Familiars: A Tarot Spread to Connect with Your Intuitive Allies

We are heading towards the deep valley of Samhain and I come to you again with what is becoming an annual tradition of a new tarot spread for the season. Whether studying the celestial energy of the season, connecting with ancestors or exploring the themes of reconciliation, transformation, and shadow work, Samhain is a rich time for practicing divination, in part, because the veil between the worlds is thin and the opportunity to connect with ancestors, descendants, and spirits alike are many.

For this year's Samhain celebrations I wanted to offer a tarot spread that helps us connect with the tradition of the witch's familiar. The following tarot spread helps those of you who want to connect with the magickal current of familiar relationships to do just that. If you have an established familiar relationship, this tarot spread can be one way of communicating with your familiar. If you are calling a familiar to you, the spread can be a casting of a spell, helping you call a familiar to you. For those who are not called to the familiar tradition, the tarot spread easily adapts to being one that helps you connect with your hidden but guiding intuitive and instinctive nature.

If you want, you can make a ritual of casting cards to connect with your familiar and/or intuitive-instinctive self. Light two candles from a common flame, make an offering of water, food, and sacred scent and/or song. Find four stones and hold them in your hands while whispering a spell that only your familiar (or intuitive self) will know, placing them in the four corners of your home helping to make steady the path by which your familiar (or intuitive self) can come home to you. Then cast your cards…

Familiars
A Tarot Spread to Connect with Your Intuitive Allies

Card 1. I Am Called…

Some of the most powerful works of magick are acts of naming. While this card might not offer a distinct name (but, it just might), it helps you understand the name your familiar wishes to be called. For an intuitive-instinctive spread, this is an interesting practice of naming a part of yourself yearning to be named. 

Card 2. By This Sign I Am Known…

This card acts as a descriptor for your familiar and may also indicate the signs they show you to indicate that they are about. For an intuitive-instinctive spread, the sign(s) or descriptive elements of the card indicate when you need to stop and pay attention.

Card 3. Welcome Me With…

This card helps you understand the ways that your familiar wishes to be taken care of. In other words, the feeding of your familiar on a magickal, energetic, practice-based level. The feeding of a familiar can take many forms through offerings of all kinds, breathwork, song, and more. For an intuitive-instinctive spread, this card is about the feeding or nurturing of your intuition.

Card 4. I Call You…

With this card we learn about what your familiar calls you, for it is not only an act of magick to name something, but to be named in turn. Often this card highlights an aspect of your magickal nature that calls your familiar to you. For an intuitive-instinctive spread this card names something important, interesting, inspiring about your intuitive gifts that is important to recognize about yourself.

Card 5. About You, I Know…

Following I Call You, this card further expands on what your familiar knows about you and a certain need you have that calls them to you. In a way, a familiar is an answer to a witch's question, and this card highlights what that answer (or another useful question) might be. For an intuitive-instinctive spread, this card represents something that you are hoping to discover through connecting more deeply with your intuitive-instinctive self.

Card 6. Together We Can…

This final card highlights what may be accomplished, developed or understood through working with your familiar. For an intuitive-instinctive spread, the card represents the same thing, except with your relationship to trusting your intuition.

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If you're looking for more inspiration for your Samhain celebrations, check out my might-do list for the season or my post on the herbs and astrology of Samhain (including Lunar Samhain!). If you're feeling haunted, there are some plant allies you might consider working with.

May your work with the part of you that knows before you know, be it familiar form, intuitive nature or a bit of both, be revelatory and healing.

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

Into the Arms of the Wild: The Wisdom of the Wheel of the Year

The Wheel of the Year is an annual spell. Every Sabbat a knot in the cord and when we arrive at the ritual feast we can tend to the threads of the year, the places that need repair, where new weavings are needed, and old ones can be returned to the earth again.

The structure and seasonal holidays of the modern Wheel of the Year is largely based on both real and mythical Pre-British, British, Anglo-Saxon, and Celtic agrarian cultures (I explore more of this over in Spiraling Into the Center: The Wheel of the Year and the Lunar Sabbats). I feel relatively safe in assuming that most of the folks reading this post and practicing in some way as modern Pagans do not live with the lands that birthed these cultures. Even if you do, the Wheel of the Year, like most everything in modern Paganism was never meant to be an unchanging dictum from whoever is claiming to be the King of Witchcraft at any given time.¹ One of the great delights of modern Paganism is that it is a religion by and for the people, meant to grow and change as we grow and change, to reflect the many places and cultures we live in, and a practice that is as much a part of the diasporic experience as it is the lands it was first dreamed.

So let's explore how the Wheel of the Year can be engaged as a more open framework to make it intimately relevant to your personal practice. In another post I'll explore how you dream into being your own Wheel of the Year, but for now we'll continue to reference the eight Sabbats while expanding beyond their original cultural references. Much of modern Paganism is about the return of the old ways and the re-membering of traditions disrupted and hidden away - so adapting the Wheel of the Year to meet your needs as a Pagan living in the cultural diaspora of the Wheel's land-based origins is one of the ways we thrive as a Pagan people. We are coming home again to our practices wherever home might be for us.

image via @matthiasoberholzer

The Sacredness of Every Season

The Wheel of the Year reflects seasonal changes on a practical level that help us to connect to the land, sea, and sky, pay attention to important rhythms for growing crops and animal husbandry, and, especially in this day and age, measure time beyond the confines of capitalism's dangerous obsession with work and productivity. 

But the Wheel of the Year also reflects the transition of life that we all go through, from birth and death, to transitioning identities, new responsibilities, periods of learning and teaching, and all the spiritual and emotional experiences that come along with these things. The Wheel of the Year is a way, around every six weeks, to pause, recalibrate, and reconnect with that which you find most sacred in your life.

Pagans are by and large not a faith-based but an earth-based and relationship-based people. When compared to other liturgical calendars the goal of the Wheel of the Year is less about worship and more about re-weaving ourselves back into the world and honoring the holiness of all things no matter where they are in the process of being.² All is holy, for example, at the time of darkest night at Midwinter and all is holy at the time of the long day of Midsummer. How we recognize, engage with, and remind ourselves of that holiness changes from Sabbat to Sabbat but is reflected in ritual choices, spellwork, community work, and more. The holiness of a harvest festival may be recognized by honoring all that has been worked for and achieved in the past year, while the holiness of Imbolc might be centered around the sacredness of vow-making and choosing a path ahead. In other words, for many modern Pagans, we aren't as concerned about growing our faith in our God/dess/es but growing our awareness of and honoring our deeply interconnected relationship with all that is.

Most importantly, as you explore the Wheel of the Year it's important to ask yourself  Why? Why observe the Wheel of the Year (or similar variation)? What purpose does it serve in your life? How does it make you feel? What's the point? How do you need to be held throughout the year?

image via @matthiasoberholzer

For me, the Wheel of the Year serves as points of stabilization, where I can ground and center, and reconnect to what is most meaningful and valuable to me and my life. In the overculture I live in, the Wheel is a radical way of measuring time and feels like an easy and joyful rebellion to choose, that enriches my life and my practice. I have found solace in the Sabbats when my life has felt full of contentment as well as when things are tumultuous - the Sabbats are expansive points of space and time that can hold space for whoever I am and whatever I'm experiencing when I show up. I encourage you to take a moment and reflect on what the Wheel of the Year means to you and why you want to participate in its turning.

When you're ready, let's look at the broad underlying spiritual framework of each Sabbat. I've touched upon the mythology of the Wheel of the Year from a (mostly) Wiccan perspective to give you some mythological inspiration, but remember that this is only one tradition within Paganism that follows the Wheel, and there are as many myths as Pagans for each of the Sabbats.

Samhain: The New Year, a time for endings and beginnings, the third harvest when the veil between the worlds is thinnest. Connecting with ancestors and ancestral traditions. An auspicious time to divine backwards and forwards in time. Honoring those who have departed in the previous year. Making space for the holiness of grieving, especially being able to grieve as and within a community. A time of reconciliation. Making space for quiet and reflection. The death of the Old God, the Goddess as Crone and Midwife of the Dead. The Maiden begins her training in the mysteries of the underworld.

Winter Solstice: Celebrating moments of "a light in the dark" and the birth process whether connecting to birthing offspring, birthing a new idea or concept or birthing a new cultural movement. Recognizing the interconnectedness of life and death, honoring our fragility and vulnerability, as well as the people, places, and systems which help us feel safe. A time of honoring parents, especially those who identify as mothers. The Crone Goddess as Midwife, the Goddess as Mother, the God as the Child either in the womb or being born (the Oak King). The height of the Holly King's power.

Imbolc: Celebrating the spread of an idea, concept, movement, breakthrough. Honoring potential. Honoring the waking land as winter slowly recedes. Celebrating transitions of moving from one stage of learning and understanding to another (i.e. graduating high school and entering college or starting a new degree study as a Priest/ess). The Child God, the Crone Goddess returning to the lands of winter and/or is reborn as the Maiden Goddess bringing the promise of spring.

Spring Equinox: Honoring the lively and greening land. A time for cleaning and cleansing. An auspicious time for celebrating what is re-emerging and re-turning home as well as newly claimed identities. A time for celebrating youth and blessing young ones (i.e. baby blessings, namings, etc). A time of the Young God and Goddess. The death of the Holly King and the beginning of the reign of the Oak King.

image via @jleeems

Beltane: Honoring the Good Folk. Relationships of all sorts, including romantic ones. Celebrating the diversity of sexual identities and the way that our sexual identities change and grow. Fertility of all kinds, including of people, and the land. The holiness of physical form. Connecting with descendants and what traditions we are passing on and creating for our descendants. The God/dess/es as Lovers. 

Summer Solstice: Honoring the abundance of life. Celebrating a time for (re)energizing movements and movement building activities. Celebrating community groups and mutual aid projects. A time of honoring parents, especially those who identify as fathers. A time for celebrating middle age. The God/ess/es at middle age. The height of the Oak King's power.

Lughnasadh: Celebrating the first harvest and the coming end of summer. (Re)commiting to supporting groups which work hard to make sure our communities feel secure. Recognizing what it is we have to share and what it is we need more of in order to thrive. Honoring those who have struggled for the betterment of the community and performed extraordinary feats of self-sacrifice and compassion. The God/dess/es of the Harvest are celebrated. The death of the Earth Goddess of Summer or Tailtu and emergence of the Crone. 

Autumn Equinox: Celebrating the end of the harvest and what will sustain us in the year ahead. A time of feasting and gathering together. Affirmations and further development of personal and community resiliency. Cutting cords with things, thoughts, people, that no longer support your ability to thrive. Balancing what needs to be balanced in your life. A time for celebrating old age. The Old God is dying and the Crone begins to guide them to the Summerlands. The Maiden journeys to the underworld. The Holly King rises to power. 

image via @heftiba

With these broad spiritual themes you can start to adapt these Sabbats to your own life, cultural myths, and seasonal changes. You can explore how you already celebrate the different themes and ideas of each Sabbat in your life and ways that you might want to incorporate others (i.e. developing an ancestor-honoring practice and anchoring it to the season of Samhain). Transform any of the key concepts in the descriptions of the Sabbats above into sacred questions such as "How am I honoring the abundance in my life?" to better understand the Summer solstice. Another comforting aspect about the Wheel of the Year is the way that I feel connected to followers of the old ways all around the world during particular points of the lunar month and solar year - it is a grand spell against loneliness and one that brings me a lot of peace. 

The Wheel is an external reflection of our own internal circumnavigation of our soul's temple. How do you tend the Wheel of the Year and how does it tend you?

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The title for this post, like the first in the series exploring the Wheel of the Year, was inspired by a Beverly Frederick song:

Humble yourself in the arms of the wild
You've gotta lay down low and
Humble yourself in the arms of the wild
You've gotta ask her what she knows and
We will lift each other up
Higher and higher
We will lift each other up
Higher and higher

I hope that you're feeling inspired for your own practice and how you travel the Wheel of the Year. May the ever-turning of the wheel bring you peace and reunion with all that you know you love and all that love you’ve yet to know.

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

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Footnotes

1. According to my calculations the current King of Witchcraft is the mildly feral community cat who lives on my street and goes by the name Hyssop (or Hap for short). Feel free to honor him at the beginning of any of your rituals as you see fit until a new King is elected by the mysterious gentleforces that be.

2. The big caveat here is that modern Paganism is very diverse and for some traditions the wheel of the year is very much about faith and the worship of the God/dess/es.

Three Tarot Spreads for the Season of Samhain

The season of Samhain has nearly begun and I am ready for the new year and the cooler weather to come. As I write this the skies are gray, promising rain, and the wind is stretching through the branches of autumn tinted trees, excited for the wild riders who’ll soon take to the sky to fly the land ‘tween Hallows and Midwinter.

For many Witch folk, myself included, the season of Samhain is the most auspicious time for divination, so I thought I’d share a few spreads to inspire your own casting of cards and lots. The following three spreads touch on important themes and lessons of the year: how we reconcile our differences with members in our family and community so that we can journey into the new year unburdened; the ways we can invoke transformation to help us call in our dreams; and the magick of facing our fears to know our power.

Enjoy and blessed be!

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The Hazel Branch Tarot Spread

To help you reconcile differences between you and another, so that the new year can arrive with greater lightness of heart and spirit. If you're looking to learn more about Samhain and the practice of reconciliation (including a suggested ritual), come this way. This spread can also be cast to help you heal the wounds between yourself and someone who has passed beyond the veil - Samhain teaches us that healing knows no time, no space, only possibility.

Card 1. The Knot

This card highlights the grievance which binds you to the other person that you are in conflict with.

Card 2. What I Think I Want
& Card 3. What They Think They Want

These cards help to highlight what has been expressed publicly about the grievance. These cards are about the surface level of the conflict and what is easy to see. 

Card 4. What I Actually Need
& Card 5. What They Actually Need

These cards dig a little deeper and examine some of the unconscious or hard-to-share needs of both involved. Comparing the first two cards with these two cards can reveal unspoken elements of the challenge which is adding to the conflict. It's important to remember that Card 5 is only going to reveal to us what is appropriate for us to know and ways for us to find compassion for the other within the conflict.

Card 6. What I'm Not Seeing
& Card 7. What They Are Not Seeing

These cards show what part of the conflict remains hidden from view, but is important to recognize.

Card 8. The Hazel Branch

This card shows a step towards reconciliation, the Hazel branch being a symbol of peace and wisdom.

Card 9. The Ancestors Speak

A card of unknotting, this card illustrates the possibility of what reconciliation may bring and the healing that is possible.

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The Cauldron Tarot Spread

To tap into the transformative energies of Samhain which straddles time and space, spiraling between life, death, and rebirth to help you manifest a dream. A great spread for casting during ritual and with a coven of friends to help you focus on a goal and how to work towards it.

Card 1. The Fire

That which inspires you and keeps you engaged with the world and your magick. 

Card 2. The Cauldron

How your desire guides you and can be transformed into a tool to reshape your life in a way that supports your goal.

Card 3. The Swirling Brew

As yet unknown, unfamiliar or forgotten energies at work that you can choose to connect to between now and Yule to help you with your goal.

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Facing Your Fear

A spread to support the work of facing our fears to know our power. Choose one fear or anxiety to focus on for this spread - it is often best to start with the one that is most present in your day-to-day life and/or hinders your ability to connect with your magick.

Card 1. My fear

The card which highlights your fear - sometimes in surprising ways.

Card 2. The ties that bind

This card looks at the way that your fear has created restrictions in your life.

Card 3. The wall that separates

This card examines how your fear is, in often misguided ways, trying to protect or support you.

Card 4. What lies beneath

Fears have origin stories and this card highlights the most important part of that story for you to examine.

Card 5. Where there is fear there is power

The final card starts to help us understand the power that lies within our fear. The title for this card is a quote by activist and elder, Starhawk.

If you’re looking for more Samhain inspiration I have a whole might-do list for the season and a tarot spread for connecting with your ancestors and the magick of the new year. You could also spend some time learning about the herbs and astrology of the season - including Lunar Samhain. Or maybe you’re just looking for a cup of tea.

I wish you and your community a beautiful Samhain - may you find the joy and reunion with those who have gone before and plenty of peace with the living.

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

Spiraling Into the Center: The Wheel of the Year & Lunar Sabbats

My herbal and magickal practice is deeply tied to the rhythms of the land - and that rhythm is set by the steady turning of the Wheel of the Year. The sacred turning of seasons known as the Wheel of the Year is celebrated by modern Pagans who either are Wiccans or Druids or practice a tradition derived from (at least in part) Wicca or modern Druidry. That is not to say that the festivities found within the Wheel of the Year are exclusively Wiccan or of the Druid tradition, but the structure of these celebrations within an eight Sabbat format is directly derived from Wicca and modern Druidry as we’ll learn below.

I realized that while I’ve been writing about the individual Sabbats, I hadn’t taken time yet to invite you in to learn more about the Wheel of the Year as a tradition, from its structure to ever-changing meaning to the ways that we shape it into a tradition informed by the land we live with. So in this three part series I’ll do just that!

Let’s start by diving into where the Wheel of the Year comes from and it’s structure. If you’re looking for a broader discussion on making the wheel of the year more personalized to your practice, come this way.

Where does the Wheel of the Year come from?

While there was no ancient version of a eight Sabbat Wheel of the Year, each Sabbat is based on ancient seasonal and celestial festivities for time periods important to those ancient peoples as reflected in the sacred sites left across the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Europe (such as Stonehenge) as well as the folk festivals and customs that survived from Pagan periods. The Wheel of the Year is one of the most popular modern Pagan calendars, but it is not the only one and there are lots of culturally and locationally specific calendars with additional or completely different festivals. Hellenic Pagans, for example, celebrate festivals based on ancient Greek tradition exclusive of or in addition to the Wheel of the Year.

The Wheel of the Year as we know it today is based on scholarship and modern inspiration, primarily - though not exclusively - codified in the 1950s by Gerald Gardner, the father of modern Wicca, and Ross Nichols, founder of the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids. Early inspiration for the structure of the Wheel of the Year came from the work of Margaret Murray, Robert Graves, and earlier Victorian magickal practitioners and folklorists. If you're wanting to learn more about the history of the Sabbats, the wikipedia page on the Wheel of the Year is pretty great with a lot of good resources in the endnotes.

Structurally, the Wheel of the Year is a made up of eight seasonal festivals, spaced roughly six weeks apart, that consist of festivals of primarily Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, and pre-Celtic British origin. The codification of the Wheel of the Year happened between Gardner and Nichols, where "popular legend holds that Gardner and Nichols developed the calendar during a naturist retreat, where Gardner argued for a celebration of the solstices and equinoxes while Nichols argued for a celebration of the four Celtic fire festivals, and combined the two ideas into a single festival cycle." (1) 

Names for the Sabbats were developed on further in the 1970s by Aidan Kelly, another early influential figure in Neopaganism, furthered named three Sabbats: Litha for the Summer Solstice, Ostara for the Spring Equinox, and Mabon for the Autumn Equinox. (2)

If you're looking for the primary resources used for the reconstruction of these Celtic, pre-Celtic and Anglo-Saxon festivities, the Celtic Reconstructionists have compiled vast resource lists. Paganachd is a good place to start with extensive guides to reconstructing Celtic traditions and what that means as well as a good reading list to start working through. I recommend enjoying the primary resource rather than getting too stuck with the gatekeeping and constant search for authenticity (which is such a complicated idea when it comes to spiritual and cultural practices) that can go on in some of the CR forums. For a deep dive into the origins of the Wheel of the Year, and just how Celtic it is or is not, as well as exploring the Coligny calendar (the oldest surviving example of a Celtic solar-lunar ritual calendar), The Celtic Calendar and the Anglo-Saxon Year by Richard Sermon is a good read.

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What is the structure of the Wheel of the Year?

The eight Sabbats of the Wheel of the Year fall into two categories: The Cross Quarter Festivals and the Quarter Festivals. If you want to see additional names for each Sabbat and well as more information on how to celebrate each, be sure to click through the links for profiles on each.

Cross Quarter Festivals (aka The Fire Festivals or The Greater Sabbats):

• Imbolc

• Beltane

• Lughnasadh

• Samhain

Quarter Festivals (aka The Solstices and Equinoxes or The Lesser Sabbats):

• Yule (Winter Solstice)

• Ostara (Spring Equinox)

• Litha (Summer Solstice)

• Mabon (Autumn Equinox)

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The "Quarter" is in reference to the four quarters of the year which can be measured seasonally (spring, summer, winter, and fall) and astrologically (i.e. the start of a season measured by entry into one of the four cardinal signs of the zodiac). The Quarter Sabbats mark the beginning and end of each season while the Cross Quarter Sabbats mark the height of each season. This measurement doesn't always make sense outside of specific environments (i.e. more northern climates), but for many Pagans, there is still an energetic if not obvious start, height, and end to each season that roughly aligns with the Sabbats. So, with this understanding:

• Yule is the end of autumn, beginning of winter and Imbolc marks the height of the winter season.

• Ostara is the end of winter, beginning of spring and Beltane marks the height of the spring season.

• Litha is the end of spring, beginning of summer and Lughnasadh marks the height of the summer season.

• Mabon is the end of summer, beginning of autumn and Samhain marks the height of the autumn season.

Finally, the Celtic people did mark the dark half and the bright half the year, which has influenced the way the modern Wheel of the Year is conceived. Samhain to Beltane is the dark half of the year, while Beltane to Samhain is the bright half of the year. Samhain, the beginning of the dark half of the year, marked the beginning of the year for the Celts, much as sunset marked the start of the new day. Marking the beginning of the year at Samhain is commonly celebrated by many Witch folk, myself included.

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In the above graphic you might have noticed a series of eight symbols or glyphs in the center of the wheel corresponding to each of the Sabbats. I don’t know where these originated from and I have a vague memory of figuring this out years ago but haven’t been able to find my notes on the matter if I did (take good notes, kids!). I think that the Quarter Festivals were created first, followed by the Cross Quarter ones, but again that’s going on fuzzy memory at this point. If you know the origins of the Sabbat glyphs, please let me know. The glyphs may represent the following:

The Samhain Glyph: A sacred knot representing the cycle of life death and rebirth, showing the interconnectedness between the worlds.

The Yule Glyph: Winter store of food, people, embers of the fire and/or a sacred cairn or burial mound showing stylized bones and points of life (representing the hope of rebirth) within.

The Imbolc Glyph: Shows new seedlings and plants emerging from the earth after winter.

The Ostara Glyph: The young emerging Sun/Horned God. I also see this as an egg symbol cracking open.

The Beltane Glyph: The maypole! Or wheat stalk representing agricultural fields.

The Litha Glyph: The Sun at full maturity pouring light out across the land.

The Lughnasadh Glyph: Perhaps representing the setting Sun, who is now in decline at the beginning of the harvest season.

The Mabon Glyph: A stylized cornucopia overflowing with plenty, also perhaps a stylized stang.

When are the Sabbats celebrated?

The Cross Sabbats are observed on fixed dates throughout the year - through you might find discrepancies between texts on what dates they should be fixed to. Some books for example will say that Lughnasadh is on August 2 while others will say it is August 1. What's happening here is that for the Celts the start of a new day began at sunset - so the sunset of August 1 to the sunset of August 2 would be a day within a Celtic calendar. Hence, Lughnasadh can be celebrated from sundown on August 1 to sundown on August 2 or on just one of those days.

The Quarter Sabbats are celebrated at the solstices and equinoxes which are astronomical events that have slight variation from year to year. Yule, for example, might be on December 19 one year and December 21 the next year depending on when the earth's pole tilts furthest away from the Sun.

The dates for each Sabbat (Northern Hemisphere):

• Samhain : October 31

• Yule: On the day of the Winter Solstice usually around December 19 - 23

• Imbolc: February 1 - 2

• Ostara: On the day of the Spring Equinox usually around March 19 - 23

• Beltane: May 1 - 2

• Litha: On the day of the Summer Solstice usually around June 19 - 23

• Lughnasadh: August 1 - 2

• Mabon: On the day of the Autumn Equinox usually around September 19 - 23

The dates for each Sabbat (Southern Hemisphere):

• Samhain : May 1 - 2

• Yule: On the day of the Winter Solstice usually around June 19 - 23

• Imbolc: August 1 - 2

• Ostara: On the day of the Spring Equinox usually around Septmeber 19 - 23

• Beltane: October 1 - 2

• Litha: On the day of the Summer Solstice usually around December 19 - 23

• Lughnasadh: February 1 - 2

• Mabon: On the day of the Autumn Equinox usually around March 19 - 23

While the dates I just listed are the most common observational times for each Sabbat, there is also the astrological timing of each Sabbat. For the Quarter Festivals, the above and below dates align (i.e. the Winter Solstice happens when the Sun enters the sign of Capricorn at 0 degrees). It is with the Cross Quarter Sabbats that you find variation of dates. You can reference an ephemeris or your favorite astrological calendar for these dates. While celebrating the Sabbats on the above dates are most common, there are a number of Pagans, especially those with an affinity for astrological work, that celebrate the astrological dates Sabbats, too.

The astrological timing for each Sabbat (Northern Hemisphere):

• Samhain: Sun at 15° Scorpio

• Yule: Sun at 0° Capricorn

• Imbolc: Sun at 15° Aquarius

• Ostara: Sun at 0° Aries

• Beltane: Sun at 15° Taurus

• Litha: Sun at 0° Cancer

• Lughnasadh: Sun at 15° Leo

• Mabon: Sun at 0° Libra

The astrological timing for each Sabbat (Southern Hemisphere):

• Beltane: Sun at 15° Scorpio

• Litha: Sun at 0° Capricorn

• Lughnasadh: Sun at 15° Aquarius

• Mabon: Sun at 0° Aries

• Samhain: Sun at 15° Taurus

• Yule: Sun at 0° Cancer

• Imbolc: Sun at 15° Leo

• Ostara: Sun at 0° Libra

Each season of a Sabbat lasts for one and a half signs of the zodiac. So Yule lasts all 30 degrees of Capricorn and 15 degrees of Aquarius. Then Imbolc begins on 15 degrees Aquarius and moves through the last 15 degrees of Aquarius and then all thirty degrees of Pisces. And so the wheel turns and turns through all of the signs of the zodiac.

You may have noticed that the Wheel of the Year is shown moving counter-clockwise - this is to match the Wheel with the zodiac. The planets move through the zodiac in a counter-clockwise motion so the zodiac is drawn to reflect that. To match the Wheel of the Year with the zodiac it moves in a counter-clockwise motion, too.

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What are the Lunar Sabbats?

I've been seeing Lunar Sabbats showing up more and more in recent years where before they were mostly known to folks who purchased We'Moons - which makes sense because it was the folks at We'Moon (according to email conversations with them) who partially developed the practice. I love celebrating Lunar Sabbats and was lucky to be introduced to them early on in my practice of shifting time away from a measurement that is capitalistic and consumption based to one that is cyclical and reverent to bodies, places, and spaces beyond commodification. I've written about Lunar Samhain before, but here is a brief summary from my personal practice of what a Lunar Sabbat is.

Lunar Sabbats are different than Esbats - a term introduced by Margaret Murray and popularized within Wiccan tradition - as the celebration of different lunar phases (primarily New and Full Moons). Esbats are another beautiful tradition and deserve their own post, but Lunar Sabbats are tied to the solar based Wheel of the Year and serve as Moon-based equivalents to the Cross Quarter Sabbats or the Fire Festivals of Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh, and Samhain. Why not the Quarter Sabbats, too? Because the Quarter Sabbats, marked at the solstices and equinoxes are already celebrations of both solar and lunar movements.

Because of their origin partially within the We’Moon community, the Lunar Sabbats are tied to womxn's culture and feminist spirituality, connecting to a powerful thread of revolutionary and transformative magick. (3) For me, I love celebrating the Lunar Sabbats as a more quiet, more intense, and more personal Sabbat celebration. When I’m able to, after attending a public and community-oriented Sabbat celebration, I love being able to gather together with close witch kin for a Lunar Sabbat celebration. If the Sabbats are a bright mirror reflecting the energy of the season in our lives, the Lunar Sabbats are the black mirror of scrying, where we draw energy up from our depths and are guided by the turning of our inner compass.

The Lunar Sabbats can be measured in different ways, the simplest being the Full or New Moon closest to the solar date of a Sabbat (i.e. the New Moon closest to October 31 to mark Lunar Samhain) with New Moons for the dark half of the year (Samhain and Imbolc) and Full Moons observed for the bright half of the year (Beltane and Lughnasadh).

Then there are two different ways to measure the astrological timing to the Lunar Sabbats. The first is how the Sabbats are measured via the We'Moon calendar system.

In the Northern Hemisphere:

• Lunar Samhain: New Moon in Scorpio

• Lunar Imbolc: New Moon in Aquarius

• Lunar Beltane: Full Moon in Scorpio

• Lunar Lughnasadh: Full Moon in Aquarius

In the Southern Hemisphere:

• Lunar Samhain: Full Moon in Scorpio

• Lunar Imbolc: Full Moon in Aquarius

• Lunar Beltane: New Moon in Scorpio

• Lunar Lughnasadh: New Moon in Aquarius

The above system has a beautiful and purposeful symmetry to it. The dark half of the year at Samhain marked with a New Moon Lunar Sabbat is reflected in the bright half of the year with a Full Moon Lunar Sabbat at Beltane. The same symmetry is found at Imbolc and Lughnasadh. This is the system you’ll find in your We’Moon planner.

The second way of calculating the Lunar Sabbats is:

Northern Hemisphere:

• Lunar Samhain: New Moon in Scorpio

• Lunar Imbolc: New Moon in Aquarius

• Lunar Beltane: New Moon in Taurus

• Lunar Lughnasadh: New Moon in Leo

Southern Hemisphere:

• Lunar Samhain: New Moon in Taurus

• Lunar Imbolc: New Moon in Leo

• Lunar Beltane: New Moon in Scorpio

• Lunar Lughnasadh: New Moon in Aquarius

With this system, all four dates for the Lunar Sabbat are more directly tied to the solar astrological timing of the season (i.e. Beltane happens when the Sun is at 15° Taurus so the New Moon in Taurus becomes Lunar Beltane). Which is the better system? There’s no better system - it’s completely a matter of personal preference and whatever way gets you showing up to the work of knowing yourself and holy community. I’ll be writing about each of the Lunar Sabbats in the future, so if you want to know when those posts will be published you can sign-up for my newsletter.

Is the Wheel of the Year an exclusively Celtic, pre-Celtic, Anglo-Saxon thing?

A little bit yes but mostly no. Yes, in the sense that these are seasonal festivals based on practices from these specific cultures. I think it's important and really enlightening to know the origins of the Sabbats (as much as we can) and give honor to the ancestors who helped their descendants to dream of them again. It is no small feat after centuries of forced conversion and propaganda against Pagan ways that the Wheel of the Year, a Pagan and earth-honoring system of experiencing time and toppling oppressive nature-denigrating institutions of power, is part of one of the most rapidly growing religions (at least in the United States of America). (4)

And also no, in the sense that the Wheel of the Year has grown far beyond the confines of a tiny island nation and the people like Gerald Gardner, Ross Nichols, Margaret Murray, Doreen Valiente, and Robert Graves who were attempting to revive a cultural inheritance at danger of being lost. It's important to remember that we don't know exactly how or why Celtic, pre-Celtic, and Anglo-Saxon peoples celebrated seasonal changes and even if we did have exact details of these festivities, we are not our ancestors, but their miraculous descendants who live in a different time though connected through the land, sea, and sky. In that spirit I see the Wheel of the Year as a living, breathing, and adaptable tradition, meant to be celebrated by a wide and diverse network of people committed to earth-based spiritual practice.

The beauty of the Wheel of the Year and the fact that its celebrations are rooted to seasonal changes means that it’s a framework that can be applied to any part of the world by the Pagans who live there. I think that the Wheel of the Year works for so many Pagans around the globe because of this flexibility of application and I find this vastness of shared seasonal philosophy to be beautifully unifying amongst a people who have no central leadership (with the exception of a few tradition-specific groups) or singular holy book and pride themselves on being both community-oriented and idiosyncratic.

What is the spiritual meaning of the Wheel of the Year?

That, my friends, is what we'll be exploring in our next post. 

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The title for this post was inspired by a beautiful Pagan chant written by Beverly Frederick, from her album Into the Arms of the Wild, which goes as follows:

Spiraling into the Center,
the Center of the Wheel.
Spiraling into the Center,
the Center of the Wheel.

We are the Weavers, we are the woven ones
We are the Dreamers, we are the Dream.
We are the Weavers, we are the woven ones
We are the Dreamers, we are the Dream.

It’s a lovely song that I’ve sung dancing around Maypoles, journeying with community between the worlds at Samhain celebrations, and in hopeful revery during the longest night of the year. I hope it brings you a lot of joy, too. It can be especially beautiful to alternate “the Center of the Wheel” with the line “the Center of us All.”

If you're wanting to dive into more inspiration about the Wheel of the Year, check out my series of might-do lists for the Sabbats. I’ll be writing two more posts on the Wheel of the Year in the coming months as well as a series on the Lunar Sabbats a little after that, too. If you’re looking for more seasonal magick and healing, check out my Witchcraft + Weeds series.

Wherever the turning wheel finds you, I hope that you’re coming ever closer to home.

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

Footnotes

(1) The Wheel of the Year. The whole relationship between Nichols and Gardner is a really interesting and influential one in the development of modern Paganism as Nichols was a covenmate of Gardner's and he would later go on to create the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids (OBOD) which is a supremely lovely community of magickal folk. Phillip Carr-Gomm, former head of OBOD, and who was a student of Nichols talks more about the relationship between Gardner and Nicholas if you're wanting to learn more - I believe in a Druidcast episode. And then if you're going to read about Gardner, please read everything you can about Doreen Valiente who rescued Wicca more or less (from innumerable (mostly) menfolk who couldn't seem to see beyond their own noses and were constantly embroiled in conflict with one another), infused it with incredible Goddess-led inspiration, and she was herself by all accounts a delightful and kind weirdo (and maybe a spy for the British government!).

(2) From The Wheel of the Year: "Aidan Kelly gave names to the summer solstice (Litha) and equinox holidays (Ostara and Mabon) of Wicca in 1974, and these were popularized by Timothy Zell through his Green Egg magazine." You can read more about Kelly’s thoughts behind the choices here.

(3) To be abundantly trans-inclusive, non-binary loving, genderweird, and gender atheist affirming (a few of those ways which I identify as, just fyi): Womxn's culture is inherently trans and nonbinary inclusive, open to all of those who in some way, shape or form identify as a womxn, and are participating in the long and varied tradition of being seen in the world as womxn and shaping culture from that perspective and experience.

(4) Growth of Religion. The United States also has a growing population of “Nothing. The United States is not the only place where modern Paganism is on the rise - it’s just the place I’m most familiar with Pagan demographics. Iceland, for example, has had a rapid rise of Ásatrú, which in some ways can be seen as a re-indigenization of a population.

The watercolors that I used to paint the illustrations used throughout this post were created by Ojibwe artist, Anong Beam. Please join me in supporting her indigenous, female-led, watercolor company, Beam Paints.

A Might-do List for Samhain

Samhain, known also as The Witches New Year, Calan Gaeaf, Kalan Gwav, Halloween, is the third and final harvest festival of the year. It’s a time when the veil between the worlds is thinnest and all sorts of magick is afoot. Continuing a project started at Lughnasadh, here’s list of nine things that you might-do (or not) for Samhain and the dive into the dark half of the year.

Honor + Commune With Your Ancestors. Samhain marks one of the thin times of the year (the other being Beltane), when the veil between the worlds is at its thinnest. While we are always able to commune with our Ancestors, there is a widespread multicultural attention turned towards the dead at this time of year which, in addition to the thinning veil, makes communion that much easier. Begin with rituals of naming and honoring those who have past, especially those who have crossed over since last Samhain.

Host a Silent Supper. Sitting and eating in silence, with a plate of food and seat reserved for the Ancestors is a beautiful and contemplative way to begin your Samhain celebrations. It can be as simple as setting a plate full of food that everyone is eating before an empty chair or more elaborate with one end of the table becoming an altar of offerings of your ancestors favorite foods and drinks from when they were alive. In silence we remind ourselves that the voices of our ancestors are ever-present if we were to get quiet enough to listen. When a person is done eating they leave the table, taking a moment to honor the ancestors’ place and spend time in quiet meditation (perhaps even divination) until all are done eating and a return to sound begins again.

Practice Divination. The veil is thin and it’s time to ask some questions. From apple peels to scrying bowls, casting cards or stealing kale (no really, look it up), there is a myriad of ways to divine answers and information at Samhain. 

Take Stock of Your Winter Wellbeing Supplies (and help others do the same). For our ancient ancestors who had to face winter weather (as opposed to our ancestors who lived in more temperate climates), it was vital to take stock of the harvest and supplies that they had to help them survive the winter. Winter can be hard for any number of reasons which is why taking a moment to realize what you do have to help you through the colder months is important. It is also an opportunity to practice gratitude for the things (shelter, medicine, transportation, a full pantry) and people that are vital to our wellbeing. It is also time to collect food and winter goods for others in your community who need extra help, including volunteering your time.

Burn a Bonfire. Look, I could say burn a bonfire at every Sabbat and find precedence for it. But Samhain is a particularly auspicious time for burning big fires. The fires chased away unwanted harmful spirits, attracted good luck, and reminded folks that though the Sun’s strength was waning, there was a power of brightness in one another. And bonfires are really friggin’ fun.

Find the Magick of Being Silly. Do all the Halloween things you love to do (and always dreamed of doing because you saw it in a made-for-tv Halloween movie). Carve pumpkins or turnips, dress up in costumes, watch your spooky movie of choice (can we please have a queer romcom in which one of them is actually a Witch?), and go trick-or-treating with the little ones in your lives. Because we need the joy of Samhain to carry us through the darkening year - so practice it!

Perform a Dark of the Year Home Blessing. Another traditional practice of Samhain is to bless the home usually through some sort of burnt offering. So, taking some of the light from your bonfire whether through a lit piece of wood or by lighting a candle and walking around the perimeter of your home as a form of blessing. Alternatively, use a bundle of sacred herbs or other traditional plants (such as fir or a bit of turf) to cast a spell of protection over your home, its inhabitants, and all within it. It can be a very sweet tradition to send home your bonfire guests with a candle lit from the Samhain fire.

Take to the Streets With Your Grief. Now, more than ever, we need to show our grief. We need to show our grief so that young people know that it is ok to weep and cry at the state of the world - that nothing is wrong with them. We need to show our grief so that old people know we’re still fighting the fight. Grief is a holy road to empathy and action if we’re allowed to express it fully. Invoke the beansidhe or similar spirit of mourning (and, aptly, warning in our time of climate crisis). We have to grieve and we need to do it together. If the streets are not your style, then host a grief ritual for friends, family or covenmates.

Reconcile. Many a witchfolk, myself included, celebrate Samhain as the end of the old year and the beginning of the new. It is a time to reconcile differences and begin again in the spirit of compassion and goodwill. Reconciliation can be with the living or the dead, people and creature, landscapes and their spirits. Call upon the Ancient Hags and Crones, who have guarded well the gateways between all worlds and relationships since before time began, to guide you.

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You know, friends, this list could’ve been much, much longer, but I’m trying to create a might-do list and not a never-ending scroll of suggestions. As someone who could probably write a course on “self-discovery through list-making” these writing this list reminded me that there is a part of my being that holds its breath until the season of Samhain comes round again. Curious about what else you might-do for the Sabbats? Check out the rest of my might-do lists.

Wishing you and yours a whole and holy Samhain season.