Sabbats for the Southern Hemisphere

Church of the Ancient Mysteries Southern Hemisphere Sabbats

The simplest adaptation of Northern Hemisphere Sabbat/Suntide timings for use in the Southern Hemisphere is to simply reverse them:



• Yule/Midwinter

  June 21

• Imbolc/Candlemass

  August 1

• Spring Equinox

  September 21

• Beltane

  October 31

• Midsummer Solstice

  December 21

• Lughnasadh/Lammas

  Feburary 2

• Autumn Equinox

  March 21

• Samhain

  April 30

Calendar dates will always be arbitrary timing for Sabbats, especially the Cross Quarter Festivals (Samhain/Halloween, Imbolc, Beltane, and Lammas/Lughnassadh.) These were originally based on a close observation of Nature, knowing when to take the herds out to pasture (Beltane), and bring them back for wintering (Samhain), or when to prepare for the Spring planting (Imbolc) and harvest the first fruits (Lammas). Even the Solstice and Equinox Sabbats, which rely more on celestial alignments vary between the 21st and 23rd of the month. (The excellent “Astrological Calendar & Moon Planting Guide” poster is available by mail order: send $7.50 to Thomas Zimmer, Mt Cougal Rd, Tallebudgera Valley, QLD 4228)

Reversing the Northern Hemisphere timings can work well if you are happy to work with a four-season cycle. However you must consider that while we can more or less get away with it in the southern states, the further north you go, the Sabbat timings become less related to the seasonal environment, and more related to tides happening on the Innerplanes. Nonetheless, it never ceases to amaze me how the European Ancestors, not limited by such things as different hemispheres, can still “deliver the goods” so to speak, when it comes to magickal phenomena appropriate to the traditional Sabbat.

CHURCH OF THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES/EARTHGATE PERSPECTIVE ON SABBATS & ESBATS

With experience, you will find that the leeway of influence around the traditional dates differs every year. The Earthgate Tradition usually celebrates the Sabbat/Suntide at the closest New or Full Moon to the “traditional” date (adjusted for the Southern Hemisphere as above). While Sabbat/Suntide rites bring through, for communal blessing, the cosmic power created by the cycling and interacting magnetic fields of Sun and Earth - the Esbat/Moontide rites bring cosmic power through the more frequent and intimate rhythm of the Moon, mirroring and fine-tuning the solar and cosmic energies into our experiential and emotional world.