Celtic polytheism (also called Druidic polytheism) is the term for the religious beliefs and practices of the ancient Celts. Celtic polytheism - Extent of Celtic polytheism. As the religion of the ancient Celts, the shifts in the fortunes of Celtic Polytheism coincided with those of its people. The Celts, like other ancient Indo-European peoples, practised a form of polytheism, which reached the apogee of its influence and territorial expansion during the 4th century BC, extending across the length o ...

Including:

• Celtic polytheism - Extent of Celtic polytheism
• Celtic polytheism - Research
• Celtic polytheism - Syncretism with other forms of polytheism
• Celtic polytheism - Cosmology and eschatology
• Celtic polytheism - Worship
• Celtic polytheism - Religious castes
• Celtic polytheism - Druids
• Celtic polytheism - Bards and filid
• Celtic polytheism - Festivals
• Celtic polytheism - Beltane
• Celtic polytheism - Samhain
• Celtic polytheism - Cults within Celtic polytheism
• Celtic polytheism - Cult of Lugus-Mercurius
• Celtic polytheism - Cults of tribalism lordly power and thunderous force
• Celtic polytheism - Cult of radiance or healing
• Celtic polytheism - Cult of youthful masculinity
• Celtic polytheism - Cult of thermal spring-water
• Celtic polytheism - Cult of impressiveness
• Celtic polytheism - Cult of exaltedness
• Celtic polytheism - Cult of Sucellos
• Celtic polytheism - Cults of maritime forces
• Celtic polytheism - Cults of craftsmanship
• Celtic polytheism - Cults of agricultural gods
• Celtic polytheism - Cult of terrestrial bounty
• Celtic polytheism - Cult of the power of boggy terrain
• Celtic polytheism - Cult of maternity
• Celtic polytheism - Cults of femininity & majesty
• Celtic polytheism - Cults of cyclicality in nature
• Celtic polytheism - Cult of the trinitarian war-goddess
• Celtic polytheism - Cults of fluvial water
• Celtic polytheism - Cult of the stag’s vitality
• Celtic polytheism - Cult of the bullish vitality
• Celtic polytheism - Cult of horse power and horsemanship
• Celtic polytheism - Deities
• Celtic polytheism - The effect of Christianity
• Celtic polytheism - Literature

Read more here: » Celtic polytheism: Encyclopedia - Celtic polytheism

Wicca is a Neopagan religious movement found in many different countries, though most commonly in English-speaking cultures. Wicca was first publicised in 1954 by a British civil servant named Gerald Gardner after the British Witchcraft Act was repealed. He claimed that the religion, of which he was an initiate, was a modern survival of an old witch cult, which had existed in secret for hundreds of years, originating in the pre-Christian Paganism of Europe. Wicca is thus sometimes referred to as the Old Religion. The veracity o ...

Including:

• Wicca - Definition
• Wicca - History of Wicca
• Wicca - Origins
• Wicca - Later developments
• Wicca - Beliefs and practices
• Wicca - Morality
• Wicca - Discrimination and persecution of Wiccans
• Wicca - United States
• Wicca - Wiccan traditions
• Wicca - Notes

Read more here: » Wicca: Encyclopedia - Wicca

Celtic mythology is the mythology of Celtic polytheism, the apparent religion of the Iron Age Celts. Like other Iron Age Europeans, the early Celts maintained a polytheistic mythology and religious structure. Among Celtic peoples in close contact with Rome, such as the Gauls and Celtiberians, their mythology did not survive the Roman empire, their subsequent conversion to Christianity, and the loss of their Celtic languages. Ironically it is through contemporary Roman and Christian sources that what we do know of their belie ...

Including:

• Celtic mythology - Historical sources
• Celtic mythology - Julius Caesar’s comments on Celtic Religion and their significance
• Celtic mythology - Branches of Celtic mythology
• Celtic mythology - Celtic deities
• Celtic mythology - The gods of the ancient Celts
• Celtic mythology - The gods of Ireland
• Celtic mythology - The gods of Wales
• Celtic mythology - The Dagda
• Celtic mythology - The Morrígan
• Celtic mythology - Belenus
• Celtic mythology - Lúgh/Lug
• Celtic mythology - Other gods
• Celtic mythology - Temples
• Celtic mythology - Celtic worship
• Celtic mythology - The druids
• Celtic mythology - Significance of Prophecy in Druidic Ritual
• Celtic mythology - Modern remnants
• Celtic mythology - Druidism?

Read more here: » Celtic mythology: Encyclopedia - Celtic mythology

Mabon

Pagan holiday or Wiccan sabbat celebrated in early autumn.

(See also: Mabon, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Mabon - The Fall Equinox festival, September 22.

(See also: Mabon, Pagan, Wicca Pagan Dictionary)

Mabon

Pagan holiday or Wiccan sabbat celebrated in early autumn.

(See also: Mabon, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

MABON (MAY-bone) - Sabbat named for a Welsh God associated with the Arthurian myth cycles. This is the Sabbat observed at the Autumn Equinox and celebrates the second harvest, wine and balance. (CMM)

(See also: MABON, Wiccan Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

MABON: the festival celebrated around Sept. 21, on the Autumnal Equinox, marking the second harvest and change of Autumn toward Winter, when Nature prepares for the time to come. A time of thanks and reflection by many old & new civilizations. Named for a Welsh God associated with the Arthurian myth cycles. This Sabbat celebrates the second harvest, wine, and balance.

(See also: MABON, Witchcraft, Wicca, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Mabon - The Autumn Equinox - September 23

This is a day of balance between light and dark.  The Goddess and the God are thought to have equal power on this night, and all the forces of good and evil as well. This is a good time for divination and marks the end of the second harvest. By this time most the crops were gathered. Mabon begins the season of autumn, when we go into the dark season where most life sleeps for a short time. This is nearing the time when the God dies and goes to the underworld.  The old God is preparing himself for his sacrifficial death at Samhain, and the Goddess is entering her Crone aspect, storing her wisdom that she has learned over the years. Yet she is still pregnant with the seed of the God who she will birth at Yule.

(See also: Mabon, Pagan Holidays, Paganism, Pagan, Pagan Dictionary)

In Neopaganism, Lughnasadh is one of the eight sabbats or solar festivals in the Wheel of the Year. It is the first of the three autumn harvest festivals, the other two being Mabon and Samhain. It commemorates the sacrifice and death of the Corn God; in its cycle of death, nurturing the people, and rebirth, the corn is thought of as an aspect of the Sun God. Some Neopagans mark the holiday by baking a figure of the God in bread, and th ...

See also:

Lughnasadh, Lughnasadh - Neopaganism

Read more here: » Lughnasadh: Encyclopedia II - Lughnasadh - Neopaganism

Maponos - Welsh Mythology. Maponos surfaces in the Middle Welsh narrative, the Mabinogion, as Mabon, son of Modron, who is herself the continuation of Gaulish Matrona (“Matronly Spirit”). The theme of Maponos son of Matrona (literally, child of mother) and the development of names in the Mabinogi from Common Brythonic and Gaulish theonyms has been examined by Hamp (1999), Lambert (1979) and Meid (1991). Mabon apparently features in the tale of a newborn child taken from his mother at the age of three nights, and is expl ...

See also:

Maponos, Maponos - Etymology of the Name, Maponos - Evidence for Maponos, Maponos - Was this god the British Apollo?, Maponos - Later versions of Maponos, Maponos - Welsh Mythology, Maponos - Irish Mythology, Maponos - Bibliography

Read more here: » Maponos: Encyclopedia II - Maponos - Later versions of Maponos

Balefire

(Bale- Anglo-Saxon: gift)

1)    A traditional fire lit outdoors and used during the Wiccan and Pagan holidays: Midsummer, Lughasadh, Mabon. and especially Beltane,

2)    The traditional communal bonfire of the Sabbats. The modern word �Bonfire� is synonymous with balefire, through it often has no religious significance.

(See also: Balefire, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

AUTUMN EQUINOX SABBAT: Alban Elfed - Mabon Sabbat; also see GWYL HYDREF.

(See also: AUTUMN EQUINOX SABBAT, Witchcraft, Wicca, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Autumnal Equinox Day (秋分の日, Shūbun no hi) is an official national holiday in Japan, and is spent visiting family graves, and holding family reunions. In the UK Harvest festival falls around this time. The autumnal equinox is when the Wiccan Sabbat of Mabon is celebrated. Autumnal Equinox Day is also "New Year's Day" in the French Republican Calendar, which was in use from 1793 to 1805. The French First Republic was proclaimed and the French monarchy was abolished on September 21, 1792, making the following day, Autumnal Equinox Day that year, the ...

See also:

Autumnal equinox, Autumnal equinox - The solar term Qiufen in Chinese astronomy, Autumnal equinox - Holidays

Read more here: » Autumnal equinox: Encyclopedia II - Autumnal equinox - Holidays

CRONE: Aspect of the Goddess represented by the old woman. Symbolized by the waning moon, the carrion crow, the cauldron, the color black. Her Sabbats are Mabon and Samhain.

(See also: CRONE, Paganism, Pagan, Pagan Dictionary)

CAIRN: The stone burial mounds used by the Celts. They were honored at Mabon. So sacred were these mounds that a breed of dog, the Cairn Terrier was developed to protect them.

(See also: CAIRN, Witchcraft, Wicca, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

CRONE - that aspect of the Goddess that is represented by the old women. She is symbolized by the waning moon, the carrion crow, the cauldron, and the color black. Her Sabats are Mabon and Samhain. (CMM)

(See also: CRONE, Wiccan Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Autumnal Equinox

The Solar Equnox of September 21-23. Known as Mabon or Alban Elfed it is one the eight Sabbats of Wicca. Symbols -Besom, Corn Dolly, pine cones, leaves, red poppies, oak leaves.

(See also: Autumnal Equinox, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

In some types of neopaganism, particularly those influenced by Wicca, Samhain is one of the eight solar holidays or sabbats. It is celebrated in the northern hemisphere on October 31 or November 1 and in the southern hemisphere on May 1. The holiday, with Beltane, is one of the most popular among Neopagans, and public Samhain rituals invariably attract large gatherings. It is the last of the harvest festivals (after Lammas and Mabon); in some traditions it symbolizes th ...

See also:

Samhain, Samhain - Etymology, Samhain - Ancient Celts, Samhain - Celtic folklore, Samhain - Neo-Paganism, Samhain - Pop culture references

Read more here: » Samhain: Encyclopedia II - Samhain - Neo-Paganism

SABBAT: Any one of eight Wiccan solar festivals, marked by the 4 solstices and equinoxes, as well as 4 dates in-between them. They are (Celtic style names, others exist) Yule, Imbolc, Ostara, Beltane, Litha, Lughnasadh, Mabon, and Samhain.

(See also: SABBAT, Paganism, Pagan, Pagan Dictionary)

Autumnal Equinox Day (秋分の日, Shūbun no hi) is an official national holiday in Japan, and is spent visiting family graves, and holding family reunions. In the UK Harvest festival falls around this time. The autumnal equinox is when the Wiccan Sabbat of Mabon is celebrated. Autumnal Equinox Day is also "New Year's Day" in the French Republican Calendar, which was in use from 1793 to 1805. The French First Republic was proclaimed and the French monarchy was abolished on September 21, 1792, making the following day, Autumnal Equinox Day that year, the ...

See also:

Autumnal equinox, Autumnal equinox - Astronomy, Autumnal equinox - The solar term Qiufen in Chinese astronomy, Autumnal equinox - Holidays

Read more here: » Autumnal equinox: Encyclopedia II - Autumnal equinox - Holidays