How to Become a Witch (9 page)

It is the beginning of the dark time, when a Witch may turn inward for quiet contemplation and do divination for the coming year (see chapter 10). Being quiet can be difficult during the muggle holiday madness, but this period of near-hibernation can restore your spirit.

What It Means to You: Think about your family lineage, your ancestry. Learn what lessons you can from your family history. Honor your elders. Remember your beloved dead.

Meditate on death, transition, the afterlife, the spirit world, and reincarnation.

Think about yourself, someday, as someone’s ancestor—what will be your legacy to your descendents? Will they have reason to remember and admire you, and to take you as a role model?

Your personal harvest is done for the year, so you can spend some time in rest and reflection. In some Pagan traditions, Samhain is the New Year. For others, it is the beginning of the dark time, and Yule is the New Year. Take a deep breath. Hibernate. Spend time at home with your family. Use this time wisely.

Review the past year. What new understanding has the past year brought to you? With that perspective, what do you hope to do in the New Year that is a continuation—or different?

Activities for Samhain: Make shrines to your honored dead. Invite them to attend a dumb supper with their favorite foods. Bring out a scrying mirror, tarot cards, or runestones, and do some divination about the year to come (see chapter 10). Share stories about your ancestors, friends, and family who have passed on.

Deities for the Season: Get to know something about your deities of the dead now, so you won’t be shy when you meet them later.

Underworld Gods:
Hades, Osiris, Thoth, Anubis, Manannán mac Lir

Underworld Goddesses:
Ereshkigal, Hel, Persephone, Ceridwen, Hecate, Selket, Ma’at, Kali, the Morrigan

Hollow turnips?

Legend says that on All Hallows Eve, the glowing faces of goblins could be seen bobbing through the darkness. Best for good Christian folk to stay inside for safety! The “goblins,” however, were large, hollowed turnips with faces carved in them and candle stubs inside. The followers of the Old Religion preferred not to have their Samhain celebrations interrupted, so they gave the Christian folk a little scare so that they’d leave the sabbat dances in peace. Many years later, in America, people found that pumpkins also made wonderful jack-o’-lanterns.

So those are the eight primary celebrations, or sabbats, that Witches observe as the Wheel of the Year turns around and around and around again.

Sabbat Exercises

• Research a deity appropriate to the coming sabbat.
  
• Find songs, chants, or instrumental music appropriate to the sabbat theme.
  
• If you are part of a coven, take charge of one part of the sabbat celebration: decorations and altar, the feast, the music, reading a myth or legend aloud, or the games.
  
• Draw your own Wheel of the Year; decorate and color it. Display it near
  your altar.
  
• Decorate your personal altar (see chapter 3) appropriately to the season.
  
• What ideas, impressions, or feelings does this season bring to mind? Is it connected to vividly important events in your memories? How do these color your feelings about this time of year?
  
• Brainstorm what you like about this season, what’s difficult, and what you can do to make it easier or more joyful.
  
• What are your favorite and least favorite seasons, and why?
  
• Do you have friends or relatives who have been more closely involved with the land and the seasons than you have? Farmers, ranchers, fishermen, park rangers? Talk with them about their experiences.
  
• What sabbat most intrigues or attracts you? Why? Do some research on it—start with Llewellyn’s sabbat series of books, listed in appendix A.
  

The Cycles Of the Moon

To our distant ancestors, the prey of fearsome creatures that stalked by night, the moon and fire were sources of illumination and safety. To poets much later, the moon was a symbol of romance and adventure: Alfred Noyes proclaimed that “the moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas.” To modern society, the moon may be a handy waystation to the exploration of outer space.

For Witches, the moon is the symbol and embodiment of the Goddess as Maiden, Mother, and Crone, and it’s usually the feminine counterpart to the masculine Sun God. In addition to the sabbats, Witches also celebrate some phases of the moon, at esbats (from the French word for “frolic,” so clearly they are meant to be joyous events). In one version of “The Charge of the Goddess,” the Lady commands: “Once in the month, and better it be when the moon is full, you shall gather in some secret place and adore Me….”

Almost all Witches do ritual at the full moon, drawing on her power for any magick needed. Some also gather at “Diana’s bow,” three days after the new moon, when she becomes visible as a slender crescent reminiscent of the bow of the virgin huntress Diana. This is a good time to work magick for beginning new projects. Occasionally some Witches also do ritual at the last quarter of the moon, when the slender waning crescent is called “Hecate’s sickle,” in reference to the goddess of night and magick. This is a time to do magick to release or banish bad habits or anything you no longer need. Many Witches also do ritual at the dark of the moon—an effective time for divination.

The phases (or apparent shapes of the lighted portion of the moon visible from Earth) are as follows:

It is wise to pay attention to when the moon is void-of-course, when the moon has left its last planetary aspect in any zodiac sign but not yet entered the next sign. This is a bad time to start anything new or make important decisions; better to relax and catch up on your reading, do housework, or finish projects already started. Voids-of-course come every two and a half days and may last from a few minutes to more than two days; they are noted in astrological calendars (such as
Llewellyn’s Astrological Calendar
,
Pocket Planner
, or
Magical Almanac
) with the symbols V/C or VOC.

Because women have monthly menstrual periods related to lunar cycles, the moon seems particularly feminine to many people. The moon’s phases can be associated with the major stages of women’s lives: the waxing moon stands for the Maiden, the full moon is the Mother, and the waning moon is the Crone.

Several goddesses are associated with the moon, such as Selene, the Titan goddess of the Greeks; Artemis, the Greek huntress; Luna, the Roman moon goddess; Diana, the Roman woodland goddess who took on lunar aspects; and Hecate, a very ancient goddess who has come to be associated with the night and the waning moon.

Many cultures have moon gods, such as the Egyptian Khonsu and the Babylonian Sin. But for most Wiccans, most of the time, the moon is a Goddess aspect and the sun is a God aspect.

Each full moon has a name (or several) related to the month in which it occurs. Here is one such list, from
The Farmer’s Almanac
, but there are many others from different cultures.

january: Wolf Moon

february: Snow Moon

march: Worm Moon

april: Pink Moon

may: Flower Moon

june: Strawberry Moon

july: Buck Moon

august: Sturgeon Moon

september: Harvest Moon

october: Hunter’s Moon

november: Beaver Moon

december: Cold Moon

As the moon moves through the twelve signs of the zodiac, it has different energies in each sign. The magick you perform at a full moon esbat may be affected by the sign the moon is in. The zodiac traditionally begins with Aries, and the signs follow in order; here are the energies one can expect as the moon moves through each:

Moon in Aries
(the Ram, a fire sign ruled by Mars): Spontaneity, energy, enthusiasm, action, openness, independence, passion; also temper, defensiveness.

Moon in Taurus (the Bull, an earth sign ruled by Venus): Calmness, strength, health, stability, endurance, security, conservatism, nature and environmental issues; also stubbornness, slowness.

Moon in Gemini
(the Twins, an air sign ruled by Mercury): Thought, words, ideas, knowledge, communication, analysis, intelligence, social skills; also being out of touch with emotions, recklessness.

Moon in Cancer (the Crab, a water sign ruled by the moon): Home, roots, attachment, motherhood, intuition, caring, receptivity, emotions, sensitivity, memory; also moodiness, stubbornness, a narrow outlook, and oversensitivity.

Moon in Leo (the Lion, a fire sign ruled by the sun): Light, sun, warmth, love, passion, drama, expressiveness, charisma, pride, generosity, confidence; also self-absorption, craving for attention, egotism.

Moon in Virgo (the Virgin, an earth sign ruled by Mercury): Task orientation, organization, competence, effectiveness, facts and data, perfection, cleanliness, low visibility, simplicity, personal relations, young people; also self-abasement, moralism, perfectionism, fanaticism.

Moon in Libra (the Scales, an air sign ruled by Venus): Awareness, diplomacy, partnership, peace and harmony, intellect, wisdom, understanding; also instability, oversensitivity, manipulation, and fear of solitude or conflict.

Moon in Scorpio (the Scorpion, a water sign ruled by Mars and Pluto): Emotional intensity, passion, devotion, wholeheartedness, intuition, transformation; also introversion, selfishness, and addiction to drama.

Moon in Sagittarius (the Archer, a fire sign ruled by Jupiter): Idealism, enthusiasm, vision, passion, friendliness, dislike of convention, need for freedom; also fanaticism, impracticality, lack of commitment.

Moon in Capricorn (the Sea-Goat, an earth sign ruled by Saturn): Responsibility, solidity, reliability, self-control, family bonds, security, conservatism, tradition; also lack of spontaneity, distancing from others, lack of flexibility and openness.

Moon in Aquarius (the Water Carrier, an air sign ruled by Saturn and Uranus): Intellect, community, collective effort without intimacy, observation, perception; also emotional detachment, isolation, lack of self-knowledge, erratic behavior.

Moon in Pisces (the Fish, a water sign ruled by Jupiter and Neptune): Sensitivity, empathy, connection, kindness, understanding, imagination, solitude; also daydreaming, impracticality, emotional parasitism, oversensitivity.

Witches have long been associated with the night and the moon, perhaps because of the mystery and magick we feel in the moonlight. We have a reputation as “night owls,” though obviously not all Witches are. Some love the dawn and the sunlight.

The world is both smaller and larger by moonlight—the known world is smaller, the unknown world is larger. Sight recedes; sound and smell and touch become more acute. The few things we can sense are more important, more intimate. Things we never notice by day—the sound of a dead leaf wind-scraped along a pavement—loom larger and more significant by night. Moonlight washes out color and leaves all in shades of gray. There is a paradox: we may be afraid in the dark because of what we can’t see, and at the same time we can feel protected by darkness and there can be a sense of freedom because others can’t see us.

Moonlight is a time for dream and fantasy, shapeshifting and transformation, mystery and the occult; all is fluid, hidden, unknown. The moon can help you make friends with the night, be at ease in darkness, and find the special beauty of the nocturnal realms.