Eight gates, and the moon between them
The Wheel is our calendar, our liturgy and our safety plan in one. Click a spoke to read how we keep that sabbat. Dates marked ≈ are computed from the equinox or solstice for the current year; fixed-date festivals are shown as they fall in your hemisphere.
The Wheel needs JavaScript to turn. The eight sabbats are Samhain, Yule, Imbolc, Ostara, Beltane, Litha, Lughnasadh and Mabon.
The next sabbat
Counting to local midnight for fixed festivals, and to the exact astronomical moment for equinoxes and solstices.
Select a sabbat on the Wheel.
Which gates we keep sober, and why
A year has a shape. Ours alternates: descent and return, fire and fast, the cup and the empty hands.
Samhain, Mabon, and the quiet sabbats
Two gates in the dark half of the year are where the fellowship holds its deepest sacrament rites: the Mysteries at Mabon, a three-day retreat of preparation, procession, a warded night and a day of integration, followed by the dark-moon circle; and Samhain, the ancestor night. Ostara and Litha are gentler: small, well-held, daylight or dawn rites for those who are called.
Yule, Imbolc, Lughnasadh
The Yule vigil, the Imbolc fast and the Lughnasadh harvest supper are kept with nothing in the cup. They are the rites of kinship, cleansing and giving back, and they are where new members learn that the circle itself is the medicine.
Beltane
The night of the twin fires is the loudest rite of the year: drums, dance and song until dawn. Consent agreements are spoken aloud at the opening. Some members keep it with a communal low-dose rite; most simply dance, which was always enough.
Full moon and dark moon
Between the sabbats, the moon keeps time. Every full moon is a sober esbat, open to anyone who has read the code of conduct. Every dark moon is the integration circle, for members: a confidential space to speak what the month's rites and dreams have surfaced, and to listen.
See where the Wheel lands on your calendar.
Every sabbat and moon circle for the next four months, with add-to-calendar links.