In 2022 we also have two lunar eclipses and two solar eclipses to tap for spells exploring both sides of the Taurus earth/Scorpio water elemental pairing. Solar eclipses occur at dark moons, when the sun and moon are conjunct in the same sign. The first solar eclipse occurs at Dark Moon in Taurus ♉︎ on April 30. The second one occurs at Dark moon in Scorpio ♏︎ on October 25. The rest of this lunar month will be covered in the 2021 Witches’ Wheel of the Year guide. Key Events Suggested Celebration Timing: Observe dark moon the Monday before on January 31, 2022 after moon enters Aquarius at 4:43 am until conjunct at 12:46 am the next morning. The next Festival occurs on February 2nd, or the eve of February 1st. It is called Imbolc in the Druid tradition, or sometimes Oimelc. Although we would think of Imbolc as being in the midst of Winter, it represents in fact the first of a trio of Spring celebrations, since it is the time of the first appearance of the snowdrop, and of the melting of the snows and the clearing of the debris of Winter. It is a time when we sense the first glimmer of Spring, and when the lambs are born. In the Druid tradition it is a gentle, beautiful festival in which the Mother Goddess is honoured with eight candles rising out of the water at the centre of the ceremonial circle.

More January witchery, including an introduction to cleromantica (throwing the bones), can be found here. The Spinner of Time (January 25 – February 23) Suggested Celebration Timing: Observe that day between 7:53 am when the moon enters cancer, until exact conjunction at 10:52 pm. The following guide is based on the 13 lunar phases of 2020 with their corresponding northern hemisphere archetypes. All times calculated using the eastern time zone. The lunar month is displayed as beginning on the reappearance of the moon (waxing crescent) and ending on the dark moon (called the new moon by astronomers.) March 19 – Spring Equinox (Ostara). Usher in the season with a Rebirth Ritual through rabbit spirit medicine.August 1 (calendar) – August 6 (cross quarter) – The First Harvest (Lammas; Lughnasa). Celebrate the spiritual harvest of your witchcraft. Read more here.

The entire space of the circle becomes our sphere of inner working – it becomes a sacred area in which, like a magic carpet, we can travel to other states of being. It becomes a doorway which, like the well-known gateway of the trilithon, can give us access to previously hidden realms and altered states of consciousness. Beltane 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. Midsummer 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. Lammas comes from the Anglo-Saxon word meaning ‘loaf-mass’. It occurs at the beginning of August. Overhaul your traditional Thanksgiving celebration by celebrating Lammas instead. This is a good day to celebrate the harvest season by hosting a feast full of seasonally available food. Gather with friends and family to give thanks for the abundance fruiting from the earth. So I’ve begun to place less importance on them and have chosen to work with the wheel of the year instead.Pronounced “saa-win”, this day marks the beginning of a new annual cycle in nature and the start of the Wheel of the Year. Halloween and all Saints Day is a direct derivative from Samhain and has maintained much of the same symbolism through the years. In the southern hemisphere Samhain falls on April 31st and May 1st. Suggested Celebration Planning: Observe anytime that Wednesday until 11:08 pm, or anytime the night before after the moon enters Gemini 3:49 pm Tuesday. Beltane is both a time of fertility and harvest. Celebrating sensuality and sexuality while conceiving and marriages were common. And reaping the first signs of wealth from the seeds we have sown. The cross-quarter days are also known as the “greater sabbats,” while the quarter-points are known as the “lesser sabbats.” This isn’t because they’re less important but because the energy is said to be greater during the cross-quarter festivals.

Looking at the complete cycle, we shall begin at Samhuinn – a time which marked traditionally the ending and the beginning of the Celtic Year. We have reached the time of the Summer Solstice, Alban Hefin, The Light of the Shore, by June 21st or 22nd [the dates for each of the solar festivals vary each year since the events are astronomical not man-made, like our calendar]. Light is at its maximum, and this is the time of the longest day. It is at this time that the Druids hold their most complex ceremony. Starting at midnight on the eve of the Solstice, a vigil is held through the night – seated around the Solstice fire. The night is over in a matter of hours, and as light breaks, the Dawn Ceremony marks the time of the sun’s rising on this his most powerful day. At noon a further ceremony is held. At Beltane, we open to the God & Goddess of Youth. However old we are, Spring makes us feel young again, and at Beltane we jump over the fires of vitality and youth and allow that vitality to enliven and heal us. When young we might use this time as an opportunity to connect to our sensuality in a positive creative way, and when older the mating that we seek might well be one of the feminine and masculine sides of our nature. Integration of the animus and anima or of the male and female aspects of the Self has long been seen as one of the prime goals of spiritual and psychotherapeutic work, and Beltane represents the time when we can open to this work fully – allowing the natural union of polarities that occurs in nature at this time the opportunity to help us in our work – a work that is essentially alchemical.

Suggested Celebration Planning: Observe that day when the Sun enters Cancer, or wait until the following weekend June 24-26.

a b Rabinovitch, Shelley T.; Lewis, James R. (2004). The Encyclopedia of Modern Witchcraft and Neo-Paganism. Citadel Press. pp.232–233. ISBN 0-8065-2407-3. As spring takes hold, our attention is often pulled by the natural world towards more embodied pursuits. Gone are the days of deep winter contemplation or of autumn’s spiritual pursuits. The Guide is the goddess in her earthly form, leading our path in this time of shedding the cloak of darkness. Key Events Now is the time to bring your dreams and intentions fully into action, but to also indulge in play and have some fun. Litha (Summer Solstice) – 20th-23rd JuneRitual Function: Balance elemental earth energy, and shadow work for the virtues and vices of Capricorn. Although the Bible indicates that Jesus was born in the Spring, it is no accident that the early Church chose to move his official birthday to the time of the Midwinter Solstice – for it is indeed a time when the Light enters the darkness of the World, and we see again the building of Christianity on the foundations of earlier belief. Whether you consider yourself a witch, Wiccan or pagan or not, you can still celebrate these holidays and the wheel of the year. Think of it as celebrating nature and making the most of each season. As we grow old, we approach the Gateway to the Other World. If we have followed such a path as Druidry, this becomes a time of preparation for the Great Adventure, a time in which we become familiar with our friends and guides in the Other Worlds who show us, time and again, that death is really a birth to another level – a wider horizon.