Celebrating the Seasons of Life: Samhain to Ostara : Lore, Rituals, Activities, and Symbols

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Summary: Includes recipes and other creative touches of celebration
Review: A simply wonderful addition to New Age Studies reading lists in general, and Wicca reference collections in particular, Celebrating Celebrating The Seasons Of Life: Samhain To Ostara by Ashleen O'Gaea (a founding board member emeritus of the Tucson Area Wiccan-Pagan Network and Senior Corresponding Priestess for the Neo-Pagan prison ministry Mother Earth Ministries) superbly presents an informed and informative introduction to the ancient lore, metaphysical rituals, Wiccan symbols, and spirituality enhancing exercises associated with primeval celebrations as Samhain (October 31st), Yule (December 21st), Imbolc (February 2nd), Ostara (March 21st), and others high holy occasions in the nature worshiping seasonal calendars. Very highly recommended and enhanced with easy-to-follow Circle casting directions for groups and individuals, Celebrating The Seasons Of Life also includes recipes and other creative touches of celebration.


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Summary: A look at the Interconnectedness of the Wheel of the Year
Review: For those who may be unfamiliar with Ashleen O'Gaea, she is a founding board member emeritus of the Tuscon Area Wiccan-Pagan Network and board member and senior Corresponding Priestess for Mother Earth Ministries-ATC, a Neo-Pagan prison ministry. In this book she presents a handbook on how and why we celebrate our Sabbats.

This book, the first of two, covers Samhain, Yule, Imbolc and Ostara. Our calendar, being round instead of linear, as she explains "...allows everyone seated to see everyone else and keeps anyone's positions at the table from being more important than anyone else's, so does Wicca's round calendar, the Wheel, let us see the relationship of each Sabbat to the others, and keep any from being more significant than any other."

Rather than trying to explore, as many other books have, the origins and picking apart the meanings, Ms. O'Gaea instead focuses on what the holiday actually means, to us, now. Each Sabbat is broken down into four parts: Lore, Rituals, Activities and Symbols. What is also interesting is that Ms. O'Gaea compares these celebrations in what she calls the 'big three' Neo-Pagan religions: Druidism, Asatru and Wicca.

In Lore, Ms. O'Gaea explores how past traditions have been translated into modern day practices, and how each one of the Sabbats interacts with the other Sabbats. As in Samhain, she discusses this third of the three harvest festivals we celebrate in relation to the others, and to the Sabbat that follows. Each holiday is linked to the previous, and is a key part of the next one. She also discusses the Lore of the three Neo-Pagan religions, and how it may blend and how different aspects have been incorporated.

In Rituals, Ms. Gaea gives us specific rituals, explains their meaning, their applications, and you are given a very well rounded look at the Rituals of the three religions. She also discusses how some of these Rituals can also borrow from other religious practices.

Activities takes from our current practices. They range from traditional foods and how to make them, to practices and how to make tools specific to those practices. Corn dolly, plates for the ancestors, Runes, egg dying; there are many activities that are easy to do, good to eat and have some very interesting associations to the holidays celebrated. Some of these projects are family oriented, while others can be solitary projects.
Finally, we have symbols. The symbols range from specific tools, to written symbols, to food and song. Ms. O'Gaea examines many of the modern day symbols and their associations to Gods and Goddess, the seasons, nature and the religion.

The book has a chapter called Conclusion, and she states, as is obvious, that this first book can not properly be concluded as it only covers four of the Sabbats and the remaining four are needed to draw the Wheel of the Year together. And she sums that up nicely with a quote from "The Way of Wyrd" where Wulf says to Brand "It is a mistake to assume that events far apart in time are thereby separate. All things are connected as in the finest web of a spider. The slightest movement on any thread can be discerned from all points on the web."

Ms. O'Gaea successfully proves that point, in my opinion, with this book. Each Sabbat on the Wheel of the Year is woven with the rest of the Sabbats. Each Sabbat has an effect on the next and relies on the previous one to give each other substance. Which is why we refer to our calendar as a Wheel.

She also makes a good argument for all the Northern European based or Celtic Based Neo-Pagan religions having similarities in their celebrations and her comparison of these celebrations draws some interesting possible conclusions.

The material is easy to read, well put together and organized. Her bibliography is interesting as some of the references are unusual and interesting. The chapters are well defined, keeping to the material discussed and there is an index for easy reference.

I enjoyed this book, found it a good primer in celebration the Wheel of the year, as opposed to just knowing about them, and I am looking forward to the second book which covers the other four holidays. boudica

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Summary: Good for Pagan Parents, too...
Review: I have several of Ms. O'Gaea's books, all of which are givin a parenting slant. With so few books on pagan parenting, I love her writing style, it is very personable and she is extremely knowledgable.

"Samhain to Ostara" is a unique book among all the other books on the Sabbats out there... instead of rehashing all the stuff previously beaten to death in other books, Ms. O'Gaea instead goes deeper and explores the meaning of these sabbats to us in modern times.

What really piques my interest, is near the end, where Ms. O'Gaea categorizes things to teach about each Sabbat to children, grouped by their ages. Very useful!! I can hardly wait to get my hands on "Beltane to Mabon"!!

All in all, this book is a fantastic addition to my library!