Friday, 9 March 2012

E is for ...... Esbats

Well, for this weeks E I had a bit of a OMGoodness moment - the brain turned to mush and I just couldn't think of a thing ........ so I sat here and thought and thought (it really hurt and I'm surprised you didn't smell the burning rubber) when I remembered that when I first started I had no idea what an Esbat was - and how in the world did that differ from a Sabbat ........ so, here is my E blog ....

Esbats..... what is an Esbat, well according to Janet and Stewart Farrar it's an opportunity for a "love feast, healing work, psychic training and all."

Many following our Path believe that the Esbat is the ritual observance of the Full Moons, and as there are 13 Full Moons in a year this is 13 celebrations .... hey any reason for cake is a good reason right???

All the Full Moons have names:

Wolf Moon: January
Storm Moon:  February
Chaste Moon: March
Seed Moon: April 
Hare Moon: May 
Mead Moon June 
Hay Moon: July
Corn Moon: August
Harvest Moon: September
Blood Moon: October
Snow Moon: November 
                                                   Cold Moon: December
                                                   Blue Moon: Second Full Moon of Any Calendar Month

As with most things on this Path, there have been different names for the Moons but these are the ones that I use .... My personal favourite is Hare Moon :) 

Now, I believe that Esbat is held with the intention of harnessing the Moon's energy and using it in spell and magickal workings.  This the time when you would attract, banish, protect and work on yourself.  You would use the Esbat to 'power' your crystals etc by leaving them in the light of the Full Moon. 

Part of the Charge of the Goddess says "  Whenever ye have need of anything, once in the month, and better it be when the moon is full," which seems to indicate to me that the Esbat has long been used for magickal work .... ok the charge also goes on to say "and ye shall dance, sing, feast, make music and love," which is full circle to where I started this with the definition of Janet and Stewart Farrar ........ 

love and blessings to all


bunni x x x



Sources:  The Witches Way - Janet and Stewart Farrar 
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3 comments:

  1. Rachel Curtis9 March 2012 at 13:55

    Love love love your blog, really informative

    Rachel x

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  2. AutumnGale Stargazer9 March 2012 at 14:03

    I do so love your posts...
    Thank-you for including the names of all of the full moons, I can quite honestly say that I didn't know them all (gasp).

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  3. Unknown9 March 2012 at 14:11

    I was going to post on Esbats as well - and how the Full Moons of various months differ from many others as I've explained here about halfway down the page: http://paganbydesign.blogspot.com/p/pagan-calendar_03.html

    You've touched on an important idea - we need to make sure we're not simply following the guidelines of someone else but that it makes sense to us, for ourselves in our practice. Well done! :)

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