The Wheel of the Year ~ Celebrating the Sacred Cycle of Life & Death
At Annwfn Sanctuary the CHURCH OF ALL WORLDS community, all traditions of Paganism, and devotees of Sacred Mother Earth are invited to connect to the earth through ceremonies that honor Her cycles, Her seasons, Her rhymes, and Her reasons.
GODDESS DEDICATED SANCTUARY:
Annwfn is a ritually sanctified retreat center with a Goddess Dedicated organic garden, ritual circles, ritual paths, and Temple.
OUR MAGICKAL WORK:
Our magickal work recreates the connections between this world and the realms of Faerie. When the doors between the worlds open in this sanctuary, the magic spirals forth to heal the Earth and empowers us all.
CHURCH OF ALL WORLDS EVENTS:
http://caw.org/content/?q=events
SACRED CEREMONIES ~ THE WHEEL OF THE YEAR:
The Wheel of the Year; All Solar, Lunar and Cross-quarter observances are celebrated at Annwfn.
Annwfn is designed for and is intended to be utilized as Sacred Space. To this end the sanctuary is available for functions that correspond with the Wheel of the Year, and with love and respect for our Mother Earth. She is alive and sentient, both matter and consciousness. She holds out her heart to us, inviting us to deep partnership. We are of the Earth, not separate from her. Her rhythms are our rhythms. When we live without conscious connection to the Earth, we create stress and disharmony, for ourselves and for all life on this planet. Tuning to her rhythms restores harmony and teaches us to embrace the ever-turning cycle of creation and destruction.
One of the most accessible ways to engage this cycle is by aligning with the Wheel of the Year, the annual cycle of changing seasons. By observing the 8 sacred holidays or festivals which mark the Wheel of the Year, we can begin to tune deeply to this foundational cycle and learn to work with rather than against the natural currents of life on Mother Earth.
Honoring the Wheel of the Year teaches us the dance of creation, which is found again and again in Nature and in our lives ...
in the waxing and waning of the moon
in the rising and setting of the sun
in the inhalation and exhalation of each breath
in the beginning and ending of any endeavor
in the journey from birth to death to rebirth
re/birth, the sun returns, Yule/Winter Solstice)
quickening in the womb of the earth, purification, light, Imbolc (Candlemass)
emergence, birth, rising from the darkness, Ostara/Spring Equinox
growth, the opening between the worlds, fertility, Beltane (May Day)
fruition, sacred marriage, midsummer nights dream, Midsummer/Summer Solstice
releasing, first fruits, first harvest, strength, Lughnasadh/Lammas
harvest, the wild hunt, the descent, Mabon/Autumn Equinox
death, the opening between the worlds, Samhain (Halloween)
When we celebrate these holidays, we join in partnership with the Earth, lending our energies to the turning of the Wheel to restore and perserve harmony and balance.The Wheel of the Year is a Neopagan term for the annual cycle of the Earth's seasons. It consists of eight festivals, spaced at approximately even intervals throughout the year. These festivals are referred to as Sabbats (pronounced /ˈsæbət/).
While the term Sabbat originated from Judaism and is of Hebrew origin, the festivals themselves have historical origins in Celtic and Germanic pre-Christian feasts, and the Wheel of the Year, as has developed in modern Paganism and Wicca, is really a combination of the two cultures' solstice and equinox celebrations. When melded together, the two European Festival Cycles merge to form eight festivals in modern renderings.
Together, these festivals are understood by some neo-pagans to be the Bronze Age religious festivals of Europe. As with all cultures' use of festivals and traditions, these festivals have been utilized by European cultures in both the pre- and post-Christian eras as traditional times for the community to celebrate the planting and harvest seasons. The Wheel of the Year has been important to many people both ancient and modern, from various religious as well as cultural and secular viewpoints.
In many forms of Paganism, natural processes are seen as following a continuous cycle. The passing of time is also seen as cyclical, and is represented by a circle or wheel. The progression of birth, life, decline and death, as experienced in human lives, is echoed in the progression of the seasons. This cycle is seen as an echo of life, death and rebirth of the God and the fertility of the Goddess.
While most of these names derive from historical Celtic and Germanic festivals, the non-traditional names Litha and Mabon, which have become popular in North American Wicca, were introduced by Aidan Kelly in the 1970s. The word "sabbat" itself comes from the witches' sabbath or sabbat attested to in Early Modern witch trials.
GODDESS DEDICATED SANCTUARY:
Annwfn is a ritually sanctified retreat center with a Goddess Dedicated organic garden, ritual circles, ritual paths, and Temple.
OUR MAGICKAL WORK:
Our magickal work recreates the connections between this world and the realms of Faerie. When the doors between the worlds open in this sanctuary, the magic spirals forth to heal the Earth and empowers us all.
CHURCH OF ALL WORLDS EVENTS:
http://caw.org/content/?q=events
SACRED CEREMONIES ~ THE WHEEL OF THE YEAR:
The Wheel of the Year; All Solar, Lunar and Cross-quarter observances are celebrated at Annwfn.
Annwfn is designed for and is intended to be utilized as Sacred Space. To this end the sanctuary is available for functions that correspond with the Wheel of the Year, and with love and respect for our Mother Earth. She is alive and sentient, both matter and consciousness. She holds out her heart to us, inviting us to deep partnership. We are of the Earth, not separate from her. Her rhythms are our rhythms. When we live without conscious connection to the Earth, we create stress and disharmony, for ourselves and for all life on this planet. Tuning to her rhythms restores harmony and teaches us to embrace the ever-turning cycle of creation and destruction.
One of the most accessible ways to engage this cycle is by aligning with the Wheel of the Year, the annual cycle of changing seasons. By observing the 8 sacred holidays or festivals which mark the Wheel of the Year, we can begin to tune deeply to this foundational cycle and learn to work with rather than against the natural currents of life on Mother Earth.
Honoring the Wheel of the Year teaches us the dance of creation, which is found again and again in Nature and in our lives ...
in the waxing and waning of the moon
in the rising and setting of the sun
in the inhalation and exhalation of each breath
in the beginning and ending of any endeavor
in the journey from birth to death to rebirth
re/birth, the sun returns, Yule/Winter Solstice)
quickening in the womb of the earth, purification, light, Imbolc (Candlemass)
emergence, birth, rising from the darkness, Ostara/Spring Equinox
growth, the opening between the worlds, fertility, Beltane (May Day)
fruition, sacred marriage, midsummer nights dream, Midsummer/Summer Solstice
releasing, first fruits, first harvest, strength, Lughnasadh/Lammas
harvest, the wild hunt, the descent, Mabon/Autumn Equinox
death, the opening between the worlds, Samhain (Halloween)
When we celebrate these holidays, we join in partnership with the Earth, lending our energies to the turning of the Wheel to restore and perserve harmony and balance.The Wheel of the Year is a Neopagan term for the annual cycle of the Earth's seasons. It consists of eight festivals, spaced at approximately even intervals throughout the year. These festivals are referred to as Sabbats (pronounced /ˈsæbət/).
While the term Sabbat originated from Judaism and is of Hebrew origin, the festivals themselves have historical origins in Celtic and Germanic pre-Christian feasts, and the Wheel of the Year, as has developed in modern Paganism and Wicca, is really a combination of the two cultures' solstice and equinox celebrations. When melded together, the two European Festival Cycles merge to form eight festivals in modern renderings.
Together, these festivals are understood by some neo-pagans to be the Bronze Age religious festivals of Europe. As with all cultures' use of festivals and traditions, these festivals have been utilized by European cultures in both the pre- and post-Christian eras as traditional times for the community to celebrate the planting and harvest seasons. The Wheel of the Year has been important to many people both ancient and modern, from various religious as well as cultural and secular viewpoints.
In many forms of Paganism, natural processes are seen as following a continuous cycle. The passing of time is also seen as cyclical, and is represented by a circle or wheel. The progression of birth, life, decline and death, as experienced in human lives, is echoed in the progression of the seasons. This cycle is seen as an echo of life, death and rebirth of the God and the fertility of the Goddess.
While most of these names derive from historical Celtic and Germanic festivals, the non-traditional names Litha and Mabon, which have become popular in North American Wicca, were introduced by Aidan Kelly in the 1970s. The word "sabbat" itself comes from the witches' sabbath or sabbat attested to in Early Modern witch trials.