The Wiccan Wheel of the Year: A Witch's Guide to Celebrating the Wiccan Sabbats

By Didi Clarke

The Complete Guide to Celebrating Wiccan Holidays Magickally and Authentically

 

Don't just learn about the eight Wiccan holidays--experience them firsthand for yourself! The Wiccan Wheel of the Year: A Witch's Guide to Celebrating the Wiccan Sabbats is a complete guide to crafting magickal celebrations that are authentic and filled with fun!

 

Create Authentic Holiday Celebrations Like an Expert Witch

 

Within the pages of The Wiccan Wheel of the Year, you'll discover both how and why we commemorate these special days, as well as tips for putting what you've learned into practice with your own original holiday celebrations. 

 

For each of the eight Wiccan holidays you'll learn:

➤ The origins of the holiday

➤ Upcoming dates for the holiday

➤ Holiday correspondences

➤ How to get into the holiday spirit

➤ A unique celebration ritual

➤ A magick spell that emphasizes the holiday's themes

 

Holiday celebrations should be meaningful, memorable, and magickal--and this comprehensive how-to guide will make that a reality for you! 

 

Rediscover the Natural Rhythms of Life With the Wiccan Holidays

 

As modern people, it's easy to feel disconnected from the natural, recurring rhythms of life. 

 

The Wiccan Wheel of the Year will show you how the eight Wiccan holidays can structure and give meaning to your life by embracing the changing seasons that the holidays symbolize and celebrate. 

 

This is a guidebook for Wiccans other spiritual seekers who want to celebrate the recurring cycles of life in a way that feels natural, empowering, and a little bit witchy! 

Experience the Magick All Year Long--Buy The Wiccan Wheel of the Year today!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Didi Clarke
• Release date: Aug 31, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201514976

Book preview

THE WICCAN WHEEL OF THE YEAR

A Witch’s Guide to Celebrating the Wiccan Sabbats

By Didi Clarke

©2021 Explore Wicca

All Rights Reserved

Disclaimer:

This book is for educational and entertainment purposes only. It does not constitute medical, psychological, financial, or other forms of professional advice. Seek professional advice if necessary. When performing these spells or rituals, your results may vary from those described within. The author is not responsible for any actions taken or the results of those actions after reading the contents of this book.

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1: A JOURNEY ACROSS THE WICCAN CALENDAR

CHAPTER 2: THE BASICS OF THE WICCAN HOLIDAYS

CHAPTER 3: IMBOLG

CHAPTER 4: OSTARA

CHAPTER 5: BELTANE

CHAPTER 6: LITHA

CHAPTER 7: LAMMAS

CHAPTER 8: MABON

CHAPTER 9: SAMHAIN

CHAPTER 10: YULE

CHAPTER 11: MAKE THE MOST OF THESE SPECIAL OCCASIONS

CHAPTER 1: A JOURNEY ACROSS THE WICCAN CALENDAR

Welcome to The Wiccan Wheel of the Year: A Witch’s Guide to Celebrating the Wiccan Sabbats!

Holidays play an important role in the world of Wicca. In fact, our entire year is structured around these eight, seasonal celebrations. Each one represents different themes that, when taken together, symbolize the ever-changing cycles of life.

I created this book to help educate and excite readers about these sacred days. Learning about them is important, but it’s even more fulfilling to put what you’ve learned into practice. That’s why there is such a heavy emphasis in this book on ways that you can celebrate the holidays for yourself. Whether you want to follow the rituals and ideas I’ve provided or want to craft your own unique celebrations, you’ll find all the resources you need to make these holidays memorable and personal.

Before we dive right in, let’s take a look at what you can expect as you progress through The Wiccan Wheel of the Year.

What You’ll Find in This Book

Each chapter is dedicated to one of the eight Wiccan holidays. Within each chapter, you’ll find background information and tips about celebrating the sabbats authentically. Specifically, for each holiday you’ll learn:

•  A history of the holiday

•  Upcoming dates for the holiday

•  Correspondences that embody the energies of the holiday

•  Tips for getting into the holiday spirit

•  A unique celebration ritual

•  A magick spell that emphasizes the themes of the holiday

As you can see, The Wiccan Wheel of the Year is a crash course through all eight of the major Wiccan holidays. When you’re done with this book, you’ll know everything you need to understand why we celebrate the holidays like we do and how to create your own personalized celebrations.

We follow the Wheel of the Year to help put us more in touch with the natural cycles of life, which the Wiccan holidays closely mirror. So, in a way, these holidays are a celebration of life itself, and I’m excited to share in that journey and joy with you.

Let’s get started!

CHAPTER 2: THE BASICS OF THE WICCAN HOLIDAYS

Before we take a close look at the individual holidays, we need to cover some basics. This includes things like important terms and concepts, as well as what the holidays are and how they’re divided up.

The Wheel of the Year

The Wheel of the Year is a term that Wiccans use to refer collectively to the eight major holidays on our calendar. Each holiday represents an individual spoke on that wheel. And the imagery of a wheel was not just chosen at random—it has an important symbolic meaning.

As you’ll soon learn, the eight Wiccan holidays follow a cyclic pattern that mirrors the changing of the seasons and the movements of the sun. Each unique holiday emphasizes and celebrates the themes of whatever given season it is in.

And this cycle continues on, year after year in the same way that a wheel continues spinning without a defined beginning or end point. Like the earth and its seasons, the Wheel of the Year continues to spin, ever turning as a symbol of the eternal circle of life, death, and rebirth.

Sabbat

In this book, I also sometimes refer to these celebrations as sabbats. This is simply an alternative term that can be used interchangeably with the word holiday.

However, it’s important not to confuse the term sabbat with the similar-sounding Wiccan term esbat. While sabbat refers to any of the eight holidays on the Wheel of the Year, an esbat is a celebration on the night of a full moon.

An Overview of the Eight Wiccan Holidays

Before we get into the specifics of each sabbat, let’s take a general look at these important dates.

In a calendar year, the holidays appear in this order:

Imbolg

Ostara

Beltane

Litha

Lammas

Mabon

Samhain

Yule

You’ll notice I specified that this is the order they appear on the modern calendar, but not all Wiccans are in agreement about which holiday is the first of the year. Some consider Samhain as the Wiccan new year, while others would say the first official holiday is Yule.

Personally, I don’t emphasize any of the holidays as being the Wiccan new year. Don’t forget about the symbolism of the Wheel of the Year—a circle has no official beginning or end, and I tend to think of the cycle of holidays in the same way. Each moves seamlessly into the next one in an eternal flow.

Dividing Up the Holidays

We can take our list of eight holidays and divide them into two distinct groups—the fire festivals and the quarter days. In this section, we’re going to take a look at how these two groups differ.

The Fire Festivals

The four fire festivals of the year include Imbolg, Beltane, Lammas, and Samhain. What unites these four sabbats is their origins—our modern celebrations of these festivals are adapted from the four principal holidays of the ancient, pagan Celts.

Wiccans make no claim to be perfectly reconstructing the religious practices of these ancient people, but their holidays do inspire our own modern celebrations. We’ll take a deeper look at those inspirations in the individual chapters dedicated to these holidays.

The term fire festival arose because each