Extract from "Principles
of Druidry" by Emma Restall Orr, (Thorsons,
HarperCollins, 2000)
The Festivals of the
Seasons
While the solar festivals are fixed points
in the cycle of the year, the other four mark
the opening of a season : the energy of the
festival is evident throughout the three months
that follow until the next one looms, altered
by the solar turning point in the middle. Within
Pagan Druidry, they are most commonly known
by the Irish Gaelic names, Samhain, Imbolc,
Beltane and Lughnasadh. They are also known
as quarter days, lunar or fire festivals.
These festivals are not defined by precise
cosmic events. They are defined by the cycle
of nature herself, by the dance of the weather
gods and spirits of place. They require us not
to look to the heavens but to the earth. They
are set within our soul, watching the leaves
on the trees, the animals, insects, birds, feeling
the shifting temperature, the changing light,
within and around.
Samhain
Though the spelling of the Irish varies the
pronunciation tends to stay the same, so Samhain
is also seen as Samhuinn and Samain but is spoken
as sow-inn. The meaning is probably ‘summer’s
end’. The Welsh name is Calan Gaeaf, meaning
winter calends.
For those who measure by the seasons, Samhain
arrives with the first frost. Some plan their
rite around the full moon of Scorpio that passes
through Taurus. Those who work around a consistent
date celebrate Samhain on 1 November, the rites
beginning the evening before. The Pagan festival
has been overlaid by both the Christian Hallowe’en
and secular Guy Fawkes.
Medieval texts imply that Samhain was the
most important festival in Ireland, a time when
laws were made, kings instated. Yet also it
was a time of madness and danger when monsters
caused havoc and faery women bewitched young
men, enchanting them away. The Yellow Book of
Lecan refers to Samhain as ‘the feast
of Mongfind’, she being a legendary witch
queen said to have married an early high king
of Tara, implying that she was an incarnation
of the spirit of the land.
Traditionally at Samhain, livestock that would
not last the winter were slaughtered with ritual
thanks. Meat was cured, salted, put aside, and
the tables of the feast laden with bloodcake
and offal which could not be preserved, together
with the black berries and fruit of late autumn.
Samhain marks the end of summer and a cycle
of growth. It is a time of sacrifice.
Ahead is the winter and decisions need to be
made as to what we will carry through the long
cold months, what is redundant, what will not
survive, what must be protected and nurtured
as the source of next year’s wealth.
The festival rite is a process of letting
go, beginning with an acknowledgement of what
we have gained, how we have changed, who we
have become, followed by a period of mourning,
knowing what we must release - and effectively
letting go. The past is gone. At this time,
those who have died during the year are honoured
and gifts are given with love and thanks, perhaps
candles being lit and set to drift on water
symbolizing the journey travelled by the dead
over the ocean to the place of the setting sun.
That journey between the worlds, between life
and death, is at Samhain most easily made. Our
ancestors who would join the rite in peace are
invited to share and the feast is blessed and
offered to the earth, the spirits and all in
the circle.
Then is the darkness of winter welcomed in
and a period of release declared when chaos
is accepted. From this tradition trick o’
treating was reintroduced. Bonfires are lit,
the summer king burnt, fireworks set off. And
the feasting begins.
Imbolc
Imbolc or Imbolg, by the calendar, is celebrated
on 2 February. Pronounced im-olk, the meaning
is thought to refer to the ewes’ milk
which flows as lambs are born. Some mark the
time of Imbolc by the birth of the first lambs,
while others look for the first snowdrops. To
some it is the festival of the full moon of
Aquarius which passes before the constellation
of Leo.
In Welsh the festival is known as Gwyl Fair,
the feast of Mary, or the newer alternative
Gwyl Forwyn, the feast of the virgin, though
some Druids, even the Pagan, use the Christian
term Candlemas. In Ireland and parts of Scotland
it is the festival of Brigit, Bride or Brighid,
an ancient goddess whose worship was transferred
to a Christian saint.
It is the first festival of spring. The sun
child born in the depths of winter lifts his
face and the earth is touched with the first
rays of warmth. The fire of Imbolc is the tender
light of new life that flickers in the candles
of the rite, the forge of the metal-working
goddess who cleanses and re-forms our souls
ready for the year ahead, the fire of poetic
inspiration.
For many Druids it is the only one of the
festivals entirely focused on the feminine deity
and the rite is often powerfully gentle, woven
with poetry, the circle veiled in white expressing
the innocence of the child. We honour our mothers,
and our mothers’ mothers, with offerings
of thanks to all who have given us life. Plans
are shared, aspirations and dreams, still abstract
and wrapped in hope. White candles, planted
in a cauldron of earth or water (symbolizing
the body of the goddess or the waters of the
womb), are blessed and lit, infused with our
love, devotion, dreams and prayers.
Beltane
The spelling of this festival varies from Belteinne
to Bealtine, the most common being Beltane which
is closest to its pronunciation. The word can
be translated as the bright or fortunate fire
and some make the connection with the Irish
Balor, the Gaulish god Belenus and the Welsh
Beli Mawr, all ancestral deities associated
with light and fire. It is the first festival
of summer, celebrated by the calendar on 1 May,
the rites beginning the previous evening, or
on the full moon of Taurus as it passes through
Scorpio. Those who mark their quarter days by
the flows of nature celebrate with the first
pinky white blossoms of the hawthorn tree, also
known as the may.
In Welsh it is Calan Mai, the calends of May,
and in Welsh medieval literature many important
events take place at Calan Mai, the date featuring
in the same way that Samhain does in the Irish.
Demons stole new-born children, dragons fought
each other and the gates to the faery realm
were dangerously open.
In the Irish literature we are told that the
old gods, the Tuatha de Danaan, arrived in Ireland
at Beltane. Cormac’s Glossary (of around
900 CE) relates that all fires were extinguished
at Beltane to be rekindled from those lit by
Druids who chanted spells over them, infusing
them with magical properties. Cattle were driven
between twin fires on hilltops as a charm against
disease before being led to their summer pastures.
The Beltane rite in modern Druidry focuses
on fertility : for those wanting children, for
the land farmed and wild, for our own souls
and dreams. The earth has come alive with energy
bright and strong, the air is humming, filled
with the scent of flowers, the forest green
once more. The twin fires of the rite express
the duality of nature, the tension of opposites
craving union, the source of creativity.
The young sun god and the spring maiden have
grown to sexual maturity and the ritual is the
dance of their coming together. She is now the
May queen, with a crown of hawthorn, and he
comes to her as the lord of the wildwood, the
green man dressed in leaves or the sun god himself.
Their dance is infectious and they leap the
fires, blessing them with fertility, creativity
and good fortune, encouraging all who have gathered
to leap the flames and be blessed.
There are many folk customs around Beltane,
such as washing one’s face with dew before
dawn to bring beauty, picking certain herbs
said to inspire attraction, blessing the bees
who give us mead, the dance around the May pole,
the disappearing of couples into the forest
and fields to make love in the moonlight. It
is a time of music and dance, youthful energy
and freedom.
Lughnasadh
Lughnasadh, Lughnasad or Lugnasa, pronounced
loo-nass-ah, is the festival of the god Lugh.
In medieval Irish texts it is also referred
to as Bron Trogain or the first day of the Trogain
month, and is now commonly known as Lammas,
the Saxon word meaning loaf mass, or by the
Welsh term Gwyl Awst, meaning the feast of August.
The third festival of summer, it is the celebration
of the first harvest of our local staple grain,
usually wheat or barley. Some hold their rites
on the full moon of Leo as it passes through
Aquarius. By the calendar Lughnasadh is 1 August.
However the festival was celebrated, and it
appears to have differed across Britain and
Ireland, it is always the celebration of the
first fruits of the harvest. There were fairs
(the most documented being at Tailtin/Teltown
in Ireland), the making of straw figures, the
dressing or decoration of wells with prayers,
horse races and other games. Those in search
of work would be hired for the year, rents and
other legal disputes would be settled, and marriages
made.
The season of growth since Beltane has come
to its end and we enter the season of reaping.
Myths are often played out during the Lughnasadh
rites, where the corn king offers himself up
to be sacrificed and is reborn as the loaf of
newly baked bread. The grain is also taken to
make ale, the straw used for bedding through
the winter to come. The summer is waning. The
power of the sun god has been given into the
yellow corn.
The sacrifice of the king was at one time
very real, as blood was offered back to the
gods who have given us the grain. The focus
of the rite now is still this weave of exuberant
life and release to death. It is both a celebration
of what we have sown and nurtured that is now
come to fruition, and an acknowledgement of
its dying as it dries in the heat of summer,
giving itself up to our needs. The hard work
of harvesting must be done, with acceptance
of our responsibility for gathering it in. After
the grain the dark fruits and berries will ripen,
bringing an altogether different energy to the
feasts to come.
Lughnasadh is often the biggest of the festivals,
with people travelling from far and wide to
share the joys of their harvest, bringing music
and food, trading crafts and stories.
One of the festivals will be coming up in the
next month or so from the time of your reading
this chapter. Which one is it? What season are
we in? What is happening to the energy of the
land and how does that relate to the energy
of your body and soul? How would you like to
celebrate the coming festival?
Also check: Festivals
of the Sun
