by Rick Johnson 
PO Box 40451
Tucson, Az.
85717
RikJohnson@juno.com
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NOTE: Definitions at the bottom of this paper
We all know that the Sabbats are based on the Sun, but why those dates? Why not April 4th or August 29?
Essentially, the sun goes through a cycle similar to the Moon. We all can see this as in the Winter, the Sun rises late so we go to and from work with the lights on our car but by Summer the Sun has risen so early and set so late that we don’t even bother with the lights as we go to and from work. For the Urban Pagan, this is good enough. The reason for this has to deal with the angle of the axis of the Earth as it revolves around the Sun which causes the Sun to rise at lower or higher latitudes each day. Now, doesn’t that explain a lot?
The ancients felt that these dates were so important that they created over 3000 Stone Circles n Great Britain alone to mark these times. In some cases, the stones were 40 tonnes in weight and dozens of feet high dragged over hundreds of miles to their final location. Why do all this work for something that wasn’t important or easy to determine? The ancients must have been geniuses to calculate to the minute the Solstices and Equinoxes with such precision that thousands of years later, these calendars are still usable by modern Witches.
The reality is that the math is simple and easy for anyone to do. Anyone, that is who understands how the Sun operates.
So what I am going to do here is to show you how to do two things. 1) Calculate the Sabbats to within a day without looking at a calendar and 2) Build a “Stonehenge-type Circle that actually works for any date you wish.
PROJECT I
What you will for this one is a house with a clear view of the East and West horizons (that’s the place where the Sun enters and leaves the sky in the morning and evening).and a grease pencil.
Find a large window that faces East. Use the grease pencil to draw a picture of the Horizon onto the glass of the window. This is easy to do because all you do is trace the horizon onto the glass. It’s easier to do this if you live near mountains or landmarks.
Repeat this with a window facing West.
If you don’t wan to draw on the glass, take a photograph of the horizons and blow them up to a decent working size.
Next, every day for the next few years you wake up early, before the Sun rises, and watch through the East window.
As soon as you see the Sun peek up, draw a make through the horizon on your glass. Then mark the date on that mark and go about your business.
Return just before the Sun set and watch it through the West window. As it vanishes, mark that exact location on the horizon on your window.
Note that if you are using a picture of the horizon, mark those points on the picture.
The next morning, do the same thing. In fact, do it every day for at least one year.
What you will see is that the sun doesn’t rise or set in the same place every day. It travels across the horizon. Actually you will notice that it rises in the South, and every day it rises a little further North until it reaches a point in the North where it stops and then the next day it begins to rise a little further South until it reaches the Southernmost point when it starts to rise a bit North each day and so on.
Ok, now look at those dates you marked. You will notice that the Southernmost point the Sun rises is…. (fanfare) December 21st. And you will notice that the Northernmost point that the Sun rises is (more fanfare) June 21st. and you will notice that the exact center between these two points has two dates marked, (even more fanfare) March 21st and September 21st.
WOW! Ain’t that interesting.
Ok, the explanation is simple, the furthest points North or South that the Sun Rises or Sets is called the Solstice. “Solstice means Sun is Alone”. These days you will have, hopefully, noticed are days when the Sun Rises the latest or earliest and sets the latest and earliest. In December 21st, the Sun rises really late and sets really early making it the Longest Night of the Year. In June 21st, the Sun rises really early and sets really late making it the shortest night of the year.
So, all you do is choose the days that you want to remember like the Sabbats (Dec 21, Mar 21, Jun 21, Sep 21, Feb 1, May 1, Aug 1, Nov 1) and erase every other mark on the window or drawing.
Then you glance at the window in the morning and note where the Sun is Rising and if it is near one of your marks, you know that the Sabbat is near. When it rises AT one of your marks, you know that today is a Sabbat day.
Obviously, although this works in theory, in practice a grease pencil and a window are not very accurate. To really get usable info, you need to expand your sighting system and that require a stone Circle in Demo II.
PROJECT II
Now that you understand how the Sun moves, we can use this info to build a Stone Circle/Temple that can predict the Sabbats without use of a calendar.
What you will need is an open field where you can see the horizon on the East and West. A deep valley like Tucson won’t work so here we need to get to the top of a hill to see over the mountain. In the plains of Texas, anyplace is good.
Next you will need a few hundred poles, a long rope and an assistant.
Go and locate the center of where you want to build your Circle. Drive one pole there to mark the altar and set the pole to eye height. Take the rope and make a loop at one end. Measure out the length of rope that is equal to the radius of your desired Circle. Like if you want a Circle 100 feet across, make a knot 50 feet from the loop. The larger the better. 25 feet is probably the minimum, 100 feet is probably the maximum.
Place the loop of the rope over the center pole, stretch the rope to the know and holding the knot, walk around the center pole keeping the rope taught. Drag a stick behind you to mark the ground and when you are done, you will see a Circle marked in the ground around your center pole. This is the size and location of your Stone Circle.
The next morning take a pole and your assistant to the center pole and wait until the Sun rises.
You stand behind the center pole while your assistant stands on the Circle mark with another pole. When the Sun rises, you start waving your hands and yelling at him to move right or left until his pole is exactly between your pole and the Rising Sun.
You will notice that the shadow of the first Circle pole points exactly to the center pole. Take a hammer and drive that pole into the ground and go home.
At sunset, return and repeat the procedure as the Sun Sets.
You now have three poles in the ground. One in the center and two on the Circle edge.
Repeat this every morning and every evening at Sunrise and Sunset until a year has passed.
You will notice exactly the same situation here that you noticed on your window inProject I, that the Sun rises and sets in a different place and a different time every day. And that the poles you have driven into the ground form, not a Circle, but two arcs, one in the East and one in the West.
Now we actually start construction.
The Hard Way is to buy or dig up a few dozen very large pointy stones. 5-10 feet tall and a couple of feet around is best but almost anything will work.
Take these to your Circle and decide which poles mark the Sabbats. Obviously, the poles furthest North and South mark the Winter and Summer Solstices so they stay. The one in the middle marks the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes so they stay. These are the Lesser Sabbats.
Then you count 40 or 45 poles past these for the Greater Sabbats. All others you pull up and toss away.
Let’s digress here. Why 40 or 45 days? What’s the difference?
Well, if you count the days after the winter Solstice, you discover that at 40 days you reach February 1st which is a Sabbat. 50 days after that you reach March 21st. The 40 days later is May 1st then 50 days later is June 21st and so on. So we celebrate a Greater Sabbat 40 days after each Lesser Sabbat.
Why? I don’t know. I suspect that it is simply that with the modern calendar, the Greater Sabbats were moved to a new date to make it easier to remember. I personally think that the Greater Sabbats were exactly halfway between the Lesser Sabbats at 45 days which makes Beltane May 5th, Samhain November 5th and so on. When I mentioned this some decades ago, I referred to these as the “Old Dates” and the modern system as the “New Dates”. It caught on and now many Craft Calendars will list both days for the Sabbats and some Pagans and Witches celebrate the Old Dates instead of the New Dates.
So you decide which you want to celebrate and keep those poles.
You will now have two arcs, one in the East and one in the West. Each arc of poles will have either 7 poles for the New Dates of December 21, February 1, March 21 & September 21 (the same pole), May 1, June 21, August 1 and November 1.
Or you will have 5 poles for the Old Dates of Dec 21, February 5 & November 5 (the same polethe same pole), May 5 & August 5 (the same pole) and June 21.
So we replace every remaining pole with a Stone. Then you have two Stone arcs which doesn’t look good so we have to fill in the North and South with Stones for aesthetic reasons to make a complete Circle.
Then you replace the center pole with your Altar and you are done.
Whenever you stand by the Altar and see the Sunrise near a Stone, you know that a Sabbat is due and when it rises exactly over that stone, you know that this is a Holy Day.
Now for the easy way.
Instead of dragging all of those huge multi-ton stones across the field, bring bricks and build a column or such, then cover it with colored-cement to look like a large stone. Spray the wet cement pile with something to give it texture or such and you now have a Stonehenge-type Ston Circle that works.
If you actually want a StoneHenge, then leave your 5 or 7 poles and place two tall stones on either side of each pole. Cover these with a series of capstones and then draw another Circle inside or outside the original one. Re-do your sighting only this time you set the assistant with a new pole until it lines up with your center pole and Circle pole. Drive that one in and build another series of arches. Then fill in the North and South arcs and whenever the Sun rises where you can see it between the archs, you know that this is a Sabbat.
So we now know that the ancients were not super-men, the simply paid attention to Nature in a way that we, as urban dwellers, have forgotten.
OK, how dos this relate to the Religion
In an Agrarian society that depended on when to plant and when to harvest, timing was vital! Plant too early and the seeds freeze. Harvest too late and the crops freeze. Plant too late and they don’t grow in time and harvest too early, you get unripe food.
People generally planted and harvested on the Equinoxes. If they lived further south, the simply saw when the proper dates were and placed a stone at that point so instead of the Spring Equinox being Planting day, Planting Day was a week early or a month early and their Circle was simply adjusted for that n the same way we can adjust ours for the Old or New Dates for the Greater Sabbats.
Same thing for the days when your herds gave birth or needed to be slaughtered.
And as these dates were vital to the survival of the people, each date took on a Holy Significance.
Read my paper on The Gods and the Wheel of the Year for this information and why it is important.
SIMPLE DEFINITIONS
Astronomy- How the stars and planets move and why they look and act the way that they do
Deosil- Clockwise. Look at a clock that has hands and numbers (not a digital one). The direction the numbers run and hands move is clockwise or Deosil.
Equinox- That night when the Sun is exactly halfway between the Solstices. It means “Equal Night” and refers to the daytime hours being exactly the same length as the nighttime hours.
Geocentric Universe- The idea that the Sun, Moon, planets and stars revolve around the Earth
Heliocentric Universe- The idea that the Moon revolves around the Earth but that the Earth revolves around the Sun and the stars revolve around the Galactic core.
Horizon- Where the Sky meets the Ground when you look at the edge of the earth in the distance when there isn’t anything in the way. Like where the sun sets and rises.
Revolve- To stand in one place and turn in a circle, like a spinning top.
Rotate- To travel in a circle around an object, like when you walk around the edge of the Magick Circle.
Rural Dweller- Someone who lives in the country. Trees usually get in the way of the horizon.
Solstice- That night when the Sun is furthest North or South as it Rises and Sets. It means “Sun is Alone” and refers to the furthest North or South the Sun rises.
Urban Dweller- Someone who lives in the city. Buildings usually get in he way of the horizon
Widdershins- Counter-clockwise. Look at a clock that has hands and numbers (not a digital one). The direction the numbers opposite normal from 12, 11, 10, 9, etc or when the hands move backwards is counter-clockwise or Widdershins
90 degrees- One quarter of a circle. From North to East or East to South or…
360 degrees- One full Circle. From North to North.
To contact me or to request topics to be covered, send to mailto:RikJohnson@juno.com
by: Rick Johnson
PO Box 40451
Tucson, Az.
85717
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