(Images labeled by Gypsy Scholar)
Celtic Wheel of the Year & Calendar
“The Celtic Wheel of the Year” was quartered by the solar events with which we are familiar—the solstices (“sun-standing”) and the equinoxes (“equal-night”)—and then it was quartered again at the midpoints between the solar events, the “cross-quarter days.” The result was that the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, was midsummer’s day, not the first day of summer as we observe it. The same goes for the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year and the middle of winter in the old system. The true cross-quarter dates are calculated based on the position of the earth in its elliptical orbit (or the sun’s “ecliptic longitude” as seen from earth) and are actually a few days later than the traditional dates of Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane, and Lughnasadh. The major solar events occur at the 0°, 90°, 180°, and 270° points with respect to the Vernal Equinox; the cross-quarter dates are placed at the 45° points between them, which may be up to 12 hours away from the midpoint between the calendar dates. The position of the moon is indicated as well; it will be adjacent to the sun when new, and opposite when full. The names of the zodiac constellations indicate their true sidereal positions in the sky. Accurate sidereal and solar times require knowledge of the observer’s longitude. Time zone is used by default as a rough estimation, but in some parts of the world it can be two hours off.
“The Celtic Wheel Horologium” indicates the current date with respect to the solstices, equinoxes, and cross-quarter days, as well as the positions of the sun, moon, and stars. The view is that of an observer looking down at the solar system from above the earth’s North Pole. The vertical blue line is the meridian, the line passing from the north to the south celestial poles through the zenith of a terrestrial observer. Times and dates are local based on the user’s system time.
“The Gallic Coligny Calendar” year (lunisolar, based on lunar months) began with Samonios (November), which is usually assumed to correspond to Old Irish Samhain eve (October 31), giving an autumn start to the new year. It shows that Samhain was celebrated “three days before and three days after” the Novemeber 1 date.
As to the timing of Samhain, a “cross-quarter” day on the Celtic/Neopagan Wheel of the Year, it is traditionally celebrated on October 31, the eve of November 1. This is known as the “Fixed Date.” However, there are two other dates on which it is celebrated; the astrological and the astronomical dates, which go by a lunisolar calendar. The “Astrological Date” is when the Sun is at the 15th degree of Scorpio on November 6-7. The “Astronomical Date” is the cross-quarter day approximately the midway point between the Autumnal Equinox and the Winter Solstice (in the Northern Hemisphere). Astronomical time is based on the meridian overhead, not midnight, so the actual position of the sun in the sky is opposite that of solar time. These two dates are sometimes referred to as “True Samhain.”
Celtic Festival of Samhain
(Meme made by Gypsy Scholar)
Celtic New Year Mandala
I shall be Autumn
this Halloween,
with leaf draped skirt,
and folds of
boysenberry velvet wine
flowing to the ground.
Brown stained face,
eyes rimmed in gold,
nails dripping sunset,
a crown of twigs
to cover my head.
You may gather from me
the spring of my youth,
my summer of maturity,
and hold onto with me,
the solace of these days
of remembering
before the frost.
~ Judith A. Lawrence, “Autumn Offering”
October brings us panoramic scenes
Picassoesque impressionistic style
From reds to browns and earth tones in between
When nature paints those landscapes that beguile
The helpful sun provides hot yellow paint
Which bleeds and blends from mountains to the seas
There are no signs that nature shows restraint
As hues are scattered by the autumn breeze
Yet with her madness comes a masterpiece
The reason for spring's jealousy of green
Before her creativity has ceased
Her orange and black spills on Halloween
October means peace, love, and harmony
Get with your friends, enjoy fall's scenery
~ Daniel Turner, “Painting Autumn”
Even now this landscape is assembling.
The hills darken. The oxen
Sleep in their blue yoke,
The fields having been
Picked clean, the sheaves
Bound evenly and piled at the roadside
Among cinquefoil, as the toothed moon rises:
This is the barrenness
Of harvest or pestilence
And the wife leaning out the window
With her hand extended, as in payment,
And the seeds
Distinct, gold, calling
Come here
Come here, little one
And the soul creeps out of the tree
~ Louise Gluck, “All Hallows”
“The perfect weather of Indian Summer lengthened and lingered, warm sunny days were followed by brisk nights with Halloween a presentiment in the air.” ~ Wallace Stegner
“October proved a riot a riot to the senses and climaxed those giddy last weeks before Halloween.” ~ Keith Donohue
In the season leaves should love,
since it gives them leave to move
through the wind, towards the ground
they were watching while they hung,
legend says there is a seam
stitching darkness like a name.
Now when dying grasses veil
earth from the sky in one last pale
wave, as autumn dies to bring
winter back, and then the spring,
we who die ourselves can peel
back another kind of veil
that hangs among us like thick smoke.
Tonight at last I feel it shake.
I feel the nights stretching away
thousands long behind the days
till they reach the darkness where
all of me is ancestor.
I move my hand and feel a touch
move with me, and when I brush
my own mind across another,
I am with my mother's mother.
Sure as footsteps in my waiting
self, I find her, and she brings
arms that carry answers for me,
intimate, a waiting bounty.
“Carry me.” She leaves this trail
through a shudder of the veil,
and leaves, like amber where she stays,
a gift for her perpetual gaze.
Annie Finch,“Samhain”
For "Halloween" poem by Robert Burns, click here
Autumn Fairy Tree
Autumn Witch
(Meme made by Gypsy Scholar)
King and Queen of the Samhain harvest
Thematic Memes for Samhain Basics
(Memes made by Gypsy Scholar)
click arrow on right to advance images and click on image to expand.
Thematic Memes for Samhain Blessings
(most memes made by Gypsy Scholar)
Thematic Memes for Samhain
(all memes made by Gypsy Scholar)
%20song%20meme.png)
Thematic Artwork for Samhain
.jpg)
Samhain (Fitzgerald)
Samhain Celtic Reaper
Thematic Images for Samhain & Halloween
.jpg)
Samhain-Halloween (Skaggs)
Thematic Images for Samhain/Halloween ""Feast of the Dead"
(Meme made by Gypsy Scholar)
Féile na Marbh ritual
(Meme made by Gypsy Scholar)
Spirit of Samhain communing with the ancestors
(Memes made by Gypsy Scholar)
Thematic Images for Samhain & Halloween Night
.jpg)
Thematic Images for Samhain/Halloween "Mischief Night"
Samhain, like Halloween, is notoriously known as “Mischief Night,” with its main feature being what social anthropologists identify as “rituals of social inversion,” wherein the social hierarchy is “turned upside down” for the duration of the festival; for instance, masters become slaves and slaves masters. Thus, this social misrule during the festival qualifies as what social anthropologists also identify as “carnivalesque,” the idea of a “transgressive” phenomenon, one that first manifests in the popular festivals of the common people during the medieval and early modern periods when they gathered to experience “Collective Pleasure.”
.jpg)
"Samhain - Trick or Treat"
For article, "Mischief Night: A Dark Autumn Tradition Best Left Forgotten?", click here
For article, "Mischief Night: What is the anarchic celebration of lawlessness and what is its history?", click here
Thematic Images for Samhain & Halloween Night Witches
Classic Artwork of Witches
.jpg)
.jpg)
Contemporary Artwork of Witches
Thematic Images for Cerridywn, Celtic Goddess of the Cauldron
jpg.jpg)
Cerridwyn, Keeper of the Cauldron
Cerridwyn (Cerridwen, Ceridwen, Cyrridven, Caridwen, Kyrridwenis) is a Celtic Welsh goddess of inspiration, wisdom, rebirth, transformation and prophecy. She is known as the keeper of the cauldron of knowledge, the mother of transformation and change, and the white lady of inspiration and death. Cerridwyn holds great power and knowledge and is often described as a crone goddess, creating a triad with Blodeuwedd and Arianrhod.
She often represents the darker aspect of deity and has connections to the Underworld.
Cerridwyn was an enchantress in Welsh medieval legend. Medieval Welsh poetry refers to her as possessing the cauldron of poetic inspiration (Awen) and the Tale of Taliesin recounts her swallowing her servant Gwion Bach who is then reborn through her as the poet Taliesin.
As the Welsh Witch Goddess, Cerridwyn kept a mystical cauldron that brewed pure Awen on the shore of Llyn Tegid. Awen is an energetic force of divine inspiration. Transformation, inspiration and magic are what she is known for. She is a fierce, take no prisoners sorceress and yet also a nurturing and caring motherly figure. She guides every witch, pointing them in the right direction when consulted. She is highly skilled in the art of sorcery, conjuring and divination.
Cerridwyn is regarded by many modern neopagans, such as the Wiccans, as the Celtic goddess of witchcraft, rebirth, transformation, and inspiration.
Thematic Memes of Witches
(Memes made by Gypsy Scholar)
Thematic Images for Hecate, Goddess of Witches
Hecate (or Hekate) as “Queen of Witches and Night” and the crossroads greeter of souls after death, can be understood as the proper goddess of Halloween. But, Hecate's magic was not just about death and the underworld. As healer, she helped ease the transition of the dying, and she was also associated with sacred plants, wilderness, childbirth, protection, and growing and harvest through her connection to the phases of the moon. A goddess of magic, witchcraft, the moon, nighttime, ghosts and necromancy (communicating with the deceased), you will sometimes see Hecate holding keys to open the gates between the worlds. Hecate is a liminal (threshold) goddess who was present at all the boundaries and transitional moments in life. It can also be understood that Halloween “Trick or Treating” has its roots in the myths of Hecate, the Greek goddess of the crossroads. Known as a triple goddess of earth, sky, and sea, in mythological art and religious iconography, Hecate was sometimes portrayed as three separate figures, for example the Celtic Triple Goddess aspects of Maiden, Mother, Crone.
The end of summer and the beginning of winter was the time of year when the “veil between the worlds” was thought to be the thinnest and most easily penetrated, a time when the laws of space and time were temporarily suspended, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living. This was when Hecate made her “nocturnal wanderings.”
Thematic Images for Samhain Faeries (Fey, Fae, or the Sidhe)
Titania: Queen of Celtic Fairies
Faery Queen of the Golden Wood
.jpg)
Titania
Fairy Queen
.jpg)
Queen Mab
Fairy Queen Medb (Meaohoh) of the Sidhe
Fairy Queens
Fairies
.jpg)
The Fairy Host
Arthur Rackham Illustrations of Fairies
Oberon Meets The Fairy Queen
The Fey (or Fae) are known by many other names, with their common title “fairies” taken after their homeland, the Otherworld, the world of fairyland. Other than faeries, fey (or fay and fae) and Fair Folk, they are also known as the Kind Ones, Little People, Good Neighbors, and some other euphemisms, partly because of their enormous variety and partly because of age-old superstitions about invoking them by name. The Fey of folklore were blamed for all manner of mischief, such as leading travelers astray at night.
Fey, or “Fairy-Folk,” were said to have inhabited the spiritual realm before humans ever set foot on Earth, or perhaps even before humans were created as a whole. Their true origins is largely shrouded in mystery as even a majority of the fae themselves are unsure of where they came from or who created them, although one prominent belief is that they came from the Tuatha Dé Danann, a race of gods who invaded Ireland on flying ships surrounded by dark clouds. After being defeated in battle with another invading race of gods, the Milesians, they retreated to the underworld, where, over time, they became known as the “People of the Sidhe” (a word that literally means “a mound”).
Some say the Fey are spirits of the dead, elementals in alchemy, demoted angels, demons, pagan gods, a type of human, and more. They are known as the opposites and enemies of the Creatures of the Night and Demons, which also indirectly makes them the allies of the Angels. They are led by Oberon, the High King of the Fey and arch-enemy to the vampire god Absalom.
"The Cauldron of Inspiration" in Annwn, the Welsh Otherworld of the Faery
"The Song of Amergin"
'The Song of Amergin" is a riddle about the very force of creation, that mysterious force from the Otherworld, of Annwn, that permeates every single aspect of our world and brings it into manifestation, the great mystery itself.
I am a wind across the sea
I am a flood across the plain
I am the roar of the tides
I am a stag of seven tines
I am a dewdrop let fall by the sun
I am the fierceness of boars
I am a hawk, my nest on a cliff
I am a height of magical poetry
I am the most beautiful among flowers
I am the salmon of wisdom
Who but I is both the tree and the lightning that strikes it
Who but I is the dark secret of the dolmen not yet hewn
I am the queen of every hive
I am the fire on every hill
I am the shield over every head
I am the spear of battle
I am the ninth wave of eternal return
I am the grave of every vain hope
Who but I knows the path of the sun or the periods of the moon.
For music video of "The Incantation of Amergin," click here
For music video of "The Song of Amergin," click here
For music video of "Aimhirghin's Song- An Invocation of Ireland," click here
For video of "Amergin's Incantation & Song of Triumph" from Ancient Irish Mythology, click here
Thomas the Rhymer & The Fairy Queen
Thomas The Rhymer Meets The Fairy Queen of Elfland
Thomas the Rhymer and the Fairy Queen
.jpg)
Thomas Rhymer & Queen of Elfland :
"Under the Eildon tree Thomas met the lady."
The Queen of Elphame of Fairyland (of Scottish legend) appears in the legend of Thomas the Rhymer (c. 1220 – 1298.) He was said to be a laird and sort of a local prophet, who lived in the Borders region of Scotland. The tale described a man who was helped by the Queen of Elphame and returned from his time with her with the gift of prophecy. In one version of this text the mystical being is the queen of a nameless kingdom. In a translation of the traditional ballad, "Thomas the Rhymer," by poet Robert Graves the fairy queen, who Thomas mistakes for the "Queen of Heaven," says:
''I'm not the Queen of Heaven, Thomas,
That name does not belong to me;
I am but the Queen of fair Elphame
Come out to hunt in my follie.''
In the lyrics to the traditional ballad, the Fairy Queen rides away with Thomas:
"She mounted on her milk-white steed,
She's taen True Thomas up behind,
And aye wheneer her bridle rung,
The steed flew swifter than the wind."
.jpg)
Faery Queen Elfland and Thomas the Rhymer
The legendary Faery Queen is called by many names in the folklore, Queen of Elphame (also Elfame and Elfhame), Queen of Elfland, Queen of Elfin (also Elphin), Queen of the Faeries, Queen of Faeryland, and Queen of the Seelie Court specifically. However, it should be noted that she is never been given a specific name in the folklore itself. Yet, it should also be noted that in the Celtic folklore an association between the original Queen of Elfhame and Queen Mab of Connacht. In Scottish and Northern British folklore the name ''Queen of Elphame'' means ''Queen of Fairyland." It is unknown when she appeared in history or legends for the first time, but she was mentioned in several old folk stories. (She even made her appearance in and documents of witch trials. This has to do with the fact that the Queen of the Faeries is a major spirit in earlier witchcraft lore of Europe and Great Britain, but during the early modern period the focus of the leader of the witches shifted to simply the Devil.). She is associated with magic, childbirth, and healing. She has also been described as a young and beautiful woman who could steal the heart of any man. The legend of this Faery Queen became an inspiration for many famous artists and writers, and also appeared in plays by Shakespeare and his followers (as "Queen Mab"). All of the faeries they presented in their texts may be associated with the Queen of Elphame. With the growing popularity of fantasy novels and movies, descriptions of the Queen of Elphame and her court started to appear even more often.
The famed ballad of "Thomas the Rhymer" or "True Thomas" tells the tale of a young man taken by the faeries and living in the court of the Queen of the Faeries (or Queen of Elphame) where he lived as her lover. There are many variants of the traditional ballad (collected by Francis James Child and published as The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, 1882-1898.) In most variants of the ballad Thomas is contracted to being a lover and consort of the Queen for seven years ( a magical faery number), and afterward, he will be allowed to return to the human world. He has attained much wisdom, knowledge, insights, and great inspiration to be a blessed poet and bard. That is where the alternate name of the ballad "True Thomas" comes into play, because the name "Thomas the Rhymer" is in reference to his gift of prophecy coming in the form of poetry. (It was a very common belief that if you spent the night sleeping on a Faery Mound or in a Faery Circle you would either depart a poet or go mad.) It is far from uncommon in folklore and faerylore to have a man become a bard and poet after an encounter with a Faery Queen or Faery Goddess. For instance, Taliesin became a wise bard and poet in Wales after his encounter and famed chase with goddess Cerridwen. Also similar is the Irish Faery woman the Leanan Sidhe blessing artists, poets, and bards with talent via sexual congress. The idea of Faery blessings in Celtic folklore can be found in accounts of special humans blessed by Faery magick to gain the Sight and other gifts. Altogether, we can see the blessing of Faery gifts of bards and poets all through Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.
Tam Lin & The Fairy Queen
Tam Lin & The Fairy Queen
.jpg)
Tam Lin & The Faerie Queen
Janet holds Tam Lin through his animal metamorphosis
.jpg)
Tamlin
Tam Lin Reborn
Tam Lin & Janet
Tam Lin & Janet
.png)
.png)
Tam Lin & Janet
parts of the illustrated story of Tam Lin
Faery Music
(Memes made by Gypsy Scholar)
Thematic Images for Celtic Gods, Goddesses &
Legendary Figures for Samhain
Cernunnos, primordial Celtic horned god
Celtic horned god of Samhain
Eochaid Ollathafr or Dagda, the principal god of the Old Irish tradition
The Dagda
.jpg)
.jpg)
Queen Maev (Leyendecker)
Medb, Queen of Connacht
and Goddess of Sovereignty
%2C%20Queen%20of%20Connacht%20(FitzPatrick).jpg)
Medb (Maeve), Queen of Connacht (FitzPatrick)
Thematic Images for the Cailleach Bheara (Bheur)
