The Ancient Pagans divided their year into 13 parts or moons, that belonged to the Goddess & the Solstices & Equinoxes that Honoured the God.

The Waxing Moon: The time of construction, & invoking.
Full Moon: The time of integrating & perfecting.
Waning Moon: The time of destroying & banishing.

The full moon is the High Tide of psychic power & can be dangerously unsettling upon people of disturbed mind. The old word lunatic actually means someone influenced by Luna the moon. Early Christians thought that any one who still followed the Old Religion after hearing the good news they brought, had to be mentally disturbed or still under the baneful influence of the Pagan Goddess & the Horned One, who was Satan in their eyes. The effect of the moon upon the tides of the sea is well known. It will be seen that these observed influences of the moon corresponds to the moons cycles. That is, the high tide or strongly flowing tides called Spring Tides occur just after the New Moon & Full Moon & the weaker or Low Tides that are called Neap Tides occur just after the first & last quarter of the Moons cycle.

It can therefore be seen that the Moon ruled each moon month, which was divided into 4 parts & 3 Magical phases. The Pagan year was divided further into 8 parts or pauses for celebration & rest. These were known as the Sabbats. Each Full moon Rite was called an Esbat. The Esbat was used to work a form of nature or Earth magic. The 13 Dark Moons were used to banish disease & protect home & self from hostile forces.

Julius Caesar introduced the Solar Calendar in 45 B C E. It was a systematic division into months & days, assuming the 365 & a quarter day year & inserting an extra day each forth year. The Solar Calendar is actually short of this by 11 & a half minutes. In 1582 therefore, the year was 10 days out.

Gregory X111 then suppressed the surplus days & ordained that no closing year of a century should be bis-sextile unless divisible by 400. Thus 1900 was not a leap year.

This Gregorian or new style was only adopted by Great Britain in 1752 & then only in the larger cities by the church fathers & those that were educated.

The peasants who farmed the land & those in smaller villages were slow to change to this new style. Many farmers today still plant & reap their harvests according to the old Pagan Moon Calendar, the church never stamped it out completely. Even the modern gardening books written by Christian authors today, will tell you when it is best to gather, prune or plant certain vegetables, fruit & herbs according to the moons phases.

Even the "Old Weather Lore" was based on the moon phases. Collected weather data tells us that there is often a rainy period 2 or 3 days after the new & full moon making these periods a good time to plant seeds The Tryfoss or Triskelion was an emblem occurring in Celtic art, it is the ever returning 3 magical phases of the moon & the "Triple Goddess," Maid, Mother & Crone. When it had four legs, [swastika] it represented the Sun God, the Equinoxes & Solstices. These were called the 4 Tides of " the Solar Year" which bear some resemblance to the quarters of the Lunar month, though on a larger scale. These tides which commence at the two equinoxes [ Spring & Autumn] are strongly flowing like the Spring tides of the sea. Hence those who practise magic use these occasions for the purpose of launching an idea or thought & send it out on the flowing Cosmic tide. The tides of the solstices at mid- Summer & mid- Winter are quieter & more gentle like the Neap tides of the sea. Hence are more often occasions of merry making than magic working.

The Great Sabbats take place about mid- way in each quarter of the year, between equinoxes & solstices. So it will be seen that the Lesser Sabbats are the releasing of the new Cosmic Tide at each quarter of the year & the Greater Sabbats are its culmination, mid- point or perfection.

EARTH CYCLES.

The 3 cycles of the Earth are the 3 kinds of motions of the Earth.

The first is the rotation upon its axis every 24 hours giving us day & night. The Old Pagan day started with the sun setting & the appearance of the first star [ Venus, the evening star] or from sunset to sunset. People of the Jewish & Muslim fait h still use this ancient system today.

The orbit around the sun, giving us the seasons of our year & the TROPICAL Zodiac [our Sun signs.] is the second cycle.

The slow circling of its axis is like the slow spinning of a top. This gives the apparent alterations of the poles of the heavens & the shifting of the equinoctial point, known to astronomers as the procession of the equinoxes & this gives us the Great Year. The Great Year consists of about 25,920 earthly years, during which the equinoctial point moves right around the SIDEREAL Zodiac.

The Great Year is reckoned to have 12 " months " one to each Zodiacal sign, each of these months consist of about 2,160 Earthly years & are known as Ages. In Ancient times there were 13 Zodiacs corresponding to the 13 moons or Moon Signs, with the new calendar came the aversion to the number 13 & so today we have 12 Sun Signs.

The Equinoctial point is observed to move at the rate of about 1 degree in 72 years, the average span of life of a human life. This the "one day" of the great year, [which has 360 days, divided into 12 months of 30 days,] corresponds to a degree in the 360 degrees of the circle.

At the moment the Equinoctial point appears to be in the constellation of Pisces & moving backwards through the starry zodiac towards Aquarius. We are therefore in the last part of the age of Pisces & going through the transition period to the age of Aquarius.

Aquarius has two ruling Planets, the old Saturn & the new Uranus. Saturn will continue to co- rule this sign during the transition period before the New Age of Aquarius. Taken in its highest manifestation Saturn stands for those things which endure tradition, loyalty & Ancient wisdom.

Uranus on the other hand is revolutionary, the bringer of radical & great change, through upheaval of the old, & bringing new ideas & systems of rebellion against the old order of Pisces. The date of the New Age starts from the year 2010. The first sign of the transition period between the old & new was February 5th 1962 when the 7 Heavenly bodies were foregathered in the sign of Aquarius.

These were the Sun, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus & Mercury, all were visible to the naked eye. This was called the Great Conjunction & it in fact heralded a speeding up of the Aquarian transition to a rather uncomfortable

Many souls have chosen this time to come in, as it offers many tests. During this period many countries will go through political changes & old religious ideas will die through the influence of Uranus. It is a time to pay back group karma, through understanding, peace & forgiveness. Unfortunately man being what he is, will resort to violence as a means of change instead of using knowledge & wisdom.

BLESSED BE