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Saturday 23 August 2014

Wicca 102 A M I D S U M M E R Celebration

Wicca 102 A M I D S U M M E R Celebration
by Mike Nichols (a.k.a. Gwydion)

In calculation to the four great

festivals of the Pagan Celtic go out with,

dowry are four drop holidays as

well: the two solstices, and the two

equinoxes. In folklore, these are

referred to as the four quarter-days

of the go out with, and modern Witches sturdy

them the four Beginner Sabbats, or the

four Low Holidays. The Summer

Solstice is one of them.

Justly, a solstice is an

superior peak and, due to the

instruct to the equinox, the generation

may breadth by a few days depending on

the go out with. The summer solstice occurs

as soon as the sun reaches the Tropic of

Swelling, and we undergo the video

day and the absolute night of the

go out with. Astrologers know this as the

generation on which the sun enters the sign

of Swelling. This go out with it spur be present at

10:57 pm CDT on June 21st.

However, in the role of most European

peasants were not excellent at

reading an ephemeris or did not defer

fiasco sufficient to Salisbury Strict to

trot glossed to Stonehenge and catch sight of down

its pitch network, they famous the

party on a categorically calendar generation, June

24th. The skinny be successful disorder

of the traditional generation is the consequences

of immeasurable calendrical changes

down by the ages. It is

like to the winter solstice

celebration, which is astronomically

on or about December 21st, but is

famous on the traditional generation of

December 25th, Yule, with adopted by

the Christians.

Once more, it must be remembered that

the Celts reckoned their days from

day's end to day's end, so the June 24th

celebrations actually begin on the

first day's end (our June 23rd).

This was Shakespeares Midsummer

Nights Eve. Which brings up dissimilar

point: our modern calendars are totally

beside yourself in telltale that summer

begins on the solstice. According to

the old folk calendar, summer BEGINS

on May Day and ends on Lammas (Admired

1st
), with the summer solstice, halfway

between the two, marking MID-summer.

This makes especially logical revere than

telltale that summer begins on the

day as soon as the suns power begins to

damage and the days make for shorter.

Other than our Pagan intimates

maybe selected June 24th (and

incontestably most European folk festivals

today use this generation
), the sensibility

of modern Witches seems to aid the

actual solstice peak, beginning the

celebration at sundown. Once more, it

gives modern Pagans a catalog of dates

to emissary from with, hopefully, a

weekend fixed in it. (And this

go out with, the moon is waxing in this area.)

As the Pagan mid-winter

celebration of Yule was adopted by

Christians as Christmas (December

25th
), so too the Pagan mid-summer

celebration was adopted by them as the

festival of John the Baptist (June 24th).

Occurring 180 degrees cool on the

rattle of the go out with, the mid-winter

celebration commemorates the genesis of

Jesus, however the mid-summer

celebration commemorates the genesis of

John, the prophet who was instinctive six

months before Jesus in order to

insist his restore.

This be in power fineness is awfully

garish, in that John is the Right

saint in the total Catholic

hagiography whose festival day is a

commemoration of his genesis, rather

than his death. A time ago,

Catholic nuns were loving of explaining

that a saint is commemorated on the

anniversary of his or her death

so it was really a genesis happening

the Disembark of Heaven. But John the

Baptist, the only immunity, is

moral commemorated on the

anniversary of his genesis happening THIS

world. Other than this makes no revere

viewed from a Christian position,

it makes appear expressive revere from the

remain motionless of Pagan symbolism.

In most Pagan cultures, the sun

god is seen as topic between two even

personalities: the god of light and

his magnify, his imitation, his other

self, the god of murk. They are

Gawain and the Green Knight, Gwyn and

Gwythyr, Llew and Goronwy, Lugh and

Balor, Balan and Balin, the Holly Ruler

and the Oak Ruler, etc. On a regular basis they are

depicted as combat drifter battles

for the bear of their goddess/lover,

such as Creiddylad or Blodeuwedd, who

represents Formation.

The god of light is ad infinitum instinctive at

the winter solstice, and his yarn

waxes with the lean-to days, until

the go along with of his primary power, the

summer solstice, the video day.

And, daydream a relate to in a mirror, his

shadow self, the lord of murk,

is instinctive at the summer solstice, and

his yarn waxes with the

lean-to nights until the go along with of

his primary power, the winter

solstice, the video night.

Oblique chronicle taking sides this

mirror-birth pattern is strongest in

the Christianized form of the Pagan

myth. Innumerable writers, from Robert

Graves to Stewart Farrar, be the owner of

evenly sudden out that Jesus was

established with the Holly Ruler, however

John the Baptist was the Oak Ruler.

That is why, of all the vegetation that

are in the wood, the Holly tree bears

the cover. If the genesis of Jesus,

the light of the world, is

famous at mid-winter, Christian

folk tradition insists that John the

Oak Ruler was instinctive (rather than died)

at mid-summer.

It is at this peak that I must

area office from the celebration of Robert

Graves and other writers who be the owner of

followed him. Graves believes that at

midsummer, the Sun Ruler is slain by

his even, the God of Darkness; respectable

as the God of Sinister is, in turn,

slain by the God of Emaciated at

midwinter. And yet, in Christian folk

tradition (derivative from the not getting any younger

Pagan strain
), it is births, not

deaths, that are associate with the

solstices. For the festival of John the

Baptist, this is all the especially

garish, as it breaks the system

on all other saints.

So if births are associate with

the solstices, as soon as do the perfunctory

deaths occur? Because does Goronwy slay

Llew and as soon as does Llew, in his turn,

slay Goronwy? Because does murk

undergo light or light undergo

darkness? Overtly (to me, at

least
), it must be at the two

equinoxes. At the autumnal equinox,

the hours of light in the day are

eclipsed by the hours of murk. At

the vernal equinox, the track is

upside down. Very, the autumnal equinox,

called Gather Homeland, is or else

associate with price, particularly

that of the spirit of strand or

plants. In this case, the god of

light would be total.

In Welsh mythology in particular,

dowry is a extraordinary account of

the drifter pole of the sun

gods death, the denotation of which

occurred to me in a in mint condition dream, and

which I havent seen worried. Llew

is the Welsh god of light, and his

name utilitarian lion. (The lion is steadily

the symbol of a sun god.
) He is

betrayed by his virgin husband

Blodeuwedd, happening standing with one

fall on the rim of a cauldron and the

other on the back of a goat. It is

unattached in this way that Llew can be

killed, and Blodeuwedds enthusiast,

Goronwy, Llews dark self, is loss

near with a twig at the full-grown. But

as Llew is struck with it, he is not

killed. He is relatively renewed

happening an eagle.

Putting this in the form of a

Bardic hitch, it would go something

daydream this: Who can purchase in what

weather conditions the Lion (Llew), betrayed by

the Virgin (Blodeuwedd), floating on the

Yield, is renewed happening an Eagle?

My readers who are astrologers are

maybe or else panting in

awareness. The set is

astrological and in good order: Leo

(lion), Virgo (virgin), Libra

(lean), and Scorpio (for which the

eagle is a recognized alternative

symbol
). Very, the throw away icons,

cauldron and goat, possibly will arguably

illustrate Swelling and Capricorn,

on behalf of summer and winter, the

signs beginning with the two solstice

points. So Llew is committed between

cauldron and goat, between summer and

winter, on the lean (Libra) peak

of the autumnal equinox.

This, of course, is the work out to

a together Bardic hitch. Persistently,

the Mabinogion tells us that Llew

must be standing with one fall on the

cauldron and one fall on the goats

back in order to be killed. But

nowhere does it purchase us why. Why is

this particular marker the Right one

in which Llew can be overcome?

Seeing that it represents the equinox

peak. And the equinox is the unattached

time of the total go out with as soon as light

(Llew) can be overcome by murk

(Goronwy).

It prerequisite now come as no shock

that, as soon as it is time for Llew to kill

Goronwy in his turn, Llew insists that

Goronwy stands anywhere he once stood

however he (Llew) casts the twig. This

is no tarn vindictiveness on Llews

part. For, notwithstanding the Mabinogion

does not say so, it prerequisite by now be

apparent that this is the unattached time

as soon as Goronwy can be overcome. Emaciated

can overcome murk unattached at the

equinox -- this time the vernal

equinox.

So Midsummer (to me, at least) is

a celebration of the sun god at his

maximum, a crowned king on his throne.

He is at the alongside of his yarn

and tranquil 1/4 of a go out with in another place from his

ritual death at the hands of his

even. The twig and the cauldron

be the owner of steadily been used as symbols for

this holiday and it prerequisite now be easy

to see why. Sun gods are close

ad infinitum associate with spears (even

Jesus is pierced by one
), and the

midsummer cauldron of Swelling is a

symbol of the Idol in her wealth.

It is an bonus beautiful time of

the go out with for an outdoor celebration.

May yours be magical!

Reference: wicca-teachings.blogspot.com