The Wheel of the Year represents the never-ending cycle of the seasons. In the ancient Celtic culture, as in many of the past, time was seen as cyclical. The seasons changed, people died, but nothing was ever finally lost because everything returned – in one way or another – in a repeating natural cycle. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀

• Samhain (October 31st - 30 de Abril)
• Symbols: Orange, brown and black. Branches, pine cones, pumpkins, apples, nuts, dried herbs, seeds. Petrified wood, bloodstone, and skulls.
• As the Witches' New Year, Samhain marks the beginning of the cycle of the year and the end of the season of light; this begins the season of darkness where, until Yule, the days grow darker and colder. The god retreats now into the shadows, symbolically dying back to the Earth before being reborn again at Yule.
• It's a time when the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead is at its thinnest and the spirits may pass more easily. So it's a festival about connecting with where you came from, respecting the dead, and allowing them to pass over (and us to move on).
• Practices: Give thanks for the blessings received the previous year. Reflect upon what has been lost. Revere ancestors and say farewell to those who have passed to the other side - and, invite them to visit. Prepare a feast with ingredients from the final harvest and share it with your friends and family. Leave plates on the table to spirits visiting. Leave white candles in the windows to help guide spirits back to the spirit world before the veil closes. Put pictures of ancestors on the altar. Decorate your altar and house and even dress up with the colours of the sabbat! Do divination and ancestor work.
  • Yule (December 21st - 21 de Junho)
• Symbols: Red, green, white, and gold. Images of the sun, holly, mistletoe, ivy, evergreen branches (cedar, pine, hemlock, and spruce), pinecones, and other festive winter flora.
• The Yule happens at the Winter Solstice — the shortest day and longest night we will experience in the year — it's a time of celebrating the return of the light; now the god is reborn, the waning half of the year is over, and warmth, growth, and light will reign again.
• Practices: Decorate the altar and wear seasonal colours. Burn a sacred Yule log or burn a candle on it. Burn incense. Light candles to lure back the sun. Decorate a tree (Yule/Christmas tree). Put up wreaths. Bring plants and/or herbs inside your house, holly is a good choice for its protective properties or pines/evergreens for prosperity. Write a letter with your wishes and tie it to your tree. Drink some cinnamon tea and meditate or do solar work/rituals. Wishing leaves. Create witches balls. Have a feast, bake cookies, sweets, or any other thing you'd like. Yule music.
  • Imbolc (February 01/01 de Agosto)
• Symbols: As a time of new beginnings, Imbolc's colours are white, pale green, pale purple, and pale yellow; the crystals being amethyst, amazonite, aquamarine, and turquoise. As a fire festival, Imbolc's colours are yellow, orange, and red; and the crystals are citrine and sunstone. Spring flowers, bay, basil, ginger, rowan, and willow trees. Cinnamon, bay, basil, frankincense, myrrh, and rosemary incense.
• One of the four main fire festivals within Celtic paganism and it's also a festival to the goddess Brigid (a fire deity of the home, the heart, protection, and others). Imbolc is a holiday of connection with the earth, the seasons, and new beginnings; it's the mid-point of the dark half of the year and celebrates the new life that will be coming with the spring.
• As a holiday celebrating beginnings and renewal, Imbolc is often chosen as a time for initiation, whether it be through a coven or a self-dedication ritual.
• Practices: Decorate your altar and wear the colours of the season. Put flowers around the house, on your altar, in your pockets and/or wear flower crowns. Make a Brigid cross, doll and/or acorn wand; then make a Bridge bed and put the doll on it for prosperity plus the acorn wand for fertility (if you so desire). Spring clean and cleansing. Writing and reading poetry. Go on a nature walk. Plant seeds. Imbolc meditation (like spiritually cleaning yourself and your mind) and divination. Work with the fire element (light candles, charge things with fire, do fire magic, basically everything with fire). Spells for fertility, abundance, and love. Do kitchen magick and feast on dishes made with dairy products, seeds, nuts, oats, bread, garlic, onions, spiced wine, and herbal tea. Turn on every light of the house (at least for a couple of minutes) to bring the idea of the returning of the sun and the spring.
  • Ostara (March 20/23 de Setembro)
• Some celebrate it on multiple dates (3 to 7 days).
• Symbols: Eggs, hares, rabbits, fresh flowers, petals, plants, and pastel colours. Rose quartz, amethyst, rainbow moonstone, moonstone, and aquamarine. Birch, alder, and ash trees.
• Ostara is the second of three spring festivals on the Wheel of the Year. This is a time for celebrating the balance between extremes, as the Spring Equinox is the moment of the exact balance between the light and the dark. This is a time of innocence and child-like wonder as the Winter comes to an end.
• Practices: As always, decorate your altar and your home, and wear the colours of the season. Floral scented incense. Eat, bake (hot cross bun, Ostara bread or cake, for example) and make food with the ingredients of the season. Nature walk as well. Meditation, divination, rituals, and spells (things related to new beginnings, renewal, and balance). Involve tree energy in your work - Birch tree for new beginnings and prosperous abundant futures. Alder tree for balance and connectedness between the physical and spiritual world. Ash tree (one of the sacred druid trees) for the interconnectedness of the world. It's a good time for purification of your home and yourself - what habits would you like to let go of? It's also a good time to make plans and plant seeds for things you would like to manifest (and also plant seeds in a garden, if you have one).
  • Beltane (May 1st - 31 de Outubro)
• Symbols: Red, yellow, green, silver and white. Ribbons, flowers, bright garlands. Fire and imagery of fire. Rose quartz, garnet, cornelian, fire agate, emerald, beryl, and tourmaline. Rowan, hawthorn and birch trees. Broom, daffodil, coriander, dragon's blood, elder, woodruff, nettle, hawthorn, marjoram, rose, meadowsweet, pansy, primrose, marigold, and bluebell.
• One of the Celtic fire festivals, but also a festival of fertility, abundance, regrowth, renewal, love, commitment, and creativity. Beltane marks the transition point from Spring to Summer. Handfastings are traditionally held at Beltane because in folklore this is a time when the May Queen and the Green Man are married.
• This festival is on the opposite side of the Samhain in the wheel of the year, so as the Samhain is a time of death, Beltane is a time of rebirth. At this point, the veil between the spirit world and the fae world is at its thinnest.
• From now until Samhain is the time of the Greater Sun, and shall it shine forth within our souls, for in truth Bealtaine means bright fire.
• Practices: Beltane altar. Wear flowers, leaves, and the colours of the season (flower crowns!!!!!). Decorate your house (maybe even build a bonfire, if you have space for it). Tree dressing. Raise a maypole and dance around it or make a may basket (or both!). Light candles. Put flowers everywhere. If you have long hair, braid it as a symbol of the union weaving in some wildflowers or tree blossoms if you like. It's a good time to start leaving offerings (milk, honey, and oats) to the fae if you'd like to bring their energy into your practice. Work with the fae and the spirits. Raise protections because, you know, spirits and fae everywhere (iron and salt are good to protect against the fae folk). Listen to pagan music or play instruments (especially drums and bells, these are good for meditation and magical work in general). Burn incense. Have a Beltane feast - savoury food like chillies and curries or spicy food in general; aphrodisiac food like almonds, asparagus, bananas, figs, nutmeg, vanilla, pineapple, strawberries, and truffles; sweet food like pastries, cakes, and honey; drinks like mead, wine, grape juice or ginger ale. Go foraging or walking in nature, just be sure to spend some time outdoors on this day!
  • Litha (June 21st - 22 de Dezembro)
• Some celebrate it from the 20 to the 23rd of June.
• Symbols: Blue, green and gold. Mugwort, thyme, rose, vervain, camomile, honeysuckle, oak, lavender, and st. john's wort. Jade, emerald, topaz, amber, tiger's eye, onyx, and cinnabar. Snakes, bees, wrens, robins, and butterflies. Oak, laurel, linden, holly, birch and elder trees. Wine, standing stones and stone circles, summer flowers, herbs, and fruits.
• Litha is the name given to the festival celebrated at the Summer Solstice. It's the longest day and the shortest night of the year, being a transitional period between the light half of the year and the dark half of the year. From now on the nights will start to get longer and in a few weeks the harvest season will begin, but for now, we celebrate the manifestation of what was planted in the Spring.
• The tripping of the fairies: Celtic traditions believe that in this time of the year the fae that exists within this plane gather together in large groups and travel, migrating across countries. The fairies stop by people houses to collect offerings, food, drink and items while they are journeying.
• Practices: Decorate your altar and wear the colours of the season. Watch the sunrise and the sunset. Get outside. Meditation and grounding. Solar charging. Eat Litha food - fresh fruits and vegetables, mainly the locally grown ones; also, drink fruit juice and wine; Litha bread; baking cookies. Maybe have an outdoor picnic feast. Midsummer bonfire - this is good because, you know, fire and honouring the sun, but also can be used to charge spell work, to burn wishes, incense and spell items used in the previous season to release their energy (like burning protection charms), or to make an outside ceremony with music, dance and food. Make fairy wine. Gather herbs. Make tools for your practice. Make floral waters. This is a traditional time for rites of re-dedication, as well as divination and blessing of animals (pets, familiars, work animals). Do spellwork, especially while at the sunrise or the sunset. Start studying, leave offerings and connect with the fae. Another custom is tossing wishes and offerings into wells and springs. Keep a candle lit throughout the day to honour the Sun.
  • Lammas (August 01/01 de Fevereiro)
• Symbols: Brown, gold, orange, red and green. Sage, meadowsweet, mint, sunflower, calendula, wheat, corn, oats, rose, heather, frankincense, oak and vervain. Gorse, hazel and oak trees. Blackberries, potatoes, beer, wine, ale, mead, herbal tea, elderflower, bread, turnips, apples, pears, nuts, rice, grapes, and wild berries. Cornelian, fire agate, citrine, aventurine, yellow diamond. Stags, skulls, phoenixes, gryphons, centaurs. Loose and stick incense scented like rose, rosemary, frankincense, and sandalwood.
• Gods celebrated: Lugh, Demeter, Ceres, Persephone, Loki, Thor, Odin, Deimos, Adonis, Baal, Inanna, Ishtar.
• The first of the three harvest festivals and one of the four Celtic fire festivals. Know as Lammas or Lughnasadh, originally these were two different festivals that fell into the same day and kinda transformed into the same festival. Lammas is a Saxon festival and Lughnasadh comes from the god Lugh from the Celtic tradition. This festival tradition is related to time and place - knowing where we stand, understanding the time, appreciating everything the earth has done for us and understanding that dark times are coming as we get closer to the fall equinox.
• As the first festival of harvesting this is a time of reaping the rewards of what was planted in the previous seasons. As wheat usually was the first crop harvested at this time of the year, it has a big meaning here; folklore says that the first and the last cook of wheat is done ceremonially. The first sheaf of wheat is cooked, the grain is separated and it's used to make bread. The bread then is brought into the village and shared among all the community. The last sheaf of the wheat is cooked and then is made into a corn dolly. The shape of the dolly varies from the harvest - if it was a positive harvest the corn dolly would be shaped as a maiden, and if it was a negative harvest it would be turned into a crone or cailleach. The corn doll would be carried around the village and then stored for the next year, being returned to earth at the end of the last harvest (Samhain).
• As Lughnasadh, it's believed that the god Lugh puts his spirit into the grains this time of the year. When the grain is cooked, he surrenders his life so the community may survive the winter. And when the seeds are planted again, his life then continues and he survives on this cycle.
• Practices: Decorate and wear the colours. Light candles. Nature walk. Berry picking. Collecting seeds. Baking and making bread. Making corn dolls. Honour Lugh, he's a god of skill and craftsmanship so it's a good time to craft something or just appreciate your skills in general as a way of appreciating his too. Feast. Home cleansings and blessings. Creating a bonfire. Make a wicker man - basically, you write down everything you want to get rid of on pieces of paper and stuff it into the wicker man (a doll) and then throw it at the fire :) so the purifying energy of the fire can banish these things from your life. Fire dancing (dancing around a bonfire or a stone circle). Offerings for the fae folk. Spellwork about settling disputes, reconciliation, love, harmony, job spells, prosperity spells, money spells. Dream magic, start a dream journal or put an ash leaf under your pillow to get prophetic dreams.
  • Mabon (September 20/20 de Março)
• Symbols: Gold, brown and red. Dried leaves and fruits.
• The second harvest festival celebrated during the Fall Equinox. It's the changing of seasons, the transfer of the mother goddess to the crone goddess. It's the ideal time to finish projects and clear out all of the old before the new year (Samhain).
• Mabon is a time of balance between light and darkness (On the equinox the day and night have the same amount of hours); so it's a good moment to work with both positive and negative energies. Cleanse, protect, be grateful, etc.
• Practices: Cook or bake foods with apples, berries, and pumpkins. Have a feast! Drink wine, tea, and warm beverages. Enjoy nature, go outside, take a walk. Decorate your altar and/or your home. Burn Mabon incenses. Divination. Give thanks for what you have and appreciate the abundance, maybe even do a thankfulness ritual. Prepare for the dark part of the year: collect plants, flowers, and seeds; make jam and canned goods; light the first candles; take out all your warm clothing (you gonna need them); remember the good things from summer; start to move your activities inside (weave, sew, bake, all kinds of crafts that are done inside). Make a broom, clean the old, finish projects, prepare for the new year!