Here the God dwells with the Goddess, now the ‘hag’, the queen of the underworld. Through understanding these mysteries of nature, the God reaches a state of mystical enlightenment and enters the underworld. Reincarnation and the spiral of life are strong themes too: seed and grain, life and death, womb and tomb.

If for pagans the spring equinox represents a sexual union, the autumn equinox is a mystical one. Read more about: Popular Culture When is the autumn equinox in 2023? It aligns broadly with traditional European harvest festivals which give thanksgiving and historically celebrate a successful cereal harvest and the filling of food stores for the winter. This falls sometime between 21st and 24th September. It is also known as Harvest Home, and to modern Druids as Alban Elued (‘light of the water’). It is the opposite point on the wheel to the spring equinox (Ostara) and is one of the four ‘lesser sabbats’. The autumn equinox, or Mabon, is the second of the wheel’s three harvest festivals. The God moves from being the Lord of Light, which he is until Lammas, to the Dark Lord of Death, which he will be throughout the darkening half of the year.Ĭeltic pagans mark the festival by making corn dollies and Wiccans bake bread in the shape of the God. Opposite on the wheel to Imbolc, at Lammas the God sacrifices himself before the Goddess, her sickle slaying him and his blood spilling onto the land to ensure its continuing fertility in the next Wheel of the Year.

Lammas comes from the Anglo-Saxon word meaning ‘loaf-mass’. Lughnasadh (‘gathering of Lugh’, in Irish), or Lammas, is one of the four ‘greater sabbats’ and the first of the year’s harvest festivals, along with Mabon and Samhain. Read more about: Popular Culture Weird and wonderful traditions to welcome the summerĪt dawn on the longest day, at Stonehenge, the two stones which are located outside of the main circle, called the Heel Stone and the Slaughter Stone (now prone), channel the sun in alignment and the first rays hit the centre of the circle. The entire Stonehenge site is laid out in relation to the winter and summer solstices. This taking on of power by the God as the Sun King and the end of his youthful days running in the greenwood represents the strength and power of the sun over the summer months, though pagans also remember that the God’s path is downhill now (the shortening of days until Yule).įor modern Druids and many other groups, Stonehenge is the focal point of the summer solstice celebration (which Druids call Alban Heruin, ‘light of the shore’).

The God has reached the zenith of his power (the summer solstice being the longest day of the year) and the dawn of the 21st June (or thereabouts) is his crowning glory. The summer solstice, or Litha, is one of the four ‘lesser sabbats’ and the high point of the solar year. Traditionally, on May Eve, hilltop herdsmen, driving their livestock out to summer pastures, would force the animals through two large bonfires, protecting the cattle from evil.īeltane and Samhain are the points in the year where the veil between this world and the Otherworld was at its thinnest, enabling comingling and communication between the living and the dead. Read more about: Ancient History The most important Celtic gods and goddesses

Broom standing up summer solstice pagan