Creating Circles and Ceremonies: Rituals for All ... - reading...

192 Creating Circles & Ceremonies
What are the Sabbats?
By She’ D’Montford
Sabbats are the markers of Earth’s
seasonal cycle.
The word Sabbat comes from the
same root word as the Hebrew Sabbath,
meaning a period of rest.
However, this word is originally
Babylonian, designating the quarter
days of the lunar cycle. That is
the full, new, first, and last quarters,
which occur about every seven days.
It slipped into the Hebrew language to
denote their day of rest and prayer which
occurred every seventh day. During the
Inquisition, Sabbat became the term arbitrarily
assigned to the Pagan “Holy
Days.” In like manner, communities of Witches were described
in the literature of the time as synagogues, lumping
the Jewish people as heretics along with practitioners of the Craft; and the distinctions became
blurred.. Nevertheless, this name for these eight yearly festivals has stuck.
In order to understand these festivals you must remember that they are not man-made.
They are not part of a calendar anniversary of dates of historical import, nor are they randomly
chosen social institutions, such as Labor Day or Father’s Day. In fact, these eight
Sabbats existed long before humanity, as they have always been a basic part of how this
planet works. These holidays simply mark the turning points in the cycles of nature. Our
planet spins on an axis that is tilted to its orbit around the sun. Once a year this creates a 24hour
period with a night that is the longest night of the year, and a day that is the shortest.
This is the Winter Solstice (“sun-standing”). In the opposite hemisphere, we have its opposite
(the longest day of the year, and the shortest night)—or, the Summer Solstice. Six months
later, or halfway around the cycle of the year, we have the opposite situation. Halfway in
between this, we have a balancing point, and two more days that are equally important. Each
spring and autumn there comes a day when the hours between sunrise and sunset and sunset
and sunrise are exactly equal. They are called the Equinoxes, meaning “equal night.”
The year is thus split into two halves (or four quarters) for summer/autumn and winter/
spring. The two halves are ruled by a Light God when the days are getting longer and a Dark
God when the nights are getting longer. The year is then divided again at the cross quarters.
The two Equinoxes and two Solstices are the minor Sabbats, and the cross-quarter days are
the major Sabbats. These bisect the quarters, falling at the exact midpoint of each. With these
in place, a diagram of the cycle of the year begins to look like an eight-spoked wheel. This
image is a sacred symbol in several religions.
Thus the cycle of the Sabbats is commonly referred to as “The Wheel of the Year.” It is
our small wheel in the greater cycle of things. All things are cyclical, and this life is cyclical in
order to fit in with the arrangement of the universe. Books often list arbitrary dates for the
major Sabbats, but there exist astronomical methods for putting the cross-quarter days more
precisely in-between the minor Sabbats (or you can just check with your local observatory).
These Sabbats are solar festivals, and so their mythology illustrates the life cycle of the
God principle in nature, which we associate with the sun. The lunar cycles illustrate the life
cycle of the Goddess principle in nature.