: 08 Ly...

published: 15 Jan 2010

author: Ephesius wicca

Mabon

Mabon Autumn Equinox, 2nd Harvest, September 21st...

published: 09 May 2008

author: lupinswitch99

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photo: AP / Mohammad Hannon

In this Sept. 14, 2012 file photo, Libyan military guards check one of the burnt out buildings at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, during a visit by Libyan President Mohammed el-Megarif to express sympathy for the death of American ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and his colleagues in the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the consulate.

There are bigger issues to worry about than Benghazi

The News Tribune

25 Jan 2013

Republicans wanted nothing more than to summon Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Capitol Hill and grill her about the tragic fiasco in Benghazi. Sadly for them, they got their wish. Clinton’s smooth and confident performance at Wednesday’s Senate and House committee hearings was fun to watch. When her would-be inquisitors asked serious questions, she gave serious answers. But when Sen ... Fat chance ... Benghazi ... Perhaps not ... ....(size: 4.8Kb)

photo: AP / Hossam Ali

File - Egyptian defendants who face charges relating to the deaths after a soccer match in the Mediterranean city of Port Said Feb. 1, 2012, chant slogans inside a cage during their trial at a court house in Cairo Egypt, Tuesday, April 17, 2012.

Death sentences over Egypt football massacre

Al Jazeera

26 Jan 2013

An Egyptian court has handed down 21 death sentences in connection with the deadly riot last year at a football stadium in Port Said located along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The defendants sentenced on Saturday are mostly members of the "Ultras," die-hard football fans who support Port Said's al-Masry squad ... Al-Masry fans stormed the pitch after their team won, throwing stones, bottles and fireworks at al-Ahly supporters....(size: 17.2Kb)

photo: US Army / Edward N. Johnson

File - A checkpoint at the Demilitiarised Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea.

Why sticks don't work with North Korea

CNN

25 Jan 2013

By Charles Armstrong, Special to CNN. Editor’s note. Charles Armstrong is the director of the Center for Korean Research at Columbia University. The views expressed are his own. Anyone who has followed North Korean affairs for the last several years (or the last two decades) could have predicted North Korea’s defiant response to the U.N ... sanctions not by giving up missiles and nukes, but ratcheting up the rhetoric ... More from GPS ... Post by ... ... ....(size: 15.8Kb)

photo: AP Photo / Jerome Delay

Mali: More territory taken from rebels

BBC News

26 Jan 2013

But it's clear the African forces are being hampered by logistical problems. The BBC's Bill Hayton reports....(size: 1.0Kb)

photo: UN / Martine Perret

File - Health Officers of the United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) with the support of the World Health Organization help the Ministry of Health to monitor and coordinate the national response to the human cases of the H1N1 influenza virus, 7 May, 2009.

Swine flu infected 'fifth of people'

BBC News

25 Jan 2013

At least one in five people, including half of schoolchildren, were infected with swine flu during the first year of the pandemic in 2009, according to data from 19 countries. It is thought the virus killed 200,000 people around the world. A World Health Organization-led study looked for evidence of the body's immune system fighting the virus ... Anti-bodies ... ....(size: 2.1Kb)

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Celebrate the New Year and first full moon with a house cleansing (Photos)

The Examiner

26 Jan 2013

Saturday, January 26 marks the first full moon of 2013 ... Wicca practitioners celebrate the full moon as a time when the Goddess is most powerful and showers her great blessing on all the Earth. This is the time when those intentions that were born of the new moon are brought into their fullness. The full moon also brings great energy for creativity, for giving thanks, for deep reflection, and for intimacy with loved ones ... Namaste!. Tweet ... ....(size: 8.3Kb)

Celtic ‘Month of the Rowan’ begins in mid-January

The Examiner

24 Jan 2013

The long version of the “Wiccan Rede” or the “Rede of Wiccae” has a rhyming couplet referencing nine sacred woods. “Nine woods in the cauldron go, burn them fast and burn them slow.” On Wicca Spirituality, the site supplies information about long version of the "Wiccan Rede" containing the magickal correspondences of the nine sacred woods, with the ......(size: 14.5Kb)

Bohemian Grove owl: who or what is it? On Moloch and Lilith, part 4 of 4

The Examiner

24 Jan 2013

We now conclude, from part 1, part 2 and part 3, considering the discussion and debate that ensued after the infiltration of Bohemian Grove by Mike Hanson and Alex Jones. The issue was the identity of the huge owl idol. Jones stated that it is Moloch / Molech, other question this conclusion. There are two Talmudim ... The Babylonian states. ... The female night demon is Lilith ... The Zohar. ... Wicca, the goddess, Witchcraft, Paganism and History ... ....(size: 13.6Kb)

Zion Lovinger says Jodi Arias studied Wicca, experts say she is a sociopath (Video)

The Examiner

18 Jan 2013

17 episode of "Nancy Grace," it was revealed by Zion Lovingier, a good friend of Travis Alexander, that Jodi Arias studied Wicca ... While Zion Lovingier said that the murderer made it seem that Wicca was part of her past, he stated,. "Jodi's issues ran much deeper than Wicca." ... What do you think of Jodi Arias talking about her interest in Wicca after ......(size: 2.0Kb)

Selena Gomez acting like a bad influence (and maybe under the influence) in ‘Spring Breakers’ trailer

The Dallas Morning News

18 Jan 2013

(Strong language warning for this trailer.). Also featured. A nearly unrecognizable James Franco, dubstep, and a lot of whispering of the words ”spring break,” as if it’s an ancient Wicca incantation ... Awwwwww. Why can’t they stay that young and innocent? ... ....(size: 1.3Kb)

Retired teacher pleads guilty to sex crimes against two female students

Canada Dot Com

17 Jan 2013

A retired B.C ... Contacted by The Vancouver Sun, Read declined to comment ... A discipline hearing was held in 2008 and Read admitted to professional misconduct while he was employed as a middle school teacher, including sending an email to a Grade 12 student that referred to her and others as "grade 12 babes," giving a Grade 12 girl information about the Wicca religion and telling inappropriate sexual jokes to Grade 8 students....(size: 2.0Kb)

The ‘Festival of Concordia’ honors the Roman goddess of harmony

The Examiner

16 Jan 2013

The ‘Festival of Concordia’ was celebrated in ancient Rome on Jan. 16, following the rededication of her temple; Concordia is the goddess of concord, union, harmony, agreement and peace. She is equivalent to the Greek goddess Harmonia. The daughter of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and Ares, the god of war. Depictions ... 16. In “The Architecture of Roman Temples ... Goddesses of wicca and paganismGoddesses Part 2Goddesses Part 3 . ....(size: 3.5Kb)

Caitlin Matthews on King Arthur and the Mabinogion (Video)

The Examiner

15 Jan 2013

The Divine Feminine in the Mabinogion" and "Mabon and the Guardians of Celtic Britain ... The Divine Feminine in the Mabinogion" and "Mabon and the Guardians of Celtic Britain ... In Mabon and the Guardians of Celtic Britain, the first volume, I look at the Four Branches, or foundational stories of Pwyll, Branwen, Manawyddan and Math, as well as the great compendium story of Culhwch and Olwen....(size: 16.1Kb)

TEXAS FAITH: Should the pastor who once gave anti-gay marriage sermon been removed from Obama’s inaugural?

The Dallas Morning News

15 Jan 2013

Atlanta evangelist Louie Giglio said the topic of homosexuality “has not been in the range of my priorities” in recent years ...   ... ... Rev ... Indeed, it was the consent of an overwhelming majority of Gays and Lesbians, Native and African Americans, women and men, Hindus and Muslims, Atheists and Wicca, Hispanics and Pagans, and others that the president derives his powers from, and he has the mandate to shape an inclusive America ... ....(size: 22.9Kb)

Obama interested in 'Allah-is-God' curriculum

WorldNetDaily

13 Jan 2013

A source in the Texas education system has told WND that Common Core operatives in the U.S ... Sources within the Texas education system recently informed WND that Wicca, thought by many to be akin to witchcraft, was being taught in CSCOPE curriculum alongside Christianity, but was removed before the news media could access it, a fact which represents one of the biggest concerns for followers of CSCOPE ... Speaking with WND, Texas Sen ... Sen ... ....(size: 8.2Kb)

Saturn, a god of many faces

The Examiner

10 Jan 2013

In Wicca, we often talk about the Goddess and her many faces, but Paganism teach us about duality and the combination of the God and Goddess. Jan. 10 is a day that corresponds heavily with Saturn in part due to the correspondence between Capricorn and Saturn. This day is a day of gods and a good day to honor Saturn ... ....(size: 1.7Kb)

Can an atheist be interfaith?

The Examiner

10 Jan 2013

Language often gets in our way when we move out into new territory. For example, the word "interfaith" which has been used for many years to describe encounters between people of differing religious traditions was once understood to be expansive and inclusive ... Judaism and Islam. And then non-Abrahamic traditions like Buddhism and Hinduism, or earth-based traditions like Shinto, Taoism, or Wicca ... Location. Stanford University ... ... ....(size: 2.5Kb)

‘The Carmentalia’ honors the Roman goddess Carmenta

The Examiner

10 Jan 2013

Carmenta, also called Carmentis, is the Roman goddess of prophecy, charms, spells, midwives and childbirth; The Greek equivalent of this deity is identified as Themis. In ancient Rome, the goddess Carmenta was honored each year on Jan. 11 and Jan. 15. Monthly rites were also performed in honor of Carmenta. Depictions. In “A Classical Manual ... Goddesses of wicca and paganismGoddesses and Gods of WiccaGoddesses Part 3Goddesses Part 2 . ....(size: 4.4Kb)

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"Sabbats" redirects here. For other uses of sabbat or sabbath, see Sabbath (disambiguation). For Wheel of time, see Wheel of time (disambiguation).

This article is about the modern Wiccan Sabbat. For the historical and legendary Witches' Sabbath, see Witches' Sabbath.

"Sabbat" redirects here. For the English band, see Sabbat (band). For the Japanese band, see Sabbat (Japanese band).

The Wheel of the Year in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere these festivals are commonly shifted by six months to match the local seasons.

The Wheel of the Year is a Neopagan term for the annual cycle of the Earth's seasons. It consists of eight festivals, spaced at approximately even intervals throughout the year. These festivals are referred to as Sabbats /ˈsæbət/. While the term Sabbat originated from Judaism and is of Hebrew origin, the festivals themselves have historical origins in Celtic and Germanic pre-Christian feasts, and the Wheel of the Year, as has developed in modern Paganism and Wicca, is really a combination of the two cultures' solstice and equinox celebrations. When melded together, the two European Festival Cycles merge to form eight festivals in modern renderings. Together, these festivals are understood by some neo-pagans to be the Bronze Age religious festivals of Europe. As with all cultures' use of festivals and traditions, these festivals have been utilized by European cultures in both the pre- and post-Christian eras as traditional times for the community to celebrate the planting and harvest seasons. The Wheel of the Year has been important to many people both ancient and modern, from various religious as well as cultural and secular viewpoints.

In many forms of Paganism, natural processes are seen as following a continuous cycle. The passing of time is also seen as cyclical, and is represented by a circle or wheel. The progression of birth, life, decline and death, as experienced in human lives, is echoed in the progression of the seasons. This cycle is seen as an echo of life, death and rebirth of the God and the fertility of the Goddess. While most of these names derive from historical Celtic and Germanic festivals, the non-traditional names Litha and Mabon, which have become popular in North American Wicca, were introduced by Aidan Kelly in the 1970s. The word "sabbat" itself comes from the witches' sabbath or sabbat attested to in Early Modern witch trials.

1 Eight festivals
2 Dates
3 Origins
4 Narratives
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

Eight festivals [link]

Some contemporary Pagan groups such as Wiccans, observe eight festivals which they call "sabbats".^[1]^[2] Four of these fall on the solstices and equinoxes and are known as "quarter days" or "Lesser Sabbats". The other four fall (approximately) midway between these and are commonly known as "cross-quarter days," "fire festivals," or "Greater Sabbats".^[3] The "quarter days" are loosely based on or named after the Germanic festivals, and the "cross-quarter days" are similarly inspired by the Gaelic fire festivals. However, modern interpretations vary widely, so Pagan groups may celebrate and conceptualize these festivals in very different ways, often having little in common with the cultural festivals outside of the adopted name.^[4]

The full system of eight yearly festivals held on these dates is unknown in older pagan calendars, and originated in the modern Wiccan religion.^[5]

The eight major festivals (or "sabbats") are distinct from the Wiccan "esbats", which are additional meetings, usually smaller celebrations or coven meetings, held on full or new moons.

Festival name	Event	Date		Sun's position
Festival name	Event	North	South	North	South
Samhain, All Hallow's Eve, All Saints' Day, All Souls' Day, Last/Blood Harvest, Ancestor Night, Feast of the Dead, Nos Galan Gaeaf (Welsh)		31 Oct – 2 Nov (alt 5–10 Nov)	1 May (alt 4–10 May)	≈ 15° Scorpio	≈ 15° Taurus
Midwinter, Yule, Cuidle, Alban Arthan, Winter Rite, Mothers Night, Gŵyl Galan Gaeaf (Welsh)	winter solstice	19–23 Dec (Southern solstice)	19–23 June (Northern solstice)	0° Capricorn	0° Cancer
Candlemas, Imbolc, Oimelc, Brigit, Brigid's Day, Bride's Day, Brigantia, Gŵyl y Canhwyllau (Welsh)		1–2 Feb (alt 2–7 Feb)	1–2 Aug (alt 3–10 Aug)	≈ 15° Aquarius	≈ 15° Leo
Vernal Equinox, Ostara, Lady Day, Earrach, Alban Eilir, Festival of Trees, Gŵyl Ganol y Gwanwyn (Welsh)	spring equinox	19–23 Mar (Northward equinox)	19–23 Sept (Southward equinox)	0° Aries	0° Libra
Beltane, Beltaine, May Day, Gŵyl Galan Mai (Welsh)		1 May (alt 4–10 May)	31 Oct – 2 Nov (alt 5–10 Nov)	≈ 15° Taurus	≈ 15° Scorpio
Midsummer, Litha, Samradh, Alban Hefin, Aerra Litha, Gŵyl Ganol yr Haf (Welsh)	summer solstice	19–23 June (Northern solstice)	19–23 Dec (Southern solstice)	0° Cancer	0° Capricorn
Lammas, Lughnasadh /ˈluːnəsə/, 1st Harvest, Bread Harvest, Festival of First Fruits, Gŵyl Galan Awst (Welsh)		1–2 Aug (alt 3–10 Aug)	1–2 Feb (alt 2–7 Feb)	≈ 15° Leo	≈ 15° Aquarius
Autumnal Equinox, Mabon, Foghar, Alban Elfed, Harvest Home, 2nd Harvest, Fruit Harvest, Wine Harvest, Gŵyl Ganol yr Hydref (Welsh)	autumn equinox	20–24 Sept (Southward equinox)	20–23 Mar (Northward equinox)	0° Libra	0° Aries

Samhain [link]

Main article: Samhain

Samhain (pronunciation: /ˈsɑːwɪn/ SAH-win) is considered by Wiccans to be one of the four "greater Sabbats". It is generally observed on October 31 in the Northern Hemisphere, starting at sundown. Samhain is considered by some as a time to celebrate the lives of those who have passed on, and it often involves paying respect to ancestors, family members, elders of the faith, friends, pets and other loved ones who have died. In some rituals the spirits of the departed are invited to attend the festivities. It is seen as a festival of darkness, which is balanced at the opposite point of the wheel by the spring festival of Beltane, which is celebrated as a festival of light and fertility.^[6]

The Wiccan Samhain doesn't attempt to reconstruct a historical Celtic festival^{[citation needed]} . In actuality it was also widely believed^[who?] that on October 31, the veil between this world and the afterlife is at its thinnest point of the whole year; however this is not just a Wiccan belief.

Midwinter [link]

Further information: Yule

In most traditions, Yule is celebrated as the rebirth of the Great God,^[7] who is viewed as the newborn solstice sun. The method of gathering for this sabbat varies by group or individual practitioner. Some have private ceremonies at home,^[8] while others hold coven celebrations.^[9] The celebration of Christmas on 25 December marks the choice by leaders of the early Catholic Church to adapt popular pre-Christian festivals concerning the Winter solstice.

Imbolc [link]

Main article: Imbolc

Imbolc (/ˈɪm.bɒlk/ IM-bolk), or Candlemas, is one of four "fire festivals" of the Wheel of the Year. Among Dianic Wiccans, Imbolc is the traditional time for initiations.^[10] Imbolc is strongly associated with the goddess Brighid.

Among Reclaiming-style Witches, Imbolc is considered a traditional time for rededication and pledges for the coming year.^[6]

Vernal Equinox [link]

The vernal equinox, often called Ostara, is celebrated in the Northern hemisphere around March 21 and in the Southern hemisphere around September 23, depending upon the specific timing of the equinox. Among the Wiccan sabbats, it is preceded by Imbolc and followed by Beltane.

The name Ostara may be related to the word for "east". It has been connected to the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre by Jacob Grimm in his Deutsche Mythologie.^[11]

In terms of Wiccan ditheism, this festival is characterized by the rejoining of the Mother Goddess and her lover-consort-son, who spent the winter months in death.^[12] Other variations include the young God regaining strength in his youth after being born at Yule, and the Goddess returning to her Maiden aspect.

Beltane [link]

Main article: Beltane

Beltane is one of the four "fire festivals" or "greater sabbats". Although the holiday may use features of the Gaelic Bealtaine, such as the bonfire, it bears more relation to the Germanic May Day festival, both in its significance (focusing on fertility) and its rituals (such as maypole dancing). Some Wiccans celebrate 'High Beltaine' by enacting a ritual union of the May Lord and Lady.^[6]

Midsummer [link]

Main article: Midsummer

Midsummer is one of the four solar holidays, and is considered the turning point at which summer reaches its height and the sun shines longest. Among the Wiccan sabbats, Midsummer is preceded by Beltane, and followed by Lammas or Lughnasadh.

Some traditions call the festival "Litha", a name occurring in Bede's "Reckoning of Time" (De Temporum Ratione, 7th century), which preserves a list of the (then-obsolete) Anglo-Saxon names for the twelve months. Ærra Liða ('first' or 'preceding' Liða) roughly corresponds to June in our calendar, and Æfterra Liða ('following' Liða) to July. Bede writes that "Litha means 'gentle' or 'navigable', because in both these months the calm breezes are gentle and they were wont to sail upon the smooth sea."^[13]

Lammas [link]

Main article: Lammas

Lammas or Lughnasadh (/ˈluːnæsə/ LOO-nas-ə) is the first of the three pagan autumn harvest festivals, the other two being the Autumn equinox (or Mabon) and Samhain. Wiccans mark the holiday by baking a figure of the god in bread, and then symbolically sacrificing and eating it. However, Lamas/ Lughnasadh celebrations vary, as not all pagans are Wiccans. Wiccan celebrations are not based on Celtic culture, despite common use of a Celtic name Lughnasadh.^[6]^[14] This name seems to have been a late adoption among Wiccans, since in early versions of Wiccan literature the festival is merely referred to as "August Eve".^[15]

The name Lammas (contraction of Loaf-mass) implies it is an agrarian-based festival and feast of thanksgiving for grain and bread, which symbolizes the first fruits of the harvest. Pagan / Eclectic Neopagan rituals may incorporate elements from either festival.^[6]

Autumnal Equinox [link]

The holiday of Autumn Equinox, Harvest Home, Mabon, the Feast of the Ingathering, Meán Fómhair or Alban Elfed (in Neo-Druidic traditions), is a pagan ritual of thanksgiving for the fruits of the earth and a recognition of the need to share them to secure the blessings of the Goddess and the God during the winter months. The name Mabon was coined by Aidan Kelly around 1970 as a reference to Mabon ap Modron, a character from Welsh mythology.^[16] In the northern hemisphere this equinox occurs anywhere from September 21 to 24. In the southern hemisphere, the autumn equinox occurs anywhere from March 20–23. Among the sabbats, it is the second of the three pagan harvest festivals, preceded by Lammas / Lughnasadh and followed by Samhain.

Dates [link]

Dates for the festivals vary widely. There are many forms of Wicca and Paganism, all of which may have somewhat different traditions associated with the festivals. Therefore there is no definitive or universal tradition observed by all the groups. Most Pagans are somewhat flexible about dates, tending to celebrate at the nearest weekend for convenience.

Hemispheres [link]

As the Wheel originates in the Northern Hemisphere, in the Southern Hemisphere many Pagans advance these dates six months so as to coincide with the natural seasons as they occur in their local climates, which oppose and complement those of the Northern Hemisphere. For instance, a Wiccan from southern Australia may celebrate Beltane on 1 November, when a Canadian Wiccan is celebrating Samhain. The appropriate set of festivals for an Equatorial Wiccan is problematic.

Quarter Days [link]

While the cross-quarter days traditionally fall on the Kalends of the month, some Pagans consider them to fall on the midpoint of the two surrounding quarter days. These modern calculations tend to result in celebrations held a few days after the traditional dates (see above table).

Sun Sabbats and Moon Sabbats [link]

Origins [link]

Kołomir - the Slavic example of Wheel of the Year indicating seasons of the year. Four-point and eight-point swastika shaped wheels were more common.

Most of the holidays of the Wheel of the Year are named after Celtic and Germanic pagan religious festivals, but depart largely in form and meaning from the traditional observances of those festivals. Historian Ronald Hutton ascribes this to the influence of turn of the century romanticism as well as the eclectic elements introduced by Wicca. The similarities between these holidays generally end at the shared names, as Wicca makes no effort to reconstruct the ancient practices.^[14] Hutton has described the merging of culturally diverse festivals into a unified set of eight as a form of universalism not corroborated by any historical continuity.^[14]

There appears to be no surviving evidence that the eight festivals described in this article were formally observed as a 'set', and the complete eightfold Wheel of the Year was unknown under that name prior to modern Wicca, as far as we know.^[14] In early forms of Wicca only the cross-quarter days were observed. However, in 1958 the members of Bricket Wood Coven added the solstices and equinoxes to their original calendar, as they desired more frequent celebrations. Their High Priest, Gerald Gardner, was away visiting the Isle of Man at the time, but he did not object when he returned, since they were now more in line with the Neo-druidism of Ross Nichols, a friend of Gardner's and founder of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids.^[17]

No known pre-Christian people celebrated all the eight festivals of the calendar adopted by Wicca. Around the four genuine Gaelic quarter days are now ranged the Midwinter and September feasts of the Anglo-Saxons, the Midsummer celebrations so prominent in folklore and (for symmetry) the vernal equinox, which does not seem to have been commemorated by any ancient northern Europeans.^[14]

— Ronald Hutton

That said, the seasonal and astronomical events at these times (i.e. equinoxes and solstices) certainly occurred nonetheless, and are readily observed in the natural world. Therefore they are likely to have been noticed by societies which lived so closely with nature, and the many pagan religions which were based on natural features and events, from the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and Asia, certainly comprehended all of them under festivals celebrating these events.^{[citation needed]} Thus, there are sometimes substantial similarities between dates (if not rituals) of celebrations in unrelated pagan religions. For example, the four largest holidays in Slavic pagan mythology roughly correspond to Wiccan quarter days: maslenitsa (end of winter and rebirth of the Earth) - late March, kupala - late June, rada/rodogosch (harvest festival) - late September, and kolyada/korochun - late December.^[18] (Three of these were later incorporated into the Christian calendar as the week before Great Lent, Feast of Saint John the Baptist, and Christmas.) The use of cross-quarter days as major holidays is less common; this practice and particularly the overarching importance of Samhain over Midsummer and Midwinter festivals is idiosyncratic of pagan rites of Celtic (particularly Irish) origin.

Narratives [link]

Further information: Wiccan views of divinity

Among Wiccans, the most common Wheel of the Year narrative is that of the God/Goddess duality. In this cycle, the God is born from the Goddess at Yule, grows in power at Vernal Equinox (along with the Goddess who has now returned to her maiden aspect), courts and impregnates the Goddess at Beltane, wanes in power at Lammas, passes into the underworld at Samhain, then 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. Versions of this myth vary from coven to coven, shifting the birth, conception, or death of the God to different sabbats.

Another solar narrative is of the Holly King and the Oak King, with one ruling the winter, the other the summer. These two figures battle with each other endlessly as the seasons turn. At Midsummer the Oak King is at the height of his strength, while the Holly King is at his weakest. The Holly King begins to regain his power, and at the Autumn Equinox, the tables finally turn in the Holly King's favor; he vanquishes the Oak King at Yule. Then over the next months, as the sun waxes in power, the Oak King slowly regains his strength; at the Spring Equinox he begins to triumph until he once again defeats the Holly King at Midsummer.^[19]

References [link]

^ Wiccan Veterans waging new war, Devon Haynie, March 3, 2007
^ Wicca: A Year & a Day: 366 Days of Spiritual Practice in the Craft of the Wise Timothy Roderick 2005
^ written by Ellen Dugan Elements of Witchcraft: Natural Magick for Teens Retrieved 2011-10-31
^ The Wheel of the Year / the Sabbats
^ The Eightfold Wheel of the Year, Moonhunter 2003
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Starhawk (1979, 1989) The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess. New York, Harper and Row ISBN 0-06-250814-8 pp.193-6 (revised edition)
^ James Buescher (2007-12-15). "Wiccans, pagans ready to celebrate Yule". Lancaster Online. http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/213802. Retrieved 2007-12-21.
^ Andrea Kannapell (1997-12-21). "Celebrations; It's Solstice, Hanukkah, Kwannza: Let There Be Light!". nytimes.com. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9507E5DA113FF932A15751C1A961958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all. Retrieved 2007-12-21.
^ Ruth la Ferla (2000-12-13). "Like Magic, Witchcraft Charms Teenagers". nytimes.com. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A04E3DD1E3EF930A25751C0A9669C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1. Retrieved 2007-12-21.
^ Budapest, Zsuzsanna (1980) The Holy Book of Women's Mysteries ISBN 0-914728-67-9
^ Grimm, Jacob (1835). Deutsche Mythologie (German Mythology); From English released version Grimm's Teutonic Mythology (1888); Available online by Northvegr © 2004-2007, Chapter 13, page 10+
^ Eight Sabbats for Witches by Janet and Stewart Farrar
^ Bede & Wallis, Faith (tr.) (1999) Bede, The Reckoning of Time Liverpool University Press. p. 54.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Hutton, Ronald. The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles. Oxford, Blackwell. pp. 337–341. ISBN 0-631-18946-7.
^ The Gardnerian Book of Shadows online
^ Oberon Zell-Ravenheart & Morning Glory Zell-Ravenheart (2006) Creating Circles & Ceremonies: Rituals for All Seasons and Reasons. Career Press. p. 227.
^ Lamond, Frederic (2004). Fifty Years of Wicca. Sutton Mallet, England: Green Magic. pp. 16–17. ISBN 0-9547230-1-5.
^ "List of Slavic Pagan holidays" (in Russian). http://rodolubie.info/kologod/index.html.
^ Farrar, Janet and Stewart (1988). Eight Sabbats for Witches, revised edition. Phoenix Publishing. ISBN 0-919345-26-3.

External links [link]

Seasons (astronomically) by Archaeoastronomy
About the Sabbats by Judy Harrow of the Proteus coven.
The Eightfold Wheel by Moonhunter, from the Association of Polytheist Traditions website.

v t e Wheel of the Year

Samhain · Yule · Imbolc · Ostara · Beltane · Midsummer · Lughnasadh · Mabon

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Contents

Eight festivals [link]

Samhain [link]

Midwinter [link]

Imbolc [link]

Vernal Equinox [link]

Beltane [link]

Midsummer [link]

Lammas [link]

Autumnal Equinox [link]

Dates [link]

Hemispheres [link]

Quarter Days [link]

Sun Sabbats and Moon Sabbats [link]

Origins [link]

Narratives [link]

See also [link]

References [link]

External links [link]

http://wn.com/Wheel_of_the_Year

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http://es.wn.com/Rueda del Año