| Sabbats for the Green Witch |
| What do the sabbats mean to you? For you are they just 8 days a year when you put up an altar and have a ritual? Are they just mandatory dates that you feel you should do something for? Do they have nothing to do with nature and the natural cycles of the earth? I can say that that is not what the sabbats are for the Green witch. The sabbats are more than just those days when we get together and have a little ritual and maybe do a bit of magic. I would go as far as to say that the sabbats are probably the most important part of a Green witches practice. Why? Because the Green witch lives close to nature. They observe the changing seasons and learn important lessons from the earth, such as life, death and rebirth. Sure, most Wiccans and Pagans say they observe nature and are aware of the changing seasons, but most are not. Most people live their lives never noticing when the first trees start to bud in early spring, or when the robins start to re-appear after the cold winter, or when the fruits start to swell in the orchards. Most simply do not care about these events, but the Green witch certainly does! The Green witch is connected with nature. The seasons of autumn, winter, spring and summer is a cycle that never ends, one season leads to the next and with each passing season the landscape changes. There are certain smells, sounds, sights and feelings that each season brings and the Green witch is not only aware of these things, but they also find great joy and comfort in them. It is late autumn when I write this. I have watched the days grow progressivly shorter since the autumn equinox. The air has been cooling down, the trees slowely loosing their brightly colored leaves. There is a damp, smokey fragrance in the air - the smell of the earth wilting. The sun doesn't shine as much anymore, fog hazes over the hills and throughout the dark woods. Trees stick out of the ground with bear limbs, swaying when the cool wind passes. No longer do the birds sing in the morning, no longer do the trees and plants bear bright colored leaves and flowers. The earth is going to sleep and because of it the landscape takes on great, wonderful changes. Are you aware of these changes. Do you walk outside and notice all these small, but wonderful details? The ancients sure did. Their lives were centered around nature and the changing seasons. Nature was so unpredictable, so they celebrated the seasons to acknowledge all that the earth gave them. The Green witch does this as well, especially the ones who live in the country and can go out in nature and see these changes personally. I can't even express the beauty I see unfold around me everyday when I walk outside. Most would think the cold, wet, dark autumn days are a neusance and something to get away from, but I relish it! Every chance I get I take walks to experience the changes. Its may be cold and damp at this time of year, but its also beautiful and spiritual. The colors of the earth are so rich and varied, no matter what the season is. You think of winter and you may just think of white snow, or brown for the dead plants and trees, but there are so many other wonderfully rich colors out there! If we would just take the time to seek these details out, we could appreciate the earth, and our lives more. I believe that the sabbats should be points in the year where we acknowledge the changuing seasons and how it will affect our lives. We shouldn't celebrate them because we feel we have to, we should celebrate them because we want to, because we can feel the magic of the earth deep in our bones, becasue we can see the changing seasons and want to express our joy and wonder for them. We need to take the time and be aware of the small changes the earth goes through and how affected the ancient peoples lives, and how it still affects our lives today. Most Pagans celebrate the sabbats on a certain date. I however do not. I celebrate most of them when the season is right. For example, I celebrate the solstices and equinoxes on their appropriate dates, because the correspond to the sun, and thats something which is not going to change. But when Imbolc comes around, I usually don't celebrate it on Feb. 2nd because technically Imbolc is the first hint of spring. Here in Western NY, Feb. 2nd is still cold and wet, there is not hint of spring here! I cannot celebrate this sabbat at this time because it doesn't correspond to the earth at that time, so I usually do it about 3 weeks after Feb. 2nd or so. Another sabbats that I don't celebrate on the specific date is Beltane. These past few years the spring has been late coming, so in early May it is still cold and the trees have hardly any leaves or buds on them, if any, so I celebrate it when the earth starts to show signs of spring. Lammas is another example. The landscape here in August hardly relates to that which Lammas corresponds to, so I celebrate it later. The brevity of the sabbats is another thing which I feel should be touched on. Most people have one ritual on a date then forget about it untill the next sabbat. Not the Green witch. For them, the sabbats are not just one date, the sabbats are a presence - you feel and observe them for many days and weeks, not just one day. The Green witch will do activities leading up to a sabbat and maybe some after as well. They will watch how one sabbat leads into another, and how the earth changes through each. The Green witch is simple in their workings, but nature is simple as well. We don't require big, lengthy productions for our sabbat rituals, and we certainly don't use synthetic materials and tools, or so spellworking or rituals which have nothing to do with the sabbat or feelings it corresponds to. The sabbats are about nature and the changing seasons. We as Pagans need to get back to the basics, we cannot forget about the sabbats and we cannot ignore what they are really about. |
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