NEWS FLASH FOR ALL CELEBRATING WICCANS AND WITCANS...
YULE 2010 WILL FALL ON A FULL MOON! THIS IS SOMEWHAT RARE -- HAVING AN ESBAT AND A SABBAT COINCIDE -- SO START MAKING PREPARATIONS FOR YOUR COMBINED RITUALS NOW!
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On the request of Myrddin for one of his Seekers, I am posting the Witcan calendar as it appears in the Dragondarke Grimoire. I hope this helps with their current studies and if more detail or explanation is required, I'm available for further discussion. You know my number, Myrddin....
-- Lady Leananshae
THE WITCAN CELTIC CALENDAR
Month Duration Duration during Leap Years
BEITH November 1 - November 28 same
LUIS November 29 - December 26 same
FEARN December 28 -January 23 same
SAILLE January 24 - February 20 same
NUIN February 21 - March 20 2/22 - 3/21
HUATHE March 21 - April 17 3/22 - 4/18
DUIR April 18 - May 15 4/19 - 5/16
TINNE May 16 - June 12 5/17 - 6/13
COLL June 13 - July 10 6/14 - 7/11
MUIN July 11 - August 7 7/12 - 8/8
GORT August 8 - September 4 8/9 - 9/5
NGETAL September 5 - October 2 9/6 - 10/3
RUIS October 3 - October 31 10/4 - 10/31
This calendar uses the Celtic tree month names and is based on a Lunar calendar system, presuming a lunar month to be 28 days. Keep in mind that there are 13 Esbats in a year, thus giving us 13 "moonths", or moons. The average length of time between full moons in reality is more like 29.5 days, but we settle on the 28-day model in service to the Julian calendar's year length of 365 days, which finds its roots in a Solar, not Lunar, system. By using the 28-day model, we find that 13 moons x 28 days = 364. That leaves us with one day unclaimed by any month (and 2 days during Leap Years), and so we add that day to the end of Ruis and treat it like a day that is lost in time and potentially magickal in its nature. It is "our" day -- Samhain -- the day that all little children in the West call "Hallowe'en" and is known to be the day that witches may go abroad with impunity!
Witcan Seekers are expected to alter at least one printed Julian calendar by adding the Witcan Celtic dates, the dates for each Sabbat and Esbat to the listing of the days for the coming year. This is best done on Beith 1, the Witcan New Year's day, but can be done at any time during the year.
The Wiccan Sabbats according to the Witcan calendar:
Yule around Luis 23, but check your almanacs; Leap Years are the same
Imbolc Saille 10; Leap Years are the same
Ostara around Huathe 1, but check your almanacs; Leap Years, Huathe 2
Beltaine Duir 14; Leap Years, Duir 15
Litha around Coll 9, but check your almanacs; Leap Years, Coll 10
Lammas Muin 22; Leap Years, Muin 23
Mabon around Ngetal 17, but check your almanacs; Leap Years, Ngetal 18
Samhain Ruis 29; Leap Years, Ruis 30
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THE QUESTION OF HOW TO DATE THE FIRE FESTIVALS
As we know from our study of the Wiccan Sabbats, there are 8 Sabbats -- 4 Albans and 4 Fire Festivals. Our Wiccan teachers have explained to us that the Albans are the 4 Solstices and Equinoxes, which mark the beginnings/ends of Seasons. The Fire Festivals are the mid-seasons, that is, the height or depth of each of the 4 Seasons. It has occured to Witcan sensibilities that a "mid-Season" SHOULD fall on the day that is exactly at the middle of each Season, but when we do the math, we find that there is no rhyme or reason to the dates Wicca has assigned to the Fire Festivals:
On a year in which the Winter Solstice falls on December 22, there are 50 days between Samhain and Yule. In contrast, on a year in which the Winter Solstice falls on December 22, there are only 40 days between Yule and Imbolc. A season is 1/4 of a year, so a mid-season should equal 1/8 of a year and, when one does the math, 364 divided by 8 equals 45.5 days. Why is that math not applied to the Wiccan calendar of Sabbats? Why do Wiccans continue to use an obviously flawed view of the mid-Seasons? When we apply the correct math, this is how an improved Fire Festival Calendar could be calculated, just by using math, if we suppose that all the Albans in a certain year fell on the 22nd of the month they occur in:
Corrected Dates Wiccan Dates
Imbolc February 6th February 2nd
Beltaine May 7th May 1st
Lammas August 7th August 1st
Samhain November 7th October 31st
Even better than math, there is also the exacting astronomical method of ascertaining the correct dates for the Fire Festivals to consider: That is, calculating the mid-seasons, not with math, but with hard data collected by astronomers that tells us when the sun and earth have reached the mid-point between two Albans. I have found an amazing website that provides those dates and times at http://www.archaeoastronomy.com/2010.html, and it seems to me that science should prevail over tradition and the outmoded static dates for the Fire Festivals should be discarded and the CORRECT dates should be looked up each year and added to a Witcan's personally compiled Scholastic Almanac (which is among the list of suggested Witcan Holography). Part of the footnote on the pages of this online almanac reads:
"Cross-Quarter moments are interpolated as the midway points between the Solstices and Equinoxes measured in degrees along the ecliptic. Former NASA scientist Rollin Gillespie uses this spatial method rather than simply splitting in half the time interval between a Solstice and an Equinox."
This footnote confirms that astronomy can aid us in calculating the Fire Festivals so that we celebrate the REAL mid-seasons and is superior to only using math.
I took a long hard look at the dates based on astronomy's tracking of earth's ecliptical orbit around the sun, and after graphing out a 10-year period, from 2000-2009, to look for any patterns in the dates* for the Fire Festivals, this is what I discovered:
Imbolc Feb 3 60% / Feb 4 40% / Feb 2 0%
Beltaine May 5 70% / May 4 30% / May 1 0%
Lammas Aug 7 80% / Aug 6 20% / Aug 1 0%
Samhain Nov 7 60% / Nov 6 40% / Oct 31 0%
*based on US Eastern Standard Time
The Fire Festivals NEVER land on the days set for them by neo-pagan tradition. How each of you deals with this knowledge is up to you. I personally cannot find any reason to continue honoring a flawed and outdated calendar for the Fire Festivals, other than to avoid the work required to look up the astronomical mid-season dates, and feel very encouraged that science and math have clarified these matters for me. I only hope they've opened your eyes as well.
Let it enter the body of Heretical Tradition that, as covens, we celebrate the Fire Festivals on the dates which the reliable science of astronomy calculates them. So Say I!
-- Lady Leananshae
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A CASE FOR THE ABOLITION OR CORRECTION OF THE USE OF AN ARCHAIC SABBAT NAME
May I, ONCE AGAIN, express my total disgust for the ongoing use of the misnomer, "Midsummers" as an alternative name for Litha? Let's get real here people... Litha is the Summer Solstice, that is, the first day of Summer, NOT the middle of the Season!!! I don't care about the etymological or historical roots for the use of this name in the modern era, and I certainly am disinterested in hearing a case for "it's a quirky, fun word we feel nostalgic about". If nostalgia beats out HARD FACTS, then stay Wiccan. Or make the leap and start calling Lammas "Midsummers"... for Lammas IS the middle of Summer!
Witcans are compelled to remember that we are not people born in Shakespeare's England, yoked by archaic ideas and outdated uses of language, and it is not a part of a Witcan Path to defend "The Old Ways". Old is NOT necessarily "better" or "more interesting". Sometimes it's just plain ol' old, worn-out, stupid or incorrect. The very spirit of Witca charges its Seekers with discerning the legitimate, useful and important knowledge, wisdom and ideas handed down to us by our ancestors from the schlock some of them made up or got wrong along the way! We grow when we do... and so does Witca! So Say I!
-- Madame Lore
WEB RESOURCES:
If you REALLY want to know the science behind the Seasons and the Sabbats
http://www.archaeoastronomy.com/seasons.html