One of the earliest was Fintan, husband of Cessair, grand-daughter of Noah. Cessair and her family fled the approaching Deluge and settled in Ireland, but only Fintan survived.

Fintan changed shape several times, first becoming a salmon, then an eagle, and then a falcon.

Another early Irish tale [...]]]> Ireland has a long history of shapeshifters.

One of the earliest was Fintan, husband of Cessair, grand-daughter of Noah. Cessair and her family fled the approaching Deluge and settled in Ireland, but only Fintan survived.

Fintan changed shape several times, first becoming a salmon, then an eagle, and then a falcon.

Another early Irish tale describes the long life of Tuan, who told his story to St. Finnian around the year 550.  Tuan had lived as a stag, a boar, a hawk, a salmon, and then again as a human.¹

St. Patrick used the same kind of “magic” when he intoned St. Patrick’s Breastplate to transform his followers and himself into deer, while escaping from King Loegaire’s forces.

After calling upon the powers of several Christian powers and Deity, St. Patrick invokes the elements:

“I arise to-day
Through the strength of heaven:
Light of sun,
Radiance of moon,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of wind,
Depth of sea,
Stability of earth,
Firmness of rock.²

In The Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom¹, authors Caitlin and John Matthews note this as a fith-fath (said “fee-fohh”, rhymes with “Hee Haw”).

Generally, fith-fath is a Scots Gaelic charm to change a person into another shape or form. It makes the person invisible to his or her enemies. This might also be a useful charm when hunting, to become another animal of the forest while hunting boar, etc.

Alexander Carmichael shared a “fath-fith” charm, spell, or prayer in his book, Carmina Gadelica, published in 1900. (Carmina Gadelica is Latin for “Scottish songs and incantations.”)

In this important book, Carmichael recorded many Pagan-based prayers and rituals–most in a Christian context–from the Scottish Highlands and Islands.

Here is the “fath-fith” as he transcribed it:

Fath-fith
Will I make on thee
By Mary of the augury
By Bride of the corslet From sheep, from ram
From goat, from buck
From fox, from wolf
From sow, from boar
From dog, from cat
From hipped-bear
From wilderness-dog
From watchful scan*
From cow, from horse
From bull, from heifer
From daughter, from son
From the birds of the air
From the creeping things of the earth
From the fishes of the sea
From the imps of the storm.

*probably some animal

So, this kind of magic has existed for at least 1500 years in the British Isles.

But, it is not the only kind of magic used by St. Patrick. For example, the Matthews note that St. Patrick did not ban the magical practice of dichetal do chennaib, sometimes called a form of divination, also described as a flash of intuition.

According to Robert Graves’ research, it’s a kind of incantation from (or using) the fingertips or twigs from specific trees.

In fact, in Carmichael’s book there is a “finger-compassing” (or “finter-compassing”) reference that quotes almost directly from another passage in St. Patrick’s Breastplate:

The finter-compassing

Who is before me?
Who is behind me?
Who is beneath me?
God and the Lord.

Who upholds me?
The Three of power,
Father and Son
And Spirit of peace.

We may find even more Pagan traditions in the beliefs and especially the practices of St. Patrick.

It’s clear that he left us more than legends about shamrocks and snakes.

Let’s remember him as an interesting saint — and possibly a magician and shapeshifter — representing both spiritual sides of Ireland.

References and resources

¹The Encyclopaedia of Celtic Wisdom : A Celtic Shaman’s Sourcebook, by Caitlin & John Matthews, p. 71, 152-3.

²Fianaigecht (The Fenian Cycle), trans. by Kuno Meyer (c)1910, St. Patrick’s Breastplate

³Carmina Gadelica: Hymns and Incantations, by Alexander Carmichael

[asa]1852307862[/asa]

Glastonbury’s unique history covers many centuries. Since the Middle Ages, Glastonbury in Somerset has been considered a most likely location of Avalon, the final resting place of King Arthur and Guinevere.

However, Glastonbury’s mystical and spiritual history starts far before the era of Camelot.

Recently, I read Luisah Teish’s book, Jambalaya. In it, she explains Afro-American spiritual traditions, and how they survived by adopting Christian terms and identities. She focuses on the Voudou of New Orleans, but also relates to Yoruba, Santeria, [...]]]>

This is a reprint of my 2002 article about connections between gods and saints.

Recently, I read Luisah Teish’s book, Jambalaya. In it, she explains Afro-American spiritual traditions, and how they survived by adopting Christian terms and identities. She focuses on the Voudou of New Orleans, but also relates to Yoruba, Santeria, and other belief systems.

After reading this book, I realized how many spiritual traditions share nearly identical beliefs and/or practices.

In a vast number of religions, a senior deity or pair of deities is recognized. Sometimes the deity is named; sometimes the deity is implied but either not named, or the name is too sacred to be articulated.

Usually, believers do not address that deity directly, but go through an intermediary or lesser deity/identity.

In some cases, this is a priest, minister, rabbi, or priestess. At other times, the intermediary is an ancestor or another elevated spirit, or an aspect of the deity with a developed identity and personality.

They may be called “gods” or “saints,” but they are clearly cast in a demi-god role, perhaps with special access to the senior deity.

In the Irish tradition, the “gods and not-gods” of the Tuatha De Danann were literally the “people of Danu.” Danu, also called Dana and related names in various cultures, was probably the senior deity in some Celtic belief systems.

In more recent traditions, we can see spiritual beings of the “gods and not-gods” level, reidentified with saints.

The most obvious among these renamed gods is Brighid, a triple goddess whose characteristics and history were merged with a fifth-century nun, St. Bridget of Kildare.

St. Bridget’s contemporary, the Irish St. Ita, was born Deidre, and like the goddess of the same name, her biography describes her beauty as a curse.

In Celtic history, the adventures of Mael Dúin and St. Brendan the Voyager are almost indistinguishable.

The Irish Nechtan, the water god and husband of Boann, is remarkably like St. Nectan of Cornwall, who was buried under a waterfall. Today, the word “nectan” is used to mean water spirit, too.

St. Non could align with Nona/Nonna, the Roman goddess of pregnancy/harvest due to the focus on the birth of St. Non’s son, St. David. However, historians generally connect St. Non with aspects of the more senior deity, Danu or Dana, also called Anna and Nonna in some cultures.

It’s more of a stretch to link St. Ailbe who was abandoned as a baby and raised by wolves, with the hound, Ailbe, of the MacDaTho legends.

However, we can see a linguistic evolution of god to saint with the Welsh St. Teilo, whose earlier name was Elios, the Welsh version of Helios, the sun god.

This list could extend indefinitely, showing how some saints’ biographies were built upon, or included elements from, Pagan deities’ lives.

References (titles are linked to Amazon.com pages featuring their reviews)

• Dictionary of Celtic Mythology, by Peter Berresford Ellis
• The Book of Goddesses & Heroines, by Patricia Monaghan
• The Celtic Saints, by Nigel Pennick
• Wisdom of the Celtic Saints, by Edward C. Sellner
• Jambalaya, by Luisah Teish

… and a partridge in a pear tree?

Most of us recognize the song that starts, ‘On the first day of Christmas…,” but how many know the real origin of those famous twelve days?

Are they Christian?  Are they Pagan?

And, when do the twelve days start, anyway?  Do we celebrate the beginning [...]]]>

… and a partridge in a pear tree?

Most of us recognize the song that starts, ‘On the first day of Christmas…,” but how many know the real origin of those famous twelve days?

Are they Christian?  Are they Pagan?

And, when do the twelve days start, anyway?  Do we celebrate the beginning of them, the conclusion, or every day?

BABYLON

The Mesopotamians may have started it in Babylon.

The festival was Zagmuk, their twelve-day festival of renewal that began their new year. According to lore, this celebration honored their chief god, Marduk, who brought order to a chaotic world.

At the darkest time of year, Marduk needed the help of humans to defeat Chaos once again.

In Babylonian traditions, Chaos was an actual god.  His natural state was inertia.  Anything that upset inertia was a threat to Chaos, and he tried to destroy it.

Pop Quiz: Where was Babylon?

Answer: About 50 miles south of modern Baghdad, just north of the Iraqi town of al-Hillah.

For more information, see A Brief History of Babylon. [Link]

EGYPT

Others claim another source for the 12 days.

They explain that the tradition began 4000 years ago in Egypt.  There, an annual twelve-day celebration signified the twelve divisions of their calendar year.

During these twelve days that started at the Winter Solstice, Egyptians celebrated the rebirth of Horus in his new form, the Sun.

At this festival’s conclusion, the new year began — just as ours does today — approximately 12 days after the Solstice.

PERSIA AND GREECE

Next, the Persians and the Greeks adopted the twelve-day festival, as Sacaea.

In Persia’s Sacaea traditions, servants swapped roles with their masters, so their masters served them.

(This holiday tradition is still in practice today in various parts of the world.)

In Greece, Sacaea celebrated Zeus’ defeat of Kronos (the original “Father Time”) and the Titans.

Sacaea also marked the annual ritual to protect the family–especially children–from the Kallikantzaroi (Christmas goblins).

The Kallikantzaroi are faeries or imps who live underground but visit our world between December 25th and January 6th, to wreak havoc here.

To protect the home from Kallikantzaroi, it is traditional to leave on the doorstep something with many holes in it.

Apparently, the Kallikantzaroi love to count, but–in our world–can’t safely count above two (three being a holy number). When they pronounce the number three, they are instantly returned to the Underworld.

ROME

The Persian and Egyptian versions of the twelve-day festival merged in Rome, where the celebration became Saturnalia.

During Saturnalia, people dress up in costume, visit friends, and exchange gifts.

In fact, it is from this Roman tradition that historians trace our “Christmas gift” traditions.

MITHRAS

In addition to the Winter Solstice festival, the Romans also adopted the Persian god, Mithras (or Mithra).  He was the sun god worshipped by Constantine, who made Christianity the official religion of Rome.

Mithras was the “Unconquered Sun”.  Like Jesus, he was called “the light of the world”, and we can trace Mithras’ popularity to the sixth century, BCE.

Mithras’ birthday was the 25th of December, but that’s not the only parallel with Jesus Christ:

• Mithras’ birth was attended by shepherds.
• At the end of his time on earth and before returning to his father, Mithras celebrated with a “last supper” involving bread and wine with his twelve followers (sometimes linked to the twelve signs of the zodiac).
• Mithras was put to death on a cross, and just as he was born in a cave, he was buried in a cave until he rose to join his father.
• Mithras’ followers await his return when he will raise the dead and begin a final judgement of all who have lived on earth.
• Mithras’ and Jesus’ birthday also coincide with the birthday of another, earlier Roman god who led the cult of Sol Invictus.

AND THE REST IS HISTORY

As Christianity spread–and with it the celebration of Christmas (and its “twelve days”)–more Pagan traditions were incorporated into the celebration.

And by Shakespeare’s time, the twelve days had spawned another celebration, Twelfth Night.

But, it probably started with the Babylonians and the Egyptians.

Whether you begin your “twelve days” on the Winter Solstice or with Christmas, may your 12 days (and many past then) be filled with blessings and delights of the season.

The word ‘Yule’

Yule is a word with uncertain roots.

We know that it was used in 11th century England, when the country was under Danish rule. There are no English records of [...]]]> Yule has a colorful and varied history in Celtic countries.  The following is an overview of some of the most interesting lore.

The word ‘Yule’

Yule is a word with uncertain roots.

We know that it was used in 11th century England, when the country was under Danish rule. There are no English records of the word before that time.

The word is jol in Old Norse, jul in Swedish, and juul in Danish, but the actual meaning of the word–except to suggest Christmas–is unknown.

Some claim it was actually a word for the harvest festival.

Linguists remain baffled.

Wassail traditions

Another word with a blurred history is “wassail.” However, we know that the word meant “good health” in Old English.

The tradition is to shout “Wassail!” and drink from a cup. The next person replies “Drinkhail,” and accepts the cup, taking a drink from it.

He says “Wassail!” to the next person, and passes the cup along, giving a kiss to the recipient.

And the next person say, “Drinkhail,” and so on.

The Yule Log

Likewise, the Yule Log is a tradition dating back to unwritten history. In the early 17th century, it was no particular kind of wood, but was burned at the holidays to bring prosperity and luck to the household.

More recently, the Yule Log is made of oak or ash, and a piece of it is saved from the fire, to light the Yule Log of the following year.

Mistletoe, and the “Kissing Bush”

Greenery has long been used in England and Ireland to celebrate this time of year.  However, the “kissing bush,” or mistletoe, was introduced in the late 18th century.

It’s only necessary for mistletoe to be part of the decoration that commands a kiss if you’re beneath it.

Celtic traditions suggest a rivalry between the Holly King, who rules the waning year (Midsummer to Yule) and the Oak King, who rules the waxing year (Yule to Midsummer).

At Christmas, holly represents the Holly King, and ivy represents his female counterpart.

It is supposed to be unlucky to have more ivy than holly in Christmas decorations.

Traditionally, all Christmas greenery is taken down on the day after Twelfthnight (January 6th), and burned in the fires of Shrove Tuesday’s pancake breakfasts.

However, the “kissing bush” remains in place all year, providing magical protection for the household until it is replaced at the following Christmas.

But, not in Scotland

In Scotland, the greenery and “kissing bush” was not a tradition, although holly was placed on houses at New Year’s Eve, to keep the faeries out.

Bah, humbug? Scotland was also the country that made Christmas celebrations illegal.

Around 1561, the Reformed Church of Scotland, called “the Kirk,” abolished all winter Christ-related holidays. These included Christmas, the Circumcision, the Epiphany, and all references to holy days related to the Virgin Mary. The Puritans declared them an “invention” of the “Papist” Church.

By 1573, people were punished and sometimes excommunicated for observing Christmas. Nevertheless, it was noted that King James VI celebrated Christmas in his court in Edinburgh in 1598 and 1599, despite local disapproval.

Resourceful Scots shifted their celebration to New Year’s, but in 1606, the Kirk (and the government) also condemned the “superstitious time of Yule, or New Year’s Day.”

Even singing a Christmas carol could result in prosecution.

Thankfully, the harsh laws against Christmas were reversed during the Restoration in 1660, although the religious holiday was disputed for many years afterwards.

A secular solution

In fact, when continuing conflicts prevented Christmas from regaining its full festivities in Scotland, the celebration was shifted once again. The birthday of poet/author Robert Burns, on January 25th, became the new, secular holiday.

Today, no matter what reasons you choose for celebrating at Yuletide, the traditions remain fairly constant.

The colors and characters of the holidays

Gold symbolizes the return of the Sun, or the Son of God. Red is for the resurgence of life-giving blood, and green is a reminder of the evergreen, which symbolized eternal life.

Whether Father Christmas, Santa Claus, or a Pagan god/dess (such as the red-robed German goddess, Holga) comes down the chimney, we share gifts with each other as symbols of charity, and the way that Deity showers gifts on all of us.

And at January first, we look ahead to the New Year, and its promises of wonderful things.

May your Yuletide be filled with wonder and hope, and the warmth of the promise of Spring.

However, today’s Pagans celebrate Yule as the pre-Christian holiday, when the Sun appears to be reborn.

Winter Solstice

Traditionally, Yule is celebrated around December 22nd at the Winter Solstice. In the Southern Hemisphere, it is celebrated on June [...]]]> Today, we often think of “Yule” as synonymous with “Christmas,” and in a way, that’s true.

However, today’s Pagans celebrate Yule as the pre-Christian holiday, when the Sun appears to be reborn.

Winter Solstice

Traditionally, Yule is celebrated around December 22nd at the Winter Solstice. In the Southern Hemisphere, it is celebrated on June 22nd.

The word “solstice” means “standing still of the Sun.” In winter, it marks the time when light starts returning and the days become longer again.

We know that the Solstice was significant in Pagan beliefs. The midwinter Sun’s movements were marked by monuments such as

• Newgrange (Ireland)
• Mae Howe (Orkney)
• Dorset’s seven-mile monument (England)
• One entrance at the Cumberland Circle (England)
• Stonehenge (England)

In the year 730, the religious historian, Bede, wrote that the most important annual (Pagan) festival in England was Modranicht. In English, that means “Mother Night,” and it was celebrated on the 24th of December according to the Roman calendar.

Although Bede’s research seems shaky, the solstice was significant in England from earliest times.

In 877, Alfred the Great passed a law that no servant had to work during the 12 days of celebration following Midwinter. (And this relates to the “12 Days of Christmas” tradition.)

But, how did December 25th become Christmas? How does this link to the Pagan midwinter festivals?

Christmas and December 25th

Most Bible scholars agree that there is little historical evidence that Christ’s birthdate was on December 25th. In fact, no actual date was suggested in the Bible.

The first time that Christ’s birth was celebated in December, was in the year 354. That’s when Philocalus put the date on his calendar in Rome. The Romans hoped to combine various religions’ holidays, so everyone was celebrating at the same time.

The Roman Holidays

In Rome, the first Pagan festival of this season was Saturnalia, honoring Saturn, the god of fertility and agriculture. Celebrations were held in late December, when “his” astrological sign, Capricorn, rose in the sky.

This Roman festival preceded an even larger New Year’s celebration called Kalendae on January first.

Several other Roman religions also celebrated the birth of the Sun-god around the end of December.

Sol Invictus, a prominent tradition in Rome, celebrated the birth of God on Natalis Invictus just as the cult of Mithra/s did, on or close to the Winter Solstice.

So, Constantine–wearing his sun god costume to many decision-making meetings–moved Christmas from January 6th to December 25th.

(This is one reason why Christmas is celebrated on December 25th in the Roman Catholic Church, but not the Greek Orthodox.)

By making one general holiday on December 25th, the Romans hoped to unify the various religions in one grand celebration. Constantine took this effort one step further, when he made Christianity the official religion of Rome.

However, no decrees could fully banish Pagan beliefs and practices. The links between Christmas and midwinter/Solstice festivals have continued through the centuries.

The name, Christmas?

The English name, Christmas, didn’t appear until the year 1083 when it was recorded as Cristes Maessan.

[asa]1567184960[/asa]

Today, we most often associate Babylon with its leaders Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar, as well as the the Epic of Gilgamesh.

HAMMURABI

Babylon was the most important [...]]]> Babylon, which means “the Gate of God(s)”, was the capital of Babylonia, in southern Mesopotamia. Some claim that it was also the site of the Bible’s “Tower of Babel.”

Today, we most often associate Babylon with its leaders Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar, as well as the the Epic of Gilgamesh.

HAMMURABI

Babylon was the most important Middle Eastern city during the reign of Hammurabi (ca. 1792-1750 BCE), remembered for the Code of Hammurabi.

Hammurabi’s code of laws, found on a black stone monument in Persia in 1901, are the earliest-known public declaration of laws by a ruler.

The code began and ended with prayers to the gods, and many were curses on anyone who disregarded the laws.

After Hammurabi’s death, Babylon survived many centuries of oppression and war, but was restored to glory by King Nebuchadnezzar II. This king is usually referred to as simply “Nebuchadnezzar”, pronounced “nebb-yoo-kuhhd-NEZZ-urr”.

NEBUCHADNEZZAR

Under Nebuchadnezzar — famous for the Hanging Gardens of Babylon — the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and took the Jews captive.

However, after casting three Jews into a “fiery furnace” (See the Bible, Dan. 3), Nebuchadnezzar was cursed for four years with depression and lycanthropy.

Nebuchadnezzar (ca. 630 BCE – ca. 560 BCE) was following in the footsteps of his father, the warrior-king Nabopolassar.

Nabopolassar freed Babylonia from the control of its northern neighbor, Assyria, and destroyed the Assyrian city of Nineveh, which is today known as Mossul.

(In ancient times, Assyria was composed of today’s northern provinces of Iraq, and parts of Turkey, Syria, and Iran.)

Nebuchadnezzar restored Babylon to glory, and created a legendary network of canals, aquaducts, and reservoirs. He was boastful of how he rebuilt Babylon, perhaps with good reason. It’s estimated that nine-tenths of the bricks found in Babylon’s ruins were stamped with Nebuchadnezzar’s name.

But, as in previous centuries, Babylon continued to war with its neighbors, especially Assyria and Persia.

MARDUK AND BABYLONIAN RELIGION

While Assyria is proud to say that it was the first country to accept Christianity in 33 CE, the Babylonians worshipped several gods, the chief of whom was Marduk, “lord of Justice”, also known as Bel-Marduk or Marduk Bal. He is also linked with Merodach, “lord god of heaven and earth” as well as “lord of Babylon”.

Marduk, according to Babylonian tradition, created heaven and earth. Babylon was his city.

Babylonians and others in that region may have believed that statues of deity really were that deity. Further, a city had its own gods. (Babylon was sometimes associated with Ishtar as well as Marduk.) Therefore, when a city prospered, other cities and countries might try to “capture” the god of that city (perhaps in statue form) to bring him or her to their own land.

This may be why Nebuchadnezzar, after destroying the Temple in Jerusalem, brought the “sacred vessels” of the temple back to Babylon, along with a large portion of the city’s population.

THE DEMISE OF BABYLON

Within 25 years of the death of Nebuchadnezzar, around 538 BCE, Babylon fell to Cyrus II of Persia.

(Persia is known today as Iran, which gets its name from the Indo-European Aryans who settled there. Their early prophet — thousands of years before Jesus Christ — was Zarathustra.)

Cyrus II — also called Cyrus the Great by some historians — allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem. When American President Harry Truman supported the nation of Israel in 1948, he declared, “I was Cyrus.”

The Christian Calendar is derived from both the solar Roman year and the lunar Jewish calendar.

This leads to “movable” feasts, whose dating depends on Easter which in the [...]]]> There’s a number of reasons why the “Wiccan” wheel of the year and the Christian Calendar don’t match. The most important is all too often overlooked.

The Christian Calendar is derived from both the solar Roman year and the lunar Jewish calendar.

This leads to “movable” feasts, whose dating depends on Easter which in the Latin Rite falls on the Sunday after the first full moon after Equinox.

In other words, Ostara will always precede “Easter” which is more properly called “Pasch”. Pasch often falls closer to Beltane than Ostara anyway. In fact, many of the older Anglican sources often put the two festivals together.

Many other Christian festivals are derived from the dating of Pasch. Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday will fall six weeks before it.

Pentecost was a first fruits festival, and falls fifty days after Pasch (The Passover-Pentecost period is known as “the Great Easter” or Greater Pasch and among some Jewish sects is a time for special study of the paths on the tree of life.).

Indeed, the Christian Easter Season doesn’t close until Trinity Sunday, a week after Pentecost.

One particular special cycle which I did not find adequate data upon in time for this article are the Rogation Days. These days are a week long fast and prayer cycle seeking good harvest, fertility, and so on. They are also especially concerned with weather.

They were always “moveable” feasts, as they occurred in the course of a week rather than on specific days in a month.

The radicals who dominated Church offices briefly during the early days of Pope Paul VI eliminated them as no longer significant to the Modern Urban Christian.

I’m sure the millions of Catholic peasants in Latin America, Africa, and elsewhere appreciated this elevation in status (and corresponding implied denigration of their powerful and magical faith).

There’s been some repairs made in the decades since, but this wound is still bleeding.

While it is common for modern practitioners to celebrate the Full Moon festivals, the old Jewish custom was to celebrate the New Moon.

Indeed, in early Christianity, there was a deliberate shift away from the New Moon celebrations in order to emphasize the Lord’s Day activities instead. It was felt that this shift in the timing of the Sabbath and abandonment of the monthly observance would establish a clear shift in the focus of worship practice.

In modern times, I personally feel that a voluntary return to such practices would be more evocative of the kinds of Divine dynamic that we want to celebrate.

As far as the Sabbats of the Wiccan Solar year are concerned, they tend to follow the modern timing of these events, rather than the more ancient calendars which have suffered a tad of drift over the years.

Besides, mythology to the contrary, I’m not aware of any culture which in fact celebrated all eight events prior the appearance of the Christian effort to sanctify all events as symbolic of the activity of the Deity.

In addition, the Christian tendency to celebrate a saint’s feast on the day of their death (which is, after all, the day of their initiation into the heavenly courts) has created a number of cross over feasts which do match with Wiccan practice loosely.

For a working list, let’s label the eight solar festivals as follows:

• Yule, which celebrates the Winter Solstice.
• Imbolc, which is mid-winter.
• Ostara or Eoster, for the Vernal Equinox.
• Beltane for mid-spring.
• Litha, the Summer Solstice is often called Mid-Summer’s day, but this is a misnomer as in fact this is the first day of summer.
• Lamasstide is a more accurate mid-summer festival, some folks celebrate this as Lughdanash, or Lugh’s Feast yet others celebrate Lugh’s feast as a fall festival for crafts.
• Mabon for the Autumnal Equinox.
• Samhain for the mid-autumn event.

There are a number of significant Christian festivals which match these events with some relevance and which would serve as fine equivalences for ritual focus.

When the date for Christmas was picked (to compete with Mithra) it was the Solstice, but that’s drifted over the centuries a tad. Summer Solstice is supposed to be St. John the Baptist’s feast (June 24th). As the real birthday of both these luminaries are unknown, I guess these dates are fitting.

New Year’s Day traditionally was The Presentation of Lord in the Temple, or the Feast of the Circumcision, has become the feast of the Purification of Mary and I don’t know what all these last couple of years.

Twelfth Night, which closed the Yule festival is Epiphany, or the Manifestation of the Lord to the Nations, and is the feast of the Magi (patrons of all astrologers) on Jan 6.

Candlemass, however, falls just before the Feast of St. Blaise — on whose feast day the candles blessed on Candlemass are used to bless throats of the faithful against choking or other throat/lung disease. Imbolc / Feb 2 ? Candlemass is also the feast of St. Brigid (various spellings) who was the druidess/nun who consecrated the goddess energies of Brigid for Christian access.

St. Valentine’s day was the focal day for a lover’s festival in Ancient Rome. St. Valentine became the patron of it because of an interesting custom.

In old Rome, the singles would put their names in a lottery. The names were matched and those folks were “lovers” for the day. Given the prevailing norms of that society, this led to behaviors which the Christians found rather shocking. So they would throw in the names of martyrs, who were single after all. St. Valentine was popular as the festival often matched his martyrdom date.

In spite of the English “Easter”, Ostara is more close to the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker. Not only does this link with the Lughdanash celebration for craftsmen, (and thus with a number of worker’s days), but also St. Joseph is most important as a home maker.

Father, builder, and provider as well as guardian are all focused on this individual on March 19th.

Near equivalents in behavior to Ostara’s party mood would obviously be Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday. Also don’t overlook St. Patrick’s day, on March 17th, with its equivalent celebration of various faery elements such as the Leprechaun!

However, the key event for this Springtide event is the feast of the Annunciation, on March 25th. As a consequence, as with many other festivals of the Christian calendar, we have a focus on the epiphany of the feminine aspect of Deity here. This probably equates with the maidenly attributes of the Saxon goddess for this festival anyway.

Beltane, on May 1, is the traditional day for crowning Mary “Queen of Heaven” too. August 15th is the feast of the Assumption of the BVM. The flower focus of this event is retained in numerous hymns, including the “O Mary, We Crown thee” and “Flowers of the Fairest.”

June 21 was often celebrated as “Midsummer” (though in fact it is just the start of Summer), and is also mated with St. John the Baptist — which like Christmas falls a tad late on the 24th. This forms a fairly solid link with Litha.

August 1 is “Lamasstide,” in which bread from the summer wheat was baked, broken, and half eaten, half saved (while last year’s bread half was given to the birds). This was a feast by showing proper gratitude would evade a famine to punish hubris.

A lot of folks celebrate “Lughdanash” (Lugh’s Feast) then, but other traditions make this a fall festival of crafts around the end of September and the start of October. Later, on August 15, the Feast of the Assumption of Mary is another Queen of Heaven event.

Mabon matches fairly well with Michelmass . Sept 29 (feast of the Archangels, St. Michael and St. Gabriel — there’s also other feasts honoring the angels, especially among the Greek Orthodox). Even though St. Matthew’s feast falls on Sept 21, the feast of Michlemass was always considered a turning point in the year and is a more likely candidate for the harmonies of the event. Again, in some traditions, this is considered the time for Lugh’s Feast.

A key event that we ought to observe is the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi on Oct 4th. This gentle mystics love of the revelation of the Divine in Nature should be a shining example of the kind of experience we all desire to emulate. An interesting side note is that he was also one of the authentic stigmatics.

Samhain, coming at the end of October now matches with All Hallow’s Eve, Nov 1 being the Feat of All Saints and Nov 2 being the Feast of All Souls.

The Purification of Mary, which actually is a celebration of her initiation into matronly status, has been moved in recent years to November 21st. Mary, as the supreme avatar of the Deity (as opposed to the Incarnation of the Deity, which is a very different dynamic), reveals the popular vision of the Maid, Matron, and Crone aspects in this festival.

The feast of the Immaculate Conception, on Dec 8th, has some special significance to Americans, as American Catholics see this aspect of St. Mary as the Patron of our country. This would equate her to the Genius and Lares deities as celebrated in Ancient Rome. This feast exists in part due to the revelations of Lourdes confirming the ancient belief.

Again, this feast also celebrates the status of Mary as the supreme avatar of the Deity. Yet here is not even a maiden, but the unborn infant.

Then finally, the wheel returns to Yule.

—

This article was written by “Ambrose Hawk” (a pen name) and reprinted for the past ten years with his kind permission.  As of December 2008, I do not have contact information for Ambrose.

Though several people use the name “Ambrose Hawk,” this one is the author of the book, Exploring Scrying.

Well, of course it is.

Just as the Saxon Eostra (or whatever spelling catches your fancy) lent her rabbit and name in English to Pasch, also, the day of Christ’s Mass is actually the festival of the birthday of Mithra. Many of the honorifics bestowed on Mother Mary [...]]]> Isn’t that Star of Bethlehem a Pentagram?

Well, of course it is.

Just as the Saxon Eostra (or whatever spelling catches your fancy) lent her rabbit and name in English to Pasch, also, the day of Christ’s Mass is actually the festival of the birthday of Mithra. Many of the honorifics bestowed on Mother Mary were originally those of pagan goddesses, and St. Brigid arose from the desire to anoint the stories and virtues of the old Celtic Goddess.

Far from shocking the Christian, these facts should affirm to him or her that there is, in truth, only one Deity to whom all paths which are followed in love and in humble sincerity must lead.

The adoption of the Pentagram for the Star of David is a good example of the deliberate processes in which the old Christian denominations appropriate those things that they like from the cultures they encounter. In their minds, they have many imperative reasons for doing so.

Put simply, if there is only one Deity then any attempt by anyone to communicate with that Deity should result in conversations that other folks also seeking the Deity could recognize.

The Master spoke of this in part when He mentioned “other sheep in other flocks” during the Good Shepherd discourse. As is written in Philippians 2:13 – “It is God, for His own loving purpose, Who puts both the will and the action into you (to do good).”

For us who follow the path of Earth Spirituality, this is the manifestation of the Goddess in Her nurturing nature living in and thru us. For as we follow the paths of magical mysticism, we are always brought to greater choices, to either draw down the substance and nature of the Deity into our being or to try to turn away from it to more selfish ends.

The language is different, true, from the Catholic “actual grace” or the Protestant, “living faith;” but an open minded analysis of what the language means leads to the same point.

Because we have experienced the Love of the Goddess, of the Lord and the Lady, of the Primaeval Urge, or whatever your personal vision of the Deity may be (even the classic “Ancient of Days”), we in turn find ourselves desiring to continue not only in that relationship, but to share the benefits of it with others. We want the flowers to bloom in glory, the bees to swim in honey, and all creatures to live in joyful, harmonious abundance.

Again, this is fancy language for discovering how to live as Divine Children in the house and land of a loving God. It is the metamorphosis achieved by turning mystically to the Divine Source of life and existence, the “metanoia”, the conversion, the turning towards the Deity in such a way that we begin to become more obviously like the Deity in our own being As St. John wrote in his first Epistle (I John 4:16), “God is love, and anyone who lives in love lives in God, and God lives in him.”

Further on, John points out that whoever loves the parent, loves the children of that parent too. So we in our turn love the many creatures who each have their own way of showing us some of the sublime and loving hand of the Mother who begot all of them.

So given that if something is showing us this kind of wonder then it must have roots in the Breath of the Deity, it makes sense for Christians to accept it as a sign of the action of that Deity.

Paul did this in Athens, for instance, when he appropriated the altar to “the unknown God” as the starting point of his discourse.

In the same way, he elsewhere appropriated the images of the race and even of the gladiatorial combat for the struggles of the spiritual path.

Again in Philippians he wrote: “Fill your minds with everything that is true, everything that is noble, everything that is good and pure, everything that we love and honor, and everything that can be thought virtuous and worthy of praise (Phil 4:8).”

What does all this have to do with the Star of Bethlehem?

Centuries before Christ, the Greek philosophers began realizing that their myths on the surface simply were not adequate stories to account for the depth of responses that religious experience created.

So they sought within their myths for the deeper message which revealed the greater Divine forces lived out in the stories of their gods.

They soon came to see these “gods” as faces or aspects of some incomprehensible power which transcended all the stories and began working towards the idea that beneath all the stories, all gods were gods because they revealed to us ways in which we could relate with, communicate with, the underlying Source.

One of the tools which they found very symbolic of this process and reality was mathematics. Indeed, in the field of geometry they became giants whose work in many ways has never been surpassed.

One of these mathematician philosophers, Pythagoras, was studying the pentagram, an already ancient sacred symbol. He discovered that if one is to join the corners of the interior pentagon across the middle of the figure, a new pentagram would be created.

Then he noticed that if you not only joined the tips of the star together into a pentagon, but continued the lines further another new pentagram would be created.

Theoretically, this process could be repeated infinitely!

Now Pythagoras was a religious leader as well, he or his followers made many discoveries just now being “rediscovered” in the fields of color therapy, aroma therapy, and music therapy. They also made a large number other great discoveries in geometry. Remember, however, that they were conducting this research to discover more about the nature of Deity and their spiritual place in the cosmos.

For Pythagoras, the Pentagram became the best symbol of the infinite nature of the human spirit – extending forever into both the macrocosm and the microcosm and illustrated perfectly the truths of the elemental balance in his being as well.

Here was a sign showing the intrinsic union of the planes and making alive the fundamental principle, “as above, so below.”

Along comes this mystical Jewish heresy which decides that its message must be true for the whole universe for it to be true for themselves.

In their culture, they already have the concept of the star being the mystical representation of the features of the Divine King, the Divine People, and so forth in the Star of David.

Yes, the Mogen David is a Hexagram. Yet they were deliberately searching for symbols to say that this is something new but also connected to the truth of the ancient heritage.

The Pentagram filled this need perfectly.

It was a star of mystical meaning. Moreover it was the symbol of the perfect human reaching infinitely into all the realms.

How better to encapsulate the mission that they saw Jesus fulfilling? It stated the message of a real man who is also the mystical path to the Eternal Existence. Moreover that in this physical person, embodying the physical elements of the universe, the Transcendent Deity reached into our own bodies as well.

Then there were the five points, already linked to the five elements, the Christians saw this as also good imagery for the five points in which the dissonance and the disorder of our world penetrated into Jesus. Feet, hands, and heart (though in some iconographic representations, the spear is shown thrust thru the crown of thorns to pick up that resonance as well), the five wounds, shown upon the points of the star.

So the Star of Bethlehem in is a pentagram – and holds all the real meaning of the pentagram as well.

Now if the pentagram HAS to be a pagan symbol to you, then perhaps in another strange twist, so the miraculous birth and the opening of the path to perfect union with Deity represented by the story of Jesus should be another pagan symbol (as indeed many parallel stories in other cults reveal).

In the same way, as the birth of Jesus was the birth of the Divine Life among humans, so was the birth of Mithras, the Persian sun god.

Since nobody knows when Jesus was actually born (my personal favorite is the Vernal Equinox – the competing January dates for “old Christmas” arise from various calendar reforms in different places and different times), and since so many Christians were closet Mithraists (the two cults being very similar in certain ways), the Church leaders declared that they would appropriate that feast for themselves (thereby perhaps keeping a few more parishioners in church on that day and out of the sacred grottos).

Indeed, just as Mary blithely assumed the honorific, “Queen of Heaven” which was once the title accorded to Asherah/Ishtar; Jesus was loaded down with the titles of the Solar Deities which his worshipers encountered.

The symbolism of the dying god reborn worked just fine. “Sol Invictus” which was supposed to mean “unconquered Sun” just as easily meant “The Only Unconquered”, and so it went.

Besides, the Mithraic cults used the Star of Bethlehem too already and —– hopefully, you now get the picture.

Santa Claus, the improbable juncture of a Balkan Bishop – Martyr and Father Christmas (old man Yule) of the north, is another story – maybe next year…..

Meanwhile, Seasons’ Greetings!

Your servant, Ambrose Hawk

—

Ambrose Hawk is a friend and the author of this article.  For over ten years, articles by Ambrose have been reprinted at CelticMagick.com with his generous permission.

Though several people use the pen name “Ambrose Hawk,” this one is the author of Exploring Scrying.

Other articles by Ambrose appear at other websites, including RealMagick.

As of Dec 2008, I have no current contact information for Ambrose.

An Evocation of the Sun to empower a substance (in this case a jar of honey) with healing virtue

AVE, [...]]]> This is a chant derived from very early Syrian Christians and reworked to be a consecration and charging chant for a jar of honey that I use as a prime ingredient some of my medicines.

An Evocation of the Sun to empower a substance (in this case a jar of honey) with healing virtue

AVE, DOMINUS!
AVE, SOL INVICTUS!
Hail, Sun of Rightousness,
Who shines upon all the land.
Come upon this (honey);
Send your Sacred Fire into it;
Contain it and reveal it in your holy light.
Manifest your rule above the twelve powers,
That this (honey) become the phane
Where your generosity shines upon our desires.

In the name of your great archangel, Abraxas,
Whose hand is stretched out over the primal rays of the Cosmos,
You must enlighten my heart.
Shine upon me that I may share your joy,
That I may percieve your Wisdom.

Thank you, YHWH:
Holy Powerful One,
Holy Immortal One,
Holy Wise and all knowing One.
Hail, bright and shining Star,
For the joyful light you have shone upon me

Kairos, Kyrios!
light of gladness,
light of the aeons,
light of joy,
light of my eyes,
lamp of my body,
YHWH Sabaoth

Give me the sun as a garmet
and the moon for a cloak.
Carry me in the ship of the sun
That I may sail through and over
The tempest of evil.
Assign to me the rulers of the great planets,
Their spirit, their intelligence, their mighty powers,
That I may share in the life of the stars
And be made worthy to behold your face.
As you love me
You must give me your glory of the sun,
You of the great number,
That I be guarded from all evil.

(c) 17 June 1998: Arthur Pigg
Note: text incorporates elements of similar prayers from Syrian Coptic Christians in the 2nd Century

—

This article was originally published by Ambrose Hawk at the AMG (A Mystickal Grove) message boards.  It has been reprinted at CelticMagick.com (previously “Celtic Lore and Magic”) for ten years, exactly as it appeared at AMG, and with Ambrose Hawk’s specific permission.

Ambrose Hawk is the pen name of the author of Exploring Scrying.