Descent's Wheel of the Year Guidebook

As a guide for my family as we start this endeavor to observe the natural cycles of the year, we are using the book "Circle, Coven, and Grove: A Year of Magickal Practice" by Deborah Blake. Its offers a ready-made ritual for each seasonal observance of every month of the year. The reader can use it to get ideas and can be adapted to meet their circumstances, needs and practice style.

I have been enjoying the flexibility but also the basic guidance so I can learn the basics of ritual and make it work for my comfort level and what would be developmentally appropriate for my children. I consider it a starting point and then from there I can take what inspiration I can glean from it and then develop something that I'm happy to do.

In fact, I based my winter solstice observance off of the ritual shared in the book though what I did was very different than the book, but like I said, I was glad for the guidance it gave me as it stimulated ideas.

The book is organized by month and each chapter covers a little bit about the season relating to that month and background into any of the 8 sabbats that might be occuring in that month. After the introduction and description of that month, rituals are provided for the New Moon in that month, the Full Moon as well as Sabbat. Often in months where there is a Sabbat, ideas for a celebration and gathering are given in addition to the ritual.

I recognized that I needed a crutch to help me as I committed to learning about the Wheel of the Year and each seasonal celebration. I had been wanting to do this for a couple of years but always was thwarted in my intention because of losing track of the times of the year and not having enough time to prepare, or missing it all together. This year, I'm being more intentional about it and recognizing that I likely will not have a great deal of time to learn and prepare something from scratch.

If you follow my posts throughout the year, you'll see what sorts of ideas I generate from using this book as my guide. Though I will warn you that many of our observances may bear little resemblance to what is contained in it. And other times, you may find that I completely steal from it, perhaps because I ran out of time to prepare anything more personally suited to me, or because I find that what was written was already perfectly suited to me and my family.