Druid Mysteries: Ancient Wisdom for the 21st Century

At the centre of the trio of spring festas, Alban Eilir (the Light of the Earth) marks the more recognisable beginnings of spring, when the flowers are starting to appear and when the sowing begins in earnest.

Time moves on, and in a short while we come to the spring equinox – the time of equality of day and night, when the forces of the light are on the increase.

The scheme is based upon the deep and mysterious connection between the source of our individual lives and the source of the life of the planet, and it recognises eight particular times during the yearly cycle which are significant and which are marked by special observances.

Both Druids and Wiccans celebrate these eight festivals, and in fact it was Nuinn and Gerald Gardner who introduced the eightfold scheme and much of the modern versions of these rites into paganism in the 1950s and 60s.

‘The sun and your soul! Now perhaps you can see why the sun is revered so much in Druidry.’

‘And what do you think the connection is between your cycle,’ he says, pointing to my plate, ‘and the cycle of the earth?’ pointing to his plate.

‘God or the Goddess?’ I suggest. ‘Well, yes, Deity is at the centre and is the cause of everything. But what specifically causes the cycle of the day and the seasons on earth is the sun. The sun causes the wheel to turn.’

Who or what do you think it is that controls the turning of this wheel?’

Summer is like noon – a time of maximum heat and growth. Autumn is like the evening, when the autumn colours seem like the colours of the sunset. So there are the two cycles of the earth harmoniously brought together.