The Pagan Sabbats
Honouring the Wheel of the Year: The Eight Pagan Sabbats
The Wheel of the Year offers a beautiful, soul-centred way to move through time. Instead of racing from one date to the next, we can walk with the seasons, pausing at eight sacred waypoints or markers, known as the Sabbats. Each one invites us to reflect, recalibrate, and reconnect with what is truly nourishing.
These eight festivals follow the cycles of light, growth, harvest, and rest. Four of them—Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane, and Lammas—are often called the major Sabbats. They are the old Celtic fire festivals, and are powerful threshold moments that sit between the solstices and equinoxes and mark deep shifts in the year’s energy.
Samhain – Threshold of the New Year
Major Sabbat
In the Southern Hemisphere, Samhain is honoured on or around the 30th of April and is often considered the Pagan New Year. It ushers in the dark half of the year and is a time when the veil between worlds feels especially thin.
Samhain (pronounced sah-win) invites us to remember and release. Here we honour our ancestors and loved ones who have passed, listen for the wisdom of the past year, and consciously let go of what is ready to die or be transformed. This is a powerful season, and profoundly important for us if we are to move through life with ease.
Yule – Rebirth of the Light
Yule falls at the Winter Solstice, around 21 June in the Southern Hemisphere, when the night is longest and the sun is reborn. From this point, the days begin to lengthen and the light slowly returns.
This Sabbat holds the energy of hope and renewal. Yule invites us to rest, to tend our inner flame, and to remember that even in darkness, new beginnings are quietly forming. It’s a beautiful time for candle rituals, simple intention-setting, and creating cosy, nurturing spaces for yourself and those you love.
Imbolc – First Stirring of Spring
Major Sabbat
Imbolc arrives on 1 August and marks the first stirrings of spring beneath the surface. Associated with Brigid, goddess of healing, inspiration, and sacred fire, it is a festival of light and purification.
Imbolc asks: what is ready to awaken in you? Although the outer world may still look bare, new life is gathering strength. This Sabbat supports cleansing, decluttering, blessing the home, and planting the seeds of new intentions. It is a gentle yet potent moment to listen to your inner guidance and commit to what you truly desire for the year ahead.
Ostara – Balance and Blossoming
Ostara is celebrated at the Spring Equinox, around the 22nd of September here in Australia. A point where day and night rest in perfect balance. The earth is enlinvened (don’t you just love that word?) There are buds and blossoms in the garden showing us what is here, a time of fresh new growth.
This Sabbat carries the energy of balance, fertility, and emergence. It calls you to notice what is beginning to blossom in your life - whether they are projects, relationships, or new ideas. It is a prompt for you to support those tender shoots with care and action. Ostara is all about the fresh start, creative ventures, and aligning your daily habits with the life you are consciously creating.
Beltane – Fire of Life
Major Sabbat
Beltane, honoured on or around the 1st of November here in the Southern Hemisphere, is a vibrant celebration of life, passion, and sensuality. Traditionally linked with fire, union, and fertility, it marks the peak of spring’s wild, joyful energy.
Beltane invites you to say a wholehearted “yes” to life. It is a time to honour your body, your creative spark, and the pleasure of being alive. This Sabbat supports dance, movement, love, and ritual that celebrates beauty, desire, and connection within yourself, with your tribe and the natural world around you.
Litha – Height of the Sun
Litha falls at the Summer Solstice, on the 21st of December, when the sun is at its highest and the days are long and bright. The earth is rich with warmth and abundance.
This is a Sabbat of fullness and illumination. Litha encourages you to stand in your power, recognise your achievements, and let your inner light shine. It is a time for gratitude, celebration, and choosing where you want to direct your energy as the wheel slowly turns toward the harvest.
Lammas – First Harvest
Major Sabbat
Lammas, celebrated on or around the 1st of February, is the first harvest festival of the year. Its name comes from “loaf-mass,” reflecting the tradition of baking a loaf from the first grain harvest and offering it in gratitude.
This Sabbat honours the relationship between effort and reward. Lammas invites you to pause and acknowledge the “first fruits” of your year—what you have grown, created, and tended so far. It is a season for gratitude, sharing food, simple harvest rituals, and gently releasing anything that has completed its purpose so you can continue your journey with more clarity and space.
Mabon – Harvest and Balance
Mabon arrives at the Autumn Equinox, around the 21st of March, and is another point of balance when day and night are equal. It marks the second harvest and the gentle descent into the cooler darker months.
This is a time of reflection and gathering in. Mabon invites you to look back over the year so far, to give thanks for your blessings, and prepare for the inner journey ahead. It is a great time to get your journal out, to do a special Tarot card spread as a way to reviww what has been, and to do rituals of gratitude.
Walking the Wheel Together
You can honour the Sabbats in many ways: through Tarot work, meditation, ritual, time in nature, seasonal food, or creative practice. Some celebrations will be quiet and personal; others may be shared in circle and community.
The four major Sabbats—Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane, and Lammas—carry a particularly strong sense of threshold and transformation. These are moments when the energy of the year noticeably shifts, and when pausing to listen can bring deep insight and alignment.
If you feel called to experience these turning points more fully, you are warmly welcome to join me for half-day retreats aligned with these four Sabbats. These gatherings offer a gentle, supportive space to step out of everyday busyness, reconnect with yourself, and work with the energy of the season through ritual, Tarot, reflection, and shared sacred time.
You can simply follow the pull of the one that speaks to you most—or walk the Wheel with me across the year, season by season.