Dugan - Seasons of witchery : celebrating the sabbats with the garden witch

Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each.

Henry David Thoreau

about the
Author

Ellen Dugan , also known as the Garden Witch, is a psychic-clairvoyant who lives in Missouri with her husband and three children. A practicing Witch for over twenty-five years, Ellen also has many years of nursery and garden center experience, including landscape and garden design. She received her Master Gardener status through the University of Missouri and her local county extension office. Look for other articles by Ellen in Llewellyns annual Magical Almanac , Witches Companion , and Herbal Almanac , and visit her website at: www.ellendugan.com.

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

Copyright Information

Seasons of Witchery: Celebrating the Sabbats with the Garden Witch 2012 by Ellen Dugan.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any matter whatsoever, including Internet usage, without written permission from Llewellyn Publications, except in the form of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

As the purchaser of this e-book, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. The text may not be otherwise reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, or recorded on any other storage device in any form or by any means.

Any unauthorized usage of the text without express written permission of the publisher is a violation of the authors copyright and is illegal and punishable by law.

First e-book edition 2012

E-book ISBN: 9780738735542

Book design and editing by Rebecca Zins
Cover design by Ellen Lawson

Cover photo Stacy Bass Photography

Interior artwork by Wen Hsu

Llewellyn Publications is an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

Llewellyn Publications does not participate in, endorse, or have any authority or responsibility concerning private business arrangements between our authors and the public.

Any Internet references contained in this work are current at publication time, but the publisher cannot guarantee that a specific reference will continue or be maintained. Please refer to the publishers website for links to current author websites.

Llewellyn Publications

Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

2143 Wooddale Drive

Woodbury, MN 55125

www.llewellyn.com

Manufactured in the United States of America

T his book is dedicated to my children: Kraig, Kyle, and Erin. I am so proud of each of you, not only for what you have accomplished with your lives but for the amazing adults you have become. Be sure to always follow your dreams and reach for the starsand therell be no stopping you.

Love you,

Mom

table of
Contents

: Midsummer/Summer Solstice

: Lughnasadh/Lammas

: Autumn Equinox/Mabon

: Samhain/Halloween

: Yule/Winter Solstice

: Imbolc/Candlemas

: Vernal Equinox/Ostara

: Beltane

: Reflections on the Past Year

: Sabbat Correspondences

INTRoDUcTioN

Hope smiles on the threshold of the year to come,
whispering that it will be happier.

Lord Alfred Tennyson

T he idea for this book popped into my mind on a late spring afternoon in 2010. I was cleaning out my computer, purging some old files, when I stumbled across a list of book ideas. Interestingly enough, the list of ideas was dated from 2004. I had not looked at this file in years, and then I had to laugh when I realized that out of the six possible books I had listed, five of them were now, in fact, published books.

A book on psychic abilities and the Craft became Natural Witchery . An outline for a cheeky and fun book on love magick was now How to Enchant a Man . A more in-depth book of shadows and an expansion of 7 Days of Magic had turned into my largest book to date, which was now called Book of Witchery . A book outline with the working title of Garden Witchery II had become Garden Witchs Herbal , and a book idea that was entitled A Darker Shade of Witchery had been finished just a few months ago, in February of 2010, and was soon to become Practical Protection Magick .

Of the possible book ideas that remained, I felt a very strong tug at my solar plexus for the book outline on the magickal year. I thought about it for a few hours and realized yes, indeed, I did still want to write that book. Honestly, the idea was still as fresh in my mind as it was the day I had sat and conjured up an outline for it so many years ago So off to the local library I trekked to see what sort of reference material I could find. I came home loaded with a dozen reference books and tons of fresh ideas for the sabbats swirling in my brain.

Happily I decided, since Midsummer was just a week away, that I would work on this new book over the course of the calendar year, writing each chapter as the Wheel of the Year turneddocumenting the changes in the garden and in my magickal life as they occurred. It was a challenge, it was fun, and it was different!

What You Will Find in This Book

If one cannot enjoy reading a book
over and over again,
there is no use in reading it at all.

Oscar Wilde

This is an intimate look at how I, the Garden Witch, celebrated the Wheel of the Year. I have found that my readers are particularly interested in how I live, celebrate, and work my magick; they always enjoy the personal stories. And what better way to mix the two together than to write about the seasons and the magick I experienced as I lived and worked my way through them? In this book are my musings on the Wheel of the Year, my personal lessons for the sabbat, and stories about my own coven and how we celebrated, changed, and grew over the course of the year.

In this book you will also find a bit of history and lore on each sabbat, as well as simple and enjoyable suggestions for celebrating each one. There are decorating ideas and recipes. For fun, I thought an interesting addition to this book would be allowing you into my gardens, so you can take a peek at my magickal gardening journal throughout the year. Of course, each of the eight chapters will contain seasonal rituals and all sorts of natural magick, such as herbal and candle spells aligned with the eight Witchs holidays and with the four seasons.