I’m often asked about Wiccan holidays recognised as part of this spiritual path and people usually mean the seasonal festivals that witches know as Sabbats.  These are often marked with Bank Holidays and national holidays because the traditional Sabbat days coincide with the dates of most Christian (and other religious) festivals.   When Christianity was introduced to a Pagan British Isles, many of the Sabbats were overlayed with a similar festival to make the introduction of another spiritual faith integrate easier into culture.  For example, Samhain/ All Souls Eve, Yule/Christmas, Imbolc/Candlemas, Oestara/Easter and Madron/Harvest Festival.

Witches’ Sabbats

So here’s a description of all our Sabbats that those practising the art of Wicca and Witchcraft traditionally follow.

There are eight Sabbats altogether which comprise the Witches’ Wheel of the Year.  The festivals vary in importance and are divided into two groups of four major Sabbats  and four lesser Sabbats.

The Four Major Sabbats

Samhain: 31 October

Imbolc: 2 February

Beltane: 1 May

Lammas: 1 August

These comprise the ancient fire festivals and are often celebrated by witches with a small ritual fire outside or more simply with candles.  These four represent the major parts of the Witches’ year with Samhain being the most important as the start of the New Year.  At Imbolc, new life is stirring under the last frosts of Winter, Beltane the heat of the sun can be felt and the first blossoms bloom, Lammas sees the harvests gathered and Samhain sees the year come full circle again.

The Four Lesser Sabbats

Yule: 21 December

Oestara: 21 March

Litha: 21 June

Madron: 21 September

The lesser Sabbats are the two solstices of Yule and Litha, Winter’s shortest day and Summer’s longest day and the two equinoxes of Oestara and Madron where day and night are equal in length.

Click the individual names of these Wiccan holidays or festivals to find out more about how I, and other witches, celebrate these special times of our year.

Mabon ritual and walk

Here we are again almost at this wonderful, enchanting time of year.  I went for a long walk yesterday with my husband and new baby!  Well, he’s now five months old but he still feels very new to me!

For the first time this year I felt the chill of autumn, not that this summer’s been that balmy by any means, rather cool in fact.  Indeed there’s been plenty of days in our cool July where I’ve thought, “when summer arrives I’ll do this, that and this…” only to realise that we were half way though it already with the summer solstice been and gone!

I guess, because I do like a bit of heat (as long as there’s some relief like a cold shower to cool off!), I’m not fully ready for the season to turn yet.  That is until I went for my walk yesterday!

I became captured by Mabon’s enchantment once again.  All along the wooded path there were little pieces of autumn scattered on the ground.  Where chestnut trees grew, their leaves lay golden brown along the ground, the first to green in the spring and the first to turn at Mabon time.  Hazel nuts, acorns, damsons and berries black and red were sprouting everywhere I looked, conjuring visions of me with jam pan aboiling on the stove!  I do love a good jam bubbling away, especially a brightly coloured one like damson, rosehip or hawthorn berry.

This particular walk was a new discovery, a wonderful new woodland path to take and right on my doorstep.  Epona was evident when we met a beautiful Norwegian Fjord horse and rider cantering through the trees sending earth and leaves scattering.  Exhilarating!

At the end of the path we came across a circle of ash trees surrounded by oak and hawthorn, a powerful place for an outdoor Mabon ritual encircled by the guardians of oak, ash and thorn.

So, by the end of my outing I returned with a renewed enthusiasm for Summer’s end, already mentally designing my Mabon ritual, incense wafting and jam bubbling.

I did a Mabon ritual this year at a lovely sacred place called Sancreed holy well.  But, along with all the witchcraft supplies needed for the ritual I have also learned to take a rubbish bag with me, and not just for any left over items of my own.

Unfortunately, many times at sacred sites where witch craft spells and rituals have taken place, some practitioners (not all I hasten to add) tend to leave non-degradable items like wax and metal tea light holders behind.

I am always bewildered by this because it’s so obvious these items don’t go away!  They just stay there until either the elements blow them elsewhere or someone tidies them away.

If needed, I have a clear up when I visit one of these sacred places and it saddens me that non-degradable offerings get left with no regard to the environment or for other beings that live there.

Wax is toxic and doesn’t go away.  Nor does metal.

The best offerings to leave are flowers and fruit, especially locally grown ones and seasonal fruit like apples, plums, blackberries.  Rosehips and hawthorn berries are also attractive to leave if the time of year allows.

The subtle beings of the sacred places will appreciate such gifts.

Here’s the yummy incense recipe I used for  my Celtic Mabon sabbat ritual this year.  It’s from the brilliant Scott Cunningham’s book “Incense, Oils and Brews”.  The title always makes me tingle.  I love the word brews!

I have a gorgeous cherry wood pestle and mortar I use for all my incense and grinding needs.  When I’m making each incense, I magickally charge it with whatever it’s use is destined for, whether a magic spell for a need or a simple offering of thanks.

I am always alone, focused on my goal and either in silence or speaking out loud of my intent for the mixture or to the living residing behind each ingredient.  This gives it its potency of course, otherwise how does it have a potency!

Mabon Incense Recipe

2 Parts Frankincense resin
1 part Sandalwood splinters
1 part Cypress
1 part Juniper – I used berries
1 part Pine – I used needles and tiny pieces of pine wood
½ part Oakmoss – I substituted this with 2 drops patchouli essential oil
1 pinch pulverised oak leaf

I did a lovely ritual in Cornwall for this year’s Mabon sabbat.

Off I went to Sancreed holy well, a beautiful walk over the beacon with incredible views of St Michael’s Mount and the sea.

The well is nestled in a grove of many different trees, holly, sycamore, rhododendron to name but a few.  Hanging over the well is an ancient hawthorn tree bedecked with clouties.   It adds a real feeling of sacredness to the place and also ancientness being that so many witches and pilgrims have trodden the well worn path before me.

The well has steep steps leading down into it, about five,  which are moss covered so you need to watch your step on the descent!

The granite walls surrounding the well are also covered in luminous moss which does actually glow in the dark and they provide many little nooks to place offerings upon.  There were many already there when I arrived – crystals, wooden twig pentagrams, and unfortunately a few non-degradable items like wax and metal tea light holders, some of which were floating in the well water itself.  I can never help but clear up these.

After sitting and absorbing the ancient and magickal feeling of this place, I got my ritual witchcraft supplies to the ready.  I lit my charcoal disc using the cave-like enclosure of the well to shelter my flame from the wind and popped onto the bed of salt in my censer.  I can never help but blow on it to hurry up the spread heat across the disc, impatient Arien that I am!

Now time for my homemade, magickally charged Mabon incense I made.  Yum!  I called the quarters, Goddess and God and made a large circle around the expanse of the sacred site then sprinkled on the first of my incense.  Sweet, woody, Mabon charged smoke billowed from the censer casting its honour around the place, mixing with the light wind and Autumn leaves falling.

As I offered it to the sabbat of Mabon in large sweeping circles, I voiced out loud thanks to the season of abundance, for the Goddess Earth who provides nourishment to me and others.  I also wished well the many witches who have gone before me, both to this place and generally those who have practiced the Craft sometimes at great risk to their personal safety.

I honoured the local devas and subtle beings who inhabit this sacred place.

I asked for continued openness to my personal learning both on this path of Witchcraft and in life even though the lessons may sometimes be hard to swallow.  To be open to the waves of happiness and distress that wash over me in life and to always have the awareness that I am the creator of my circumstances but that my divine guardians and well wishers are ever present with me, holding me as I move forward.

Lastly, along with the incense which I kept adding throughout the ritual, I offered an apple as a token of appreciation which I placed in a little mossy nook just inside the opening of the well’s wall.

I brought my Mabon ritual to a close, thanked everyone who had been present, released the quarters and thanked the Divine’s presence.

Blessed be the Sabbats which allow us the opportunity to stop, be and recognise.

Mabon is classed as one of the lesser sabbats which are Celtic festivals honoured by witches and Pagan and Wiccan practitioners.  Whatever stage the moon’s cycle, full or new moon, these ancient Celtic festivals of Imbolc, Ostara, Beltane (Beltaine), Litha, Lammas (Lughnasadh), Mabon (Madron), Samhain and Yule are honoured by thousands each year, following in the footsteps of the Celts.