THE SABBATS
By Claudia Haldane


At the most basic level, we work magic a the Sabbats to promote the health and 
fertility of living things, particularly the crops and domestic animals. The 
inward and personal effect of the Sabbat rites is to align us with the forces of 
nature, to balance those forces within us, to promote the steady growth of our 
skills and virtues, and to strengthen our own creative forces.

The rites are addressed to the Goddess in her character as Earth Mother, and to 
her Consort as Sun or Sky Father. These divinities by their nature provide rich 
soil and good weather in proper season, we work to strengthen and vitalize them. 
At times there may be particular directions we wish the power of the Gods to 
take, as when some stupid or evil human actions have created an imbalance, such 
as the pollution of a stream or the near-extinction of a species. We may then 
call the special attention of the Gods to these points.

Keep in mind that the earth and earthbound waters are the province of the 
Goddess. Weather and climate are ruled by the God.

The Wheel of the Year illustrates the Sabbats in relation to the Magic Circle. 
Each of the spokes in one of the Sabbats, the upright and horizontal one being 
the Quarter days, with the Cross-Quarter days in between. Their terminations 
show the stations of the Sabbats on the perimeter of the Circle: Ostara at the 
East, Beltane at the Southeast, and so forth. The altar for your Sabbat rites 
may be oriented according to this plan.

These notes place the celebrations in the middle latitudes of the North 
Temperate Zone. If you live farther north or south, you should adjust your rites 
to fit Nature; you will never work it the other way round. You shouls focus on 
what is actually happening in nature and agriculture at the time o fthe Sabbat 
in your own region.

THE CROSS-QUARTER DAYS

Beltane, Lugnassadh, Samhain, and Oimelc are older and more primitive then the 
Quarter Days. They are thought to derive from a hunting and gathering stage of 
human evolution. They seem to synchronize with certain reproductive cycles of 
animals.

Beltane and Samhain are the great Sabbats. The rule of the year is taken over by 
the Goddess at Beltane, and returns to the God at Samhain. In the coven, the 
High Priestess is supreme in the Goddess's half of the year while the High 
Priest reigns during the other half.

At these two feasts we say that the veil is thin between the worlds. They are 
the best times for divination and communicating with the dead, and the most 
powerful times for magic.

The Cross-Quarter Days represent the seasons at their height.

THE QUARTER DAYS

The Solstices and Equinoxes represent the beginnings of their seasons. They are 
solar feasts and are thought to have originated with the settled, grain-growing 
peoples who stayed in one place long enough to erect solar observatories. Some 
have concluded from this that the Quarter Days are strictly Druidic fire-feasts 
belonging to a patristic phase of civilization. More recent finding in 
archeology, however, lead to the conclusions that both the Quarter Days and the 
Dried orders originated in peaceful, Dionysian, gynocratic civilizations that 
flourished before the great days of Egypt, and that the Druids were originally a 
college of priestesses devoted to the Moon.

At the Quarter Days there is a more contemplative emphasis than you find in the 
other feasts. We evaluate and form new directions for our personal progress at 
these times. There is, of course, plenty of room for revelry, however.

THE RITES

The Sabbat rites should emphasize nature and rural life. This is in some ways 
even more important for city dwellers then for people who live in the country. 
It is so easy, living in the city, to lose touch with the source of our food and 
with the living environment.

In planning a particular Sabbat, look at the customs of the Xian feast that 
replaced it. You will be able to tell which of them derive from ancient pagan 
usage, or arise from the spirit of nature celebration.

Try to hold your rites in public if possible. The ideal would be to have a large 
audience viewing and to some extent participating in a serious magickal rite 
that is a colorful pageant as well, as was done at the Greek mysteries.

Spectators can be putting energy into the rite if you can tune their minds 
sympathetically. So make your rite as appealing as possible. The symbolism 
should be intelligible to spectators. It can be explained by a narrator or a 
printed sheet can be distributed. You must of course scale down this plan to fit 
the capability of your group.

Except at Yule, try to hold the rites outdoors. Have a contingency plan for bad 
weather.

If you cannot assemble a group, perform the rites solitary. This is one of your 
obligations as a follower of the Wiccan way. Do not, of course, attempt to 
celebrate full Sabbat rites if your are tired or weak. If you have only lately 
assumed your Cord, your first Sabbat rites can be simple and rudimentary.

Cast your Circle as usual. You need not use an altar, but try to have some 
symbols of the Sabbat in the Circle with you. Meditate upon the Sabbat and its 
meanings and associations. Then seek inspiration either through a receptive 
meditation or scrying. Note down whatever words, images or ideas come to you, 
and spend some time working them into a ritual that you will use at the Sabbat 
next year. When the creative flow fades, dismiss the Circle. More material may 
come to you in the days that follow.

A Sabbat rite is usually built around a central Solar fire. The altar is placed 
in the appropriate quarter, and the candles, usually five in number for the 
Elements dominate by Spirit, are of a seasonal color.

Some symbolic enactment of the basic ideas of the Sabbat should be included, and 
this may be augmented by an enactment of any of the myths belonging to that 
particular feast. The rite should relate to different levels: to nature, to 
agriculture, to the human spirit and human civilization, and to the great 
archetypal figures of gods and heroes. As always, the macrocosm should be linked 
to the macrocosm. Each Sabbat should show a development if the ideas that 
appeared in the previous one.