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Chapter 9

The Wheel of the Year

‘…all that falls shall rise again!’ Without signal and all at once, the laughter, chanting and dancing stopped. Dozens of us gazed up at the rainbow of colored ribbons ecstatically woven around the wooden pole. It touched the Sun above us and reached deep into the Earth beneath us.

Silently, breathlessly, prayerfully we stepped closer in, kneeling, stretching, resting our hands upon the World Tree, the axis mundi, feeling the energy flowing and the magic that we had made together.

The eight Wiccan Sabbats

Laughter and poetry, beauty and creativity, rejoicing and reflection are what I experience celebrating the Sabbats, the Wiccan calendar of sacred days. Sabbat rituals attune us to all the ways that Nature nourishes, transforms and renews Spirit, and our spirits.

Approximately every six weeks, the Wheel of the Year turns to reveal another aspect of Nature’s embodied divinity and spiritual wisdom. There are layers of meaning, metaphor and myth within the Sabbats, but at the center of the spinning Wheel is an unchanging revelation: Nature’s process of continuous renewal. The forms change but the Spirit that creates is constant.

The Wheel of the Year

The Wheel of the Year

The Sabbats honor the Earth’s agricultural cycle, and as we celebrate, we attune ourselves and our lives to that profound rhythm. We learn to create, cultivate, reap and release to make room in our lives for the next stage of soul flourishing. Working in harmony with Nature, we come into harmony with Divine energies, unlocking the wisdom and power, fulfillment and peace that come from living in accord with the circle of Life.

Wiccans generally refer to the Sabbats by their Celtic names, but similar sacred calendars were found throughout Europe and the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East and are often adapted in contemporary Sabbat celebrations. And because these are rites honoring the rhythms of Earth and Sun, they have elements in common with Indigenous cultures across the globe, especially those with similar climates and ecosystems.

Four of the Sabbats celebrate the Earth’s agricultural cycle:

The other Sabbats celebrate the four great solar events:

The spiritual wisdom of the seasonal cycle was so deeply rooted in the human experience that parallels can be found in the Abrahamic calendar and were integrated into the Christian holidays.

The dance of love

Goddess and God, Lover and Beloved, the non-gendered terms my tradition often uses, personify a divine partnership. Wiccan Sabbats celebrate this love story, embodied by Earth and Sun. Together, their energy and love spin the Wheel of Creation, an eternal dance revealed and participated in throughout the year, year after year.

The Witches’ Sabbats have been grotesquely distorted by Christianity: the sexually repressed and misogynistic projections of the Church imagined wild orgies under the lustful gaze of Satan. These were not the reality of the sacred rites of wicce and wicca and our other Indigenous ancestors.

The Greeks called this divine union the hieros gamos, the sacred marriage, a term used by Jungians to refer to the inner union of feminine and masculine aspects of the self. Each Sabbat explores a stage of their relationship as Goddess and God enter the realm of form, are born, live, age, die and are reborn by the eternal power of love. It is the dance of life choreographed through the cycle of the seasons.

Within their love story is another – the ‘hero’s journey’ described by the American mythologist Joseph Campbell – that is at the heart of all the world’s faiths. It’s a universal tale of enlightenment by descent and death, challenge and transformation, return and rebirth undertaken by, among others, Inanna, Persephone, Isis, Tammuz, Adonis, Dionysus and Osiris, described in the Egyptian Sirius cycle, the Greek Eleusinian Mysteries, the Nordic and Celtic traditions and similar sacred stories of Indigenous peoples across the globe. Even the Abrahamic and Eastern faiths tell the tale of this archetypal journey by Moses, Jesus and Buddha. It’s the sacred story of all life on Earth.

It’s your heroic story too. When you celebrate the Sabbats, you’re participating in the great love story of life, death and rebirth that’s constantly occurring in the natural world. Sabbat rites that attune you to the Earth and Sun’s great cycle of creation, destruction and re-creation, bring your inner and outer world into harmony with the natural world that surrounds and sustains you, the divine context that gives deep meaning and real magic to our lives. Harness those energies and you become your own hero.

Working with the magic of the Wheel

Sabbat rites, revelations and rejoicing bring your body, mind and spirit into rhythm with the sacred world in which we all live. Celebrating awakens you to the magic of the natural world around you and within you.

The Wheel of the Year is an annual journey of self-discovery, and once again, Nature is your spiritual guide. The Sabbats offer a cosmic template for a deep harmony and peacefulness in the midst of the successes and losses of life. You learn to harness skillfully the great ebb and flow of seasonal energies and wisely direct your own energies to achieve more easily the life you long for.

Rather than working against the natural flow of the seasons, you participate in and work with them. Sabbat rites harness the magic of Creation to nourish your dreams, turn them into realities and reap the rewards, learn from and release your failures, and move on to manifesting new visions in whatever areas of your life you choose – love, health, work, wisdom and more.

Working with the Wheel of the Year transforms,
enlightens and empowers your life.

A simple and joyful way to begin is by setting and working to accomplish a goal in sync with the seasons. You’re going to work with the Sabbat cycle to plant the seeds of your dreams, to cultivate them, harvest them, honor, celebrate and share them, reflect, rest and begin again.


Working with the Wheel

You can begin at any point during the year, but Samhain is a natural starting point.

Be sure to record your rites and insights, challenges and achievements in your magical journal. And remember to attend to the wisdom of where you live on Mother Earth. Your Sabbats should reflect the reality of your natural environment and climate.

The North American and Northern European seasonal rhythm is reversed if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, or may be better replaced by the Greek, Italian, Middle Eastern, Egyptian or Indigenous seasonal wisdom. Wiccans work with the spirits of place but are always respectful and careful to not appropriate Indigenous religious traditions.


The spirits of the land will guide you. I had a fruitful conversation with a Yoruban priest whose African ancestors were slaves forcibly brought to America. His practice was to honor the spirits of where he lived and also to honor his ancestors and their traditions as he was taught – a useful lesson for those of us who no longer reside in our ancestral homeland.


A general-purpose Sabbat incense

Grind together equal parts (one tablespoon) of patchouli, sandalwood, orris, rose, fennel, thyme and vervain and a few drops of benzoin and pennyroyal oils. Adjust to suit your nose.


Celebrating the Sabbats

Sabbat rites follow a similar, basic structure that you’re becoming familiar with by casting circle. They’re not some formal, cast-in-stone ritual executed by someone whom you passively observe. You create them, you participate in them and you make them powerful and meaningful.

If you’re called to explore a Sabbat as part of your personal quest, rather than as part of a love story, that’s perfectly appropriate. If you want to honor a specific spirit of place, or a phase of the Sun’s progress or the Earth’s blessings, that’s what you should do.

We’re rediscovering and recreating these ancient rites and they must be relevant to us, to the spiritual needs we have now, to the wisdom and needs of the Earth now. The use of Beloved and Lover, rather than just Goddess and God, is an example. Gender is just one way in which we perceive and express the innate and creative polarity of the cosmos, but there are many diverse and variable expressions.

I’ve used Goddess and God in the Sabbat template below, in part because I believe it’s important to honor the Goddess and to heal the unhealthy imbalance created by Her suppression, but feel free to use other titles if you prefer. With regard to which Goddesses and Gods to honor, some Wiccan traditions work with a specific pantheon of divinities, but my own Tradition of Ara encourages you to listen for the call of the patron deity/deities and the spirits of place, who will guide you as you work with them.

Each passing year affords more research about Euro-Indigenous traditions, practices and surviving folk wisdom, rites and celebrations that you may wish to integrate when creating your own celebrations. There are also universal labels like Mother, Father, Mother Earth, Father Sun, Lover and Beloved and others that express the energies of the Sabbat and are wonderful to use.

A Sabbat template

Rather than give you a script to follow, I want to encourage your creativity and confidence, so what follows is a template with the essential guidelines to help you create powerful and personally meaningful Sabbat celebrations.

The seasonal wisdom, Goddess, God and other divine aspects, activities, dances, symbols, colors, offerings, chants and more are provided for each Sabbat. There’s also language describing the purpose of each Sabbat that you’re welcome to use until you feel ready to write your own.

And remember, there are no mistakes, just opportunities to learn. If you’re having fun, you’re doing it right. Sabbats are filled with rejoicing, play and creativity. Even the most somber rite of Samhain, where we honor our ancestors and loved ones who have passed over, is filled with gratitude and love. Whenever possible, hold your Sabbat outdoors. Use the Table of Correspondences to help create your celebration.


Sabbat rites step by step
  1. Determine the appropriate colors for the Sabbat. Gather the appropriate seasonal and sacred symbols and expressions. Prepare a libation and bread or cake.
  2. Reflect on the divine attributes, personifications and dynamics of the season.
  3. Set up your altar using the appropriate objects, symbols and representations of deity. Wear seasonal colors.
  4. Purify yourself and the space. Breathe and ground.
  5. Cast your circle.
  6. Honor the spirit of the place.
  7. Declare the meaning of the Sabbat – include guidance you’ve received from the spirit of the place.
  8. Honor/invoke/invite the seasonal Goddess, God, divinity. A simple, heartfelt, poetic invitation addressing them in their seasonal aspect will work beautifully.
  9. Celebrate with seasonally appropriate activity or magic. Use seasonal dances and chants, surviving folk practices and your own creativity; divination; journeying; sharing remembrances; journaling. Celebrate with feasting, storytelling, playing games. Specific suggestions for each Sabbat are given below.
  10. Thank the Goddess, God, divinity, ancestors and spirit of the place and close circle. End with the parting words:

    ‘Our circle is open, but never broken. Merry meet
    and merry part and merry meet again.’

    If you’re celebrating with others, hugs and kisses all round. If you’re working outdoors, leave an offering and leave the place better than you found it. The liquid in the libation bowl should be poured into a moving body of water, or onto the ground. If that’s not possible, give thanks as it goes down the drain.

  11. Take time before and after your rites to observe the natural world around you. What’s happening with the weather, the land, the plants, animals, birds and insects? What do you see, smell, hear, feel? How are things changing around you? Inside you? In your life? How is your life coming into sync with the energies of the season? What have you learned? Write about your observations in your magical journal. Reflect on the lessons you’re learning.

Samhain, or Celtic New Year

Pronounced Sow’ en; 31 October Northern Hemisphere, 1 May Southern Hemisphere

Purpose

This is the night when the veil between the worlds is thinnest, when we honor and visit with our ancestors, and when we enter the Dreamtime to seek a dream of new life. We open our hearts and open our circle and welcome those we love and have lost, and our ancestors who have wisdom to share with us.

In this time outside of time, this place between the worlds, call to your ancestors, to those you love who have passed. Ask them to be with you, speak with you, advise you and celebrate the love and Spirit that survives even as the forms of life change.

Colors

Black, purple, gold, orange.

Altar

Photographs of people or pets you love or honor who have passed, and objects belonging to them; a pomegranate, the symbol of Persephone; offerings of food and drink for the spirits and a divination tool to speak with them; a drum.

Presiding deities

Any of the ‘dark’ Goddesses or Gods of death and rebirth. Though Greek, Hecate, the Crone Goddess of Magic and Transformation, guides all those who pass through the Underworld, and Persephone, Maiden and Queen of the Underworld and Hades as Master of Time and the shamanic Underworld (the realm of Spirit, not the Christian hell) are often invoked at Samhain.

Celebrate

After you’ve cast circle, declared the purpose of the Sabbat and invoked divinity, stand in the West and create an opening – simply move your hand in a counterclockwise circle. Sit and use one of the consciousness-altering techniques you’ve mastered to deepen your awareness, like breathing, grounding, chanting and drumming in the tempo of a heartbeat.

Feel the veil parting and your loved ones coming to be with you. Welcome them. Use a method of divination, which you’ll learn about in Chapter 12, and ask for a message, or simply write in your magical journal as you feel your ancestors communicating with you.

Ask for advice, express your love and gratitude, share whatever you wished to say but didn’t when they were alive. Listen carefully for their answers. You will feel them withdraw when the time has come to depart. Thank them. Close the portal in the West. Feast, share remembrances and stories if you’re with others, toast your ancestors and give thanks for your life and any guidance you’ve received. Cut open the pomegranate and eat some of the seeds.

Samhain is also a good Sabbat to seek a vision of a past life or a vision for your future. Use your divination tools (see Chapter 12) to see the past and to receive a dream for you new life. Write what you learn in your magical journal.

Chant

‘We all come from the Goddess, and to Her we shall return, like a seed of life, dreaming deep within the Earth.’

When you’re done, honor and thank your ancestors. Thank the Goddesses and Gods who have guided you and close circle. Keep a dream journal between Samhain and Yule (Winter Solstice).

Yule, or Winter Solstice

20 or 21 December Northern Hemisphere, 20 or 21 June Southern Hemisphere

Purpose

The longest night, when the Goddess – the womb of the cosmos – gives birth to the light. The Sun is reborn, the light grows stronger from this day forward until Summer Solstice. Rejoice that the light returns, honor the Great Mother as the infinite womb nurturing all potentiality into being, including our dreams. Name and honor the dream of new life that you have found since Samhain.

Colors

White, red, green and gold.

Altar

Devote your altar to the Great Mother and the Returning Light. Decorate it with pine boughs, holly, mistletoe. Place a large yellow candle as a symbol of the God, the returning Sun, within a cauldron or large bowl as a symbol of the Goddess, Mother and Womb of Creation.

Presiding deities

The Great Mother, the reborn Sun/Son, the Wise Crone as midwife of new life, the Holly King whose power peaks at this Sabbat, and the Oak King who is reborn.

Celebrate

Inscribe a candle in the color of your goal/dream with your name and your goal. Place it on the altar. Light the yellow Sun candle in the Goddess’s cauldron/bowl and recognize your own powers to bring your dreams into being. Feel the love and nourishment of the Mother surrounding you. Feel the light of a new project shining within you. Sing/chant and dance about the altar, holding your candle and charging it with your powers of joy, love and rebirth.

Chant as you dance (see below). When you feel the energies peak, light your candle and hold it aloft, speaking your wish/dream/goal for the new year. Place the candle in a holder and when you’re ready to close circle, blow it out and make your wish. Continue with the template steps above, rejoice, give thanks, close. Keep your candle on your altar or somewhere safe to use at Imbolc.

Chant

‘Bless the Mother who gives birth, Bless our lives upon this Earth, Above us see the Sun returning, feel within the fires burning.’

Imbolc, or In the belly

Pronounced Im’ olk; 2 February Northern Hemisphere, 2 August Southern Hemisphere

Purpose

The holy day of the Goddess Brigid, Imbolc means ‘in the belly’ in Gaelic and refers to the quickening – the first sign of life stirring within the pregnant sheep. This Sabbat celebrates the life that is now beginning to stir and take shape – within ourselves and within the Earth.

On Imbolc the community came together to lift everyone’s spirits with poetry and music, remembering that we’re strongest in community – supplies are low at this time of year, but when we gather together, there’s enough for everyone. Many small candles create one great light. If you’re alone, honor your creative gifts.

Colors

Orange, yellow, red.

Altar

Devote this to the Great Mother and the Growing Light. Use lots of candles, including a yellow Sun candle placed in the Goddess cauldron/bow, your offering, something related to your goal and the blessings of Brigid.

Presiding deities

The Celtic Goddess Brigid, muse to poets and artists, Goddess of fire, sacred wells, healing and smithcraft (creation of civilization), and the God who grows within Her; Taliesin, the mythical Irish poet.

Celebrate

Cast circle, state purpose and invoke Brigid/divinity. Place eight candles evenly spaced around the perimeter of your circle. Starting in the East, light them. Take your candle from Yule and light it from the Sun candle in the cauldron.

Hold it as you chant (see below). When you feel the energy peak, declare you goal and say: ‘I offer my light to the world!’ Place the candle on the altar. Create or make your offering if it’s already done: write a poem or a short piece honoring your dream, your fire and the nourishment of the Goddess who keeps the flame alive. Read it aloud. Place it on your altar.

Encourage yourself, and those in circle with you, to make your dreams come true. Celebrate with music, laughter, storytelling or journaling if you’re alone. When you’ve closed circle, take your candle and carry it around the circle saying: ‘Fire seal the circle round let it fade beneath the ground, let all things be as they were since the beginning of time.’ Blow out all the candles as you walk. Leave your candle burning on the altar – safely –until it’s gone.

Chant

‘I am light, in a circle of light. I am fire burning, burning bright.’

Oestara, or Spring Equinox

Pronounced Ohstar’ ah; 20, 21 or 22 March Northern Hemisphere, 20, 21 or 22 September Southern Hemisphere

Purpose

Life returns! Celebrate the magic of life re-emerging from Mother Earth after a winter of frozen sleep. Honor the perfect balance between day and night, light and dark, as the Wheel turns toward light, life and growth. Hope is rewarded as Goddess and God return to life/emerge and our dreams begin to appear in the world. Feel the energy of the Earth moving through you and into the world.

Colors

Green, yellow, purple, pink.

Altar

Symbols of Spring: eggs, images of rabbits, Spring flowers; images of youthful deity; basket of seeds; pots filled with soil if you’re indoors, or a hand spade if outside.

Presiding deities

Oestara, Ostara or Eostra (the Anglo-Saxon Goddess of dawn and Spring); Dionysus; the Green Man; Maiden Goddess and Young God; deities as children.

Celebrate

Clear the way with Spring-cleaning – give away outgrown clothes, objects from the past that you’re ready to release, habits you’re ready to break. Celebrate outdoors if you can. Pay attention to all the signs of life returning, of plants emerging, birds singing, the warmth of the Sun, the softening of the Earth.

Fill the Goddess’s cup or cauldron with seeds. When you’re ready, cast circle and rejoice in the energies of new life returning and the new life you’re creating for yourself. Dance. If you’re with others, do the traditional Equinox dance, the Grand Allemande: two interweaving circles, half going clockwise, the other half counterclockwise, taking right hands, then left, then right, etc., as you pass one another.

Chant as you dance. Charge the seeds with your joy and energy. When you feel the energy peak, direct it into the seeds. Plant them and continue chanting. When the second wave of chanting energy peaks, water the seeds. Rejoice, reflect and be sure to leave an offering. Nourish your seed, within and in the Earth.

Chant

‘One thing becomes another, in the Mother, in the Mother.’

Beltaine, or May Day

Pronounced Bell’ tane; 1 May Northern Hemisphere, 31 October Southern Hemisphere

Purpose

Goddess and God, Lover and Beloved join in love and the Earth blossoms in ecstasy. Celebrate their union, embodied by life and by us. The Sun is warm, the Earth blossoms in beauty. The dance of desire weaves destinies together.

Colors

All the colors, and select one in particular that represents your goal.

Altar

Flowers and early spring fruits and vegetables, ribbons. Make a garland or circlet of flowers, which can decorate the altar, or which you can wear. Images of deities. Or you can simply use the Maypole without an altar.

Presiding deities

Maturing Maiden and Youth; Lady of the Flowers and Lord of the Dance.

Celebrate

Celebrate outdoors and with others if you can. Traditionally, people dance the Maypole. If you’re alone, you can weave ribbons together, chanting as you do, and then wrap them around your wand, staff or a large branch. Or if you have a group of friends who might not be ready for a Maypole, ask them to help you in planting a small tree.

You’ll need a minimum of a dozen folks for the traditional Maypole; have everyone bring a ribbon that’s 20ft (6m) long and at least 1in (2.5cm) wide in the color of the magic they are working on, which you’ll tie to the top of the Maypole (which is 8–20ft/5–6m high). Dig a small hole into which the pole is placed and held by at least two people.

Everyone holds their ribbon as they dance the Grand Allemande: people stand back to back in couples, evenly placed at the perimeter of the circle. At the signal to begin, those facing clockwise lift their ribbons as they move forward (deosil). Those facing/moving counterclockwise (widdershins) duck beneath the ribbons as they move forward. The widdershins circle then lifts their ribbons and the deosil group ducks under.

Everyone continues dancing, lifting then lowering, raising their own then ducking beneath the oncoming ribbons, weaving over and under until the Maypole is wrapped. Expect a good amount of confusion and laughter, especially as you get closer and closer around the pole. As you dance, chant. Let the power and joy build and grow. When the ribbons are too short for even one more step, tie them off and everyone places their hands on the pole, feeling the energy running between Earth and Sky.

Look at the beauty that surrounds you. Send energy to Mother Earth and thank Her for Her blessings. Feel the incredible power, your power, giving shape and form to your goal. Feel your joy and love coursing through you and into the world. Spend the rest of the day with someone you love, or if you’re alone, love yourself. The Maypole can be kept as a power object and rewoven next year.

Chant

‘Corn and grain, corn and grain. All that falls shall rise again. Hoof and horn, hoof and horn, all that dies shall be reborn.’

You can interweave this chant with a counterpoint Goddess chant:

‘Isis, Astarte, Diana, Hecate, Demeter, Kali, Inanna’ and God chant: ‘Pan, Woden, Baphomet, Cernunnos, Osiris.’

Litha, or Summer Solstice

Pronounced Li’ tha; 20, 21 or 22 June Northern Hemisphere, 20, 21 or 22 December Southern Hemisphere

Purpose

This is the longest day, when the Sun is strongest and life on Earth grows abundantly, but from this day forward the light diminishes. The Sun and Earth express the loving union of God and Goddess, Lover and Beloved, entwined at the height of their life-generating powers.

Celebrate and give thanks for the blessings of your life, experience the power of the creative energies manifesting in the world around you and within you. Honor your capacities, your talents and your determination to create the life you want. As the Earth transforms the Sun’s energies into life, so we transform the light and divinity within ourselves into goals that will also come to life. Give thanks to Mother Earth for the abundance She gives with complete generosity and thanks for all the blessings in your life.

Colors

Green and yellow, brown and red.

Altar

Fill it to overflowing with seasonal, local fruits, vegetables and flowers, especially roses – the flower represents the Earth’s beauty and the thorns the pain of the Sun’s departure. An object that symbolizes the goal you’re nourishing.

Presiding deities

Mother Goddess of the Fertile Earth, Mature God of the Shining Sun and Oak King at their zeniths of power; you may also wish to use specific Goddesses such as Sovereignty, Ceres and Demeter and Sun Gods such as Lugh, Helios and Sol.

Celebrate

Celebrate outdoors! Lie on the Earth and absorb the life-generating energies of Sun and Earth. Feel the movement of energy into matter, dreams into form. Journey to the point where the shape-shifting occurs, or visit with the spirit of the land at this moment of vitality and growth.

Dance a spiral dance to honor the Sun’s descent and the Earth’s increasing fertility. Take hands and lead the group, or if you’re alone, dance, spiraling deosil in toward the altar. Chant the names of Sun Gods and Earth Goddesses. When you reach the altar, turn and begin moving outward in the opposite direction, widdershins, passing those who are still moving inward. When you reach the perimeter of the circle, turn and move deosil back inward until everyone is circled together around the altar.

Send your energies together into the symbols of your goals for a fruitful manifestation. Litha is a powerful Sabbat for prosperity, so you can ask the Sun to carry obstacles and poverty away with him and ask Mother Earth to reward your hard work with abundance.

There’s a traditional consecration for the wine, symbolizing the divine marriage or union of Goddess and God, Lover and Beloved, said while plunging the athame into the cup: ‘Spear to cauldron, lance to Grail, spirit to flesh, flesh to spirit, Lover to Beloved, God to Goddess, Sun to Earth. We give thanks for all the blessings this union brings.’

Lughnasadh, or Lammas

Pronounced Loo’ nesa or Loo’ na sod; Lammas is pronounced Lah’ mahs; 1 August, or halfway between Summer Solstice and Autumn Equinox, Northern Hemisphere; February 1, 2, or halfway between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox, Southern Hemisphere

Purpose

The celebration of the beginning of the harvest, honoring the God Lugh with the offering of ‘first fruits,’ games, dancing and rejoicing, this Gaelic tradition is both a funeral and a celebration of life that continues today throughout Ireland.

The rites marked the cutting of the first grain with offerings of thanks to the land, the spirits and deities for the first fruits, and offerings for the protection of the crops that were still ripening. There are games and competitions, dances and horse races, trips to sacred wells, bonfires and the baking and consuming of bread.

Colors

Green, brown, yellow.

Altar

Lammas means Feast of Bread so this should be the main feature, in addition to seasonal, local fruits, grains, corn, vegetables and flowers. Also, the symbol of your goal, your harvest.

Presiding deities

Mother Earth; Goddess Tailtiu and her son Lugh, God of Grain; the Green Man.

Celebrate

Bake bread and place it on your altar. After your rite, take some to a food pantry (food bank) as an offering. Give thanks for the blessings of Mother Earth and for the blessings of the departing Sun.

Cut a piece of corn from its sheath, wheat from its stalk, or a chunk of bread from the loaf and say: ‘We give thanks for the gift of the Mother, the Green God who sacrifices himself so that we may live, and that He may live again. We honor the balance and know that for all that is given, something must be returned. We give thanks for the nourishment, patience and strength for the harvest ahead.’

Eat and enjoy and leave some as an offering. Pour your libations directly onto the Earth with thanks to the Mother. This is also a great Sabbat for dancing and games.

Chant

See Litha chant.

Mabon, or Autumn Equinox

Pronounced Mab’ on; 20, 21 or 22 September Northern Hemisphere, 20, 21, or 22 March Southern Hemisphere

Purpose

Celebration of the Great Harvest, giving thanks for the Earth’s generosity, abundance and blessings; recognition of the perfect balance of day and night, light and dark that now inclines toward the dark Winter ahead. We’re reminded to share with others so that we may all be sustained through difficult times. Celebrate outside!

Colors

Green, orange, yellow, red.

Altar

Pile high with the autumnal local harvest of flowers, fruits and vegetables – if possible, an ear of corn still on its stalk – and a sickle, symbolizing the harvest and the Crone. Also, images of Goddess as Crone and God as Wise Elder.

Presiding deities

Mother Earth; Crone Goddess Hecate; Lugh as Grain/Corn God; Wise Old God as Holly King, eternally green.

Celebrate

Make an offering to give thanks for your harvest and all the blessings you’ve received during the year. Reflect on the aspects of your life that no longer serve your growth and happiness. Write them on a piece of paper.

You can raise energy with the Equinox dance if you’re with others, the Grand Allemande (see Spring Equinox), or spiraling yourself while chanting (see Litha). When the energy peaks, take a candle and light your paper with what you’re releasing and toss it into the cauldron as an offering to the fires of transformation.

In my tradition, the oldest woman, representing the Crone Goddess, enters the circle, holds the corn stalk in one hand and the sickle in the other and says: ‘We are blessed by the fruits of Sun and Earth. Here is the Mystery revealed: Though the form changes, the energy of life is eternal. The Sun has gone into the seed!’

As she finishes, she cuts the corn from the stalk and holds it aloft, which usually provokes cheers. You can do and say this yourself if you’re celebrating alone. Tear up or burn the paper with what you are releasing. Eat the corn as your libation and leave some as an offering for the animals.

Chant

See Litha. Chant with a counterpoint of Z. Budapest’s:

‘We all come from the Goddess, and to Her we shall return, like a drop of rain flowing to the ocean.’

The turning Wheel

As the Wheel of the Year completes a cycle, take out your magical journal and read about your journey of change and fulfillment. Reflect on how much you’ve accomplished, what you’ve outgrown and relinquished and what you’ve learned about yourself, the natural world and Spirit during this great cycle of transformation. And ask yourself, what comes next?

Renewal

Celebrating the Sabbats unites you with the natural world in which you live, with your ancestors and your community which is growing beyond the human family. As the Wheel turns and you rejoice with Nature, you’ll discover the deep spiritual rhythm and love story of your own life. Joining the eternal dance of the Earth and Sun, you’ll discover that, in the face of the greatest challenges, you possess the power of renewal, the power to create and to re-enchant your life and the world.