im just curious as to weather or not the wheel of the year is celebrated by all witches as well as pagans. does the wheel of the year have any significance to traditional witches as it does to wiccans.

what does it mean to everyone personally.

I don't know if it has significance to modern witches as the festivals are based on farming customs, but personally I celebrate Beltane and Samhain. Possibly a throwback to when I first discovered paganism. I don't use the fixed dates though. Beltane to me is when the hawthorn flowers.

I would love to get more in tuned with the earth and get to work my magic with it better but I don't know where to start really!

¬¬ It sucks being a solitary witch.

Some do, some don't. The main thing about the festivals for me is that it's an excuse for people to get together when they wouldn't otherwise.

I dont celebrate them really at all. But then again i am neither a Wiccan or a Witch. I myself follow a Kemetic path and would call myself (if i had to) a Ceramonialist. I do try to celerbrate the Kemetic new year, which will shortly be on us once again.

I think the wheel of the year has its beginnings in farming, and probably incorporated celebration as well as blessing or placation of the gods or spirits of the land.

Working the land was, and still is, a hard and difficult life, with eight festivals stretching across the year, bringing friends and neighbours together to celebrate would have been something to look forward to.

I personally prefer to use the seasons rather than the wheel. But Im not averse to joining in with one or two of the social events that are based on the turn of the farming year, especially if theres one or two glasses of cider on offer.

Many pagan religions don't celebrate the wheel of the year, and witches within those religions won't.

Yeah... I dont celebrate them at all! I barely remember when they are happening

I do try and celebrate Yule, but only as a way for me to remember who and what I am.. its more like a way for me to define myself once a year. As for Samhain/halloween.... well I celebrate it with keeping stuff for kids that come round... no, not pagany, but I'm aware of what night it is. *shrugs* I feel more connected to the seasons themselves than the dates that define them.

Working on one's lonesome isn't that bad Sophie! If you can manage to get over the frustration of never having someone with whom to bounce off ideas about things as and when they are happening/occuring to you, that is half the battle.

It takes more willpower to work solitary - there isn't anyone nudging you, and the temptation is to become lazy and put off doing stuff. But trust me, keep at it, because the rewards are great. You can PM me if you like.

And re the O.P.

Moonhunter! You shock me Missus! Witches and religion in the same sentence? Tsk, tsk.

I don't follow the standardised wheel of the year. Samhain is my New Year. Yule is cool. And Midsummer is the time of madness!

Heh. You think I'm even going to try to make a statement about witches who don't follow any path but their own? Even with my current workload, plus struggling with the ineptitudes of Vodafone and IKEA, I am not that witless.

It means nothing to me as a witch, except perhaps for a general feeling that a witch should be aware of the environment around them
I celebrate some irish feasts as a pagan but not as part of a wheel of the year.

I don't really follow any particular custom as such, but I do try to celebrate yule and spring, but not in the wiccan sense. its more just time to reflect etc. I find doing gardening (well, sort of!) a good way to stay in touch with nature.

fizz

I'm not a witch and I apart from Yule I don't follow the wheel as it doesn't really bear much relationship with my life.

hellowee, reading you enquirey. you may or may not be aware of Essences, the Bach Flowers are the best known. I am an Essence maker and producer, and last year i made a Wheel of the Year set. specifically designed to help folk, like you to get back into sink with these natural rythms of the earths cycles. Basically the spirit of a specific celebrationary time. for instance, Beltain. everyone that has any belief will at the very least acknowledge the passing of that time. in the bottle i collect the celebration in the british isles at that time. would you be interested in being a case study, for the purpose of recording litriture? all it entails is i give it to you free, you follow my instructions to take it and then you take note of uforia and personal changes. let me know. if any of the readers are interested let me know by PM. i need 5 people. c u

[
PPs info at www.British Association Flower Essence Producers
my listingl is Elemental Infusions. all are made in the british isles and are authentic

Hi Crystal Magik, how do you collect a celebration in a bottle? And what do you mean by authentic?

I'm sorry, but I have no time whatsoever for Bach Remedies. Personal prejudice only

Re celebrating, I find more and more I'm veering away from the book dates and simply rely on what I observe.

In fact, in the last couple of days I've noticed the beginning of the end of summer and I will acknowledge that rather than any calendar date I don't actually pay much attention now to the calendar and prefer to go on what I observe and the natural cycle

I'm not Wiccan but enjoy celebrating the wheel just as an excuse to celebrate. I sort of follow the dates although also tend to watch what natures up to at the time too.

The names are also great to use as passwords with an excuse to change them regularly.. but shhhhh, don't tell anyone.

I have to totally agree with this, the Wheel of the Year as observed today is Wiccan, it has no relevance to the Witch. It is a convenient way for celebrations to take place on a regular basis throughout the year, but if we break it down it is non-sensicle. Witches would only have observed the time of the year, the Calendar as we know it today, would not have existed in ancient times, so to place a specific date on a festival is ludicrous. Witches worked with the seasons and the moon phases. We also have to remember, the seasons have changed a great deal, even just over the last 20 years. How can we possibly know the corn was ripe for harvesting on 2nd August (Lammas) 2000 years ago. Therefore, Harvest is celebrated now when the corn fields are ripe. This may be earlier some years or later - no set date. The Witch acknowledges Spring. Summer, Autumn, Winter and a few other festivals in between that have no set date but are important for personal reasons. Samhain is important, but is not 31st October! By acknowleging the Earth's natural cycle, you can start to be part of it and see your own personal celebratory times.

That might give us a few weeks before we clock it down here, then. Or maybe not.

This morning I stood in my tiny patio garden around 8am. The sun still hadn't cleared the trees that fringe our little close of three houses and a flat, and it's light filtered through in beams, burnishing leaves here and there. High in the sky a flock of swifts called and played, the sunlight catching their wings as they turned, with flashes of white.

Above me a pigeon sat on the edge of the neighbour's house and ruffled its feathers, while another called from behind me. A slight breeze sang its name among the leaves.

I thought about starting a new thread here about summer, before it ended. I hope it isn't the beginning of the end, as it doesn't seem to have been at all so far. I tend to think summer's beginning to end sometime around mid to late August, when the receding of daylight becomes more obvious.

I always count the start of summer's ending as when the rowan berries start to ripen on the trees.

Usually early in August but I've noticed them starting to turn round here already.

Hopefully a good crop, so that I can gather a bucketful for wine!

gwyn eich byd

Ffred

Samhain is important, but is not 31st October! By acknowleging the Earth's natural cycle, you can start to be part of it and see your own personal celebratory times.

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when is samhain ? or when would you celebrate it if at all?

the trick is not do all witches do X but is there anything that ALL witches do.

I mark mid winter and mid summer but besides that its if I remeber

i like asking what others get up to its good to be a little nosy. its interesting how people view the wheel. i dont celebrate the full wheel i do like to try and make time for the solstices and equinoxes as well as samhain.


are there any other rituals or celebrations that witches could celebrate with out pagan or wiccan religious significance

There's Walpurgisnacht (or Hexennacht, meaning Witches' Night), the night from April 30 to May 1, is the night when allegedly the witches hold a large celebration on the Blocksberg and await the arrival of Spring. Derived from Pagan customs .

wow what a lot has passed since i was here last. the equinoxes have definatly not changed, though i agree the seasons have. did i say that they were set to specific dates? im sure i said celebrations. there is a need to follow the way the year passes so that one knows what is coming around. for lots of resasons like what am i going to eat now, what is there to pick and dry, what am i going to need for the future? these to me are all good reasons to follow the wheel of the year.


Hi Julai, thanks for asking. To answer you question, the authentisity is a guarentee that the essence is real, and originally made by me, and not anyone elses. there is a majikal prossess which one goes through to tune into the elementals or energies of a place, depending on what it is you require from the goddess or nature itself. the essence is created when the agreement has been made and the reason is true.

i thought all witches worked like that..... so what do you lot do????????

if you look through past threads on the nature of witchcraft (a lot very recent) you'll find many of us have taken time to say what we do there.

Well, I'm not what you would call a witch, and my celebrations are rather ad hoc, but I do celebrate in response to not just other people saying "Oh it's Beltain, what are you doing?" but also to the first crop of tayberries, for example, or a heavy thunderstorm after a drought. I find it hard to imagine trying to get into the mood of a celebration by imbibing an essence.

It seems the wrong way round, to me. You get the essence by tuning in to what's going on around you. And that isn't always on a pre-ordained date. But if it is that kind of fixed festival, you get the essence by bringing out the old trappings and going through the same rituals, building on it year by year. I just don't think you can do that by tuning in to a single moment and trying to bottle it.

The summer and winter solstices have meant something to me for a long time - before I considered myself to be a Pagan. I really feel something when the days start to get longer and shorter - nothing overwhelming, but a definite sense of change.

Samhain last year was when I finally admitted to myself that I'm a Pagan. I'll mark that time of year from now on for that reason alone.

Other than that, I tend to just observe how the seasons are changing based on what's growing. Oh,and it all comes down to what I can make wine with for me as well Ffred_Clegg!

The natural pivot points are what count to me - summer and winter solstice.

Ostara's the same for me It's when I renew my commitment and take stock of my progress. It'll be 6 years next year - blimey, that was quick !

I personally dont "do" the wheel of the year, but I do pay attention to Beltane and Samhain.

To me it's those times when the veil between the living and the dead are at its thinnest. So at Samhain I honour my dead and at Beltane I look toward new birth

I do try to mark the Sabbats. I love the changing seasons and this is a way for me to connect. I enjoy my changing altar. As a solitary I feel that it connects me to others out there who are celebrating too. Samhain is by far my favourite and I love to join in with the kids who are out playing ghosties and ghoolies! Not much more than a big kid meself truth be told!

Somebody said "The Wheel of the Year is Wiccan". Maybe so, maybe not. I don't think the Wiccans invented it. The Druids follow the wheel of the year.
When the Home Office got a bunch of non-christian religions together for discussing various topics, I heard they got a shock when the witches and the druids block-voted on most of the propositions. The Home Office hadn't done its homework and hand't bargained for that.

And somebody said "I follow the natural timings". I've heard this before and have to say "hmmm.".

From my point of view, the Calendar is one of the unsung achievements of humanity. It's up there with Rope, bread and beer. I'll admit that fire and the wheel are not bad, but the Calendar is the big one. Okay, Rope and beer, too.

So, yes, I celebrate the wheel of the year, and I put a fair amount of effort into getting our Moot together for each festival.

Here's the dates as I understand them: Note that the traditional day starts and ends at sunset. So Samhain (which is the Irish for "November") starts at sunset on October 31st.

Yule - 21st or 22nd of December (depending on the Solstice).
Imbolc - 2nd February
Ostara - (Spring Equinox) 21st March
Bealtaine - 1st May (starting at sunset on 30th April). Bealtaine is the Irish for the month of May (but not the shrub).
Midsummer - 21st or 22nd June (depending on the Solstice).
Lammas (Lughnasadh) - 2nd August (so, sunset on the 1st August).
"Lunasa" is the Irish for August.
Mabon - 21st September. Autumn Equinox.
Samhain - 31st October (1st November).

Also, in consideration the Western Witchcraft is the counterpart of the Oriental Taoism, it's an important point that all things change - everything changes, in time all things will. So in celebrating the Wheel of the Year, we celebrate the changing nature of the world around us.

My youngest daughter and I celebrate Equinoxes and Solstices.

While at times I will mark and make note of the 8 wheel festivals they do not dominate my calender - rather provide a quiet marker for what much of the rest of the Pagan world is up to. There is (as a nother poster put it) a comfort in joining in with an unseen celibration as a solitery, knowing that many others are out there doing the same. You can tap into that wider out welling of energy.

When I first started on my path I worked out a calender of annual events that I mark and they do somewhat reflect the 8 festivals as in they mark the change of seasons and the wheels of life death and rebirth they are a bit more fluid, and very individual.
Things like first frost, the first picking of apples, bud burst on the oak and so on. But I also will note full and new moons, and like to BE aware and around for longest and shortest nights and the 'balance days' (which of cause do match with 4 of the 'classics')

Be bright,be bold
Fillionous

We go by the same calendar as you, Fred. We celebrate the Solstices and Equinoxes "properly" - Mr S gets time off work, we have a day out, little T gets presents, we do a ritual and have a big meal. On the other festivals I dress my altar and we have a roast dinner, usually on the nearest weekend; less of a big deal.

I'm not a real witch ™ but when I 'unhooked' from specified dates I discovered that what was supposed to be happening didn't always happen at the 'specified' time (this is just me, mind ).

Every day is different and every season is variable. I am deeply interested in liminality and have found that 'pools' of liminality can happen sometimes as much as a week before or after 'the' date, or can last for a number of days.

So one might say I am 'observant' rather than 'celebratory' regarding the changes , if that makes any sense.

Marto

Not particularly, I do observe them. I usually have a big Halloween party for the kids and do my own thing when no one is around.
The kids get eggs at Ostara and I usually have a feast at harvest time which can be around Lammas or even early September (end of summer beginning of autumn, though it does't really fit in to the wheel of the year). We also have a good old family Yuletide celebration that does not include Christ.
I think I realised that the WOTY was not something that I had to celebrate as Im not a Wiccan or Druid, just a plain old Pagan witch.
I might celebrate Beltane one year but not the next, so there's me a fair weather Pagan.

(Storms-a- brewing, there goes the electric)

I have the feeling that Philip Carr-Gomm claimed that Ross Nichols (Nuinn) and Gerald Gardner put it together jointly, so I guess it wouldn't be surprising that the two faiths share it.



I suspect it depends on what one is celebrating.

For the solstices/equinoxes, I stick to the actual days, or else there's no point. For Winternights, as it's purpose is to mark the change in the weather from autumn to winter, picking an arbitrary date to suit the whole world - or even all of the UK - seems fairly pointless.

Persactly Marto.

"Summer-is-a-comin-in"

Summer my arse

I recognise the festivals within the cycle, but I hardly celebrate them