The Wiccan Year

Preface
I began WrItIng thIs book on February 2, 2006. Since fate
would have me spending the better part of my days chasing an
energetic toddler around, most of this book was written at night.
Perhaps this is one reason that the book has such a celestial feel
to it, as much of it was created under the cloak of midnight with
its accompanying inspiring stars. But I would like to offer my
readers another explanation as well.
I grew up in a small city in northwest Florida. As a child, I
was utterly fascinated by Greek mythology. I consumed every
book that I could fnd on the old myths. While other girls my
age wanted to play with their Barbies and pretend to have dates
with Ken, I wanted to play Athena and pretend that I had a shield
and a magical owl companion. As a teenager, astronomy was
one of my favorite hobbies. While my mathematical skills were
sorely lacking, I spent many hours stargazing, memorizing constellations, tracking planets, observing the spectacular displays
of meteor showers, and identifying roving satellites.
It then occurred to me, once I had the idea to create a book
based on the Wiccan wheel of the year, that the night sky has
changed very little—imperceptibly, if at all—from the times of
the ancient Celts or the Golden Age of Greece. The night sky
x
that I gazed upon in wonder was in fact very much the same as
the one that blanketed the builders of Stonehenge.
The earliest of astronomers began recording their observations around 3000 b.c. and hailed from cultures well known
for their veneration of the goddess archetypes. In an attempt
to make sense out of the universe, these early stargazers were
often also priests who linked the placement of the stars to their
religion. Early concepts of deity and the constellations were
undeniably interwoven; astronomy as well as astrology had
deep religious implications. In fact, each of the four major sabbats of the Celtic tradition corresponds to each of the four fxed
signs of the zodiac: Samhain occurs under the fxed water sign,
Scorpio; Imbolc occurs under the fxed air sign, Aquarius; Beltane occurs under the fxed earth sign, Taurus; and Lughnasad
occurs under the fxed fre sign, Leo