As we journey along the initiatory path, we develop a unique relationship with that we perceive as "truth". Ideally, upon traversing the first initiation, known as "Chapel Perilous", as pointed out by Robert Anton Wilson, we emerge ensconced in a radical, all-questioning skepticism...
The worship of martyrs had already been practiced since the end of the second century and was accepted by the Church. But it was after the great persecutions and the peace granted by Constantine that it would acquire a great relevance in social and religious life...
Yule means wheel in Anglo-Saxon. On this date the wheel of birth, death, and resurrection is completed. Yule is the first minor Sabbath in the wheel of the year.
The darkness of the nights dominates the middle of the year until the Winter Solstice on December the 21st. It is then that we usher in the celebration of the birth of Light. In the longest and darkest night the new light, the divine child, is born.
Lammas is one of the major Sabbats that have been preserved thanks to medieval magicians. The day falls at 15 degrees in Leo, halfway between the Summer Solstice and the Autumnal Equinox. Nowadays it is usually celebrated on the night of the 31st of July to the 1st of August, the month of the manifestation of the fullness and abundance of the first harvest. It is the Sabbath that acts as a counterpoint to Imbolc in the wheel of the year.
On the 20th or 21st of June the Sun enters Cancer reaching its highest point in the sky. The Earth is as close as it can get to the Sun within its course. It is the longest day of the year and the shortest night. The solstice signals the beginning of the summer in the current calendar.
Samhain is one of the four Major Sabbaths of the magical wheel of the year and is celebrated at the end of Hecate's month, on the night between the 31st of October and the 1st of November. Samhain signalled the end of the harvest and summer and the beginning of winter for the ancient Celts.