Sabbats

Lammas: The Wiccan Holiday

Lammas is an important Wiccan holiday which is also known as Lughnasadh. It marks the beginning of hot days in August, which is the time of the year when the earth is parched and dry. Moreover, the bright yellows and reds of harvest season are honored during the holiday. It occurs when the apples start to ripen, and all the vegetables of summer have already been picked. A vegetable commonly thought of during the holiday is corn. Corn is known for its green color and tall height. Lammas celebrates the harvesting season. It is when you reap what has been sown. Everyone gathers around the first harvests of oats, wheat, grain, and other vegetables. Lammas is either celebrated for the harvest season or to honor Lugh, who is an important pagan god. 

Celebration of Grain

Since the beginning of civilization, grain has played an essential part in society. The grain is associated with rebirth and death. Tammuz is a Sumerian god that had been slain during this time, and Ishtar was his lover who had grieved so much so that Nature stopped bearing fruit.
According to legend, it is believed that Tammuz had been mounted by Ishtar and brought to the Underworld for rebirth. As for Greek Legend, Adonis is the grain god. Persephone and Aphrodite are the two goddesses that had fought to gain his love. To put an end to the fighting, Zeus had to order Adonis to spend the rest of his life with Aphrodite after he had spent about six months with Persephone. Continue reading

Everything You Need To Know About the Wiccan Holiday Beltane

Beltane means fire of Bel, who is considered a Celtic deity. The Wiccan holiday celebrates the arrival of summer. Beltane is a special fire festival celebrated for the coming of fertility in the land. Tied with the community’s needs just like other Celtic festivals, Beltane is a festival that marks spring and welcomes the farming season. Families and followers of the pagan religion come together in hopes of a fruitful year.
Some of the Beltane rituals include courting where the youth collect blossoms and light fires during the evening. The rituals lead to marriages to be conducted in the coming season or even immediately. As the holiday marks fertility, marriage is often encouraged. Fire plays an essential part in the festival as it is thought to increase fertility, purify, and cleanse. Cattles pass between two fires. The smoke from the fire is believed to ensure that fertility.
Beltane is the time when pagans believe that the God achieves maturity and strength to become the lover of the Goddess. Fertility plays an integral role in the holiday, and pagans strive to highlight fertility through different ceremonies and rituals. There are many traditions that associate fire with the celebration. It helps purify and revitalize. By leaping over the fire, it is believed that the fertility of the spirit, body, and mind, as well as happiness and good fortune, can be achieved. Beltane is considered to be the most sexual festival. However, pagans barely have sex during the rituals, even though most of the rituals imply fertility and sex. There is sexual imagery involved in the dancing tradition, and many pagans still follow it. Continue reading

Imbolc

Imbolc is the launch of Spring and the return of the Sun. It is the celebration festival of the end of winter, the dawn of the agricultural season and the approaching light half of the year. Continue reading

Samhain

The correct pronunciation is not sam-hane, but saw-vane saw-win sowen or soween. Samhain is recognized as the Wiccan’s New Year, as well as the Feast of the Dead.

It is a day to honor and to say goodbye to loved ones who have moved on, especially if their deaths have taken place within the last year. Samhain is furthermore an occasion for reflecting upon the last year, creating plans for the coming one, and specifically for eliminating vulnerabilities or other undesired aspects within us. Samhain is a cross quarter day, located in the heart of the Autumn Equinox as well as the Winter Solstice. Samhain initiates the Winter season. It is the last chance to dry herbs to save for winter, and a night when fairies are creating mischief. The same as it was for the Egyptians, ancient Mexicans and the Celts it is the Day of the Dead, the night when we think of our loved ones and celebrate our ancestors.

How to Celebrate

There are lots of ways to celebrate Samhain. Here a just a few:

Beautify your household with Samhain seasonal images as well as the colors of orange and black. Place an Autumnal wreath on your front door. Construct decorations with pumpkins, gourds, cornstalks, squash, apples and acorns.

Organize a Samhain dinner which includes a place setting at your supper table or at an adjacent altar for the Dead. Include a contribution of a sampling of each drink being consumed to the glass at that place setting, and to the plate, include a sample of each meal provided. Invite your ancestors and other deceased loved ones to take place and dine with you. To have this as a Samhain Dumb Supper experience, feast in silence. After the feast, set the contents of the plate and glass for the Dead outdoors in a natural area as a contribution for the Dead.

Reflect on you and your life over the recent year. Review notes, planners, photographs, blogs, and other notations you have established during the past year. Consider how you have developed, achievements, challenges, experiences, travels, and studies. Meditate. Journal about your year in review, your meditation, and your observations. 

Take a meditative stroll in a natural area near your home. Observe and ponder the colors, scents, sounds, and other impressions of the season.  If you are able, collect some natural items and upon your return use them to spruce up your home.

The most important thing to remember is there no wrong or right way to celebrate. Decide what’s right for you.

Easy Ways to Celebrate Mabon

The magickal Pagan harvest festival, Mabon, will fall on September 22nd this year. Mabon symbolizes the Autumn Equinox, where hours of day and night are equal. Following today, the evening will become longer as we move forward in the direction of winter.

Similar to most Sabbats that will be celebrated later in the year, Mabon is in connection with reflection and releasing that which does not help us any longer. It is an opportunity to cast off the old and get ready for your new beginnings.

The colors of Mabon are just as rich and warming as the colors of autumn such as deep red, energetic orange, radiant gold, and rich brown. Make sure to incorporate all the fall abundances in addition to late summer fruits and vegetables such as pumpkins, squashes, corn, nuts and berries. It marks the start of fall. With the way we have all become so busy today, here are a few ideas to honor Mabon.

Decorate your home for this fall. Most enjoy creating altars with yellow and/or orange candle and autumn leaves. I live in the South, so there goes leaves changing and I’m not much of an altar person. I do though work at a craft store and the decorations are numerous. After tweaking it for this year, I hung my harvest wreath on our door on Mabon.

You can take a walk through nature and gather any attractive, natural resources you come across, whether they are pine cones, Colored leaves, rocks, acorns, etc. Be sure you bring a bag to collect your treasures! The best part is that you can leave it up as a fall decoration. 

With it being the equinox, Mabon is a time to find the balance in your life. This makes it a good day to contemplate balance. Despite the fact, we tend to think instantly of our time restrictions as a place to find balance. When was the last time you balanced your spiritual and mystical centers? Do you know where you are out of balance in your life? Perhaps you are working too hard. Are there things that need help in a relationship? It’s time to find your balance.

Mabon designates the final gathering. What you’ve sown has now come to maturity. This makes it a great time to meditate on everything you have received and are grateful for.  take a notebook and write it down. Remember the feelings that they gave you.

Meditate on what you want to release. The nights are becoming longer and this makes Mabon a good time to contemplate what you need to let go of what no longer serves you. Even if you are not ready to let it go yet, just identify it. Sit down with your notebook, journal or even a piece of paper, become centered and silent, and write down the issues you’d like to let go.