Nock - The Modern Witchcraft Guide to the Wheel of the Year: From samhain to Yule, Your Guide to the Wiccan Holidays

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For Jaime, who has taught me to see the world through new eyes.

CONTENTS

Y ouve picked up this book because youre interested in learning more about the wheel of the year. Maybe youve heard about Ostara and Mabon celebrations on the vernal and autumnal equinoxes. Maybe youve already gone to a Samhain festival to bring in the new year. Maybe youve lit a festive fire during the winter solstice. Or maybe youre just interested in learning more about these celebrations as part of your magickal path as a witch.

Throughout The Modern Witchcraft Guide to the Wheel of the Year youll learn everything you need to know about the eight sabbatsthe agricultural festivals that mark the beginnings, endings, and culminations of the seasonsand their place on the wheel of the year.

You see, the earth is a great wheel that turns on its axis. The sun is also a great wheel around which the earth makes its passage. We can also see the earths orbit through the heavens, which provides the backdrop against which we view the stars and constellations, as a wheel. These three combined elements make up the core of what we refer to as the wheel of the year. And it doesnt take a huge leap of the imagination to equate the 365 days of the year with the 360 degrees of the circle.

There are many ways to acknowledge this passage of time and celebrate each of the sabbats. So whether youd like to keep your observance simple (by preparing a special food) or elaborate (enacting a formal ritual), here youll find a variety of ways to honor that particular spoke on the wheel of the year. Youll also find information that will inspire and expand your practice including background on the influences that govern the seasons, info on how astrology ties into each sabbat, meditations that reflect timely themes, and rituals that you may enact in order to enhance your spiritual expression.

The holidays marking the sabbats that we honor today are a combination of many rites based on the traditions of various pre-Christian populations, primarily the ancient Greeks, Romans, Celts, and Germanic peoples of northern Europe.

Ancient stone circles of Great Britain and the passage tombs of Ireland tell us that our Celtic predecessors were well educated about the changes that occur yearly in the night sky. And although theres not a lot of direct evidence that the Celts celebrated the solar cycles of solstices and equinoxes, we know for certain that they were aware of them because they did celebrate the precise moments in between. For example, the festivals of Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane, and Lughnasad are known as the cross-quarter days because they mark the midpoint of the seasons.

Meanwhile, in Rome, the winter solstice was celebrated during the festivities of the Saturnaliaa festival honoring the god Saturnwhile the Greeks observed the Eleusinian Mysteriesinitiation into the cult of the goddesses Demeter and Persephoneduring the autumnal equinox. We may now have more sophisticated and scientific language to describe these natural occurrences of solar and planetary alignment, but we are no less mystified by the subtle as well as amplified energy experienced during these times.

The sacred descent and resurrection of the goddess is an allegory for the journey of the earth around the sun. The pivotal stations of her sacred cycle are birth, initiation, consummation, descent, death, and rebirth. It is this life cycle, expressed through the changing seasons, that you celebrate through the wheel of the year. And whether youre just tapping into your magickal power or are looking to dive deeper into your celebration of the sabbats, here youll learn how to align your practice with the planetary energies by first becoming conscious of the changes as they are occurring.

On a practical note, the seasonal and celestial events described in this book assume that readers are in the northern hemisphere approximately above, on, or below the latitude of 40 degrees north. This would include the United States as well as southern Canada, Europe, central Asia, and Japan. Seasons in the southern hemisphere are reversed, and the view of the night sky south of the equator is different from what is described here.

The constellations I have chosen to focus on fall into two groups. There are descriptions of groupings of stars that will be easily visible directly overhead, and there are others that are dawning; that is, they are very close to the horizon line and not as easy to see, but their timely appearance directly relates to an occurring sabbat. Additionally I have endeavored to include information regarding the astrological significance of the zodiac as it pertains to the sabbats. As the via solis (the path of the sun) moves through all the constellations of the zodiac that lie along the ecliptic, the energies associated with the constellations can be experienced by the practitioner; however, the constellations will not be readily observable due to the brightness of the sun.

It is my intention with this book to provide readers with relevant information about significant constellations, both when they are visible to the naked eye and when they are invisible, when their influence may still be strongly felt. In order to differentiate what is seen from what is felt, visible constellations are described in respect to their position in the sky along with their prominent stellar features, while constellations lost in the suns glare are described primarily through their associated traits and implied meanings and myths.

Furthermore, due to an astronomical phenomenon known as precession, the position of the sun against the backdrop of stars has slowly shifted over thousands of years. What we think of today as sun signs were actually established thousands of years ago. Today the dates of the suns presence within established constellations have changed. Taking precession into account, this book includes the astrological influences commonly held by tropical astrology, as well as some of the astrological influences of the constellations that the sun is actually in today, where said influences seem relevant.