The days of warmth and light are here! Located roughly halfway between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice, Beltane represents for many Pagans the true start of summer as well as a day of celebrating the Earth’s fertility. In many Pagan circles it’s second only to Samhain—its opposite end—in importance.
In our annual megapost, we’ve gathered for you the full collection of this year’s articles at PaganSquare about Beltane and related subjects. Additionally, we’ve included some more posts we’ve gathered from around the web that we hope you’ll find interesting. May you have a happy summer! Blessed Be!
...it’s time for us to celebrate that particularly sacred time, the Spring Equinox, also known to many Pagans as Ostara! Representing the midpoint between the dark nights of winter and the long days of summer, the Equinox is the moment when the Earth’s equator lines up with the Sun. In some cultures it is regarded as the start of spring while others perceive it as the midpoint (with spring beginning around early February and ending in May).
For our annual megapost in celebration of the Equinox we’ve gathered all our relevant content from PaganSquare this year as well as some links from other sites we thought might be of interest. May the coming summer be filled with joy and exuberance for all of you and your loved ones!
It’s Imbolc today, the traditional Celtic celebration associated with the warming of the climate and the onset of lambing season as well as the Celtic fire goddess Brigit. Seen by ancient Celts as the start of spring it occupies the midway point between the Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox and is commonly associated with Groundhog Day, which traditionally takes place the day after.
For our annual megapost in celebration of Imbolc, we’ve gathered all of our content for Imbolc this year at PaganSquare as well as some links of interest from other sites. We wish you a merry Imbolc and hope the remaining days before the Equinox are warm for you and your families!
-Aryós Héngwis
EDIT:New posts made since yesterday evening have now been added to the list.
At long last, we’ve come to the valley of the year: the longest night, the middle of winter, and the apex of darkness. But as they so often say “it’s often darkest before the light” and cultures around the world have long celebrated midwinter with merry revelry, well aware that the Sun will soon return.
In our annual megapost for Yuletide, we’ve gathered as many stories as we could find about winter, seasonal merriment, and gift-giving for the holiday season. Many of the linked posts are from our own PaganSquare, but you’ll find plenty more if you feel inclined to look. We hope you and enjoy and wish you a very Merry Yule (and a Happy New Year’s)!
It’s that time of the year again: Samhain, undoubtedly many Pagans’ favorite festival is here and the veil is thinning. Time to get out your candles, dust off your broomsticks, and make the appropriate offerings to your deceased ancestors. It’s also, of course, Halloween, which is easily one of the most popular holidays in Western culture and therefore also a time for merry trick or treating, costuming, and creepy stories about ghosts and monsters.
In our annual megapost for Samhain, we’ve got plenty of both, both from PaganSquare as well as some of our favorite places on the web. Browse through to your heart’s content (though feel no compulsion to read them all), though be forewarned some content isn’t for the faint of heart!
-Aryós Héngwis
H/T to our blogger WeMoon for the wonderful Samhain image!
Greetings, fellow Witches and Pagans, and welcome to our annual marking of the time when light turns to dark. Though Samhain gets more of the attention, Mabon’s an important festival as well, marking the final gasps of summer and the beginning of the long descent into winter. It also marks the midpoint of the traditional harvest season, which begins with Lughnasadh and ends with Samhain.
As we are wont to do, we’ve gathered all of our content about this special time of the year as well as content from elsewhere we thought you’d find interesting. We hope you enjoy and wish you a merry autumnal season!
Welcome brethren, to the annual celebration of the growing season’s end and the harvest season’s beginning! Although perhaps not as widely known or celebrated as Samhain or Beltaine, Lughnasadh (also known as Lammas), remains an important component of the wheel of the year and an integral part of the annual sabbats, commemorating the point at which summer begins to transition to autumn.
As always, we’ve brought out a collection of content we thought would be of interest to all of you who follow us, some from Witches&Pagans, some from elsewhere. We hope you’ll enjoy!
Steven Posch
Back in the Paganolithic Era--as you may remember--we used to sing:
I circle around, I circle around/the boundaries of the Earth/the boundaries of th...
Anthony Gresham
The only song that comes to mind is America the Beautiful. There should be a special song to sing when seeing an eagle but I'm not musically inclined...
Kayly
Magazines can be read in peace, and the knowledge can be shared without anything going wrong, like loss of electricity or broken phone/tablet/iPad/lap...
Kayly
Hi Cerridwen Greenleaf; I didn't expect to find any fellow West Virginians here.
The title is Waning Moon Magic, while in the instructions it says to ...