Sabbats

The ancients lived their lives by the tides of moon and sun rather than by a calendar. When we are returning to the Goddess Ways, we too will gradually become more aware of and attuned to the rhythms of nature. The witches' festivals, which are all celebrations of the Great Goddess and the Great God, go by the tides of sun and moon. The sabbats are solar celebrations and mark the summer and winter solstice, and the spring and autumn equinox. These four are called the quarter festivals. There are also four cross quarter festivals which are the midpoints between the quarter festivals. Together these make the eight sabbats.

As the wheel of the year turns the Goddess and the God come together first as young lovers. The Goddess conceives and goes through pregnancy and finally gives birth. She goes through the stages of maiden, mother and crone with each cycle of the wheel, is sometimes young and sometimes old, yet she never dies. The God, her consort, who symbolises the spirit of nature however undergoes death, but returns again each year.

The Pagan festivals, the sabbats, are very ancient. In recent history they were taken over and hijacked by mainstream religion. It is time that we remember the true meaning of the festivals that were once celebrated in honour of the Goddess and God, which have now become little more than commercial holidays. There is great power in the sabbats, both for working magick and for celebrating the beauty of life!

The esbats are lunar celebrations. Most modern witches celebrate the full moon. There are 13 moons in a year. Each full moon is an esbat. We can draw down the moon and increase our magick power on full moon days, or work spells of healing, happiness and abundance, or simply give thanks to the Goddess for her blessings and the bounty that she has given to us. Normally there is only one full moon each calendar month. A lunar cycle has 28 1/2 days, the exact same time as a woman's menstrual cycle, which is often called "moon flow". Both our bodies and the tides of the sea are influenced by the lunar tides. Because most of our solar calendar months have 30 or 31 days there is usually only one full moon in a calendar month. But occasionally it can happen that two full moons fall in one calendar month. The second of those is then called "blue moon". The blue moon is an especially powerful time for any positive and constructive magick and for making one's dreams come true.

Another important time in the lunar calendar is the dark moon time. In our calendar this is usually called "new moon". However, technically new moon is when the first sickle is showing. What is marked in the calendar as new moon really is the time when there is no moon to see at all, the darkest night of the lunar month. This should really be called the dark moon, and once it was, but since the advent of Christianity, which with its polarity of white and black, and good and evil labelled anything dark as negative, the dark moon has been greatly feared and renamed into new moon. This fear of the darkness goes so far that many modern Pagans, Wiccans and witches now fear the dark moon time and recommend doing no magick and casting no spells at all on this day.

I feel this is a big mistake. The dark moon is a very powerful time to receive visions, for scrying, and Underworld journeying. It is also very potent for spells of banishing negativity in ourselves our our environment. We can even draw down the dark moon to fill ourselves with the Goddess' sacred dark energy. and yes, it is true that the dark Moon is also the most powerful time for curses. But even that can sometimes be necessary, when we have become so oppressed and disempowered that there is no other option to get our rights and justice. The dark moon is a great time to work against global evil that threatens our planet Earth and our very existence, such as Codex Alimentarius (read more about it in Earth Matters).

Below you will find information on the sabbats. For now there is just Imbolc, but I will add other Goddess celebrations as the wheel goes' round.

Though this page are still in process but I thought it would be nice to present at least some information on the sabbats and Esbats. Keep checking here regularly, eventually I will have all 8 sabbats written up for you!

Imbolc (Candlemas): 1 / 2 February

Imbolc is a fire and light festival dedicated to the Goddess Brigid, who is a very versatile Goddess presiding over many things, including smith craft, healing, sacred wells and poetry. Lighting of candles on Imbolc is not only traditional but an absolute must for anybody following the Goddess Tradition.
candlite

The light of the candles symbolises both the return of light after the long dark winter season, as well as the spiritual illumination that we seek and which Brigid can bestow on her devout worshippers.

Imbolc is also a purification festival. It is a good time to clear out the clutter and make space, for cleansing of all one's crystals and ritual tools, for any purification of the self, exorcisms, uncrossing spells etc. (For uncrossing or cleansing bath salts, please visit the Magick Shop.)

Fire rituals are a wonderful way to celebrate Imbolc, especially with a ritual burning of items that represent your bad habits or anything you want to leave behind! Imbolc also represents the awakening of sexuality in the young Goddess in her maiden aspect. At this time of the year the dragon energy in the earth also awakens from its winter slumber.

It is a good time to go for a walk in nature and feel the awakening of the earth energies and all life after the dark cold season.

The sacred ritual tool of Imbolc is the broom, which represents purification. Hence cleaning out the house before the festival would be a meaningful way to celebrate Imbolc too.

The sacred colours are white and yellow., possibly gold. You can use those in your altar cloths, candle colours, and Imbolc decorations. White of course symbolises the Goddess in Her maiden aspect. And yellow or gold stands for the solar influence, the fire element. Rosemary would make a nice Imbolc incense, as it both purifies and blesses and is reputed to bring beauty and youthfulness.

Imbolc is an ancient Pagan Festival, and like most of the other Pagan Festivals it was usurped by the christians. They turned it into the "purification of Mary" which in their opinion was necessary after her giving birth to Jesus! As if giving birth was something dirty! Let's not forget that every single man on the planet was born by a woman!

Sadly, once again chauvinists have turned a sacred Goddess celebration into a way to belittle women!
The Goddess Brigid far precedes the advent of christianity. She was later turned into a christian saint, as She was so popular that the church couldn't stop her worship. As they couldn't make people stop praying to her they changed her into a "more acceptable" christian form, a saint, thus diminishing her power. However, Brigid is much more than a saint, Brigid was said to have cured even leprosy, which shows that Her healing was of the highest order. Her association with fire and light shows her purifying power and her power to give illumination to her worshippers. Brigid is indeed a very powerful Goddess and should be worshipped as such!

So claim this sacred festival and the Goddess Brigid back, you Goddess lovers, celebrate Imbolc in a proper Pagan way and remember Brigid on her most sacred day! One way to please Her would be to write poetry dedicated to her. But Imbolc would make a perfect time to write any Goddess prayers. More about the prayer writing process in my article Becoming a Priestess.

Songs also please Brigid. A beautiful song about Brigid which I really enjoy is called "Brigid's Fire" by Trio Nocturna on the album "Songs of the Celtic Night". This CD is not easy to get these days but you can get it or listen to a part of the song here: CD Baby. I have the complete song, but sadly I can't play music on this website. It's technically not possible, sorry folks!

The traditional way of celebrating Imbolc was with a bonfire dedicated to Brigid. This may not be possible for everybody but the very least you can do on Imbolc, for busy-bodies, is to light a candle to Brigid and remember her and pay homage to her power and glory! Have a beautiful Imbolc!

Blessings to all Goddess lovers,

Avalon