Sabbats
The Solar Holidays
Sabbats & The Wheel of the Year
Have you ever felt the pulse of the wind through the branches when no one else is near, or the hush of the earth beneath your feet before dawn? That is the rhythm of the Wheel turning – breath and root, flame and stone, the endless conversation between light and shadow.
The sabbats are not holidays we invented. They are moments we notice. Eight times a year, the relationship between earth and sun shifts in ways too obvious to ignore – longest light, deepest dark, the balance points between them. We name these moments, honor them, mark them with fire and food and intention. Not because the gods demand it, but because paying attention to the turning is how we remember we are part of something older than ourselves.
Four sabbats follow the sun’s journey through solstice and equinox. Four fall between them, marking the height of each season rather than its astronomical beginning. Together, they create the Wheel of the Year – a map through time that connects you to every witch who has walked before you and every one who will walk after.
You are not alone in this practice. The Wheel has been turning long before any of us noticed, and it will keep turning long after we’re gone.
The Stories We Tell
Most Wiccan traditions tell some version of this: the God is born at Yule, grows through spring, reaches His peak at Litha, begins to wane, and dies at Samhain, only to be reborn again when the longest night gives way to returning light. The Goddess moves through Her three aspects – Maiden, Mother, and Crone – as the seasons shift beneath her feet.
Some tell it differently. The Oak King and the Holly King, brothers locked in eternal battle, each ruling half the year, each defeated and reborn by the other in turn. Light and dark, growth and rest, the dance that never ends.
These are teaching stories, not historical records. They help us remember what the land already knows: nothing stays, nothing is permanent, and that rhythm – birth, growth, death, rebirth – is not tragedy but truth.
I have told these stories for decades now, and they still hold. But the gods are large enough to hold many tellings, including the one you will write yourself someday.
The Eight Sabbats
The Wheel divides into two halves, light and dark, waxing and waning.
Four sabbats mark the sun’s turning. Four mark the fire between them.
Each sabbat carries its own energy, its own lessons, its own ways of being honored. Learn the history, the symbolism, and the practical magic of each turning point in the year.
Winter Solstice
The longest night. The sun at its weakest. And yet, from this deepest dark, the light returns. We light fires to call it back, to remind ourselves that nothing stays gone forever.
Ostara
Spring (Vernal) Equinox
Day and night in balance, but tipping toward light now. The earth is waking. Seeds are stirring. You can feel the shift if you’re paying attention.
Litha
Summer Solstice
The longest day. The sun at its peak. Everything in full bloom, full power, full heat. And from this height, the descent begins. Not failure. Just the turning.
Mabon
Autumn Equinox
Balance again, but tipping toward dark. Harvest time. We gather what we’ve grown, give thanks for abundance, and prepare for the lean months that follow.
Solar Holidays
Solstices & Equinoxes
The solstices and equinoxes are astronomical events – moments when Earth and sun align in ways that create the longest day, the shortest night, or the brief balance between them.
Fire Festials
The Cross Quarters
The cross-quarter sabbats fall between the solar turning points. They mark the height of each season, the moment when summer is most itself, when winter digs in deepest. Bonfires burn at most of them – light against the dark, warmth against the cold, the old magic of gathering around flame.
Early February
The first whisper that winter will not last forever. Snowdrops pushing through frozen ground. The light is returning, slowly but undeniably.
Beltaine
May 1
Spring at its wildest. Fertility, growth, everything alive and reaching. We jump the fires, weave the May, celebrate the greening of the world.
Lughnasadh (Lammas)
August
First harvest. The grain is cut. Bread is baked from what we’ve grown. The days are still hot, but the nights grow cool. Autumn is coming.
Samhain
October 31
The end of harvest, the beginning of winter’s dark. The veil between worlds grows thin. We honor the dead, speak their names, and prepare for the months when the earth rests.
How to Walk the Wheel
There is no one way to celebrate a sabbat. I have marked them alone in the woods, in circles with dozens of others, in my kitchen with bread dough rising and candles burning. All of it was right. All of it was sacred.
What matters is presence – noticing the season, acknowledging the turning, doing something that marks the moment as different from the mundane march of days.
You can build an altar. You can cook a seasonal meal. You can take a walk and notice what has changed since last month – which birds have returned, which flowers have opened, how the light falls differently now. You can read the mythology and let it settle into your bones. You can sit quietly with tea and just be present to what the day feels like.
The practice adapts to the practitioner. A solitary witch marks the sabbats differently than a coven does. An urban witch works with what’s available in the city. A witch with small children weaves celebration into daily life rather than waiting for uninterrupted ritual time.
Bide your time. Walk the Wheel at your own pace. The gods help those who help themselves, and they do not demand perfection – only presence.
Practical Wisdom
You do not need a coven. The sabbats work perfectly well celebrated alone. I prefer it that way most years.
You do not need expensive tools. A candle, something from the season (a leaf, a flower, a stone), and your attention are enough. I’ve cast circles with kitchen knives and wooden spoons more times than I can count.
You do not need to celebrate on the exact day. The energy of a sabbat lasts for days around the astronomical date. Celebrate when you can, not when the calendar commands.
You do not need to celebrate all eight. Some witches mark only the solstices and equinoxes. Some only the cross-quarters. Some pick the ones that resonate and skip the rest. Your practice is yours to shape.
The Wheel turns whether we notice or not, but noticing – ah, that changes everything.