THE DRUIDIC YEAR
Druidic festivals date back to Neolithic times. During this period farming replaced hunter gathering with the tilling of crops and keeping animals for meat, milk and hides. Each of the festivals was a marker in the agricultural year and would have already existed in some form in any indigenous culture on which the Celts grafted or merged their deity forms. For formal ritual was a universally recognised way of acknowledging that whatever human endeavour and effort was expended, the fertility of the herds, the growth of the crops and the health of the people were ‑ and are still ‑ subject to forces beyond human control.
And so due respect had to be given to those changing energies that were reflected in the Celtic Wheel and perhaps earlier ones as myths of the annual life cycle of the Goddess and her son/consort.
Though today we may no longer celebrate the annual rebirth of the Sun, natural forces are still in operation, outside the sealed, air-conditioned boxes in which many of us live and work Suddenly the forces make their presence felt and our humanly-regulated world temporarily grinds to a halt. I remember staying in a hotel in Los Angeles when an earthquake struck in 1994. Suddenly, civilised, sophisticated America was overthrown by primeval forces. Fortunately, our hotel withstood the shaking and we all took refuge in the darkened coffee shop. Most of us were thankful to be alive but one man was totally unable to comprehend that he could not have a cooked breakfast and that room service had been suspended. Other people were complaining in the hotel reception area about the loss of power and the broken glass in their rooms, desperately trying to find someone to put it all right so it could be business as usual. On one of the boulevards a bagel stall opened as usual in spite of the crater in the road.
In the modern, affluent society, food is sold packaged or ready-cooked and organic or naturally treated food is a luxury. The process is so remote from the rearing of the animals in conditions that may be far more inhumane than those practised by the Celts whose animals shared their living areas. We eat genetically-modified vegetables that look shiny and brightly coloured and have no signs of decay or discoloration. Yet few of us have any real idea of or concern about the toxicity of the chemicals needed to wipe out imperfection.
Overhead power lines ensure we have heat and light 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Yet there are fears that the electromagnetic fields from these pylons may adversely affect the
health of animals grazing beneath and the children who live nearby.
We are cut off from the seasons because until a flood strikes, storms rip down power lines, or an earthquake strikes, night can be day, at the flick of a switch or winter can be summer. We can even holiday under huge heated glass domes.
Going back to the old ways.
But the Wheel of the Year is still turning. The crops ripen, the leaves change colour; a sudden shower of rain, the sudden radiance of early spring sunshine, the carpets of flowers in the parks, find echoes within our own inner life cycle and may explain fluctuations in our energy patterns from one week to the next. Seasonally affective disorder ‑ SAD ‑ may not be purely physiological but may reflect the fact that when it is cold and dark we push on regardless of the bodily and spiritual needs for rest and withdrawal. Even if we no longer feel we need to make offerings and prayers to the powers of nature for gentle weather and a good harvest, then we may still need to recognise the inner seasonal clock, the times when we need to let matters lie fallow or to reap what we have sown. So the Drudic year can be celebrated at a personal symbolic level.
However, once we move back into the natural world, we again connect with the personal responsibility undertaken by our ancestors for the turning of the Wheel. We need to celebrate the rebirth of light, the early Spring, the harvest and can adapt the Celtic Wheel to the seasons of other lands as long as we live by its spirit
Even if we live in towns, we can become aware of the importance of the herds and the crops. By sharing the direct input of the Celtic deities, who themselves were seen to assume direct responsibility for fertility and abundance, we also move closer to a sense of responsibility for the way forests are cared for and how animals are farmed, for what chemicals are being sprayed on crops and what toxic wastes are pouring into the seas and the air in our name. Otherwise, we leave such matters to councils and governments by proxy.
As you walk or dance through the year, you are thereby accepting your role as caretaker over what you control and making offerings and prayers for blessings for those powers that are and will always be beyond human power.
The Wheel of the Year
If you want to base your Wheel on Celtic mythology there are a number of myths you can follow of the ritual cycles centred around the various gods of light, such as Llew/Lugh, The Mabon, the Oak and Holly Kings and the Dark and Light Twins who reflect the changing dark and light patterns represented by the Celtic winter and summer, each six months long.
You can read in books and on -line of their birth on the Midwinter Solstice, their marriage on May day, the assumption of Kingship on the Summer Solstice and sacrifice with the Corn at the beginning of August or sometimes at the Autumn Equinox; you can follow the Goddess in her role as Mother, lover, wife and finally instrument of sacrifice and grieving widow/mother, as the God returns to her womb, the tomb of the earth, to be reborn at Mid Winter. You can also re-enact in your rituals the battle between the Light and Dark brothers or the Oak and Holly Kings, the light brother born at the Midwinter Solstice and attaining supremacy and the right to impregnate the Goddess on the Spring Equinox, his supremacy at the Summer Solstice and then his fall on the Autumn Equinox. Some myths blame the Llew the Welsh God of Light’s faithless wife Blodeuwedd or Arthur’s Queen Guinevere for transferring their attention to the Dark Twin who destroys the Light brother and impregnates the Goddess. But even these treachery myths reflect the need for the new Dark Twin to be reborn at the Summer Solstice so the Wheel continues to turn. You can, if you wish, write your own story of the Year, reflecting the changing energies of the seasons.
So let us examine the qualities of and the associations made with the eight festivals and I will then give a sample formal ritual you can adapt to any of the eight or indeed any other major rite of passage.
The Wheel of the Year
The dates each year of the Solar festivals – the Solstices and equinoxes – vary slightly each year because the Earth’s orbit around the sun does not align itself exactly to our calendars. But any diary or ephemeris will give you the correct date.
However, some Druids hold their festivals on the weekend nearest to the equinox or solstice because it is easier for people to come together.
For the four intervening lunar festivals, either use the calendar date or, as was traditional in Celtic times, begin the evening before (Again, you can use the. weekend closest to each of the festival dates). Purists who try to keep to a strict six-week pattern, use the day upon which the Sun enters 15 degrees of Scorpio for Samhain (end of October/beginning of November), 15 degrees of Aquarius for Oimelc (end of January/beginning of February) 15 degrees of Taurus for Beltaine (end of April/beginning of May) and 15 degrees of Leo for Lughnassadh (end of July beginning of August). Again consult an ephemeris.
In yet another tradition the festivals are celebrated at the first full Moon of the four star sign periods mentioned above. Or you can adapt them to Christianised festivals such as Christmas and Easter
The
Wheel of the year, showing Sun and Moon festivals
The festivals of light
In modern Druidry, though not among the Celts, the four solar festivals are called Alban which means the light. This name is said to reflect both the actual and spiritual light entering the world and the festival. Not every Druid organisation gives the same weight to the four lunar festivals, a feature of the Wiccan faith. But we do know that a great deal of ancient folklore does exist around the fire festivals and that they were, as I said earlier, important agriculturally.
Indeed, the dark half of the year and the Celtic New Year began on Samhain (Halloween) and the light half of the year, the summer at Beltaine (May Day) and so these also form gateways for new energies.
Though it was primarily the four fire festivals that were celebrated for three days beginning with the sunset preceding the main festival day, the triple day energies are a good way of tuning into the transition points of the solar year. So I have used these for the equinoxes and solstices as well. Each period of six weeks represents a particular form of power, but you will find a week before the actual transition you are picking up the energies of the incoming period.
Samhain
From sunset on October 31 to sunset November 2, the time of the wise ancestors, looking both backwards to the past and into the future
This includes the period of no time, the time of the yew tree, on October 31-November 1 when the gateway between the dimensions are opened.
Animal: raven
Tree: Apple
Herbs and Incense of Samhain: cypress, dittany, ferns, nutmeg, sage, and pine.
Candle colour: orange
Crystals: deep blue, purple, brown and black, sodalite, dark amethysts, smoky quartz deep brown jasper, jet and obsidian (apache tear).
Symbols: Use as a focus apples, that are a symbol of health and feature in Halloween love divination, a custom dating from Druidic times, pumpkins, nuts and autumn leaves, mingled with evergreens as a promise that life continues.
Samhain rituals are potent for protection, overcoming fears, for laying old ghosts in our minds, psychological as well as psychic, for welcoming the positive influence of the family past and present and for marking the natural transition between one stage of life and the next.
Agricultural significance:
The time when the herds came down from the hills and family members returned to the homestead for the winter. The animals that were to be kept during the winter were driven though fires so that they might be cleansed of disease and parasites and others were slaughtered with reverence and preserved for food.
Folk Lore/magical significance:
It was likewise reasoned that the family dead would come shivering from the fields and should be welcomed at the family hearth, a practice that has continued on the Christianised day of the Dead in European countries with a strong Catholic influence and in Mexico where flowers are scattered from the churchyards to the homes.
The fires of Ireland were at one time extinguished at sunset on Samhain (which simply means summer’s end). A fire was kindled by the ArchDruid/ess, on the hill of Tlachtga in Ireland and every great family carried home torches to rekindle their hearth fires which thereafter were kept burning.
In parts of Scotland youths would take fire from the cleansing Nyd or Balefire (after Beli, the Fire and Sun God and earlier maybe the Goddess Belili) and run around field boundaries to protect creatures and homes from malevolent fairies and spirits who might also be abroad.
Ritual significance
Working with the open dimensions both for divination and for receiving the wisdom of the ancestors
Deity forms
The Cailleach, the Old Hage of winter whose role was largely protective.
Personal activities
Light huge orange candles and place them in a safe place facing a window to protect your home and light the way home spiritually for those you love who may be far away.. Burn from dusk until midnight on Halloween.
Place a clove of garlic on a west-facing window, saying: ‘May only good enter here’. Leave the favourite foods, flowers and photographs of deceased family members at the family hearth or a focal place in the home. Cook great-grandmother’s favourite recipes and retell the family legends, especially to younger members of the family.
Create eight holes instead of a face around a pumpkin and place a candle inside. Peer through each hole to see into other dimensions and receive wisdom.
Gaze into a fire or candle and allow images of past worlds and maybe past lives to emerge spontaneously.
Alban Arthuran (the light of Arthur)
This is the Mid winter Solstice, from sunset for three days around December 21 according to the Astronomical calendar, the rebirth of light and hope, resolving and leaving behind old issues.
Animal: bull
Tree: holly
Herbs and incense: bay, cedar, feverfew, holly, juniper, pine and rosemary.
Candle colours: white, scarlet, gold
Crystals: deep green stones such as aventurine, bloodstone, or amazonite.
Symbols: evergreen boughs especially pine or fir, a circle of alternate red and gold or white candles, small logs of wood especially oak and ash found naturally, as a focus for faith that tomorrow is another day and for inner vision.
Mid Winter Solstice rituals are for removing unwanted influences and redundant phases, for home and long -term money plans and for older members of the family.
Agricultural significance
Entering the coldest part of the year, but with the knowledge that the shortest day has passed, any festival now is a statement of belief that there will be plenty of food to last the winter and Spring will return. The Sun at its southernmost point seems as though it was disappearing beneath the horizon during the daytime, but the following day it is higher in the sky and thus reborn.
Folk/magical significance
Perhaps the oldest of the festivals, dating from when early humans lit fires from yule logs, and hung up evergreen boughs, decorated with torches or tallow tapers to lend power to the Sun. By these gestures it was hoped the sun would not die and that the greenery would return to the trees. In other lands, too, the Sun God, for example the Persian Mithras whose worship spread throughout the Roman Empire and Christ were mythologically if not historically were born/reborn at this time.
Ritual significance
The light of Arthur indicates the rebirth of the Sun King as the divine child, the Mabon; thus in ritual all lights are extinguished at dusk; there is a moment of pure faith and then lanterns relit from a single flint.
Deity forms: All Sun Kings, especially Llew in Wales and Lugh in Ireland, the Mabon, the Divine child.
Personal activities
As the Solstice night draws in, light a dark candle and in it burn threads or herbs to represent all you need to leave behind; at sunset light a gold candle from it, using a taper and then extinguish the dark candle. If you are working with friends or family, they can in turn light their candles from the Solstice candle, making wishes for the future
Leave the Christmas shopping and on the day of the Solstice, go out into the countryside or a local urban woodland and gather evergreen boughs with friends and family; find or buy sprigs of holly, ivy and mistletoe to represent the potential of new life. Make this also the occasion you put up and decorate your Solstice/Christmas tree. As you do so sing some of the old songs with pagan overtones, such as the Holly And The Ivy, the Cherry Tree Carol and Green Grow the Rushes.
As darkness falls create a small fire outdoors or in a tiny metal pot and burn sprigs of yew, oak, holly, as well as pine needles and rosemary. In this way you are showing your faith that the sun will shine again-and ritually assisting it to regain power.. As you toss on each fragrant handful, name someone who cannot be with you and those causes dear to your heart that will benefit from the renewed power of the sun.
On Solstice night, fill a metal bowl with water and either alone or with friends or family in the age-old tradition take it in turns to drip wax from the Christmas candles on to the surface of the water. You will gain an image as the liquid was falls on the surface and a second more permanent image as the wax sets. The first will indicate an area that will bear fruit over the coming days and the second ways in which you can maximise the energies of the ascending light. Wash out the bowl between readings
From clay create your own santons. These are tiny French nativity-type figures that include tiny statues of local characters and family members. The scene can be adapted to the rebirth of the Sun/Goddess myths; paint them and set them around your tree or in a cave made from rocks and crystals..
Imbolc/Oimelc
Imbolc (in the belly of the Mother) or Oimelc (the feast of ewes’ milk) from sunset on January 31-sunset February 2, the rising of the light and the stirring of new hope
Animal: serpent
Tree: Willow
Incenses and Herbs: angelica, basil, benzoin, celandine, heather and myrrh.
Candle colours: pale pink, green, blue and white.
Crystals: dark red gemstones such as the garnet and bloodstone, but also amethysts, rose quartz and gentle moonstones for fertility and awakening feelings.
Symbols: Use the very first snowdrops or very early budding leaves or flowers, milk, seeds and honey.
Imbolc rituals will bring new love or the re-growth of trust, awakening fertility and for the initiation of any projects that start in a small way.
Agricultural signficance:
This was the all important time when sheep and cattle had their young and so fresh milk and dairy products were available to the community; for the young and very old this could mean the difference between life and death. It also marked the very early stirrings of life with the first flowers and when the land might be soft enough to plough.
Folk/magical significance
At dusk on January 31 in the pagan calendar and midnight on February 1 at the Christianised Candlemas torches, candles and sacred bonfires were lit to attract the Sun. There was a procession clockwise around the frozen fields with blazing torches, led it was said in pre-Christian times, by the maiden Goddess herself who melted the snows of winter with her willow wand.
Ritual significance: A festival of healing of the land as well as people and animals. Eight candles were placed in a circle in water and lit so that the light rose from the water of the goddess, the unity of Fire and Water. It was a festival of milk also, that was sacred to the Celts as communion wine to Christians, as the nurturing power of the still lactating Mother Goddess..
Deity forms: The Maiden Goddess Brighid, the Virgin Mary who presented Jeus at the temple at this time and was cleansed after a ritual period of sclusion.
Personal activities
In age old tradition, pour fresh milk on to the Earth as a tribute to the Mother and as you do so, ask for fertility in any aspect of your life you need it.
On the night of February 1, place nightlights safely at every window of your home to welcome Brighid into your home.
Make a tiny straw bed and in it place a small doll dressed in white with a quartz crystal on the heart to represent the maiden Brighid. Pour a little honey on the bed and three drops of milk, surround it with the first greenery or buds of Spring. Place in the straw symbols of the blessings you would like in your life, whether tiny charms related to your craft or connected with your home.
Take a ceramic heat proof bowl of milk and in it drop ice cubes to represent the cold of winter; gently melt the ice with a small candle or burner beneath the bowl, stirring it and naming the energies you wish to move in or through your life to awaken your personal Spring.
Create a circle of pink or blue candles and sit within the circle, absorbing the light of the new season..
Alban Eiler
The Light of the Earth or Vernal Equinox from sunset for three days around March 21 according to the astronomical calendar. The triumph of the light, planting the seeds of new ventures.
Animal: hare
Tree: Birch
Herbs and incenses: celandine, cinquefoil, crocus, daffodil, honeysuckle, primroses, sage, tansy, thyme and violets.
Candle colours: Yellow and bright green
Crystals: Sparkling yellow crystals, such as citrine, the strengthening stone, yellow beryl, the energizer or a yellow rutilated quartz with streaks of gold, the regenerator, for your Spring talisman.
Symbols: Use eggs, any spring flowers or leaves in bud, a sprouting pot of seeds, pottery or china rabbits, birds or feathers as a focus for your own spiralling energies.
Spring Equinox rituals will bring new hopes, new beginnings, new relationships, life changes; anything to do with fertility, pregnancy, babies, children and new flowering love.
Agricultural significance
Life returns, more young animals are born, crops are sown, flowers appear and the greenery returns to the trees; most significantly with twelve hours of daylight, hens began to lay again after the winter and heralded the return of fresh food..
Folk/magical significance
The Light twin defeats the Dark Twin and so impregnates the Goddess who will give birth to the new child of the Light nine months later at the Midwinter Solstice, thus ensuring the continuation of the life cycle. It is the Goddesses of Spring from the Northern tradition who imagery has remained most with us: Ostara, Viking goddess of dawn and the Anglo Saxon Oestre, who gives her name to Easter and whose creature was the magical Easter hare. The first eggs were painted and left at her shrine; in Eastern Europe eggs are painted for the Virgin Mary to delight her young son. The healing Druids’ egg, made from the spittle of serpents, was said to be found on this day and protected by the hare.
Ritual Significance
The resurrection of light and, indeed, in some myths, the birth of the Sun King.. It is said on the Spring Equinox morning the sun dances in the water at sunrise, an association transferred to angels, It is a time for spiritual as well as actual spring cleaning.
Personal activities
Paint eggs with vegetable dye, with flowers, Mother Goddess spirals, birds and bees and offer them on a basket of spring flowers and leaves to the Mother.
For increasing fertility, prick an egg and take out all the white and yellow. Pass the shell through a beeswax candle flame or a small fire as the Equinox dawns. Then carefully cut it in half and leave the shell halves open for the sun or light to shine on them
On the first night of the new moon after the Spring Equinox, split the shell and place a tiny moonstone in one half, leaving it on the window ledge until the Full Moon. Place a silver pin in the other half and also leave open to the moolight.
On the night of the Full Moon, prick the moonstone very gently with a silver pin and leave pin and moonstone in one half of the egg so they touch, all night.. The next morning close the egg and wrap up egg, pin and moonstone until the moon leaves the sky. Then you should bury them and repeat the ritual. This can help not only for conceiving babies but also for re-establishing the natural rhythms of your life to bring any new venture to birth.
Spring clean your psyche. Answer any correspondence that is piling up. Deal with unavoidable issues. Change your routine so that you rise an hour earlier and can enjoy the growing light, perhaps walking to work or sitting in the spring sunshine on your balcony or in your garden. Initiate those projects you always meant to by first clearing out the clutter of old commitments or activities that you no longer enjoy.
Visit sacred waters or a clear river or pond on Equinox morn and witness the light dancing; cast a tiny crystal in the water and, as it splashes, you will be rewarded by a momentary image framed in light that will help you to plan your future path.
Make Equinox water by leaving it in a clear dish from Dawn till Noon. Use this for revitalising office plants or trees in urban spaces, polluted water courses and for encouraging new growth in places that are no longer beautiful.
Plant seeds, if necessary under glass, to symbolise hopes for the future, placing tiny equinox crystals or jade in the soil at each corner, moistening them with your Equinox water.
Deities: The Virgin Mary to whom Gabriel appeared telling her she would bear Christ, Ostara, Oestre
Beltaine or Beltane
For three days from sunset on April 30 to sunset in May 2, for the uniting of Earth and Sky and for the unbridled life force
Animal: cow
Tree: hawthorn
Incense and herbs: almond, angelica, ash, cowslip, frankincense, hawthorn, lilac, marigold and roses for love.
Candle Colours: dark green, scarlet and silver candles
Crystals: Sparkling citrines, clear crystal quartz, golden tiger’s eyes, amber and topaz.
Symbols: As a focus, gather fresh greenery, especially hawthorn (indoors only on May 1), any flowers that are native to your region.. Dew is especially potent when gathered on May 1 morning – traditionally girls would bathe their faces in it, You can substitute pure spring water left for a moon and sun cycle in a crystal or glass container, beginning at sunset on April 30.
Beltane rituals: These are for maximising the fertility energies first experienced at the Equinox, whether for conceiving a child or bringing a business matter to fruition. They can improve health and increase in energy, optimism and self-confidence as the light and warmth move into summer.
Agricultural significance
The beginning of the Celtic summer when those cattle that had survived the winter in barns were once more released into the fields after being driven between twin fires for cleansing and to increase fertility. The major theme of this festival was the fertility of the fields, the animals and the people.
It was a good time for women to become pregnant so they would produce their children at the beginning of February, giving a period to nurse them before returning to the fields and also the beginning of better weather and food supplies.
Folk/magical significance
The marriage of the May Queen, the flower maiden to the Sun King and the last appearance of the maiden goddess.
Druidesses and Druids kindled twin fires with nine sacred woods, using a wooden spindle, young people leaped over the fires, the height they jumped signifying the height the corn would grow. They made love in the woods after collecting the sacred Hawthorn blossoms and on May morning danced around the maypole signifying the World Tree, thus uniting earth and sky energies and increasing the fertility of the earth
Ritual significance
A fire festival on which divinations were made especially concerning the fate of the harvest and sacrifices were offered to ensure a good crop and healthy animals. Tales of the Wicker Man. come from this festival or the even more ancient Beltaine sacrifice who was selected if he chose the charred portion of the Beltaine cake that was divided into thirteen pieces and placed in a bag. The concept that what we sow, we shall reap and that we are responsible by our actions and offerings for the fate of the community is a solemn but necessary message for a joyous festival.
Personal activities:
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Rise at dawn on May morning and male or female wash your face in the morning dew (you can collect it with an eye dropper) for an infusion of the pure life force and for peak potency in any aspect of your life.
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Fill small baskets with garden flowers or greenery and leave them on the doorsteps of anyone who is sick or lonely to spread the abundance of the season.
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Visit a sacred well in accordance with tradition just before sunrise and walk round it three times sunwise (clockwise), drinking the water if possible and asking for healing for yourself or loved ones;; tie a ribbon to a nearby tree.
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Decorate a tree or branches from a tree with flowers, ribbons and bells and your May time symbols and spiral round it, allowing your feet to trace and amplify the energies of the earth.
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Make a small fire and burn as many of the sacred woods as you can find that traditionally made up the Beltaine fire. These were willow, hazel, alder birch, ash yew, elm, rowan and oak. Alternatively use woods local to your area. When the fire is burned though, scatter a few of the ashes to the four winds from a hilltop, sending your wishes for the future with them. Bury the rest to bring fertility to waste or barren land.
Deities: Belenus/Belili, fire deities, Blodeuwedd, the flower maiden, the Green man fertility icon and also the mysterious Maid Marian, maybe a corruption of the Virgin Mary, who married Jack o’ Green, immortalised as Robin Hood
Summer Solstice
Alban Heruin, the light of the shore, for three days from sunset around 21 June according to the Astronomical calendar, for power, joy and courage
Animal: Bear
Tree: Oak
Herbs and incenses: chamomile, elder, fennel, lavender, St. John’s Wort and verbena.
Candle colours: red, orange, gold
Crystals: brilliant red or orange crystals, stones of the sun, such as amber, carnelian, orange, beryl, or jasper, sun stone, also crystal quartz.
Symbols: use brightly-coloured flowers, oak boughs, golden fern pollen that is said to reveal buried treasure wherever it falls, scarlet, orange and yellow ribbons, gold coloured coins,.suncatchers and golden fruit.
Summer Solstice rituals are good for success, happiness, strength, identity, wealth, fertility, adolescents and young adults, career and travel.
Agricultural significance
The long days and warm weather are vital for long hours in the fields as young animals grow strong and crops begin to ripen; but there is an awareness that the Summer Solstice does mark the longest day of the year and that henceforth, though imperceptibly darkness increases; this is a reminder that time is finite and chores cannot be put off indefinitely.
Folk/magical significance
The Sun God is crowned by the Goddess and for this one day takes his place as her equal. But it is joy tinged with sadness for the Dark Twin is born and grows stronger, even as the Sun King becomes weaker, day by day. The Goddess or her priestess/Druidess representative, casts her bouquet on a hilltop fire to add her power to the sun and to pay tribute to him.
As at the Midwinter Solstice, strength is given to the sun ‑ fire wheels were rolled from the tops of hills and flaming tar barrels and torches hurled into the air. In the Sun Goddess tradition, she was said to bathe in the waters of the earth on the Solstice Eve and so river water was (before pollution) regarded as especially healing for bathing at dawn on Summer Solstice morn.
Ritual significance
The day of pure Awen as the three bars of Light appear at Dawn. Alban Heruin, was the longest day of the year.
Stonehenge is oriented to mark the sunrise at the summer and winter solstices. Druidic ceremonies are held at Dawn and Noon on the Solstice at sacred circles and stones and some groups and individuals keep a vigil from sunset on the previous evening. At sunset of the Summer Solstice, another significant ritual point the Heel (Sun) Stone outside the circles at Stonehenge casts a shadow on the Altar Stone, thus marking the beginning of the dying of the year.
Personal Activities
On the Summer Solstice, greet the dawn by lighting a lantern just before sunrise, from an East facing hill or plain. Spend the day in the open air and then say farewell to the Sun on a West facing slope, lighting your lantern once more to give the sun power even as it descends.
Cast golden flowers or herbs into the air from a hill, a handful at a time, making empowerments for courage and achievement to the winds. Where they land and take root represents in the old traditions places of buried treasure or in this case symbolises new or buried talents you can develop to realise your hidden potential.
Make your Solstice water, the most potent Sun water of the year, leaving water in a gold coloured dish surrounded by golden-coloured flowers from dusk on the Solstice Eve until Noon on the Longest Day. This is especially healing and empowering and you can keep it in clear glass or gold coloured bottles to drink or add to bath water to give you energy and confidence.
Make a small sun wheel garden, either indoors or out using the flowering herbs of Midsummer vervain and St John’s Wort, Sun herbs such as frankincense, juniper, rosemary and saffron and all yellow or golden flowers, arrange them in the form of a wheel and fill in the centre with tiny golden crystals or glass nuggets. You can breathe in the golden light from your living sun wheel.
Light sun oils, frankincense, juniper, rosemary, orange or benzoin or burn them as incense to bring the sun power into your home or workplace.
Deities: Sulis (Minerva). At the sacred Celtic hot springs at Baths, the Romans built their own magnificent healing edifices, combining the indigenous Sulis, the Celtic Sun Goddess and resident patroness of the sacred waters at Bath, with their own Minerva Goddess of Wisdom.
Lughnassadh
From sunset on July 31-sunset on August 2, the first Corn harvest, festival of sacrifice, arbitration, contracts and justice
Animal: Stag
Tree: alder
Herbs and incense: cedarwood, cinnamon, fenugreek, ginger and heather, myrtle and sunflowers.
Candle colours: golden brown or dark yellow.
Crystals: tiger’s eye, fossilised woods, amber, rutilated quartz or with dark yellow and brown stones.
Symbols: Use a straw object as your focus, such as a corn dolly, a corn knot or a straw hat, perhaps decorated with poppies or cornflowers or a container of mixed cereals.
Lughnassadh rituals focus on justice, rights, partnerships, both personal and legal, promotion and career advancement and the regularising of personal finances. With corn and corn dollies a feature of the time, fertility is also favoured, perhaps preparing for future ventures or getting healthy to become pregnant in the future.
Agricultural significance
The first grain harvest and especially the corn was of vital importance to the people and indicative of the success of later crops and fruits. Traditionally, soldiers would return to help with the harvest. Because of the dry roads it was a time for travelling Druidesses and Druids to arbitrate in disputes and also the time when temporary marriages were made for a year and a day.
Folk/Magical Significance
Lugh enters into a ritual marriage with Eriu/Nass, the Sovereign Goddess of the land and transfers the remains of his solar strength to her so that the rest of the crops will ripen. He then offers himself as annual sacrifice to feed the people of the land. He is cut down as the last sheaf of corn; everyone hurls sickles at the same time so no-one will know who cut him down. He returns to the womb of the Mother.
In the Christian tradition, it was called Loafmass and a loaf baked from the first harvested sheaf was offered on the altar, so linking this with the earlier tradition, the body of the Corn God is eaten by his people.
In even older tradition, the Earth Mother Talitiu, foster Mother of Lugh and one of the three Celtic Mothers was said to have died preparing the fields and funeral games were held at this time to commemorate her.
Ritual significance
The Lughnassadh fires of petition and burning corn figures representing the slain god continued into the twentieth century in Ireland. Harvest processions took place on hills as the sun goddesses Aine, Grainne and Sulis led the cutting of the corn and the necessary ritual death of her consort. All are aware that the Goddess is now alone and that the success of the harvest is now in the hands of the Mother.
Personal activities
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Use corn or dried grasses to create corn knots and corn mother figures (a featureless head, arms, body and legs) tied with red and blue threads; hang them in the home through the winter to bring protection and burn them on the first Monday after Twelfth Night or on the Spring Equinox fires.
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If you want to make a Corn King, you can burn him at Lughnassadh; scatter the ashes in your garden or on indoor plants to bring abundance to the home during the winter.
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Make bread with milk on Lughnassadh Eve, a tradition that became associated with the Virgin Mary. As you stir the mix in turn with friends and family, make wishes for abundance and the harvest you wish to reap during the coming months. At dawn crumble the bread to share with friends and family and leave offerings of crumbs for the wild birds.
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If you feel you have been unjustly treated and cannot put matters right, knot dried grasses, one for each injustice and cast them on the waters or bury them, planting late flowering seeds or autumn flowers
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Arrange journeys to see or write and telephone friends and relations making plans to meet, as this is a time when tribes get together before the long winter.
Deities: Lugh, Nass or Eriu and any of the Celtic Sun goddesses.
Alban Elued
Light on the Water or Autumnal Equinox for three days from sunset around 23 September, a festival of abundance and of balancing gain and loss
Animal: Salmon.
Tree: White poplar or hazel
Herbs and Incenses: ferns, geranium, myrrh, pine and Solomon’s Seal.
Candle Colours: blue for the autumn rain and green for the Earth Mother.
Crystals: soft blue crystals, such as blue lace agate, blue beryl or azurite.
Symbols: Choose coppery, yellow or orange leaves, willow boughs, harvest fruits such as apples, nuts, root vegetables and pottery or china geese. Use also as a focus knots of corn, wheat or barley from the earlier harvest and copper or bronze coins to ensure enough money and happy family relationships.
Autumn Equinox rituals are for mending quarrels, the fruition of long-term goals, reaping the benefits of earlier input, for love and relationships, especially concerning the family, adult children, brothers and sisters, friendships and for issues of material security for the months ahead.
Agricultural significance
This is the gathering of the second or green harvest of fruit, nuts and vegetables, as well as the final grain harvest; now takes place the storing of resources for the winter, discarding any rotten produce and bartering for goods, not available or scarce, feasts of abundance and the offering of the finest of the harvest to the deities was a practical as well as magical gesture, part of the bargain between humans and deities.
Folk/magical significance
Blodeuwedd, is instrumental in the death about the death of Llew and he becomes an eagle whose physical deterioration begins as pigs, icons of Cerridwen, mother of regeneration, ate the rotting flesh as it fell to the ground. Llew will not be released from the form of the eagle until his rebirth at the Solstice.
Goronwy, the dark twin helped by Blodduwedd to murder Llew, claims and impregnates the bride, though he will not be crowned as Lord of Winter until Samhain. In other myths the God is now Lord of the Underworld and is visited by the Goddess for three days at Halloween, the time of Samhain when the world falls to misrule. In some traditions this ritual death is substituted for the death of Lugh at Lughnassadh, but some work with both, first the Corn sacrifice and then the defeat of light The mystical John Barleycorn is also associated with this time when the barley brew of the cut down first harvest is ready for brewing and the people drink the blood of the slain God at the Harvest festival.
Ritual significance
Some Druidesses and Druids climb to the top of a hill at sunset on the Autumn Equinox day to say farewell to the Horned God, Lord of Animals as he departs for the lands of winter; it can be a powerful time on the day of equal dark and light for rites of balance and harmony, before the ascending darkness.
Personal activities
Work by the sea at sunset and cast as pebbles into the dying light of the water all regrets, resentments, sorrows, failures and unfinished business from the previous months that you do not wish to carry forward into the winter.
Take a bowl containing equal numbers of nuts and seeds and work outdoors. Name a success or achievement that has materialised by the Autumn Equinox and eat a nut; then name a failure or loss and cast a seed into the ground. Continue until you have eaten and shed the same number and can think of no more; bury the rest beneath a fruit or nut bearing tree.
Sweep up autumn leaves into a pile; jump up and down in it as you did when a child, expressing joy at the promise of the coming days, naming opportunities and all you can achieve in winter. Finally scatter the leaves and let the good and the bad, the gains and the losses be carried equally on the wind.
Prepare a feast of fruit and vegetables, of bread, cider and barely wine or fruit cup and warming soups and hold an Equinox party. Make offerings to the land of barely wine, ale, mead and bread and as you pass round a communal cup, send individual blessings to people and places where there is dearth; hold an auction of hoarded personal treasures and send the money to a charity that relieves famine and poverty.
Contact anyone from whom you are estranged, sending autumn flowers or a plant you have nurtured or a basket of produce as a peace offering; if your reconciliatory gestures are rejected, at least you can move forward, knowing you tried. Alternatively help an organisation concerned with peace.
Deities: Blodduewedd who becomes an owl, Cernunnos and all Celtic Goddesses of the Hunt.(see p00)
Your seasonal rituals
You may decide to celebrate the seasonal wheel alone, with family and friends, with a group or join a public Druidic or pagan ceremony (check websites on the internet).
Seasonal celebrations benefit from a structure. But the essence of any ceremony is that it is one in which everyone present participates and has a chance to make offerings and ask for personal blessings.
Choosing a location and time
The first question is where will you hold your ceremony? You will need to visit sites to find a suitable one as some ancient monuments are fenced off.
Avebury for example is owned by the National Trust but the stones are totally accessible and there are any number on which you could focus a ritual on this huge site. Check with the National Trust first, but a number of formal and informal groups do work there.
The stones at Stonehenge, in contrast, are fenced off and the circle accessed only with special permission. English Heritage does not allow ceremonies after darkness for safety reasons.
I would not suggest advertising an open meeting unless you have an organised large group as all who come along may not be interested in Druidry. At first, if you know someone with a large private garden or can get permission to work in an enclosed Botanical garden you can relax, knowing you are working with people you trust and will not be disturbed. It can be helpful to attend a variety of Druidic public ceremonies before organising your own large gatherings to pick up practical know how.
You need to set a time and date, making sure that others can easily travel to your location on the day. You might like to make the ceremony centre of a more extended celebration. For example you might choose Glastonbury Tor that is completely open, at a time when other groups will not be using the site, the day before the festival or mid-morning and arrange accommodation in the town so you and the group can explore the environs and the other sacred places in the town on a pilgrimage.
If the weather is truly foul and you are working in a wild spot or one that takes some time to reach, you may wish to plan an alternative venue, perhaps a large garage or shed that can be instantly transformed into an indoor grove with branches and a central water feature or rock.
Planning the ceremony
Read the suggestions I have made above for the best seasonal incense, candle colours etc. Especially outdoors among stones, trees or near water, extra tools can be kept to a minimum. If you are using candles or torches, you will need a sheltered spot. Useful for slightly breezy conditions are the kind of enclosed ornamental lanterns that contain a night light and are available in many houseware or gift departments of large stores.
Decide who will bring what –and check prior to travelling that there is sufficient lighting material. You should also have handy a bucket of sand and water if you are lighting fires – just in case things get out of control.
If you are using an incense censer, make sure it is lit well in advance and happily smouldering by the time of the ceremony.
Next you need to plan what will happen. The all important factor is how long the ritual will take.
On a whole brief ceremonies are best and you can have a social gathering afterwards so that people can talk over their experiences and ask questions.
Plan the overall theme and each stage in detail: who will stand where and approximately what needs to be said. Even spontaneity needs initial stage managing to make sure that the ceremony moves smoothly through its stages to fruition.
Before the ceremony
Send out well in advance or post on your website, details of what equipment is needed, offerings, lanterns, catering arrangements and what people are wearing;also a mobile phone number in case anyone gets lost en route
On the day, the most important person sometimes forgotten is a greeter, to welcome new people who perhaps have come along for the first time and to make sure everyone new or old knows where everything is happening and when. He or she can make sure all the necessary roles in the ceremony are filled and advise anyone in anew role where to stand and when to speak.
If possible this person can distribute warm drinks or direct people to a nearby café and to make sure everyone has offerings (take a few spare pouches of herbs or flowers along).
Preparing the site
If you have someone looking after the arrivals, you can concentrate on setting up the ceremony so that it begins smoothly. You may need to improvise a stone for an altar/place to set up torches etc. If you are having a small central fire, you may need to light it in a cauldron to avoid any fire risk or unsightly burned spot in a place of natural beauty (practise beforehand creating a fire and dousing it safely). You could plant large candles in a deep central cauldron of sand if there is a fire risk. On some sites fire and candles are not allowed so ask in advance.
Before the ceremony, you may wish to sweep clear the site and then to asperge it.
For the latter use hazel or ash twigs made into mini-brooms that can be dipped into water and sprinkled around the area to purify it. You can create instant sacred water by stirring sea salt into a bucket of water and stirring it three times clockwise with a twig.
Beginning the ceremony
If you are working with friends or in an informal group, you may decide to organise the ritual together rather than having one leader, though you will have decided in advance which part of the ritual each will carry out.
Even when working alone ,you can mark the official beginning of the ceremony perhaps by ringing a bell, blowing a horn, a Breton bombarde or playing a few notes on a flute or pan pipes which have been adopted into the modern Celtic tradition. Or you can begin with a procession beating a drum or tambour to create the rhythm and slow chatter.
Practise in deserted places until ready for public performance.
You can now light any candles or torches you will be using and greet any deities who are connected with the season, asking for their blessing and protection. This introduction can also be used to define for everyone, the purpose of the ritual, eg. to greet the Spring and the energies you will be tapping into and strengths invoking.
Blessing the Space
If you are carrying out a special ceremony or working with a number of people, you can define the circle by leading those present in walking in a circle around the area (gradually stilling drum beat can indicate when the group is in place).
When everyone has walked round once (entering from the West) stand facing the centre, holding hands thus creating a living circle.
If you are working alone, you can walk round your space and see the ancients, wise Druids and Druidesses standing around your circle.
You may wish as you circle to begin a simple chant such as: ‘We are one, we come in peace, I am in life and life is in me’. Use any simple repetitive chant to unite those present (or to focus yourself) in a simple way so that the people present are drawn together as a spiritual unit.
Finding the still centre of the ritual
You may wish to begin by leading a chant to greet the three realms, loosing the circle of hands; lead the others by asking them to follow your movements; raise your hands to the Sky, encircle your arms round you at waist height for the Sea and finally make an arc downwards for the Earth, saying in unison: ‘Above us the Sky, around us the Waters and beneath enclosing us, the Mother Earth.’ Or you can perform each action and the appropriate words and then everyone can repeat it. It can be good to lead while standing as part of the circle, with people coming into the centre at various points.
One person chosen in advance can then walk around the inside of the human circle clockwise beginning in the East with a lighted smudge stick in sage or cedar, saying: ‘Above us the sky, the sky is over all, blessings be.’
A second person can follow the same circular path, sprinkling water with a bowl and twigs towards each person, saying: ‘Around us the sea, the sea encloses all, blessings be.’
A third person sprinkles salt or soil from a bowl to create the visible circle just inside the human one, again clockwise from the East: ‘The Earth is beneath our feet, the Earth embraces all, womb and tomb and womb again, blessings be.’
Defining the Purpose of the Ritual
This is a brief repetition of the statement made right at the beginning of the festival plus if wished a brief enactment or telling of the first part of the myth of the festival which can be a modern day version. This need only be simple eg a Druid or Druidess walking the frozen fields at Imbolc, trying in vain to break the soil and asking Brighid to melt the snows.
Opening the gateways
Next you can open the four main gateways, beginning with the one just before the festival on the Wheel (see Wheel of the year illustration), so for Imbolc and the Spring Equinox you would open East, Beltaine and the Summer Solstice South first etc, then open the other three gates clockwise in order, with a simple greeting by the person who has offered to act as gatekeeper of the four directions.. He or she may make an arc to indicate it is open.
The circle can turn to face each gate as it is opened before turning back to the centre between gates.. The response ‘May there be peace in the East etc’ can be incorporated by the relevant gatekeepers if wished. Then when all the gates are opened the group can face the centre once more saying ‘May there be peace throughout the whole world.’
Then a chosen person can go to the centre and either blowing a horn into the ground or banging three times with a staff, ask the wise ancestors and the Shining Ones to enter the circle and bring their blessings.
People around the circle can be invited to greet particular ancestors or friends or figures of note who have died, by calling out round the circle ,their names and perhaps saying a few words about why they were so loved.. This is a very good way to involve people, not just at Samhain, the festival of the ancestors and can personalise the ritual.
At this point the specific deity eg. Brighid at Imbolc can be welcomed again, perhaps with symbols, eg. a churn of milk or candles that are lit around the circle or in the central cauldron; more of the story can be enacted, eg. Brighid leading a few people around the circle with torches. Words and actions can be spontaneous
The Offerings
These will depend on the season. People may bring flowers, herbs, crystals, fruit or vegetables (see each separate festival for individual symbols) and these can be added to a large wicker basket handed round the group, each person adding a blessing. The basket can then be taken to the centre by the final person to add an offering.
Alternatively, each individual can carry his or her own offerings to set around the fire/central candle or of there is a stone in the centre to hand the tribute the a person appointed as guardian of the stones. For each gift a pledge can be made, perhaps to spend more time with a difficult relation or work hard to master necessary computer skills and in return the giver can ask for a blessing or help.
The Group Seasonal Rite
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The myth can be concluded, eg Brighid giving a ring to a male/another female as token that he/ she is sovereign of the land and has responsibilities. Others can come to the centre and begin to dig the earth
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Then every person is united in the rite, at Imbolc perhaps the passing round of a bowl of milk with ice cubes that each person stirs and asks for a particular blockage or stagnation to melt, at the Midwinter Solstice the extinguishing and relighting of lanterns; or everyone lighting a taper or a small pumpkin from a central flame/fire at Samhain.
Closing the Rite
First the ancestors and the Shining Ones can be thanked by the ritual leader standing in the centre and the door closed this time with three softer bangs and a ‘Blessings be’ from everyone between each knock.
The gateways can be closed in reverse order, again with thanks and with a repetition of `May there be peace in the East etc’ as the circle once more face the different directions, followed by a central facing communal chant: ‘May there be peace throughout the whole world.’
Finally the circle can join hands again, perhaps reciting ‘May the circle remain unbroken in our hearts and in our lives, blessings be’ or a simple repetitive chant of farewell, so people that do not just drift away with a sense of anti-climax.
It is good is everyone can be given a small symbol to take away, a small spring of holy and mistletoe at the Mid - Winter Solstice, some fruit or nuts at the Autumn Equinox etc., perhaps again passed round in a basket.
Finally the group can be invited to meet for refreshments, a bring and share meal or a local hostelry and perhaps songs and discussion; someone again needs to go ahead to act as greeter while you clear the site and make private blessings and prayers.
You can easily carry out the seasonal rituals alone or just with one or two people, recalling the myths and opening the individual gateways by circling the Wheel. It may be easier in a small group or individually to work cross-circle, so that the gates are opened following the order: ‘May there be peace in the North, South, West and East’ and then `throughout the whole world’ as you weave your paths through the elemental circle.
Every ceremony is unique, but you may like to make notes in your journal of chants or actions that were especially effective. If any strangers as often happens, wandered to join your ceremony, spend time with them afterwards as they may have many questions and you may find they would welcome being put in touch with a Druidic or pagan organisation.