Seasons of the Witch: Celebrating the 8 Wiccan Festivals of the Year - Softcover

Duff, Gail

3.63

19 ratings by Goodreads

9781569753361: Seasons of the Witch: Celebrating the 8 Wiccan Festivals of the Year

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1569753369 ISBN 13: 9781569753361

Publisher: Ulysses Press, 2003

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Each chapter in this book is devoted to a Wiccan festival, its meaning, and ways to celebrate it. The advice operates at two levels: spiritual and personal as well as celebratory and communal.

Wicca is a nature-based religion and uses natural change as its guide. This book shows spiritual seekers how to ritualize their lives throughout the seasons, acknowledging external and internal change. For example, Yule in December is a dark quiet time, when you think about the past year and year to come, hold old and new together as the light shifts, and think personally about how to let go and move on ? a contemplative time, with recommended meditations from the book.

On the celebratory side, this book tells you everything you need to know to create a festival for you and your friends. It describes traditional foods, art projects, songs and group activities. Instead of a Halloween party have a celebration of Samhain (November 1), where you make mulled cider and black, moon-shaped almond honey cakes, hang a traditional eight-spoked wreath of woven wheat straw and gather around a bonfire to cast off things about yourself you do not like by burning symbols of these things.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

Gail Duff has been a writer, broadcaster, speech therapist, singer, songwriter, dancer, folk animateur and community arts worker. For as long as she can remember, the seasons and traditions of the year have been an important focus of her life. She feels that she was born a pagan and has been a practicing Wiccan for over eight years. She has successfully resurrected some of the folk traditions of southeast England and regularly takes part in many more. Seasons of the Witch draws upon many of these authentic practices and also includes traditional songs and ancient lore.

Chapter 1: SAMHAIN

Samhain (pronounced 'sow-ane') begins at sunset on October 31 and lasts through midnight on November 1. Your circle and celebrations can be on either day.
The name 'Samhain' is Irish Gaelic for the month of November (see Janet and Stewart Farrar's Eight Sabbats for Witches). Hallowe'en, as the day is more commonly known in Britain and America, comes form the name of the Christian festival of All Hallows (also called All Saints or All Souls), which was held on November 1 to counteract the Pagan associations of that time of the year. October 31 was All Hallows Eve, which soon became shortened to Hallowe'en. Other names are the Festival of Remembrance, the Feast of Apples, Ancestor night, or the Feast of the Dead.

THE FESTIVAL AND ITS MEANING
Samhain marks the beginning of winter. It is a festival of contrasts, an ending and a beginnig. It is a time of great solemnity and remembrance but also of fun and laughter, games and feasting, cutting pumpkins and lighting bonfires. We look back over the past year and look forward to the future, leaving our past behind and resting from inner tasks and quests. We face the darkness, but look forward to the new light that is not far behind. Both death and life are celebrated in their many forms. We remember and honor those who have died and welcome their spirits and the spirits of those who are waiting to be reborn. You may be celebrating alone or with a friend, but many other people are celebrating too, in their own way, from the children out 'trick-or-treating' to the elderly preparing for winter and looking back over their memories. It is a time for the Old Religion and for new customs. You could say that all of life (and death) is here in this one night, a night that sets itself apart from all other days in the year. It's a strange night, and weird and wild night, but one of the best in the year.
Samhain is a festival through which many aspects of Paganism and Wicca can be explained and, as befits a night of contrasts, some of the lessons are easy and others more difficult to explain!
Samhain, in the old Celtic farming calendar, marked the end of the summer season and the beginning of winter. The cattle had been brought in to barns, the grain was all in store, whether the harvest had been good or meagre, and the last crops put away were the apples and berries. All outside work on the land was finished. The past year was therefore completed. Beginning was the time of threshing and milling and of planning and preparation for the coming year.
The evidence of the coming winter is everywhere at Samhain. In fields, woods and parks, the leaves are brown and falling fast, birds are migrating, and the first frosts are here or not far away. It seems like the end of all birth and life, but small, tight buds are on the twigs, seeds are sleeping in brown earth and foxes are seeking their mates. As one cycle ends, another is ready to begin.
In our own personal year, we have seen through the tasks and projects that we set ourselves when the light was beginning to grow. Now, we put our old year behind us and begin the new in a time of quiet contemplation and meditation, which will prepare us for new ventures when the time is right. As the God rests and sleeps in the Land of Shadows, so we mentally rest and sleep. This doesn't mean that we all refuse to work and go into hibernation (nice as this idea may seem when we set out for work on a cold, dark November morning!), but, in terms of out inner quest and spiritual journey, we use this time to recharge our batteries. No new tasks are identified or set at this time but we leave our minds open to absorb new inspirations and thoughts. On Samhain night, we bid farewell to the old year and wish each other luck and hapiness in the new.
If it is your intention to work through the celebrations in the order that they are placed in this book, and you have not done anything like this before, beginning with an ending may seem strange, and some of the rituals and meditations may seem irrelevant or unfamiliar to you at this moment. But you can't have a beginning without an ending and this one night marks them both. Read the rituals and take in their meaning. Carry out any that seems right for you now and then open your mind to thoughts and tdeas during the dark days fo rest and look forward to growing and changing when the new light comes. This is the beginning of your new understanding.

THINGS TO DO
The Sabbat Wheel
To help you remember the happenings and achievements of the past year, at some time between Mabon and Samhain use natural materials to make an eight-spoked wheel, bearing symbols of the different Sabbats. Thin willow branches or wheat straw are ideal materials. You can also use 'withies' or raffia bought from a craft shop. I use rushes, which grow abundantly very close to my home.
To make the Sabbat Wheel, you will need only 28 long stems. Cut them rather than breaking them so that you ddddddo not tear the plant out of the ground and, if possible, take them from several different clumps of rushes. Twelve stems will be used for the outer wheel and 16 for the crosspieces.
You will also need a small, natural symbol of each of the year's festivals. If you have no idea about this, go for a walk in the country with the clear idea in your heaad that you are out to find these symbols. It is surprising what you will find. The first time that I made this wheel, I didn't even have a clue as to what to make the base from. I left an irksome job at the computer and went out for a walk instead. Before long I came across the rushes and realized that they were exactly what I needed. Int he old Celtic tree calendar, in which each lunar month is dedicated to a specific tree or plant, Samhain falls in the 'Reed Month', and I had been thinking about this as I set out. Having cut the rushes I thought about Ostara and Imbolc, which could have been tricky to represent in the autumn. I found a feather on the ground and some dried up alder catkins. A pine come did for Yule and, back home, I cut a sprig of oats from my Mary Barleycorn for Lammas (see page 180). When I went up to the garden to fill the bird-bath, a chestnut husk had dropped in to it, so that did for Samhain. For Midsummer I used a dried flower and found some poppy seed heads for Mabon. An ivy leaf from the hedge served for Beltane. This all happened in the space of an hour. Someone was watching over me and helped me on my way, so I gave thanks for it. I do realize, though, that not everybody can simply walk out the door into the countryside. You can also make your wheel from craft materials and make the symbols from paper or card. Another alternative is the draw a picture of the wheel with any objects or symbols which represent your year. Whatever you use and however you go about it, the inspiration will come from the same source.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.