SILVER CAULDRON celebrates solar holidays, as set by the Wheel of the Year, which is based on an agricultural calendar, common to the Celtic peoples of an earlier time.  Our day begins as sundown, and our customs and rituals reflect our understanding.  We do not speak for Wicca or Pagans as a whole.

 SAMHAIN, (pronounced Sow-in)celebrated from sundown October 31 until sundown November 1, is our New Year’s. This is the third of the harvest festivals, when the last harvest is reaped. This is the time that the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead, the seen and the unseen, are the thinnest.  We seek to honor our beloved dead, to communicate with them and to prepare ourselves for the new year.  We journey to the Summerland, the place of the Dead, and invite some to join us in our circle. We scry to learn about the coming year, and celebrate the connections between ourselves and our world.

YULE, or Winter Solstice, celebrates the return of the Sun after the longest night of the year.  At this festival, to honor the Sun Child, we encourage our children to share food, fun and laughter.  Often LaBefana, an Italian “Santa” woman, comes to our celebrations with stories and gifts for all.

IMBOLC, celebrated on February l, celebrates the seed still sleeping in the earth.  This festival is sacred to Brigid, the goddess of smithcraft, water and poetry.  We look within ourselves and one another and discover the beautiful gifts and talents that are planted within us, to be nurtured to growth in the coming year.

OSTARA, or the Spring Equinox, celebrates new life.  We use symbols of eggs and rabbits and new borne animals.  Our children are encouraged to speak to the earth and encourage her to bloom.  They often dress as fairies and bring blessings to us and to our world.

BELTAINE, or May Eve, rejoices in the fertility of the land and the people.  We celebrate the joy of living in bodies and being connected to our land and to one another.  We pledge ourselves anew to respect for our world’s ecology and our own place in it.  Some will privately enact the Great Rite, drawing down the Goddess and the God to insure fertility.

LITHA, or Summer Solstice, brings the longest day of the year.  The crops are coming forth from the land and the people look to a great harvest.  We celebrate the wedding of the Goddess and the God, or the people and the land.  The Goddess, the great Gaia, is pregnant with live-giving plenty. Our children celebrate the power of life, and often arts or crafts are performed to catch and direct that power.

LAMMAS, or Lughnasad, is the first of the harvest festivals and is celebrated on August 1.  Here the God, who is in the corn and the grain, is first sacrificed that the people may eat and live. We begin to look to the waning of the year.  We may make poppets, or corn shuck dolls, that we imbue with our energy, both pleasant and challenging.  As the poppet dries over the next months, we continue to remember that spirit is eternal, but the seasons constantly change.

MABONE, or Autumn equinox, is the second of the harvest festivals.  Time is again balanced, and we explore the mystery of the Apples.  When we cut them sidewise, the five pointed star of our Goddess, and of ourselves, is revealed.  We and our children eat of half of our apple.  We remember what we wish to keep from this year.  Then we blow into the other half what we wish to leave behind.  We bury or burn that half, giving back to the Goddess that she may transform the energy for good.

We hope that you will be curious and seek to learn more about our faith and practice. Many excellent books are available, and most Witches will be glad to talk (probably at greater length than you wish!) if you give them the chance!

Blessed be!