Tag: Southern Hemisphere Sabbat

Printable Games for Children – Summer

Happy and Blessed Summer Solstice

Litha History – Celebrating the Summer Solstice

An Ancient Solar Celebration

Nearly every agricultural society has marked the high point of summer in some way, shape or form. On this date–usually around June 21 or 22 (or December 21/22 in the southern hemisphere)–the sun reaches its zenith in the sky. It is the longest day of the year, and the point at which the sun seems to just hang there without moving – in fact, the word “solstice” is from the Latin word solstitium, which literally translates to “sun stands still.” The travels of the sun were marked and recorded. Stone circles such as Stonehenge were oriented to highlight the rising of the sun on the day of the summer solstice.

Did You Know?

  • Early European traditions celebrated midsummer by setting large wheels on fire and then rolling them down a hill into a body of water.
  • The Romans honored this time as sacred to Juno, the wife of Jupiter and goddess of women and childbirth; her name gives us the month of June.
  • The word “solstice” is from the Latin word solstitium, which literally translates to “sun stands still.”

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December Solstice 2021 – First Day of Summer in Southern Hemisphere

December Solstice marks the arrival of the first day of summer in the southern hemisphere. That’s why in the earth’s southern areas, the December Solstice is known as the Summer Solstice. In 2021, the official first day of summer in Australia (southern hemisphere) will occur on Wednesday, December 22, at sharp 02:59 Australian Eastern Daylight Time (AEDT).

Not to mention, this astronomical event will also mark the brightest as well as the longest day of the year in the southern hemisphere. On the other hand, for people living in the northern hemisphere, this solstice marks the arrival of the first day of winter. That’s why in the earth’s northern areas, December Solstice is known as the Winter or Hibernal Solstice. Again, for the people living in the northern half of the earth, this astronomical event will also mark the darkest as well as the shortest day of the year.

Simply speaking, one can say that the meaning of solstice changes depending…

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For Your Viewing Pleasure – Summer Solstice

Happy Summer Solstice from the Southern Hemisphere

The Great Gift of Summer Solstice

For Your Listening Pleasure – Summer Solstice/Litha

~Litha~Summer Solstice Song~Lisa Thiel~

There is beautiful harmony in this song.

Blessed be dear ones.

Let’s Have Some Fun – Southern Hemisphere Litha/Summer Solstice

Magickal Activity for December 21, The Summer Solstice

Floating Candles

Midsummer is a celebration of light and life, symbolized by the flame of a candle and the movement of water. A large glass bowl filled with an assortment of floating candles makes a wonderful point of focus for ritual. Choose bright yellow sunflowers, white lilies, and red tulip-shaped candles. Have each person participating in the ritual inscribe his or her desire, with a pin, on a candle. Have each person come forward, place his or her candle in the bowl and light it as he makes his wish. Following the ritual, the bowl is placed outdoors, and the candles are left to burn out.

The Sun Wheel

One of the most popular symbols of Midsummer is the Sun Wheel, the turning of which suggests the turning, or progression, of the seasons. The Wheel is decorated with flowers, fresh herbs, and brightly colored ribbons.

The simplest method for making a Sun Wheel is to buy an already-prepared natural-branch wreath from an arts and crafts store. Affix small branches of rowan to form the spokes of the wheel (four spokes to represent the elements and cross-quarter days or eight to symbolize the eight Wiccan Sabbats). Use floral wire to attach fresh flowers and herbs to the wreath. Embellish with brightly colored ribbons. The wheel can be used as the focal point for your Midsummer rites or hung on the front door of your home for decoration.

For Your Listening PLeasure

SONG OF SUMMER SOLSTICE | Kulning & Nyckelharpa

This song is short but sweet.

Sweet Beltane

Image result for beltane southern hemisphere
By Fawn Devi
Swirling around the maypole
Dancing to the drums
Celebrating sweet Beltane
Summer has begun
Mother earth breathes New life
Under the sun aglow
The marriage of the earth and sky
Fertility bestowed
Swirling around the maypole
Flowers in our hair
It’s the Goddess and the green man
& they’re blessed love affair
See the source image

A Version of the History of Beltane

History of Beltane from beltanefire.com.au

The Beltane fire festival welcomes the abundance of the fertile earth and is celebrated with bonfires, Maypoles, burning of the Wickerman, dancing, and a feast, with its roots in European traditions, Beltane is observed by many of today’s Pagans and others as a time for performing rituals

The Celts divided the year into two main seasons. Winter, the beginning of the year fell on November 1 (Irish: Samain) and midyear and summer on May 1 (Irish: Beltaine), opposite for us here in the Southern Hemisphere.

These two junctures were thought to be critical periods when the bonds between the human and supernatural worlds were temporarily erased; on May Eve (southern hemisphere)…

Beltane of the Southern Hemisphere

Today, in the Pagan calendar, the north celebrate the coming of winter at Samhainn. And all the while the sun is peaking up from behind the lush vernal trees and dancing for us once more in the southern hemisphere, as we welcome Beltane on October 31st. Or as I like to refer to it Beltane of the underworld.

A pagan spiral formation in Faerie Glenn where everything is miniature and enchanted. Copyright Content Catnip 2010

Beltane is  the Gaelic seasonal festival historically held to mark the midpoint between the spring equinox & summer solstice (Là Bealltainn in Scottish Gaelic; Lá Bealtaine in Irish). Fire is the traditional means of marking this spring festival of optimism & return.

A famous Ossianic lament…

Click here to read more about Southern Hemisphere Beltane from ContentCatnip.com

BELTANE: SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE

Southern Hemisphere Beltane by Jane Hardwicke Collings

The date for the Southern Hemispheric Beltane is October 31st and ‘May Day’ is November 1st. The climax of Spring!

Beltane is the peak of Spring, a celebration of fertility. In ancient times it was the Beltane Rites that recon- nected each year the King to the Goddess, the masculine to the feminine. It is a time for us to give thanks for our fertile lives, our creativity and our gender specific gifts and roles. Its a time to notice and honour the difference in the masculine and feminine. It is a time of increasing growth, building to almost full potential, of beauty and heightened passion.

Beltane Spiritual Practice

Your being, as part of the Earth, part of the cycle of the seasons, will be influenced by this energy whether you’re paying attention to it or not. If you pay some attention, you will feel it, and you can be in flow with it.

Think like the gardener, and align with the Earth energy of now, contemplate the growth that is peaking in your life, that is getting all the attention…

International Observe The Moon Night – Global Moon Party

From NASA.gov (USA) National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Plan Your Event and Celebrate with Us

View our recorded Event Planning Webinar, and join the virtual Global Moon Party on October 9, for resources and activities that can take your International Observe the Moon Night to the next level.

Lunar Photography Guide

Capture the moment like a pro! Check out our Moon photography tips for cell phones, professional cameras, and more.

Viewing Guide

The Moon is Earth’s constant companion, the first skywatching target pointed out to us as children. We watch its face change as the month progresses, and see patterns and pictures in its geological features.

It’s the object in the night sky that humanity knows best ― and the one that’s easiest to study. Whether your tools are a telescope, a pair of binoculars, or just your eyes, you can find plenty of features on the Moon.

We only ever see one side of the Moon from Earth. That’s because the interplay of gravity between Earth and Moon slows the Moon into a rotation that paces its own. The Moon rotates, but it rotates at the same speed that it orbits around Earth. This keeps the same side always turned toward us. We call this being “tidally locked.

The Moon has no glow of its own, but shines with the reflected light of the Sun. During its crescent phase in the twilight or dawn, you can also sometimes see the dark portion of the Moon glowing faintly in the sunlight that reflects off Earth, an effect called earthshine.

You can look at the Moon during any of its illuminated phases, but for better viewing of craters and mountains, try phases other than the full Moon. The shadows on the surface will be more pronounced, and help distinguish features you might otherwise miss.

Eyeballing the Moon

Looking at the Moon with only your eyes, you see mostly areas of white and gray. These gray patches are solidified volcanic lava flows. In the Moon’s youth, its interior was still molten, and magma would erupt onto its surface. These dark areas formed when massive asteroid or meteorite impacts on the Moon’s surface created basins. Because the impact basins were often the lowest places on the Moon’s surface, they would begin to fill with erupting lava. The lava was similar to the basalt that erupts on Earth and, like on Earth, cooled to form a relatively dark-colored rock. We call these areas the lunar seas, or maria.

The lighter-colored areas are called the highlands, and show the earliest crust on the Moon, dominated by a type of rock called anorthosite, which is primarily made up of the white mineral anorthite or plagioclase.

What you see on the Moon with your eyes only will vary depending on your eyesight. Give yourself plenty of time for your eyes to adjust and look carefully. You may be able to see some of the larger impact craters on the Moon’s surface if your vision is sharp enough, including Copernicus, Kepler, and Aristarchus and Tycho. You may even be able to see some of the bright streaks that are ray systems emanating from the Copernicus or Tycho craters, created when material was thrown outward by the force of the original impacts.

Lunar Sightseeing

Pick up a pair of binoculars, and the Moon transforms.

With binoculars, you’ll still see the entire Moon at once, but now it’ll have terrain. Smooth-looking patterns of gray and white resolve into craters and large mountain ridges. You’ll be able to tell where the Moon is relatively undisturbed and where it’s been pockmarked by impacts. Binoculars introduce texture, especially when you look at the Moon when it’s in any other phase other than full. Focus particularly along the terminator line between light and dark, where features will cast long shadows that make them clearer. Choose binoculars with a magnification of 7 at a minimum. Though a magnification of 10 or 15 will provide more detail, you may need a tripod to steady them.

Under the gaze of a telescope, the Moon becomes too big to take in at once. Now you’ll see real mountains, and not just craters but the crater chains created when impact debris splashes around the main craters. You’ll see valleys, and the cracks in the Moon’s surface called rilles, formed when the lava that once filled a basin cooled and contracted. If this is your first time looking at the Moon through a telescope, you may feel the same wonder Galileo felt seeing that familiar orb in the sky transform into another world. Be sure to examine the Moon at many different phases and on different days. Parts of the Moon near the edge of the disk come into view at some times but not others, a wobbling phenomenon known as libration. Experienced observers can take advantage of favorable librations to see about 59 percent of the lunar surface.

Astronomical League Observing Challenge

Published: September 20, 2021

Take on a Moon Observing Challenge from the Astronomical League. This activity challenges you to complete each of the following tasks:

  • Do an outreach activity. This could be an International Observe the Moon Night event or any activity that encourages observing the Moon in general.
  • Observe the Moon with just your eyes. No equipment is required.
  • Estimate the Moon’s percent illumination. Not illuminated at all would be 0%, half-illuminated would be 50%, and completely illuminated would be 100%.
  • Make a sketch or capture an image of the Moon that includes at least ten of the features below. Indicate your chosen features on your sketch or image:
    • Mare Crisium
    • Mare Fecunditatis
    • Mare Frigoris
    • Mare Imbrium
    • Mare Nectaris
    • Mare Nubium
    • Mare Serenitatis
    • Mare Tranquillitatis
    • Crater Copernicus
    • Crater Tycho
    • Crater Rays from Crater Copernicus
    • The Woman in the Moon

For more information about this challenge, and to learn how to submit your sketch or image, visit the Astronomical League website.

Note: You may make your observation any time between October 15, 2021 and October 22, 2021. The deadline for submission is November 22, 2021. You do not need to be a member of the Astronomical League to participate in this challenge.

A lot more Activities to do with People and Our Moon Goddess

October 6th Witchcraft/Magickal Correspondences

From Ancient Pathway

Wednesday
Magickal Intentions:
Communication, Divination, Writing, Knowledge, Business Transactions, Debt, Fear,Loss, Travel, Money Matters		 Incense:
Jasmine
Lavender
Sweet Pea
Planet:
Mercury
Chiron		 Sign:
Virgo		 Angel:
Colors:
Orange
Light Blue
Grey
Yellow
Violet		 Herbs/Plants:
Fern
Lavender
Hazel
Cherry
Perriwinkle		 Stones:
Aventurine
Bloodstone
Hematitie
Moss Agate
Sodalite

Wednesday’s Angel

From Angelorum.com

Angel is Raphael, ruler of Mercury. Raphael is the patron of healers and travellers. He will keep you safe on all of life’s journeys and help you to communicate in a way that promotes healing and peace.

The colours are green and yellow. Yellow calcite and green agate are crystals that can help you connect with this gentle angel. Some scents used to invoke archangel Raphael are chamomile, lemongrass and sandalwood.

Beltane Printable Coloring Pages

I am not sure how large these will print out. I have found the easiest way to print them is to save them to my computer than print them out individually.

A Thought for Today

What is the Reason for Rain on Samhain?

[Revisions made September 25,2021 so a couple of dates might be wrong. The dates for my father’s and mother’s births and deaths are correct]

I have often wonder why it almost always rains and is cold on Samhain. Where I live, in the central United States, it usually nice the day before and the day after but rarely the day of.

This morning my Guides gave me an answer to this question that seems so right I have no idea why I never thought of it. It rains on Samhain because the veil between our world and the Summerlands is very thin allowing what the Spirits of our family and friends are feeling about residing in the Summerlands to come into our world and our feelings to go easier into their world. It also makes it easier to converse with them in many different ways (coming soon a post explaining this more)

Just as we weep for loved ones lost because we miss the person they were in this lifetime they weep because they miss us also so. The rain we experience is in reality their tears. The cold is because they do not need heat to keep a incarnated body warm like we do in this world.

When honoring your ancestors this Samhain remember to take into account their feelings and try to explain yours to them. Communication is not just important when we some someone face to face it is important when dealing with those who have crossed over too.  Do not think the dialogue has to stop when Samhain is over, it may not be as easy to hear them but if they have something you really need to hear you will. Talk to them, ask them questions, tell them things. Just because they no longer have a physical body does not mean they are not interested in things going on in your life.

When helping those who passed away this past year cross into the Summerlands remind them of the happiness, rest, joy and love they will feel there instead of the cold uncertainty of roaming this world with no physical body. If you feel they are hanging on to something in this world or have unfinished business they want to take care before moving across the veil ask how you can help them let go or finish the unfinished business. It is important for us all to cross into the Summerlands after our physical bodies will no longer support life in this world, so we can rejuvenate and be reborn into our next life time.

Talking with my mom today and helping her to finish something she left undone (this I will not share as it was very personal between the two of us) after dreaming about her the other night (October 2015) for the first time since she passed (Born December 12, 1934 Died August 24, 2015) brought a calm to me I have not felt since the day before she passed. I knew the moment my mom passed as I felt a pull on both my heart and root charkas the two most connected thigs in our human body that connect us our to our parents and our children. She is happy and excited to be fully reunited with my dad, he refused rebirth until she and he could have some time together alone and with my eight siblings, who all passed away shortly before or after birth, in the Summerlands They both told me today that they will wait for me to join them in the future when it is my time to return to the Summerlands before they consider another lifetime in this world. Which made me feel very loved and special. It also makes me cry happy/sad tears every time I think about the sacrifice they choose to make for me. You see my dad (Born March 25, 1934) crossed over the veil exactly one month before my twelfth birthday on April 1, 1970. (Please NO April Fool’s jokes. Thank you)

I am sorry if this post seems to ramble some but I was typing as it came to me and had a couple of interruptions for trick-or-treater, all the kids in the neighborhood love to come to the Witch’s house because she gives out good treat if they do not trick her.

[Some of this paragraph maybe early while some of it could be what  you needed to read today] May your Samhain be blessed,. May your time with your ancestors be joyful. My your New Year be filled with everything you need, a warm home, loving family and friends, enough food to keep hunger at bay, clothing to keep you comfortable and even bring you a way to get a couple of things you just want.

2015 Lady Beltane

Happy and Blessed Ostara Dear Sisters, Brothers, and Guests

Ostara – Sabbat Lore and Traditions

For more about Ostara

Date: September 20  – 23

Other Names: Spring Equinox, Lady Day, Alban Eiler (Druidic)

Pronunciations: uh-star-uh, oh-star-uh

As Spring reaches its midpoint, night and day stand in perfect balance, with light on the increase. The young Sun God now celebrates a hierogamy (sacred marriage) with the young Maiden Goddess, who conceives. In nine months, she will again become the Great Mother. It is a time of great fertility, new growth, and newborn animals.

The next full moon (a time of increased births) is called the Ostara and is sacred to Eostre the Saxon Lunar Goddess of fertility (from whence we get the word estrogen, whose two symbols were the egg and the rabbit.

The Christian religion adopted these emblems for Easter which is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox. The theme of the conception of the Goddess was adapted as the Feast of the Annunciation, occurring on the alternative fixed calendar date of March 25 Old Lady Day, the earlier date of the equinox. Lady Day may also refer to other goddesses (such as Venus and Aphrodite), many of whom have festivals celebrated at this time.

Herbs: Daffodil, Jonquils, Woodruff, Violet, Gorse, Olive, Peony, Iris, Narcissus and all spring flowers

Traditional Foods: Leafy green vegetables, Dairy foods, Nuts such as Pumpkin, Sunflower and Pine. Flower Dishes and Sprouts

Incense: Jasmine, Rose, Strawberry, Floral of any type

Stones: Jasper

Recipes

Ancient Celebrations for Today – OSTARA

For more about Ostara and the Wheel of The Year

Ostara marks the Spring Equinox, which happens between March 19 -23. Ostara is a pagan celebration of the German goddess Eostre and the origins of the Christian celebration of Easter. As the beginning of spring Ostara is a good time to literally and figuratively plant seeds for the future.

In modern day living Ostara is also good time to start taking action on the ideas and goals you started thinking about around Yule and Imbolc. What you plant during Ostara will be ready to be harvested during the coming summer months and the sabbats of Beltane, Litha and Lughnasadh.

Ostara is also a good time to freshen up your home and life. Take time to do some spring cleaning. Cleaning isn’t just limited to your home. Take some time to declutter and clean up areas where you spend a lot of time, like your car, your computer (delete those old emails!) or your work office.

Symbols Of Ostara

Colors:  Green, pink, blue

Foods:  Eggs, honey, sprouted greens, baked goods, asparagus

Stones:  Aquamarine, amethyst, rose quartz

Symbols:  Rabbits, eggs, spring flowers , lambs, clover, baskets

Flowers & Plants: clover, daffodils, crocus, tulips

Deities:   Isis, Estotre, Adonis

Ways To Celebrate Ostara…