Samhain is the Witches' New Year's Eve, with November 1st being the first day of the new year. It marks the end of summer and the beginning of winter. It is the final harvest of the year. This is the time of the year when the ancient tribes harvested for the last time during the year, and prepared for the long months of winter. Food was stored, animals brought in from the fields, and animals needed for food supply were slaughtered and prepared for long storage. Activity was moved from outdoors to indoors, by the warmth of the hearth fire.

The ancient tribes celebrated the Celtic Feast of the Dead, a practice which is carried on today. Samhain is a time when we honor our ancestors and the memory they left behind. On Samhain the veil between the worlds is the thinnest. It is a powerful time for divination and contacting those who have walked these lands before us.

This is the time of the season which the Crone rules. She is one aspect of the triple Goddess, made up of Crone, Maiden, and Mother. It is She who opens the Western gate for those who have departed to travel into Summerland. She rules areas of death and regeneration, occult sciences, healing, and the wisdom of the ages. She comes in the form of Cerridwen, Hecate, Arianrhod, and Persephone, among many others. We use the Crone to assist us in transition from one life to the next, leaving one level of our existence and entering the next. This brings us into the Womb of the Mother to assist us in being reborn once again. For it is through Her Wisdom and guidance we learn lessons from experience past and begin life anew from the wisdom gained.

Ritual fires of Samhain were lit at the fall of dusk on the sacred hilltops, of ancient times, for the protection of people and land. Today we use fire in our Magic Circle to build a shield of protection and to light the Path for the future.

Witches perform rituals, using the Crone's assistance, to leave behind that which they do not want to carry on into the future; outdated habits, past relationships, insecurities and those things which do not serve us to carry on. Magic is done to better our lives, the lives of those around us, and all connected to the web of life

It is customary for Witches to dress on Samhain eve, the costume reflecting the Witches projection for the upcoming year. It is a festive, joyful time, where we visit friends and share treats stories and memories.

Winter Solstice marks the longest night of the year. It is from this point that the days begin slowly to become longer and longer. The sun is at its most southeastern point over the Tropic of Capricorn in the northern hemisphere and has no apparent northward or southward motion. In the time of the ancient tribes this was a time of celebration, for it meant the turning point of winter and the eventual return of spring.

Yule is the time when we honor the Goddess for giving birth to the sun once more. It is the time when the Oak King is victorious over the Holly King. The Holly King represents death and darkness that has ruled since Samhain, and the Oak King represents rebirth and life. The waning (diminishing) sun is overtaken by the waxing (increasing) sun, thus the days become longer after the victory of the Oak King.

Yule is a time when we do Rituals and celebrate the increasing daylight, to renew, and to see the world through the eyes of a child. Spells done at Yule tend to raise our spirits, and bring harmony, peace, and joy. During Yule we see the wisdom of past experience begin to glimmer. The experiences we yielded over the harvest season of the times gone past begin to be reborn as wisdom, new light, to guide us further down the Paths we have chosen.

It is customary for Witches to decorate the Yule tree, and adorn the house with holly, ivy and pine. It is time when Father Winter, a white bearded chap dress in red, fur trimmed robes, arrives bearing gifts and exchange gifts.

This is the eve when the Yule log from the previous year is burned in the fire. Symbolic of the newborn sun, each year's Yule log is of oak, charged in a Magic Circle and kept in sacred space until the following Yule. This not only celebrates the oak and places it in a place of distinguished honor, but also ensures there will be fuel for the remainder of Winter.

Imbolc, which literally means "in milk", traditionally has marked the lactation period of ewes and cows. Ewes are unable to produce milk until after they bear their young, which occurs at this time. Since milk was very important to the basic survival of the tribes, this was a time of great joy. For the end of a long winter was in sight, and green hills and pastures were only a few months away.

During the Imbolc ritual it is customary for Witches to pour milk (or cream) onto the earth. This is done in thanksgiving, as an offering of nurturing, and to assist in the return of fertility and generosity of the earth to its people (the return of Spring).

Imbolc is the holiday in which we honor Brid (pronounced breed), also known as Brigid, Brigit, or Bride, in her maiden aspect. Brid is the daughter of Dagda (the good God). Brid is the Protector and Preserver of All Memory and Knowledge, who empowers us with the wisdom and knowledge to protect, nurture, and encourage fruitfulness of the land. For the land is the source and foundation of all life.

Imbolc is also a fire festival, with significance placed upon the Light of fire. We celebrate the ever-increasing light at this time, as the earth works Her way back to Spring. Brid is crowned with a wreath of candles.

At Imbolc, Brid is pregnant with the seed of the Sun. She is ripe with the promise of new life, as the seeds of the earth deep within its soil begin to awaken at this time, ripe with the promise of Spring, new life for the planet. Although the days of February are filled with winter's bitter cold, the seeds deep within the womb of the earth are safely nurtured as they begin to awaken with life. It is this knowledge and understanding we celebrate at this time, adding our magic to that of the earth's, and assisting the Wheel's turning once again.

It is traditional for Witches to prepare grains, saved from the previous harvests, to be Blessed by the Light of Brid for Beltane planting. This is the season for celebrating the growing Light, as the seed grows within Brid, to be delivered at Beltane. It is a time for introspection of our own fallow seasons and seeking the glimmer of personal growth. For as it is with the earth, we each have our own Spiritual winters, only to be followed by the glorious return of Spring. With the return of new life, we retain great lessons and wisdom we would not have the gift of, unless we acknowledged the winters harsh months.

The Spring Equinox, second in the trilogy of fertility festivals, is the exact moment when day and night are equal. This is the moment that the Sun King begins his seminal journey across the sky; His warmth and Light overtaking the darkness of Winter until His peak at Summer Solstice in June.

Ostara (Eostre), the Goddess of Fertility and Rebirth, presides over the Spring Equinox. She stands among Spring's flowers and vines, holding an egg in Her hand. Around Her feet the bunnies play joyfully in the Spring grass and birds fly above Her. Her head is crowned with Spring's flowers. Ostara and the egg She carries are symbols of newborn life. Spring Equinox is the season of new life and new fire. It marks the beginning of the season of fertility and growth.

Depending on the region it is the seedling time, time to Bless and plant the seeds. In other, colder, areas, the seeds are Blessed for future planting. Eggs are colored in beautiful pastels and placed in baskets around the house and altar. Eggs are charged as talismans for fruitfulness and success for the upcoming season. Eggs and seeds are an important part of this festival because of the promise they each hold of new life springing forth.

Seeding, of course, has a multi-level meaning, for the seeds we plant can be on the soil of our Being as well as the soil of the earth. It is a wonderful time, after the final harvest of fields of self during Samhain, to plant new seeds from our experience, pondered and understood during the winter months. Time to create new life from the seeds of experience past: a life rich in the wisdom of experience past, brimming with the promise of times future.

Spring Equinox is a celebration of balance. For it is not quite Spring and yet not quite Winter; it is the time when we are perched magically between the two seasons. The trees and plants are stirring with renewed life, and yet we can still receive the March wintry storms. It is a time to remember our balance in the greater scheme of things.

We are an important part of all that happens around us, our actions and deeds have effects upon the Earth, Her people, and the Universe. So it is the time of the year when our need to walk in balance with the Universe is ever evident. It is a time for Spring cleaning, on all levels, the house, the yard, your neighborhood, your psyche, so that we may plant the seeds of the future desired.

Beltane is the last of the three spring fertility festivals, and the second major Celtic festival. Beltane, and its counterpart Samhain, divide the year into its two primary seasons, Winter and Summer. Beltane joyfully heralds the arrival of Summer in full garb. It is said that if you bathe in the dew of Beltane morn, your beauty will flourish throughout the year.

Beltane literally means "fire of Bel". Bel is known as the bright and shining one. On the eve of Beltane the Celts build two large fires, created from the nine sacred woods. In the honor of Summer they were lit, and the herds were ritually driven between them, to purify and protect the herds. The fires celebrate the return of life and fruitfulness to the earth. Celebration includes frolicking throughout the countryside, dancing the Maypole, leaping over fires, and "going a maying".

Beltane marks the hand fasting (wedding) of the Goddess and God, the reawakening of the earth's fertility at its fullest. This is the union between the Great Mother and her Young Horned God. This coupling brings new life on earth. It is the unifying of the Divine Masculine and the Divine Feminine forms to bring forth the third form, consciousness.

May is the month of sensuality and sexuality revitalized, the reawakening of the earth and Her Children. It is the time when we reawaken to the vivid colors and vibrant scents of the season, tingling summer breezes, the rapture of summer after a long dormant winter.

It is customary that Handfastings, for a year and a day, occur at this time. These are the trial marriages that typically occur between a couple before deciding to embark on life eternal. It was understood by our ancestors that one does not really know another until they live with them, and things change. With this understanding unions were entered upon, first as a test period, and then a further commitment. It was kept in mind that only through the choice of both to remain, could the relationship exist. Beltane brings our brightest hopes for the future. Hopes of love, prosperity, friendship and peace. As we dance among the glorious scented flowers, feeling the fresh dew-covered grass on our feet, our thoughts wander through our lives and loves, blessing us with their wondrous gifts of ecstasy.

Midsummer is that point when the Sun's strength is at its apex. It is the longest day of the year. From the moment of Midsummer, the Sun begins immediately to wane. The journey into the harvest season has begun. It is at Midsummer that the Holly King, God of the Waning Year, has encountered the Oak King and succeeded in usurping the reign of the year. In Celtic Mythology the Young God withdraws into the Wheel of the Stars and it is here he waits and learns before his rebirth at Winter Solstice.

Midsummer is the time when all is flourishing. Flowers smell their sweetest, trees are their greenest, faeries are their most playful, and it is the time that nature's lavishness is most acutely perceived. The passion at Midsummer has escalated from the playfulness of Beltane to a more fervent intensity. Couples who handfasted the year before at Beltane, tend to marry in a more formal handfasting at Midsummer or Lughnasadh. The moon of Midsummer is known as the Honey Moon (because mead, made from fermented honey, was drunk on wedding nights as an aphrodisiac); thus we can observe the roots of modern day marriage practices, in their Pagan soil.

The fire of Midsummer is traditionally kindled from the friction of two sacred woods, fir and oak. Nine different types of herbs are thrown upon the Midsummer fire. These consist of mistletoe, vervain, St. John's Wort, heartsease, lavender, and a choice of four others chosen from herbs typical of this season. The herds were driven through the embers in days long ago to purge disease and illness from them.

This being the season of passion, Midsummer is the perfect time to understand our passions, for they are ever so evident in the height of the summer heat. It is through understanding and acknowledging our deep pounding passions that we can utilize them correctly. For passion will take us to heights unseen, will fuel our creativity, and bring us into realms unrealized in the logical mind.

It is through this season that we can see the bounty of life, the intensity of being, the rapture of love, the exhilaration of awareness, and the possibilities of creation. For it is passion and love that have driven humankind to realize some of its greatest treasures and its most extreme violations. It is only through awareness and conscious action that passion can bring us to the zenith of existence. This is the time to experience our passions and the force within, to be conscious of how we use them and the gifts they can bring and to experience true power.

Lughnasadh is the first in the trilogy of harvest festivals. It marks the beginning of the harvest season, and the decline of Summer into Winter. It is the turning point of the earth's life cycle.

Festivities and rituals typically center around the assurance of a bountiful harvest season and the celebration of the harvest cycle. A bountiful harvest ensured the safe passage of the tribe through the upcoming winter months. The gathering of bilberries is an ancient ritual symbolizing the success of the Lughnasadh rituals.. If the bilberries were bountiful the crops would be, also.

Lughnasadh is the festival in honor of Lugh, the Irish God. Lugh, God of All Skills, is known as the "Bright or Shining One", He is associated with both the Sun and agricultural fertility. Lleu, Lugh's equivalent in Britain and Wales, is the son of Arianrhod, Goddess of the Stars and Reincarnation. Games of athletic prowess are played in honor of Lugh. The games are said to be funeral games for Lugh or, in some traditions, his foster mother, who is honored at this festival because she died while preparing the fields for planting.

Many grains, seeds, herbs and fruits can be harvested and dried at this time for later use through the remaining year. Corn is one of the vital crops harvested now, and in some areas the sacrifice of the corn king is performed. Death and rebirth are a part of the cycle that Lugh journeys through in his mating with the Goddess, during the waning year.

The Goddess oversees the festival in her Triple guise as Macha. She presides in her warrior aspect, the crow who sits on the battlefields awaiting the dead. She is the Crone, Maiden and Mother, Anu, Banba, and Macha, who conveys the dead into the realm of the deceased. Macha is forced, while heavy with child, to race against the King of Ulster's horses. She wins the race and gives birth to twins, and cursed the men of Ulster with the pain of labor when they most need their strength. She becomes the Queen of Ulster through battle for seven years. Her fortress in Ulster is known as the Emain Macha and its otherworldly form known as Emania, the moon Goddess' realm of death.

Lughnasadh is a time of bounty, celebration, and hopes for an abundant harvest season. We celebrate the bounty of our own life's harvest, the work we have done in and within our own lives as well as in our community.

We understand and acknowledge the need for successes in both the physical and spiritual realms. For without success and a fruitful harvest we will not have the staples we need to continue our work on all levels. Our religion is one of service, not sacrifice. For there is no service in sacrifice, and no sacrifice in service.

We need to fill our own cups and when our cups runneth over, we can't help but splash those around us with the life giving waters.

For we as members of the Universe and children of the Mother expect to share in the benevolence of Her Love. For ours is the Mother, who nurtures and Loves Her children, sharing her bounty.

Prosperity is not amassing and hoarding a great profusion of assets. Prosperity is having more than what is essential and never having less than we desire. We understand the abundance and magnanimity of the Universe and celebrate, recognize, and honor this.

Once again we find ourselves in the time of balance, for day and night are once again equal. The sun crosses the equator and heads south, signaling the end of summer's impassioned days and the beginning of the quiet winter months. For the sun has begun His yearly descent and His journey commences towards the final days of His reign. This again reminds us of the Universal Truth of life, death and reincarnation.

Autumn Equinox is the second in the trilogy of harvest festivals. Mabon marks the completion of the grain harvest begun during Lughnasadh. Thanksgiving for the abundant rewards of life are characteristic during this harvest time. It is a time of great joy and great sorrow; it is the time of great change. A time when we are between the worlds; where we mourn that which is passing, and are also joyful for bountiful harvest and the awareness that the Mother will hold the seed of Light in Her womb. Realization that the Wheel of Year has turned once more, and will continue to turn. For time in circular, not linear; there is no end but only new beginnings, the continuance of life eternal.

We celebrate the story of Mabon ap Modron, "the son of the mother", the Divine Youth, the Son of Light. Mabon is taken when he is three nights' old. His whereabouts are shrouded in mystery; it is through the wisdom and memory of the most ancient animals (Blackbird, Stag, Owl, Eagle, and Salmon) that we understand where he is and why. Mabon dwells in His Mother's womb, the Otherworld. It is a place of challenge and a place of nurture, a place where one is renewed and regenerated, a place of new life. So that He may be reborn, the source of Light and Joy, the champion of His Mother.

Just as the Light is being drawn into the earth accumulating strength and wisdom, to become a new seed, Mabon has returned to his Mother's womb. For as the winter begins, the earth incubates the tender seeds. Throughout the winter, the seeds are kept within Her womb so they may be reborn and bring forth new life.

The Autumn Equinox is the time when we prepare our personal harvests, gathering those experiences transpired over the past year (s), bringing them within, making them a part of who we are. Allowing them to die, regenerate into wisdom, and then to be reborn within. Preparing us for new life from that we have experienced and brought to the table thus far.

It is during Mabon that we are reminded of the necessity for fallow periods. For these periods allow us to assimilate, regenerate, and incorporate that which we have progressed through. For in life events happen, choices are made, and actions generated. We cannot go back and change that which has passed, but we can reap the harvest of wisdom these have brought to us. We do not know that which we have not experienced, and it is this time we give thanks for: that which has been our lives, for what we perceive as wonderful and what we perceive not to be, for they all are part of the sum of who we are.

© Copyright 1996, Christina Aubin.