This file contains 9 seasonal articles by Mike Nichols.  They may befreely distributed provided that the following conditions are met: (1)No fee is charged for their use and distribution and no commercial useis made of them; (2) These files are not changed or edited in any waywithout the author's permission; (3) This notice is not removed.  Anarticle may be distributed as a separate file, provided that thisnotice is repeated at the beginning of each such file.These articles are periodically updated by the author; this version iscurrent as of 9/28/88.INTRODUCTION TO THE SABBATS===========================by Mike Nichols**************************************************Thank you for the days,Those endless days, those sacred days you gave me.I'm thinking of the days,I won't forget a single day, believe me.                                --Ray Davies                                  the Kinks**************************************************        The most important thing to understand about the eightWitchcraft Sabbats is that they are not man-made.  By this, I mean that theyare not holidays in the same way that Independence Day is a holiday, i.e. acalendar anniversary of some date that has a special importance in history.Indeed, the Sabbats of Witchcraft do not commemorate any historical eventand are, as we shall see, almost antithetical to the concept of history.Nor are they randomly chosen holidays to observe some social institution, suchas Mother's Day.  No, the eight Sabbats of Witchcraft were not man-madebecause they existed long before man was made.  Or woman.  Or thedinosaurs.  Or life on this planet.  Indeed, these eight holidays might besaid to be as old as the Earth itself.  They might not have been called"sabbats" then, but they were there just the same.        The reason these holidays are so old is because they are a basicpart of how the Earth works.  Consequently, these holidays are not of history;they are of Nature.  You see, we happen to live on a beautiful blue-greenplanet that spins on its axis.  And that axis is tilted, slightly, to theplane of the Earth's orbit around the sun.  The practical upshot of all thisis that once a year, we have a night that is the longest night of the year,accompanied by the shortest day.  When the hours between sundown and sunup arethe greatest, and the hours between sunup and sundown are least.  And wecall this time the "Winter Solstice".  And exactly opposite it on the wheel ofthe year, we have its opposite, the longest day of the year, and theshortest night.  And we call this time the "Summer Solstice".        And having got this far in our analysis of the planet's yearlycycle, it becomes easy to spot two more days that are similar and equallyimportant.  Each Spring, there comes a day when the hours between sunriseand sunset are exactly equal to the hours between sunset and sunrise.  Andwe call this the "Vernal Equinox".  Likewise, there comes a day each Fall whenthe hours of darkness and the hours of daylight are exactly in balance.  Andwe call this the "Autumnal Equinox".  It cannot be overstressed that theimportance of these four days lies in the fact that nobody "made them up";rather, they are simply a part of how this planet works.        It is reasonable to assume that even the most primitive ofhumans noticed this change in the hours of daylight, and the consequent changein the seasons.  One can well imagine the anxiety in the mind of the "noblesavage" as he witnessed the dwindling hours of daylight each autumn.  Andthe sense of relief he must have felt when the year "turned the corner" at theWinter Solstice, and the days started to grow longer again, promising thatSpring would indeed return.  Is it any wonder then that the oldestastronomical alignment of which we have a record points to the sun'sposition in the sky on the Winter Solstice?  And this is in a burial moundin Co. Meath, Ireland.n fact, the relatively new science of "archeoastronomy" underliesmuch of what has been discovered about the old holidays.  Megalithic sitessuch as Stonehenge, for example, have clear alignments to both the Summerand Winter Solstice, and the Vernal and Autumnal Equinox.  Nor are suchalignments confined to the British Isles; indeed they can be found the worldover: from the pyramids of ancient Egypt to the ancient temples of China; fromthe cliff dwellings of the Native Americans to the temples of Peru.  The twoSolstices and two Equinoxes must certainly be the oldest holidays known tohumans, and they were known worldwide.  Folklorists refer to these four daysas the "quarter-days", inasmuch as they quarter the year.  Astrologers knowthem, too, for three Zodiac signs fit neatly into each quadrant, beginningwith the first day of Aries at the Vernal Equinox.  And modern Witches tend tocall them the four "Lesser Sabbats" or "Low Holidays".        The four "Greater Sabbats" or "High Holidays" of the Witchescalendar may seem slightly less obvious at first.  Essentially, they bisectthe quarters we have already discussed, falling at the mid-point of each.  Forthis reason, folklorists refer to them as the "cross-quarter-days".  Withthese in place, the circle of the year begins to look like an eight-spokedwheel, which is a sacred symbol in many ancient religions.  Because these fourdays are not as firmly marked by terrestrial events as the solstices andequinoxes, some writers have been led to speculate that they are derivative,and that their observation evolved at a much later stage of humanevolution.  Yet, although they may not be completely contemporaneous, theirgreat antiquity was quite recently underscored by the discovery in Irelandof earthwork alignments of the sun's position on the horizon for each of thecross-quarter days!  That means that the holiday we today call "Halloween" hasbeen celebrated as far back as megalithic times!        That the cross-quarter days should be regarded as more importantthan the solstices or equinoxes should come as no surprise.  It is a commonhuman experience that things reach their greatest strength, their moment ofpeak energy, at their midpoint.  In observing a human life, for example, aperson is usually at the apex of health and vigor at a point about halfwaythrough his mortality.  So, too, with most other things in nature.  So, too,with each quarter of the year.  The cross-quarter-days can thus be seen as thefour "power points" of the year.  Consequently, those power points were markedby the four most important holidays of the Witches' year which, according tothe old folk calendar, also marked the turning of the seasons.  These alsocorrespond with the "tetramorph" figures of the Zodiac, and were later adoptedby Christian tradition as the sigils of the four gospel writers.        Whenever I am asked what things make a Witch's worldview differentfrom other people's, one of the first things I think about is the Witch'ssensitivity to the cycles of Nature, especially the cycles of the moon andsun.  In our modern world, insulated as we are from the progress of theseasons, we can go the local supermarket and buy vegies and fruit yearround, without consideration of what is "in season".  Still, a Witch canusually tell you where she is in the course of the year, or what phase themoon is in.  (Incidentally, the word "Sabbat" was originally Babylonian andwas used to designate the quarter-days of the lunar cycle -- Full, New,First and Last Quarter -- thus occurring about every seven days.  It wasonly later that the Hebrews borrowed the word and used it to denote "theLord's day", occurring every seventh day without exception.)        And nothing can keep a modern Witch in tune with the cycles ofNature like observing the Old Holidays.  I can still remember the feeling Isometimes got as a child that a particular night during the year was somehowspecial, charged with magic and power, alive and responsive to my innerthoughts and desires.  Like Halloween night (always my favorite holiday) insome ways, but different too, and occurring at other points of the year.  Inever knew why such nights occurred, but I knew they had to be celebrated,by placing candles on the front-porch railings, creating mysterious shadow-plays where the light of an old incandescent street lamp fell on the side ofthe garage, or playing hide-and-seek with the neighborhood kids, the windhelping my running.  Or maybe an impromptu weenie-roast (always a goodexcuse for building a big bonfire) was called for.  I can't prove it, ofcourse, because I didn't keep a diary, but I'd be almost willing to bet that Ihad stumbled onto the Old Holidays, vestiges of their primordial power stillechoing down through the centuries.        Finding out more about these ancient holy days has been a lifelonglabor of love for me, and I sincerely hope that the gleanings of my ownresearch into these mysteries will kindle in my readers that same sense ofmagic and grounding or "connectedness" with Nature that I have alwaysexperienced in relating to the Old Holidays.===============================The Eight Sabbats of Witchcraft===============================        by Mike Nichols  copyright by MicroMuse Press<1> Halloween<2> Yule<3> Candlemas<4> Lady Day<5> May Day<6> Midsummer<7> Lammas<8> Harvest Home<9> Death of Llew: A Seasonal Interp            ALL HALLOW'S EVE            ================             by Mike Nichols * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *    Halloween.  Sly does it.  Tiptoe catspaw.  Slide and creep.  But    why?  What for?  How?  Who?  When!  Where did it all begin?  'You    don't know, do you?' asks Carapace Clavicle Moundshroud climbing    out under the pile of leaves under the Halloween Tree.  'You don't    REALLY know!'  --Ray Bradbury from 'The Halloween Tree'  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *    Samhain.  All Hallows.  All Hallow's Eve.  Hallow E'en.Halloween.  The most magical night of the year.  Exactly oppositeBeltane on the wheel of the year, Halloween is Beltane's dark twin.  Anight of glowing jack-o-lanterns, bobbing for apples, tricks ortreats, and dressing in costume.  A night of ghost stories andseances, tarot card readings and scrying with mirrors.  A night ofpower, when the veil that separates our world from the Otherworld isat its thinnest.  A 'spirit night', as they say in Wales.     All Hallow's Eve is the eve of All Hallow's Day (November 1st).And for once, even popular tradition remembers that the Eve is moreimportant than the Day itself, the traditional celebration focusing onOctober 31st, beginning at sundown.  And this seems only fitting forthe great Celtic New Year's festival.  Not that the holiday was Celticonly.  In fact, it is startling how many ancient and unconnectedcultures (the Egyptians and pre-Spanish Mexicans, for example)celebrated this as a festival of the dead.  But the majority of ourmodern traditions can be traced to the British Isles.     The Celts called it Samhain, which means 'summer's end',according to their ancient two-fold division of the year, when summerran from Beltane to Samhain and winter ran from Samhain to Beltane.(Some modern Covens echo this structure by letting the High Priest'rule' the Coven beginning on Samhain, with rulership returned to theHigh Priestess at Beltane.)  According to the later four-fold divisionof the year, Samhain is seen as 'autumn's end' and the beginning ofwinter.  Samhain is pronounced (depending on where you're from) as'sow-in' (in Ireland), or 'sow-een' (in Wales), or 'sav-en' (inScotland), or (inevitably) 'sam-hane' (in the U.S., where we don'tspeak Gaelic).     Not only is Samhain the end of autumn; it is also, moreimportantly, the end of the old year and the beginning of the new.Celtic New Year's Eve, when the new year begins with the onset of thedark phase of the year, just as the new day begins at sundown.  Thereare many representations of Celtic gods with two faces, and it surelymust have been one of them who held sway over Samhain.  Like his Greekcounterpart Janus, he would straddle the threshold, one face turnedtoward the past in commemoration of those who died during the lastyear, and one face gazing hopefully toward the future, mystic eyesattempting to pierce the veil and divine what the coming year holds.These two themes, celebrating the dead and divining the future, areinexorably intertwined in Samhain, as they are likely to be in any NewYear's celebration.     As a feast of the dead, it was believed the dead could, if theywished, return to the land of the living for this one night, tocelebrate with their family, tribe, or clan.  And so the great burialmounds of Ireland (sidh mounds) were opened up, with lighted torcheslining the walls, so the dead could find their way.  Extra places wereset at the table and food set out for any who had died that year.  Andthere are many stories that tell of Irish heroes making raids on theUnderworld while the gates of faery stood open, though all must returnto their appointed places by cock-crow.     As a feast of divination, this was the night par excellence forpeering into the future.  The reason for this has to do with theCeltic view of time.  In a culture that uses a linear concept of time,like our modern one, New Year's Eve is simply a milestone on a verylong road that stretches in a straight line from birth to death.Thus, the New Year's festival is a part of time.  The ancient Celticview of time, however, is cyclical.  And in this framework, New Year'sEve represents a point outside of time, when the natural order of theuniverse dissolves back into primordial chaos, preparatory to re-establishing itself in a new order.  Thus, Samhain is a night thatexists outside of time and hence it may be used to view any otherpoint in time.  At no other holiday is a tarot card reading, crystalreading, or tea-leaf reading so likely to succeed.     The Christian religion, with its emphasis on the 'historical'Christ and his act of redemption 2000 years ago, is forced into alinear view of time, where 'seeing the future' is an illogicalproposition.  In fact, from the Christian perspective, any attempt todo so is seen as inherently evil.  This did not keep the medievalChurch from co-opting Samhain's other motif, commemoration of thedead.  To the Church, however, it could never be a feast for all thedead, but only the blessed dead, all those hallowed (made holy) byobedience to God - thus, All Hallow's, or Hallowmas, later All Saintsand All Souls.     There are so many types of divination that are traditional toHallowstide, it is possible to mention only a few.  Girls were told toplace hazel nuts along the front of the firegrate, each one tosymbolize one of her suitors.  She could then divine her futurehusband by chanting, 'If you love me, pop and fly; if you hate me,burn and die.'  Several methods used the apple, that most popular ofHalloween fruits.  You should slice an apple through the equator (toreveal the five-pointed star within) and then eat it by candlelightbefore a mirror.  Your future spouse will then appear over yourshoulder.  Or, peel an apple, making sure the peeling comes off in onelong strand, reciting, 'I pare this apple round and round again; / Mysweetheart's name to flourish on the plain: / I fling the unbrokenparing o'er my head, / My sweetheart's letter on the ground to read.'Or, you might set a snail to crawl through the ashes of your hearth.The considerate little creature will then spell out the initial letteras it moves.     Perhaps the most famous icon of the holiday is thejack-o-lantern.  Various authorities attribute it to either Scottishor Irish origin.  However, it seems clear that it was used as alantern by people who traveled the road this night, the scary face tofrighten away spirits or faeries who might otherwise lead one astray.Set on porches and in windows, they cast the same spell of protectionover the household.  (The American pumpkin seems to have foreversuperseded the European gourd as the jack-o-lantern of choice.)Bobbing for apples may well represent the remnants of a Pagan'baptism' rite called a 'seining', according to some writers.  Thewater-filled tub is a latter-day Cauldron of Regeneration, into whichthe novice's head is immersed.  The fact that the participant in thisfolk game was usually blindfolded with hands tied behind the back alsoputs one in mind of a traditional Craft initiation ceremony.     The custom of dressing in costume and 'trick-or-treating' is ofCeltic origin with survivals particularly strong in Scotland.However, there are some important differences from the modern version.In the first place, the custom was not relegated to children, but wasactively indulged in by adults as well.  Also, the 'treat' which wasrequired was often one of spirits (the liquid variety).  This hasrecently been revived by college students who go 'trick-or-drinking'.And in ancient times, the roving bands would sing seasonal carols fromhouse to house, making the tradition very similar to Yuletidewassailing.  In fact, the custom known as 'caroling', now connectedexclusively with mid-winter, was once practiced at all the majorholidays.  Finally, in Scotland at least, the tradition of dressing incostume consisted almost exclusively of cross-dressing (i.e., mendressing as women, and women as men).  It seems as though ancientsocieties provided an opportunity for people to 'try on' the role ofthe opposite gender for one night of the year.  (Although in Scotland,this is admittedly less dramatic - but more confusing - since men werein the habit of wearing skirt-like kilts anyway.  Oh well...)     To Witches, Halloween is one of the four High Holidays, orGreater Sabbats, or cross-quarter days.  Because it is the mostimportant holiday of the year, it is sometimes called 'THE GreatSabbat.'  It is an ironic fact that the newer, self-created Covenstend to use the older name of the holiday, Samhain, which they havediscovered through modern research.  While the older hereditary andtraditional Covens often use the newer name, Halloween, which has beenhanded down through oral tradition within their Coven.  (This is oftenholds true for the names of the other holidays, as well.  One mayoften get an indication of a Coven's antiquity by noting what names ituses for the holidays.)     With such an important holiday, Witches often hold two distinctcelebrations.  First, a large Halloween party for non-Craft friends,often held on the previous weekend.  And second, a Coven ritual heldon Halloween night itself, late enough so as not to be interrupted bytrick-or-treaters.  If the rituals are performed properly, there isoften the feeling of invisible friends taking part in the rites.Another date which may be utilized in planning celebrations is theactual cross-quarter day, or Old Halloween, or Halloween O.S. (OldStyle).  This occurs when the sun has reached 15 degrees Scorpio, anastrological 'power point' symbolized by the Eagle.  This year (1988),the date is November 6th at 10:55 pm CST, with the celebrationbeginning at sunset.  Interestingly, this date (Old Halloween) wasalso appropriated by the Church as the holiday of Martinmas.     Of all the Witchcraft holidays, Halloween is the only one thatstill boasts anything near to popular celebration.  Even though it istypically relegated to children (and the young-at-heart) and observedas an evening affair only, many of its traditions are firmly rooted inPaganism.  Interestingly, some schools have recently attempted toabolish Halloween parties on the grounds that it violates theseparation of state and religion.  Speaking as a Pagan, I would besaddened by the success of this move, but as a supporter of theconcept of religion-free public education, I fear I must concede thepoint.  Nonetheless, it seems only right that there SHOULD be onenight of the year when our minds are turned toward thoughts of thesupernatural.  A night when both Pagans and non-Pagans may ponder themysteries of the Otherworld and its inhabitants.  And if you are oneof them, may all your jack-o'lanterns burn bright on this All Hallow'sEve.    MIDWINTER NIGHT'S EVE:   Y U L E    ================================             by Mike Nichols    Our Christian friends are often quite surprised at howenthusiastically we Pagans celebrate the 'Christmas' season.  Eventhough we prefer to use the word 'Yule', and our celebrations may peaka few days BEFORE the 25th, we nonetheless follow many of thetraditional customs of the season: decorated trees, carolling,presents, Yule logs, and mistletoe.  We might even go so far asputting up a 'Nativity set', though for us the three centralcharacters are likely to be interpreted as Mother Nature, Father Time,and the Baby Sun-God.  None of this will come as a surprise to anyonewho knows the true history of the holiday, of course.    In fact, if truth be known, the holiday of Christmas has alwaysbeen more Pagan than Christian, with it's associations of Nordicdivination, Celtic fertility rites, and Roman Mithraism.  That is whyboth Martin Luther and John Calvin abhorred it, why the Puritansrefused to acknowledge it, much less celebrate it (to them, no day ofthe year could be more holy than the Sabbath), and why it was evenmade ILLEGAL in Boston!  The holiday was already too closelyassociated with the birth of older Pagan gods and heroes.  And many ofthem (like Oedipus, Theseus, Hercules, Perseus, Jason, Dionysus,Apollo, Mithra, Horus and even Arthur) possessed a narrative of birth,death, and resurrection that was uncomfortably close to that of Jesus.And to make matters worse, many of them pre-dated the ChristianSavior.    Ultimately, of course, the holiday is rooted deeply in the cycleof the year.  It is the Winter Solstice that is being celebrated,seed-time of the year, the longest night and shortest day.  It is thebirthday of the new Sun King, the Son of God -- by whatever name youchoose to call him.  On this darkest of nights, the Goddess becomesthe Great Mother and once again gives birth.  And it makes perfectpoetic sense that on the longest night of the winter, 'the dark nightof our souls', there springs the new spark of hope, the Sacred Fire,the Light of the World, the Coel Coeth.    That is why Pagans have as much right to claim this holiday asChristians.  Perhaps even more so, as the Christians were rather latein laying claim to it, and tried more than once to reject it.  Therehad been a tradition in the West that Mary bore the child Jesus on thetwenty-fifth day, but no one could seem to decide on the month.Finally, in 320 C.E., the Catholic Fathers in Rome decided to make itDecember, in an effort to co-opt the Mithraic celebration of theRomans and the Yule celebrations of the Celts and Saxons.    There was never much pretense that the date they finally chose washistorically accurate.  Shepherds just don't 'tend their flocks bynight' in the high pastures in the dead of winter!  But if one wishesto use the New Testament as historical evidence, this reference maypoint to sometime in the spring as the time of Jesus's birth.  This isbecause the lambing season occurs in the spring and that is the onlytime when shepherds are likely to 'watch their flocks by night' -- tomake sure the lambing goes well.  Knowing this, the Eastern half ofthe Church continued to reject December 25, preferring a 'movabledate' fixed by their astrologers according to the moon.    Thus, despite its shaky start (for over three centuries, no oneknew when Jesus was supposed to have been born!), December 25 finallybegan to catch on.  By 529, it was a civic holiday, and all work orpublic business (except that of cooks, bakers, or any that contributedto the delight of the holiday) was prohibited by the EmperorJustinian.  In 563, the Council of Braga forbade fasting on ChristmasDay, and four years later the Council of Tours proclaimed the twelvedays from December 25 to Epiphany as a sacred, festive season.  Thislast point is perhaps the hardest to impress upon the modern reader,who is lucky to get a single day off work.  Christmas, in the MiddleAges, was not a SINGLE day, but rather a period of TWELVE days, fromDecember 25 to January 6.  The Twelve Days of Christmas, in fact.  Itis certainly lamentable that the modern world has abandoned thisapproach, along with the popular Twelfth Night celebrations.    Of course, the Christian version of the holiday spread to manycountries no faster than Christianity itself, which means that'Christmas' wasn't celebrated in Ireland until the late fifth century;in England, Switzerland, and Austria until the seventh; in Germanyuntil the eighth; and in the Slavic lands until the ninth and tenth.Not that these countries lacked their own mid-winter celebrations ofYuletide.  Long before the world had heard of Jesus, Pagans had beenobserving the season by bringing in the Yule log, wishing on it, andlighting it from the remains of last year's log.  Riddles were posedand answered, magic and rituals were practiced, wild boars weresacrificed and consumed along with large quantities of liquor, corndollies were carried from house to house while carolling, fertilityrites were practiced (girls standing under a sprig of mistletoe weresubject to a bit more than a kiss), and divinations were cast for thecoming Spring.  Many of these Pagan customs, in an appropriatelywatered-down form, have entered the mainstream of Christiancelebration, though most celebrants do not realize (or do not mentionit, if they do) their origins.    For modern Witches, Yule (from the Anglo-Saxon 'Yula', meaning'wheel' of the year) is usually celebrated on the actual WinterSolstice, which may vary by a few days, though it usually occurs on oraround December 21st.  It is a Lesser Sabbat or Lower Holiday in themodern Pagan calendar, one of the four quarter-days of the year, but avery important one.  This year (1988) it occurs on December 21st at9:28 am CST.  Pagan customs are still enthusiastically followed.Once, the Yule log had been the center of the celebration.  It waslighted on the eve of the solstice (it should light on the first try)and must be kept burning for twelve hours, for good luck.  It shouldbe made of ash.  Later, the Yule log was replaced by the Yule treebut, instead of burning it, burning candles were placed on it.  InChristianity, Protestants might claim that Martin Luther invented thecustom, and Catholics might grant St. Boniface the honor, but thecustom can demonstrably be traced back through the Roman Saturnaliaall the way to ancient Egypt.  Needless to say, such a tree should becut down rather than purchased, and should be disposed of by burning,the proper way to dispatch any sacred object.    Along with the evergreen, the holly and the ivy and the mistletoewere important plants of the season, all symbolizing fertility andeverlasting life.  Mistletoe was especially venerated by the CelticDruids, who cut it with a golden sickle on the sixth night of themoon, and believed it to be an aphrodisiac.  (Magically -- notmedicinally!  It's highly toxic!)  But aphrodisiacs must have been thesmallest part of the Yuletide menu in ancient times, as contemporaryreports indicate that the tables fairly creaked under the strain ofevery type of good food.  And drink!  The most popular of which wasthe 'wassail cup' deriving its name from the Anglo-Saxon term 'waeshael' (be whole or hale).    Medieval Christmas folklore seems endless: that animals will allkneel down as the Holy Night arrives, that bees hum the '100th psalm'on Christmas Eve, that a windy Christmas will bring good luck, that aperson born on Christmas Day can see the Little People, that a cricketon the hearth brings good luck, that if one opens all the doors of thehouse at midnight all the evil spirits will depart, that you will haveone lucky month for each Christmas pudding you sample, that the treemust be taken down by Twelfth Night or bad luck is sure to follow,that 'if Christmas on a Sunday be, a windy winter we shall see', that'hours of sun on Christmas Day, so many frosts in the month of May',that one can use the Twelve Days of Christmas to predict the weatherfor each of the twelve months of the coming year, and so on.    Remembering that most Christmas customs are ultimately based uponolder Pagan customs, it only remains for modern Pagans to reclaimtheir lost traditions.  In doing so, we can share many common customswith our Christian friends, albeit with a slightly differentinterpretation.  And thus we all share in the beauty of this mostmagical of seasons, when the Mother Goddess once again gives birth tothe baby Sun-God and sets the wheel in motion again.  To conclude witha long-overdue paraphrase, 'Goddess bless us, every one!' C A N D L E M A S:  The Light Returns =====================================            by Mike Nichols    It seems quite impossible that the holiday of Candlemas should beconsidered the beginning of Spring.  Here in the Heartland, February2nd may see a blanket of snow mantling the Mother.  Or, if the snowshave gone, you may be sure the days are filled with drizzle, slush,and steel-grey skies -- the dreariest weather of the year.  In short,the perfect time for a Pagan Festival of Lights.  And as for Spring,although this may seem a tenuous beginning, all the little buds,flowers and leaves will have arrived on schedule before Spring runsits course to Beltane.    'Candlemas' is the Christianized name for the holiday, of course.The older Pagan names were Imbolc and Oimelc.  'Imbolc' means,literally, 'in the belly' (of the Mother).  For in the womb of MotherEarth, hidden from our mundane sight but sensed by a keener vision,there are stirrings.  The seed that was planted in her womb at thesolstice is quickening and the new year grows.  'Oimelc' means 'milkof ewes', for it is also lambing season.    The holiday is also called 'Brigit's Day', in honor of the greatIrish Goddess Brigit.  At her shrine, the ancient Irish capitol ofKildare, a group of 19 priestesses (no men allowed) kept a perpetualflame burning in her honor.  She was considered a goddess of fire,patroness of smithcraft, poetry and healing (especially the healingtouch of midwifery).  This tripartite symbolism was occasionallyexpressed by saying that Brigit had two sisters, also named Brigit.(Incidentally, another form of the name Brigit is Bride, and it isthus She bestows her special patronage on any woman about to bemarried or handfasted, the woman being called 'bride' in her honor.)    The Roman Catholic Church could not very easily call the GreatGoddess of Ireland a demon, so they canonized her instead.Henceforth, she would be 'Saint' Brigit, patron SAINT of smithcraft,poetry, and healing.  They 'explained' this by telling the Irishpeasants that Brigit was 'really' an early Christian missionary sentto the Emerald Isle, and that the miracles she performed there'misled' the common people into believing that she was a goddess.  Forsome reason, the Irish swallowed this.  (There is no limit to what theIrish imagination can convince itself of.  For example, they also cameto believe that Brigit was the 'foster-mother' of Jesus, giving nothought to the implausibility of Jesus having spent his boyhood inIreland!)    Brigit's holiday was chiefly marked by the kindling of sacredfires, since she symbolized the fire of birth and healing, the fire ofthe forge, and the fire of poetic inspiration.  Bonfires were lightedon the beacon tors, and chandlers celebrated their special holiday.The Roman Church was quick to confiscate this symbolism as well, using'Candlemas' as the day to bless all the church candles that would beused for the coming liturgical year.  (Catholics will be reminded thatthe following day, St. Blaise's Day, is remembered for using thenewly-blessed candles to bless the throats of parishioners, keepingthem from colds, flu, sore throats, etc.)    The Catholic Church, never one to refrain from piling holiday uponholiday, also called it the Feast of the Purification of the BlessedVirgin Mary.  (It is surprising how many of the old Pagan holidayswere converted to Maryan Feasts.)  The symbol of the Purification mayseem a little obscure to modern readers, but it has to do with the oldcustom of 'churching women'.  It was believed that women were impurefor six weeks after giving birth.  And since Mary gave birth at thewinter solstice, she wouldn't be purified until February 2nd.  InPagan symbolism, this might be re-translated as when the Great Motheronce again becomes the Young Maiden Goddess.    Today, this holiday is chiefly connected to weather lore.  Evenour American folk-calendar keeps the tradition of 'Groundhog's Day', aday to predict the coming weather, telling us that if the Groundhogsees his shadow, there will be 'six more weeks' of bad weather (i.e.,until the next old holiday, Lady Day).  This custom is ancient.  Anold British rhyme tells us that 'If Candlemas Day be bright and clear,there'll be two winters in the year.'  Actually, all of thecross-quarter days can be used as 'inverse' weather predictors,whereas the quarter-days are used as 'direct' weather predictors.    Like the other High Holidays or Great Sabbats of the Witches'year, Candlemas is sometimes celebrated on it's alternate date,astrologically determined by the sun's reaching 15-degrees Aquarius,or Candlemas Old Style (in 1988, February 3rd, at 9:03 am CST).Another holiday that gets mixed up in this is Valentine's Day.  Ozarkfolklorist Vance Randolf makes this quite clear by noting that theold-timers used to celebrate Groundhog's Day on February 14th.  Thissame displacement is evident in Eastern Orthodox Christianity as well.Their habit of celebrating the birth of Jesus on January 6th, with asimilar post-dated shift in the six-week period that follows it, putsthe Feast of the Purification of Mary on February 14th.  It is amazingto think that the same confusion and lateral displacement of one ofthe old folk holidays can be seen from the Russian steppes to theOzark hills, but such seems to be the case!    Incidentally, there is speculation among linguistic scholars thatthe vary name of 'Valentine' has Pagan origins.  It seems that it wascustomary for French peasants of the Middle Ages to pronounce a 'g' asa 'v'.  Consequently, the original term may have been the French'galantine', which yields the English word 'gallant'.  The wordoriginally refers to a dashing young man known for his 'affairesd'amour', a true galaunt.  The usual associations of V(G)alantine'sDay make much more sense in this light than their vague connection toa legendary 'St. Valentine' can produce.  Indeed, the Church hasalways found it rather difficult to explain this nebulous saint'sconnection to the secular pleasures of flirtation and courtly love.    For modern Witches, Candlemas O.S. may then be seen as the Paganversion of Valentine's Day, with a de-emphasis of 'hearts and flowers'and an appropriate re-emphasis of Pagan carnal frivolity.  This alsore-aligns the holiday with the ancient Roman Lupercalia, a fertilityfestival held at this time, in which the priests of Pan ran throughthe streets of Rome whacking young women with goatskin thongs to makethem fertile.  The women seemed to enjoy the attention and oftenstripped in order to afford better targets.    One of the nicest folk-customs still practiced in many countries,and especially by Witches in the British Isles and parts of the U.S.,is to place a lighted candle in each and every window of the house,beginning at sundown on Candlemas Eve (February 1st), allowing them tocontinue burning until sunrise.  Make sure that such candles are wellseated against tipping and guarded from nearby curtains, etc.  What acheery sight it is on this cold, bleak and dreary night to see houseafter house with candle-lit windows!  And, of course, if you are yourCoven's chandler, or if you just happen to like making candles,Candlemas Day is THE day for doing it.  Some Covens hold candle-makingparties and try to make and bless all the candles they'll be using forthe whole year on this day.    Other customs of the holiday include weaving 'Brigit's crosses'from straw or wheat to hang around the house for protection,performing rites of spiritual cleansing and purification, making'Brigit's beds' to ensure fertility of mind and spirit (and body, ifdesired), and making Crowns of Light (i.e. of candles) for the HighPriestess to wear for the Candlemas Circle, similar to those worn onSt. Lucy's Day in Scandinavian countries.  All in all, this PaganFestival of Lights, sacred to the young Maiden Goddess, is one of themost beautiful and poetic of the year. L A D Y    D A Y:  The Vernal Equinox =====================================            by Mike Nichols    Now comes the Vernal Equinox, and the season of Spring reachesit's apex, halfway through its journey from Candlemas to Beltane.Once again, night and day stand in perfect balance, with the powers oflight on the ascendancy.  The god of light now wins a victory over histwin, the god of darkness.  In the Mabinogion myth reconstructionwhich I have proposed, this is the day on which the restored Llewtakes his vengeance on Goronwy by piercing him with the sunlightspear.  For Llew was restored/reborn at the Winter Solstice and is nowwell/old enough to vanquish his rival/twin and mate with hislover/mother.  And the great Mother Goddess, who has returned to herVirgin aspect at Candlemas, welcomes the young sun god's embraces andconceives a child.  The child will be born nine months from now, atthe next Winter Solstice.  And so the cycle closes at last.    We think that the customs surrounding the celebration of thespring equinox were imported from Mediterranean lands, although therecan be no doubt that the first inhabitants of the British Islesobserved it, as evidence from megalithic sites shows.  But it wascertainly more popular to the south, where people celebrated theholiday as New Year's Day, and claimed it as the first day of thefirst sign of the Zodiac, Aries.  However you look at it, it iscertainly a time of new beginnings, as a simple glance at Nature willprove.    In the Roman Catholic Church, there are two holidays which getmixed up with the Vernal Equinox.  The first, occurring on the fixedcalendar day of March 25th in the old liturgical calendar, is calledthe Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (or B.V.M.,as she was typically abbreviated in Catholic Missals).  'Annunciation'means an announcement.  This is the day that the angel Gabrielannounced to Mary that she was 'in the family way'.  Naturally, thishad to be announced since Mary, being still a virgin, would have noother means of knowing it.  (Quit scoffing, O ye of little faith!)Why did the Church pick the Vernal Equinox for the commemoration ofthis event?  Because it was necessary to have Mary conceive the childJesus a full nine months before his birth at the Winter Solstice(i.e., Christmas, celebrated on the fixed calendar date of December25).  Mary's pregnancy would take the natural nine months to complete,even if the conception was a bit unorthodox.    As mentioned before, the older Pagan equivalent of this scenefocuses on the joyous process of natural conception, when the youngvirgin Goddess (in this case, 'virgin' in the original sense ofmeaning 'unmarried') mates with the young solar God, who has justdisplaced his rival.  This is probably not their first mating,however.  In the mythical sense, the couple may have been lovers sinceCandlemas, when the young God reached puberty.  But the young Goddesswas recently a mother (at the Winter Solstice) and is probably stillnursing her new child.  Therefore, conception is naturally delayed forsix weeks or so and, despite earlier matings with the God, She doesnot conceive until (surprise!) the Vernal Equinox.  This may also betheir Hand-fasting, a sacred marriage between God and Goddess called aHierogamy, the ultimate Great Rite.  Probably the nicest study of thistheme occurs in M. Esther Harding's book, 'Woman's Mysteries'.Probably the nicest description of it occurs in M.  Z. Bradley's'Mists of Avalon', in the scene where Morgan and Arthur assume thesacred roles.  (Bradley follows the British custom of transferring theepisode to Beltane, when the climate is more suited to its outdoorcelebration.)    The other Christian holiday which gets mixed up in this is Easter.Easter, too, celebrates the victory of a god of light (Jesus) overdarkness (death), so it makes sense to place it at this season.Ironically, the name 'Easter' was taken from the name of a Teutoniclunar Goddess, Eostre (from whence we also get the name of the femalehormone, estrogen).  Her chief symbols were the bunny (both forfertility and because her worshipers saw a hare in the full moon) andthe egg (symbolic of the cosmic egg of creation), images whichChristians have been hard pressed to explain.  Her holiday, theEostara, was held on the Vernal Equinox Full Moon.  Of course, theChurch doesn't celebrate full moons, even if they do calculate bythem, so they planted their Easter on the following Sunday.  Thus,Easter is always the first Sunday, after the first Full Moon, afterthe Vernal Equinox.  If you've ever wondered why Easter moved allaround the calendar, now you know.  (By the way, the Catholic Churchwas so adamant about NOT incorporating lunar Goddess symbolism thatthey added a further calculation: if Easter Sunday were to fall on theFull Moon itself, then Easter was postponed to the following Sundayinstead.)    Incidentally, this raises another point: recently, some Pagantraditions began referring to the Vernal Equinox as Eostara.Historically, this is incorrect.  Eostara is a lunar holiday, honoringa lunar Goddess, at the Vernal Full Moon.  Hence, the name 'Eostara'is best reserved to the nearest Esbat, rather than the Sabbat itself.How this happened is difficult to say.  However, it is notable thatsome of the same groups misappropriated the term 'Lady Day' forBeltane, which left no good folk name for the Equinox.  Thus, Eostarawas misappropriated for it, completing a chain-reaction ofdisplacement.  Needless to say, the old and accepted folk name for theVernal Equinox is 'Lady Day'.  Christians sometimes insist that thetitle is in honor of Mary and her Annunciation, but Pagans will smileknowingly.    Another mythological motif which must surely arrest our attentionat this time of year is that of the descent of the God or Goddess intothe Underworld.  Perhaps we see this most clearly in the Christiantradition.  Beginning with his death on the cross on Good Friday, itis said that Jesus 'descended into hell' for the three days that hisbody lay entombed.  But on the third day (that is, Easter Sunday), hisbody and soul rejoined, he arose from the dead and ascended intoheaven.  By a strange 'coincidence', most ancient Pagan religionsspeak of the Goddess descending into the Underworld, also for a periodof three days.    Why three days?  If we remember that we are here dealing with thelunar aspect of the Goddess, the reason should be obvious.  As thetext of one Book of Shadows gives it, '...as the moon waxes and wanes,and walks three nights in darkness, so the Goddess once spent threenights in the Kingdom of Death.'  In our modern world, alienated as itis from nature, we tend to mark the time of the New Moon (when no moonis visible) as a single date on a calendar.  We tend to forget thatthe moon is also hidden from our view on the day before and the dayafter our calendar date.  But this did not go unnoticed by ourancestors, who always speak of the Goddess's sojourn into the land ofDeath as lasting for three days.  Is it any wonder then, that wecelebrate the next Full Moon (the Eostara) as the return of theGoddess from chthonic regions?    Naturally, this is the season to celebrate the victory of lifeover death, as any nature-lover will affirm.  And the Christianreligion was not misguided by celebrating Christ's victory over deathat this same season.  Nor is Christ the only solar hero to journeyinto the underworld.  King Arthur, for example, does the same thingwhen he sets sail in his magical ship, Prydwen, to bring back preciousgifts (i.e. the gifts of life) from the Land of the Dead, as we aretold in the 'Mabinogi'.  Welsh triads allude to Gwydion and Amaethondoing much the same thing.  In fact, this theme is so universal thatmythologists refer to it by a common phrase, 'the harrowing of hell'.    However, one might conjecture that the descent into hell, or theland of the dead, was originally accomplished, not by a solar maledeity, but by a lunar female deity.  It is Nature Herself who, inSpring, returns from the Underworld with her gift of abundant life.Solar heroes may have laid claim to this theme much later.  The veryfact that we are dealing with a three-day period of absence shouldtell us we are dealing with a lunar, not solar, theme.  (Although onemust make exception for those occasional MALE lunar deities, such asthe Assyrian god, Sin.)  At any rate, one of the nicest modernrenditions of the harrowing of hell appears in many Books of Shadowsas 'The Descent of the Goddess'.  Lady Day may be especiallyappropriate for the celebration of this theme, whether bystorytelling, reading, or dramatic re-enactment.     For modern Witches, Lady Day is one of the Lesser Sabbats or LowHolidays of the year, one of the four quarter-days.  And what datewill Witches choose to celebrate?  They may choose the traditionalfolk 'fixed' date of March 25th, starting on its Eve.  Or they maychoose the actual equinox point, when the Sun crosses the Equator andenters the astrological sign of Aries.  This year (1988), that willoccur at 3:39 am CST on March 20th.    A Celebration of   M A Y   D A Y    ================================            by Mike Nichols  * * * * * * * *    'Perhaps its just as well that you won't be here...to be offended    by the sight of our May Day celebrations.'    --Lord Summerisle to Sgt. Howie from 'The Wicker Man'  * * * * * * * *     There are four great festivals of the Pagan Celtic year and themodern Witch's calendar, as well.  The two greatest of these areHalloween (the beginning of winter) and May Day (the beginning ofsummer).  Being opposite each other on the wheel of the year, theyseparate the year into halves.  Halloween (also called Samhain) is theCeltic New Year and is generally considered the more important of thetwo, though May Day runs a close second. Indeed, in some areas --notably Wales -- it is considered the great holiday.     May Day ushers in the fifth month of the modern calendar year,the month of May.  This month is named in honor of the goddess Maia,originally a Greek mountain nymph, later identified as the mostbeautiful of the Seven Sisters, the Pleiades.  By Zeus, she is alsothe mother of Hermes, god of magic.  Maia's parents were Atlas andPleione, a sea nymph.     The old Celtic name for May Day is Beltane (in its most popularAnglicized form), which is derived from the Irish Gaelic 'Bealtaine'or the Scottish Gaelic 'Bealtuinn', meaning 'Bel-fire', the fire ofthe Celtic god of light (Bel, Beli or Belinus).  He, in turn, may betraced to the Middle Eastern god Baal.     Other names for May Day include: Cetsamhain ('opposite Samhain'),Walpurgisnacht (in Germany), and Roodmas (the medieval Church's name).This last came from Church Fathers who were hoping to shift the commonpeople's allegiance from the Maypole (Pagan lingham - symbol of life)to the Holy Rood (the Cross - Roman instrument of death).     Incidentally, there is no historical justification for callingMay 1st 'Lady Day'.  For hundreds of years, that title has been properto the Vernal Equinox (approx. March 21st), another holiday sacred tothe Great Goddess.  The nontraditional use of 'Lady Day' for May 1stis quite recent (within the last 15 years), and seems to be confinedto America, where it has gained widespread acceptance among certainsegments of the Craft population.  This rather startling departurefrom tradition would seem to indicate an unfamiliarity with Europeancalendar customs, as well as a lax attitude toward scholarship amongtoo many Pagans.  A simple glance at a dictionary ('Webster's 3rd' orO.E.D.), encyclopedia ('Benet's'), or standard mythology reference(Jobe's 'Dictionary of Mythology, Folklore & Symbols') would confirmthe correct date for Lady Day as the Vernal Equinox.     By Celtic reckoning, the actual Beltane celebration begins onsundown of the preceding day, April 30, because the Celts alwaysfigured their days from sundown to sundown.  And sundown was theproper time for Druids to kindle the great Bel-fires on the tops ofthe nearest beacon hill (such as Tara Hill, Co.  Meath, in Ireland).These 'need-fires' had healing properties, and sky-clad Witches wouldjump through the flames to ensure protection.   * * * * * * * *     Sgt. Howie (shocked):  'But they are naked!'     Lord Summerisle: 'Naturally.  It's much too dangerous to jump                      through the fire with your clothes on!'    * * * * * * * *     Frequently, cattle would be driven between two such bon-fires(oak wood was the favorite fuel for them) and, on the morrow, theywould be taken to their summer pastures.     Other May Day customs include: walking the circuit of one'sproperty ('beating the bounds'), repairing fences and boundarymarkers, processions of chimney-sweeps and milk maids, archerytournaments, morris dances, sword dances, feasting, music, drinking,and maidens bathing their faces in the dew of May morning to retaintheir youthful beauty.     In the words of Witchcraft writers Janet and Stewart Farrar, theBeltane celebration was principly a time of '...unashamed humansexuality and fertility.'  Such associations include the obviousphallic symbolism of the Maypole and riding the hobby horse.  Even aseemingly innocent children's nursery rhyme, 'Ride a cock horse toBanburry Cross...' retains such memories.  And the next line '...tosee a fine Lady on a white horse' is a reference to the annual ride of'Lady Godiva' though Coventry.  Every year for nearly three centuries,a sky-clad village maiden (elected Queen of the May) enacted thisPagan rite, until the Puritans put an end to the custom.     The Puritans, in fact, reacted with pious horror to most of theMay Day rites, even making Maypoles illegal in 1644.  They especiallyattempted to suppress the 'greenwood marriages' of young men and womenwho spent the entire night in the forest, staying out to greet the Maysunrise, and bringing back boughs of flowers and garlands to decoratethe village the next morning.  One angry Puritan wrote that men 'doeuse commonly to runne into woodes in the night time, amongst maidens,to set bowes, in so muche, as I have hearde of tenne maidens whichewent to set May, and nine of them came home with childe.'  And anotherPuritan complained that, of the girls who go into the woods, 'not theleast one of them comes home again a virgin.'     Long after the Christian form of marriage (with its insistence onsexual monogamy) had replaced the older Pagan handfasting, the rulesof strict fidelity were always relaxed for the May Eve rites.  Namessuch as Robin Hood, Maid Marian, and Little John played an importantpart in May Day folklore, often used as titles for the dramatispersonae of the celebrations.  And modern surnames such as Robinson,Hodson, Johnson, and Godkin may attest to some distant May Eve spentin the woods. These wildwood antics have inspired writers such as Kipling:     Oh, do not tell the Priest our plight,     Or he would call it a sin;     But we have been out in the woods all night,     A-conjuring Summer in! And Lerner and Lowe:     It's May!  It's May!     The lusty month of May!...     Those dreary vows that ev'ryone takes,     Ev'ryone breaks.     Ev'ryone makes divine mistakes!     The lusty month of May!     It is certainly no accident that Queen Guinevere's 'abduction' byMeliagrance occurs on May 1st when she and the court have gonea-Maying, or that the usually efficient Queen's Guard, on thisoccasion, rode unarmed.     Some of these customs seem virtually identical to the old Romanfeast of flowers, the Floriala, three days of unrestrained sexualitywhich began at sundown April 28th and reached a crescendo on May 1st.     There are other, even older, associations with May 1st in Celticmythology.  According to the ancient Irish 'Book of Invasions', thefirst settler of Ireland, Partholan, arrived on May 1st; and it was onMay 1st that the plague came which destroyed his people.  Years later,the Tuatha De Danann were conquered by the Milesians on May Day.  InWelsh myth, the perennial battle between Gwythur and Gwyn for the loveof Creudylad took place each May Day; and it was on May Eve thatTeirnyon lost his colts and found Pryderi.  May Eve was also theoccasion of a fearful scream that was heard each year throughoutWales, one of the three curses of the Coranians lifted by the skill ofLludd and Llevelys.     By the way, due to various calendrical changes down through thecenturies, the traditional date of Beltane is not the same as itsastrological date.  This date, like all astronomically determineddates, may vary by a day or two depending on the year.  However, itmay be calculated easily enough by determining the date on which thesun is at 15 degrees Taurus (usually around May 5th).  British Witchesoften refer to this date as Old Beltane, and folklorists call itBeltane O.S. ('Old Style').  Some Covens prefer to celebrate on theold date and, at the very least, it gives one options.  If a Coven isoperating on 'Pagan Standard Time' and misses May 1st altogether, itcan still throw a viable Beltane bash as long as it's before May 5th.This may also be a consideration for Covens that need to organizeactivities around the week-end.     This date has long been considered a 'power point' of the Zodiac,and is symbolized by the Bull, one of the 'tetramorph' figuresfeatured on the Tarot cards, the World and the Wheel of Fortune.  (Theother three symbols are the Lion, the Eagle, and the Spirit.)Astrologers know these four figures as the symbols of the four 'fixed'signs of the Zodiac (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius), and thesenaturally align with the four Great Sabbats of Witchcraft.  Christianshave adopted the same iconography to represent the fourgospel-writers.     But for most, it is May 1st that is the great holiday of flowers,Maypoles, and greenwood frivolity.  It is no wonder that, as recentlyas 1977, Ian Anderson could pen the following lyrics for Jethro Tull:     For the May Day is the great day,     Sung along the old straight track.     And those who ancient lines did ley     Will heed this song that calls them back.A   M I D S U M M E R ' S   CELEBRATION=======================================            by Mike Nichols  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *   The young maid stole through the cottage door,   And blushed as she sought the Plant of pow'r;--   'Thou silver glow-worm, O lend me thy light,   I must gather the mystic St. John's wort tonight,   The wonderful herb, whose leaf will decide   If the coming year shall make me a bride.  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *    In addition to the four great festivals of the Pagan Celtic year,there are four lesser holidays as well: the two solstices, and the twoequinoxes.  In folklore, these are referred to as the four'quarter-days' of the year, and modern Witches call them the four'Lesser Sabbats', or the four 'Low Holidays'.  The Summer Solstice isone of them.     Technically, a solstice is an astronomical point and, due to theprocession to the equinox, the date may vary by a few days dependingon the year.  The summer solstice occurs when the sun reaches theTropic of Cancer, and we experience the longest day and the shortestnight of the year.  Astrologers know this as the date on which the sunenters the sign of Cancer.  This year (1988) it will occur at 10:57 pmCDT on June 20th.     However, since most European peasants were not accomplished atreading an ephemeris or did not live close enough to Salisbury Plainto trot over to Stonehenge and sight down its main avenue, theycelebrated the event on a fixed calendar date, June 24th.  The slightforward displacement of the traditional date is the result ofmultitudinous calendrical changes down through the ages.  It isanalogous to the winter solstice celebration, which is astronomicallyon or about December 21st, but is celebrated on the traditional dateof December 25th, Yule, later adopted by the Christians.     Again, it must be remembered that the Celts reckoned their daysfrom sundown to sundown, so the June 24th festivities actually beginon the previous sundown (our June 23rd).  This was Shakespeare'sMidsummer Night's Eve.  Which brings up another point: our moderncalendars are quite misguided in suggesting that 'summer begins' onthe solstice.  According to the old folk calendar, summer BEGINS onMay Day and ends on Lammas (August 1st), with the summer solstice,midway between the two, marking MID-summer.  This makes more logicalsense than suggesting that summer begins on the day when the sun'spower begins to wane and the days grow shorter.     Although our Pagan ancestors probably preferred June 24th (andindeed most European folk festivals today use this date), thesensibility of modern Witches seems to prefer the actual solsticepoint, beginning the celebration on its eve, or the sunset immediatelypreceding the solstice point.  Again, it gives modern Pagans a rangeof dates to choose from with, hopefully, a weekend embedded in it.     Just as the Pagan mid-winter celebration of Yule was adopted byChristians as Christmas (December 25th), so too the Pagan mid-summercelebration was adopted by them as the feast of John the Baptist (June24th).  Occurring 180 degrees apart on the wheel of the year, themid-winter celebration commemorates the birth of Jesus, while themid-summer celebration commemorates the birth of John, the prophet whowas born six months before Jesus in order to announce his arrival.     Although modern Witches often refer to the holiday by the rathergeneric name of Midsummer's Eve, it is more probable that our Paganancestors of a few hundred years ago actually used the Christian namefor the holiday, St. John's Eve.  This is evident from the wealth offolklore that surrounds the summer solstice (i.e. that it is a nightespecially sacred to the faerie folk) but which is inevitably ascribedto 'St. John's Eve', with no mention of the sun's position.  It couldalso be argued that a Coven's claim to antiquity might be judged bywhat name it gives the holidays.  (Incidentally, the name 'Litha' forthe holiday is a modern usage, possibly based on a Saxon word thatmeans the opposite of Yule.  Still, there is little historicaljustification for its use in this context.)  But weren't our Paganancestors offended by the use of the name of a Christian saint for apre-Christian holiday?     Well, to begin with, their theological sensibilities may not havebeen as finely honed as our own.  But secondly and more importantly,St. John himself was often seen as a rather Pagan figure.  He was,after all, called 'the Oak King'.  His connection to the wilderness(from whence 'the voice cried out') was often emphasized by the rusticnature of his shrines.  Many statues show him as a horned figure (asis also the case with Moses).  Christian iconographers mumbleembarrassed explanations about 'horns of light', while modern Pagansgiggle and happily refer to such statues as 'Pan the Baptist'.  And toclench matters, many depictions of John actually show him with thelower torso of a satyr, cloven hooves and all!  Obviously, this kindof John the Baptist is more properly a Jack in the Green!  Alsoobvious is that behind the medieval conception of St. John lies adistant, shadowy Pagan deity, perhaps the archetypal Wild Man of theWood, whose face stares down at us through the foliate masks thatadorn so much church architecture.  Thus medieval Pagans may have hadfewer problems adapting than we might suppose.     In England, it was the ancient custom on St. John's Eve to lightlarge bonfires after sundown, which served the double purpose ofproviding light to the revelers and warding off evil spirits.  Thiswas known as 'setting the watch'.  People often jumped through thefires for good luck.  In addition to these fires, the streets werelined with lanterns, and people carried cressets (pivoted lanternsatop poles) as they wandered from one bonfire to another.  Thesewandering, garland-bedecked bands were called a 'marching watch'.Often they were attended by morris dancers, and traditional playersdressed as a unicorn, a dragon, and six hobby-horse riders.  Just asMay Day was a time to renew the boundary on one's own property, soMidsummer's Eve was a time to ward the boundary of the city.     Customs surrounding St. John's Eve are many and varied.  At thevery least, most young folk plan to stay up throughout the whole ofthis shortest night.  Certain courageous souls might spend the nightkeeping watch in the center of a circle of standing stones.  To do sowould certainly result in either death, madness, or (hopefully) thepower of inspiration to become a great poet or bard.  (This is, by theway, identical to certain incidents in the first branch of the'Mabinogion'.)  This was also the night when the serpents of theisland would roll themselves into a hissing, writhing ball in order toengender the 'glain', also called the 'serpent's egg', 'snake stone',or 'Druid's egg'.  Anyone in possession of this hard glass bubblewould wield incredible magical powers.  Even Merlyn himself(accompanied by his black dog) went in search of it, according to oneancient Welsh story.     Snakes were not the only creatures active on Midsummer's Eve.According to British faery lore, this night was second only toHalloween for its importance to the wee folk, who especially enjoyed aridling on such a fine summer's night.  In order to see them, you hadonly to gather fern seed at the stroke of midnight and rub it ontoyour eyelids.  But be sure to carry a little bit of rue in yourpocket, or you might well be 'pixie-led'.  Or, failing the rue, youmight simply turn your jacket inside-out, which should keep you fromharm's way.  But if even this fails, you must seek out one of the 'leylines', the old straight tracks, and stay upon it to your destination.This will keep you safe from any malevolent power, as will crossing astream of 'living' (running) water.     Other customs included decking the house (especially over thefront door) with birch, fennel, St. John's wort, orpin, and whitelilies.  Five plants were thought to have special magical propertieson this night: rue, roses, St.  John's wort, vervain and trefoil.Indeed, Midsummer's Eve in Spain is called the 'Night of the Verbena(Vervain)'.  St. John's wort was especially honored by young maidenswho picked it in the hopes of divining a future lover.   * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *         And the glow-worm came         With its silvery flame,         And sparkled and shone         Through the night of St. John,    And soon has the young maid her love-knot tied.   * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *     There are also many mythical associations with the summersolstice, not the least of which concerns the seasonal life of the Godof the sun.  Inasmuch as I believe that I have recently discoveredcertain associations and correspondences not hitherto realized, I haveelected to treat this subject in some depth in another essay.  Sufficeit to say here, that I disagree with the generally accepted idea thatthe Sun-God meets his death at the summer solstice.  I believe thereis good reason to see the Sun-God at his zenith -- his peak of power-- on this day, and that his death at the hands of his rival would notoccur for another quarter of a year.  Material drawn from the Welshmythos seems to support this thesis.  In Irish mythology, Midsummer isthe occasion of the first battle between the Fir Bolgs and the TuathaDe Danaan.     Altogether, Midsummer is a favorite holiday for many Witches inthat it is so hospitable to outdoor celebrations.  The warm summernight seems to invite it.  And if the celebrants are not in factskyclad, then you may be fairly certain that the long ritual robes ofwinter have yielded place to short, tunic-style apparel.  As with thelonger gowns, tradition dictates that one should wear nothingunderneath -- the next best thing to skyclad, to be sure.(Incidentally, now you know the REAL answer to the old Scottish joke,'What is worn underneath the kilt?')     The two chief icons of the holiday are the spear (symbol of theSun-God in his glory) and the summer cauldron (symbol of the Goddessin her bounty).  The precise meaning of these two symbols, which Ibelieve I have recently discovered, will be explored in the essay onthe death of Llew.  But it is interesting to note here that modernWitches often use these same symbols in the Midsummer rituals.  Andone occasionally hears the alternative consecration formula, 'As thespear is to the male, so the cauldron is to the female...'  With thesemythic associations, it is no wonder that Midsummer is such a joyousand magical occasion!    L A M M A S:  The First Harvest    ===============================            by Mike Nichols  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *    Once upon a Lammas Night    When corn rigs are bonny,    Beneath the Moon's unclouded light,    I held awhile to Annie...  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *    Although in the heat of a Mid-western summer it might be difficultto discern, the festival of Lammas (Aug 1st) marks the end of summerand the beginning of fall.  The days now grow visibly shorter and bythe time we've reached autumn's end (Oct 31st), we will have run thegamut of temperature from the heat of August to the cold and(sometimes) snow of November.  And in the midst of it, a perfectMid-western autumn.    The history of Lammas is as convoluted as all the rest of the oldfolk holidays.  It is of course a cross-quarter day, one of the fourHigh Holidays or Greater Sabbats of Witchcraft, occurring 1/4 of ayear after Beltane.  It's true astrological point is 15 degrees Leo,which occurs at 1:18 am CDT, Aug 6th this year (1988), but traditionhas set August 1st as the day Lammas is typically celebrated.  Thecelebration proper would begin on sundown of the previous evening, ourJuly 31st, since the Celts reckon their days from sundown to sundown.    However, British Witches often refer to the astrological date ofAug 6th as Old Lammas, and folklorists call it Lammas O.S. ('OldStyle').  This date has long been considered a 'power point' of theZodiac, and is symbolized by the Lion, one of the 'tetramorph' figuresfound on the Tarot cards, the World and the Wheel of Fortune (theother three figures being the Bull, the Eagle, and the Spirit).Astrologers know these four figures as the symbols of the four 'fixed'signs of the Zodiac, and these naturally align with the four GreatSabbats of Witchcraft.  Christians have adopted the same iconographyto represent the four gospel-writers.    'Lammas' was the medieval Christian name for the holiday and itmeans 'loaf-mass', for this was the day on which loaves of bread werebaked from the first grain harvest and laid on the church altars asofferings.  It was a day representative of 'first fruits' and earlyharvest.    In Irish Gaelic, the feast was referred to as 'Lugnasadh', a feastto commemorate the funeral games of the Irish sun-god Lugh.  However,there is some confusion on this point.  Although at first glance, itmay seem that we are celebrating the death of the Lugh, the god oflight does not really die (mythically) until the autumnal equinox.And indeed, if we read the Irish myths closer, we discover that it isnot Lugh's death that is being celebrated, but the funeral games whichLugh hosted to commemorate the death of his foster- mother, Taillte.That is why the Lugnasadh celebrations in Ireland are often called the'Tailltean Games'.  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *    The time went by with careless heed    Between the late and early,    With small persuasion she agreed    To see me through the barley...  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *    One common feature of the Games were the 'Tailltean marriages', arather informal marriage that lasted for only 'a year and a day' oruntil next Lammas.  At that time, the couple could decide to continuethe arrangement if it pleased them, or to stand back to back and walkaway from one another, thus bringing the Tailltean marriage to aformal close.  Such trial marriages (obviously related to the Wiccan'Handfasting') were quite common even into the 1500's, although it wassomething one 'didn't bother the parish priest about'.  Indeed, suchceremonies were usually solemnized by a poet, bard, or shanachie (or,it may be guessed, by a priest or priestess of the Old Religion).    Lammastide was also the traditional time of year for craftfestivals.  The medieval guilds would create elaborate displays oftheir wares, decorating their shops and themselves in bright colorsand ribbons, marching in parades, and performing strange, ceremonialplays and dances for the entranced onlookers.  The atmosphere musthave been quite similar to our modern-day Renaissance Festivals, suchas the one celebrated in near-by Bonner Springs, Kansas, each fall.    A ceremonial highlight of such festivals was the 'Catherinewheel'.  Although the Roman Church moved St. Catherine's feast day allaround the calender with bewildering frequency, it's most popular datewas Lammas.  (They also kept trying to expel this much-loved saintfrom the ranks of the blessed because she was mythical rather thanhistorical, and because her worship gave rise to the heretical sectknown as the Cathari.)  At any rate, a large wagon wheel was taken tothe top of a near-by hill, covered with tar, set aflame, andceremoniously rolled down the hill.  Some mythologists see in thisritual the remnants of a Pagan rite symbolizing the end of summer, theflaming disk representing the sun-god in his decline.  And just as thesun king has now reached the autumn of his years, his rival or darkself has just reached puberty.    Many commentators have bewailed the fact that traditionalGardnerian and Alexandrian Books of Shadows say very little about theholiday of Lammas, stating only that poles should be ridden and acircle dance performed.  This seems strange, for Lammas is a holidayof rich mythic and cultural associations, providing endless resourcesfor liturgical celebration.  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *    Corn rigs and barley rigs,    Corn rigs are bonny!    I'll not forget that happy night    Among the rigs with Annie!  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *[Verse quotations by Robert Burns, as handed down through severalBooks of Shadows.]        H A R V E S T   H O M E        =======================            by Mike Nichols  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *    There were three men came out of the West,    Their fortunes for to try,    And these three men made a solemn vow,    John Barleycorn must die...  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *     Despite the bad publicity generated by Thomas Tryon's novel,Harvest Home is the pleasantest of holidays.  Admittedly, it doesinvolve the concept of sacrifice, but one that is symbolic only.  Thesacrifice is that of the spirit of vegetation, John Barleycorn.Occurring 1/4 of the year after Midsummer, Harvest Home representsmid-autumn, autumn's height.  It is also the Autumnal Equinox, one ofthe quarter days of the year, a Lesser Sabbat and a Low Holiday inmodern Witchcraft.    Technically, an equinox is an astronomical point and, due to thefact that the earth wobbles on its axis slightly (rather like a topthat's slowing down), the date may vary by a few days depending on theyear.  The autumnal equinox occurs when the sun crosses the equator onit's apparent journey southward, and we experience a day and a nightthat are of equal duration.  Up until Harvest Home, the hours ofdaylight have been greater than the hours from dusk to dawn.  But fromnow on, the reverse holds true.  Astrologers know this as the date onwhich the sun enters the sign of Libra, the Balance (an appropriatesymbol of a balanced day and night).  This year (1988) it will occurat 2:29 pm CDT on September 22nd.    However, since most European peasants were not accomplished atcalculating the exact date of the equinox, they celebrated the eventon a fixed calendar date, September 25th, a holiday the medievalChurch Christianized under the name of 'Michaelmas', the feast of theArchangel Michael.  (One wonders if, at some point, the R.C. Churchcontemplated assigning the four quarter days of the year to the fourArchangels, just as they assigned the four cross-quarter days to thefour gospel-writers.  Further evidence for this may be seen in thefact that there was a brief flirtation with calling the Vernal Equinox'Gabrielmas', ostensibly to commemorate the angel Gabriel'sannouncement to Mary on Lady Day.)  Again, it must be remembered thatthe Celts reckoned their days from sundown to sundown, so theSeptember 25th festivities actually begin on the previous sundown (ourSeptember 24th).    Although our Pagan ancestors probably celebrated Harvest Home onSeptember 25th, modern Witches and Pagans, with their desk-topcomputers for making finer calculations, seem to prefer the actualequinox point, beginning the celebration on its eve (this year, sunseton September 21st).    Mythically, this is the day of the year when the god of light isdefeated by his twin and alter-ego, the god of darkness.  It is thetime of the year when night conquers day.  And as I have recentlyshown in my seasonal reconstruction of the Welsh myth of Blodeuwedd,the Autumnal Equinox is the only day of the whole year when Llew(light) is vulnerable and it is possible to defeat him.  Llew nowstands on the balance (Libra/autumnal equinox), with one foot on thecauldron (Cancer/summer solstice) and his other foot on the goat(Capricorn/winter solstice).  Thus he is betrayed by Blodeuwedd, theVirgin (Virgo) and transformed into an Eagle (Scorpio).    Two things are now likely to occur mythically, in rapidsuccession.  Having defeated Llew, Goronwy (darkness) now takes overLlew's functions, both as lover to Blodeuwedd, the Goddess, and asKing of our own world.  Although Goronwy, the Horned King, now sits onLlew's throne and begins his rule immediately, his formal coronationwill not be for another six weeks, occurring at Samhain (Halloween) orthe beginning of Winter, when he becomes the Winter Lord, the DarkKing, Lord of Misrule.  Goronwy's other function has more immediateresults, however.  He mates with the virgin goddess, and Blodeuweddconceives, and will give birth -- nine months later (at the SummerSolstice) -- to Goronwy's son, who is really another incarnation ofhimself, the Dark Child.    Llew's sacrificial death at Harvest Home also identifies him withJohn Barleycorn, spirit of the fields.  Thus, Llew represents not onlythe sun's power, but also the sun's life trapped and crystallized inthe corn.  Often this corn spirit was believed to reside mostespecially in the last sheaf or shock harvested, which was dressed infine clothes, or woven into a wicker-like man-shaped form.  Thiseffigy was then cut and carried from the field, and usually burned,amidst much rejoicing.  So one may see Blodeuwedd and Goronwy in a newguise, not as conspirators who murder their king, but as kindlyfarmers who harvest the crop which they had planted and so lovinglycared for.  And yet, anyone who knows the old ballad of JohnBarleycorn knows that we have not heard the last of him.* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *     They let him stand till  midsummer's day,    Till he looked both pale and wan,    And little Sir John's grown a  long, long beard    And so become a man...* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *      Incidentally, this annual mock sacrifice of a large wicker-workfigure (representing the vegetation spirit) may have been the originof the misconception that Druids made human sacrifices.  This chargewas first made by Julius Caesar (who may not have had the mostunbiased of motives), and has been re-stated many times since.However, as has often been pointed out, the only historians besidesCaesar who make this accusation are those who have read Caesar.  Andin fact, upon reading Caesar's 'Gallic Wars' closely, one discoversthat Caesar never claims to have actually witnessed such a sacrifice.Nor does he claim to have talked to anyone else who did.  In fact,there is not one single eyewitness account of a human sacrificeperformed by Druids in all of history!    Nor is there any archeological evidence to support the charge.If, for example, human sacrifices had been performed at the sameritual sites year after year, there would be physical traces.  Yetthere is not a scrap.  Nor is there any native tradition or historywhich lends support.  In fact, insular tradition seems to point in theopposite direction.  The Druid's reverence for life was so strict thatthey refused to lift a sword to defend themselves when massacred byRoman soldiers on the Isle of Mona.  Irish brehon laws forbade a Druidto touch a weapon, and any soul rash enough to unsheathe a sword inthe presence of a Druid would be executed for such an outrage!    Jesse Weston, in her brilliant study of the Four Hallows ofBritish myth, 'From Ritual to Romance', points out that British folktradition is, however, full of MOCK sacrifices.  In the case of thewicker-man, such figures were referred to in very personified terms,dressed in clothes, addressed by name, etc.  In such a religiousritual drama, everybody played along.  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *    They've hired men with scythes so sharp,    To cut him off at the knee,    They've rolled him and tied him by  the waist    Serving him most barbarously...* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *      In the medieval miracle-play tradition of the 'Rise Up, Jock'variety (performed by troupes of mummers at all the village fairs), ayoung harlequin-like king always underwent a mock sacrificial death.But invariably, the traditional cast of characters included amysterious 'Doctor' who had learned many secrets while 'travelling inforeign lands'.  The Doctor reaches into his bag of tricks, plies somemagical cure, and presto! the young king rises up hale and wholeagain, to the cheers of the crowd.  As Weston so sensibly points out,if the young king were ACTUALLY killed, he couldn't very well rise upagain, which is the whole point of the ritual drama!  It is anenactment of the death and resurrection of the vegetation spirit.  Andwhat better time to perform it than at the end of the harvest season?    In the rhythm of the year, Harvest Home marks a time of rest afterhard work.  The crops are gathered in, and winter is still a month anda half away!  Although the nights are getting cooler, the days arestill warm, and there is something magical in the sunlight, for itseems silvery and indirect.  As we pursue our gentle hobbies of makingcorn dollies (those tiny vegetation spirits) and wheat weaving, ourattention is suddenly arrested by the sound of baying from the skies(the 'Hounds of Annwn' passing?), as lines of geese cut silhouettesacross a harvest moon.  And we move closer to the hearth, the longerevening hours giving us time to catch up on our reading, munching onpopcorn balls and caramel apples and sipping home-brewed mead or ale.What a wonderful time Harvest Home is!  And how lucky we are to livein a part of the country where the season's changes are so dramaticand majestic!* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *    And little Sir John in the  nut-brown bowl--    And he's brandy in the glass,    And little Sir John in the  nut-brown bowl    Proved the strongest man at last.* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *   T H E   D E A T H   O F   L L E W       A Seasonal Interpretation   =================================            by Mike Nichols  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *    Not of father, nor of mother    Was my blood, was my body.    I was spellbound by Gwydion,    Prime enchanter of the Britons, When he formed me from nine blossoms. --'Hanes Blodeuwedd'  R. Graves, trans.  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *    In most Pagan cultures, the sun god is seen as split between tworival personalities: the god of light and his twin, his 'weird', his'other self', the god of darkness.  They are Gawain and the GreenKnight, Gwyn and Gwythyr, Llew and Goronwy, Lugh and Balor, Balan andBalin, the Holly King and the Oak King, etc.  Often they are depictedas fighting seasonal battles for the favor of their goddess/lover,such as Creiddylad or Blodeuwedd, who represents Nature.    The god of light is always born at the winter solstice, and hisstrength waxes with the lengthening days, until the moment of hisgreatest power, the summer solstice, the longest day.  And, like alook in a mirror, his 'shadow self', the lord of darkness, is born atthe summer solstice, and his strength waxes with the lengtheningnights until the moment of his greatest power, the winter solstice,the longest night.    Indirect evidence supporting this mirror-birth pattern isstrongest in the Christianized form of the Pagan myth.  Many writers,from Robert Graves to Stewart Farrar, have repeatedly pointed out thatJesus was identified with the Holly King, while John the Baptist wasthe Oak King.  That is why, 'of all the trees that are in the wood,the Holly tree bears the crown.'  If the birth of Jesus, the 'light ofthe world', is celebrated at mid-winter, Christian folk traditioninsists that John the Oak King (the 'dark of the world'?) was born(rather than died) at mid-summer.    It is at this point that I must diverge from the opinion of RobertGraves and other writers who have followed him.  Graves believes thatat midsummer, the Sun King is slain by his rival, the God of Darkness;just as the God of Darkness is, in turn, slain by the God of Light atmidwinter.  And yet, in Christian folk tradition (derived from theolder Pagan strain), it is births, not deaths, that are associatedwith the solstices.  For the feast of John the Baptist, this is allthe more conspicuous, as it breaks the rules regarding all othersaints.    John is the ONLY saint in the entire Catholic hagiography whosefeast day is a commemoration of his birth, rather than his death.  Ageneration ago, Catholic nuns were fond of explaining that a saint iscommemorated on the anniversary of his or her death because it wasreally a 'birth' into the Kingdom of Heaven.  But John the Baptist,the sole exception, is emphatically commemorated on the anniversary ofhis birth into THIS world.  Although this makes no sense viewed from aChristian perspective, it makes perfect poetic sense from theviewpoint of Pagan symbolism.  (John's earlier Pagan associations aretreated in my essay on Midsummer.)    So if births are associated with the solstices, when do thesymbolic deaths occur?  When does Goronwy slay Llew and when doesLlew, in his turn, slay Goronwy?  When does darkness conquer light orlight conquer darkness?  Obviously (to me, at least), it must be atthe two equinoxes.  At the autumnal equinox, the hours of light in theday are eclipsed by the hours of darkness.  At the vernal equinox, theprocess is reversed.  Also, the autumnal equinox, called 'HarvestHome', is already associated with sacrifice, principally that of thespirit of grain or vegetation.  In this case, the god of light wouldbe identical.    In Welsh mythology in particular, there is a startling vindicationof the seasonal placement of the sun god's death, the significance ofwhich occurred to me in a recent dream, and which I haven't seenelsewhere.  Llew is the Welsh god of light, and his name means 'lion'.(The lion is often the symbol of a sun god.)  He is betrayed by his'virgin' wife Blodeuwedd, into standing with one foot on the rim of acauldron and the other on the back of a goat.  It is only in this waythat Llew can be killed, and Blodeuwedd's lover, Goronwy, Llew's darkself, is hiding nearby with a spear at the ready.  But as Llew isstruck with it, he is not killed.  He is instead transformed into aneagle.    Putting this in the form of a Bardic riddle, it would go somethinglike this: Who can tell in what season the Lion (Llew), betrayed bythe Virgin (Blodeuwedd), poised on the Balance, is transformed into anEagle?  My readers who are astrologers are probably already gasping inrecognition.  The sequence is astrological and in proper order: Leo(lion), Virgo (virgin), Libra (balance), and Scorpio (for which theeagle is a well-known alternative symbol).  Also, the remaining icons,cauldron and goat, could arguably symbolize Cancer and Capricorn(representing summer and winter), the signs beginning with the twosolstice points.  So Llew is balanced between cauldron and goat,between summer and winter, on the balance (Libra) point of theautumnal equinox, with one foot on the summer solstice and one foot onthe winter solstice.    This, of course, is the answer to a related Bardic riddle.Repeatedly, the 'Mabinogion' tells us that Llew must be standing withone foot on the cauldron and one foot on the goat's back in order tobe killed.  But nowhere does it tell us why.  Why is this particularsituation the ONLY one in which Llew can be overcome?  Because itrepresents the equinox point.  And the autumnal equinox is the onlytime of the entire year when light (Llew) can be overcome by darkness(Goronwy).    It should now come as no surprise that, when it is time for Llewto kill Goronwy in his turn, Llew insists that Goronwy stands where heonce stood while he (Llew) casts the spear.  This is no merevindictiveness on Llew's part.  For, although the 'Mabinogion' doesnot say so, it should by now be obvious that this is the only timewhen Goronwy can be overcome.  Light can overcome darkness only at theequinox -- this time the vernal equinox.  (Curiously, even theChristian tradition retains this association, albeit in a distortedform, by celebrating Jesus' death near the time of the vernalequinox.)    The Welsh myth concludes with Gwydion pursuing the faithlessBlodeuwedd through the night sky, and a path of white flowers springsup in the wake of her passing, which we today know as the Milky Way.When Gwydion catches her, he transforms her into an owl, a fittingsymbol of autumn, just as her earlier association with flowers (shewas made from them) equates her with spring.  Thus, while Llew andGoronwy represent summer and winter, Blodeuwedd herself representsboth spring and fall, as patron goddess of flowers and owls,respectively.    Although it is far more speculative than the preceding material, afinal consideration would pursue this mirror-like life pattern of Llewand Goronwy to its ultimate conclusion.  Although Llew is struck withthe sunlight spear at the autumnal equinox, and so 'dies' as a human,it takes a while before Gwydion discovers him in his eagle form.  Howlong?  We may speculate 13 weeks, when the sun reaches the midpoint ofthe sign (or form) of the eagle, Scorpio -- on Halloween.  And if thisis true, it may be that Llew, the sun god, finally 'dies' to the upperworld on Halloween, and now passes through the gates of death, wherehe is immediately crowned king of the underworld, the Lord of Misrule!(In medieval tradition, the person proclaimed as 'Lord of Misrule'reigned from Halloween to Old Christmas -- or, before the calenderchanges, until the winter solstice.)    Meanwhile, Goronwy (with Blodeuwedd at his side) is crowned kingin the upper world, and occupies Llew's old throne, beginning onHalloween.  Thus, by winter solstice, Goronwy has reached his positionof greatest strength in OUR world, at the same moment that Llew, nowsitting on Goronwy's old throne, reaches his position of greateststrength in the underworld.  However, at the moment of the wintersolstice, Llew is born again, as a babe, (and as his own son!) intoour world.  And as Llew later reaches manhood and dispatches Goronwyat the vernal equinox, Goronwy will then ascend the underworld throneat Beltane, but will be reborn into our world at midsummer, as a babe,later to defeat Llew all over again.  And so the cycle closes at last,resembling nothing so much as an intricately woven, never-ending bitof Celtic knotwork.    So Midsummer (to me, at least) is a celebration of the sun god athis zenith, a crowned king on his throne.  He is at the height of hispower and still 1/4 of a year away from his ritual death at the handsof his rival.  However, at the very moment of his greatest strength,his dark twin, the seed of his destruction, is born -- just as thedays begin to shorten.  The spear and the cauldron have often beenused as symbols for this holiday and it should now be easy to see why.Sun gods are virtually always associated with spears (even Jesus ispierced by one), and the midsummer cauldron of Cancer is a symbol ofthe Goddess in her fullness.  If we have learned anything from thisstory from the fourth branch of the 'Mabinogion', it is about thepower of myth -- how it may still instruct and guide us, manycenturies after it has passed from oral to written tradition.  And instudying it, we have barely scratched the surface.