The Magickal Almanac Page

MARCH
1 The Kalends. New Year’s Day in the old Roman calendar. Sacred to Vesta/Isis, a new fire is lighted in her secret shrine and rekindled only by a bale fire burning or by the primitive friction method of boring a piece of wood from a fruit tree. 
Juno Lucina, The Matronalia – A Pagan mothers’ day. Primary feast of Juno, the chief Roman goddess. A festival celebrated by Roman matrons on the 1st of March, the anniversary of the foundation of the temple of Juno Lucina on the Esquiline. In the houses, prayers were offered for a prosperous wedlock. The women received presents from the men and waited on the slaves, just as the men did at the Saturnalia. In the temple of the Goddess, women and girls prayed and brought pious offerings. At this festival, Juno was represented veiled, with a flower in her right hand and an infant in swaddling clothes in her left. The Greeks celebrated this day with games dedicated to Hera, the Greek matriarch. The winner was the “Hero.” Ironically “The Battle of the 300 Spartans” took place during this festival.
Feriae Marti – The festival of the Gods of war. “The Festival of Mars,” was a 25-day festival to the Roman god of war and the protector of the farmer’s land and his crops. We derive the term Martial arts from Mars’ own priest called the Flamen Martialis. His other priest the Salii, the “Leaping Priests” or the “Dancing Priests,” would perform Cossack or Break-Dancing style martial arts displays in the streets until the 24th of the Month. The last nine days of this period were also fast days. On the 25th of the Month, the Romans broke their fast at the Hilaria “Festival of Joy. Do  something brave and joyful.
2  Holy Wells Day –the day of Ceadda, the Celtic goddess of healing springs and holy wells.
Magha Puja Day  Major Buddhist festival
4 First official neo-pagan church established 1968 by Oberon Zell. The Church of all Worlds Anniversary
5 Festival of The Ship of Isis, recognising Isis as the patroness of navigation and inventress of the sail. The term “carnival” comes from the Latin name for this festival – Currus Navalis. It was a grand procession of carts or cars that had ‘floats’ on them to the sea where the priest offered the Goddess a beautifully built ship, with Egyptian hieroglyphics over the entire hull after he purified it with a torch, an egg and sulphur. The sail was white linen that bore a prayer to the Queen of the Stars, the Mother of the Season, and the Mistress of the Universe for her protection of shipping during the new sailing season. The procession was lead by the embalmers, the Mummy Makers, and composed of women exotically dressed like various Goddesses and men in fancy dress as animals and officials.
The Pond of the Goddess is still celebrated in the Islamic world, in Africa, and is called “The Pond of Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet.” In the procession, one man is dressed as Anubis with a face black on one side and gold on the other, five carry a wine jar. Behind them dances a man carrying a statue representing the Goddess as the beautiful Mother of us all. Then comes a priest with a box containing the secret implements of her wonderful cult. Another priest carries a very interesting emblem of her Godhead: a vessel of burnished gold covered in Egyptian hieroglyphics. It has rounded bottom, a long spout, and a curving handle along which is an asp raising its head displaying its wrinkled, puffed‑out throat.
12 Hypatia Memorial Day – The 1st Pagan Martyr, on this day in 415 AD Hypatia of Alexandria was scraped and sliced to bits with cockle-shells by the mad monks of the Nitre Desert of Libya, despite her intimacy with Orestes, the city’s Prefect. It is thought that the high nitrate content of their desert surroundings could have contributed to their hysteria but there were also political motivations. The cockleshell was chosen by the priests as the instrument of her death due to its association with Aphrodite/Venus because of the planetary number of striations in the shell. Many saw Hypatia as a priestess/representative of Aphrodite because she became the recognized head of the Neo-Platonist School at Alexandria due to her eloquence, rare modesty, great beauty and remarkable intellectual gifts. She was held as an oracle for her wisdom, being consulted by magistrates in important cases. After her murder many Pagan scholars fled from Alexandria. This marked the beginning of the dark ages.
13 Witch’s Annual Lucky Day
Dakini Day.  A celebration of magickal women in Tibet. A Dakini is a female who opens to those that knock (seeking knowledge) – the highest form of magickal teacher.
Birth date of Diotima – Diotima was the teacher of Socrates and was described by him as “a woman wise in this ravel and in many other kinds of knowledge.” (Plato, Symposium, p201d.) There are many other important women teachers who are celebrated on this day… too many to list in full. Aristox tells us that Pythagoras received most of his moral views from the priestess of Delphi, called Themistocleia. This is a day to honour pagan women who made a magical difference to your community or to society in large.
14 Equirria  A festival in honour of Mars, the god of war. Horse races were held on this day.
15 The Festival of Anna Perenna, the Roman goddess of the circle of the year. Her festival was celebrated on the full moon of the first month of the Roman year i.e. The Ides of March. 
16 Celtic day of Morgan LeFay which became the Christian St. Patrick’s Day. His removing the snakes from Ireland is a metaphor for the key role he played in removing the indigenous magickal priestess tradition epitomized by this day being remembered by his name not the High Priestess’ title.
Tristeria was an ancient Greek festival to honour Dionysus, God of wine and relief from pain. Held in secret and originally attended by women only, for two-three days. These celebrated the emergence of Dionysus from the underworld, with wild orgies in the mountains. The first day of which was presided over by the Maenads, in their state of Mainomenos, (from which we derive our terms ‘mania’ and ‘madness,’) in which an extreme atavistic state was achieved. The second day saw the Bacchic Nymphs in their Thyiadic, or raving, state, a more sensual, and benign Bacchanal assisted by satyrs, though still orgiastic. Some explain these rites were a release of psychological repression, as the ancients claim that the Maenads, or wild women, were the resisters of the Bacchic urge, sent mad, while the Thyiades, or ravers, had accepted the Dionysian ecstasy and kept their sanity. This also included the festivities of the grape harvest, and its carnivalesque ritual processions from the vineyards to the wine press. It was at these times that initiations into the Mysteries were held.
17 The Liberalia, the festival of Liber and Libera, a Roman fertility god and Goddess.
18 Celtic day of Argante
Sheela-Ne-Grig Day. This ancient Irish fertility and overt sexuality Goddess was traditionally honoured on this day until she was adopted by the Christians as the Mother (or sometimes the consort) of Saint Patrick.
19 Celtic Tree Calendar Month of ALDER – Gaelic: Fern. March 19 – April 15 – The Tears of the Sun
The Alder, represent by the Ogham letter for F, it represents free will, is associated with courage and the evolving spirit.
Hindu New Year – Ramayana begins – This Hindu celebration goes for 9 days
Lesser Pantheon Quinquatria ‑ To the 23 – Day one of five days – Birthday of Athena but also of wisdom, arts and trades and Quinquatrus the older Roman God of War. In later times it moved to the spring, because of Roman influence, in order to make it correspond to the Quinquatrus of Minerva. In the lesser festivals there were three games ten contestants 1) A race with torches. 2) Gymnastics. 3) A musical competition. The winner received a crown of olives, which grew in the grove of Academes, sacred to Minerva.
20 Mabon – Minor Solar Sabbat
Pelusia An Egyptian Festival fundamental in the cult of Isis, securing the next annual inundation of the Nile by sympathetic magick.
21 Ostara – Spring Equinox in the northern hemisphere and was the ancient Middle Eastern New Year’s Day
Norouz (New Year) – Persian/Zoroastrian
Seret, the Ewe – In 2791 BC on March 1st the sun entered the constellation Seret [Egyptian]. The ‘t’ indicates the feminine gender, hence the month of Aries, the beginning of the middle eastern New Year, was originally depicted by a ewe not a ram.
Artemis’ favorite animal was the hind. It is for this sacred animal the greeks named the month called Artemi and held her festival as goddess of game and hunting on the first of this month, at which cakes in the shape of deer were offered up.
Tiamat – In Babylon, Uruk and Ur, both the spring and autumn equinoxes were the occasion of a New Year festival; The festival was most often held held during the first eleven days of Nisan, in the spring. During the course of the festival Enuma Anu Enlil, The Epic of the Creation of the World, was recited and dramatically re‑enacted, with magical intent, especially the contest between Marduk and the Dragoness of Chaos, Tiamat. Marduk is slain and lies dead ‘in the mountain’, and is then restored to life by magical rites
22 Inanna/Ishtar/Belat  Their festivals are on the second day month of Nisan.
Isis/Bastet The priests wore black cassock in the service of Isis at this festival. They used the cross as a symbol of her husband’s and son’s suffering and rang bells, timbrel or sistrum to stir the resurrection of them both. The church had borrowed so heavily from this rite for its services that Pope AlexVI wanted to include Isis as a cult figure within the Vatican in the late 1400’s.
Gardens of Adonis celebrates Aphrodite/Venus and Adonis and the dying or dead lover of Astarte. This festival was celebrated with baskets or pots filled with earth, in which wheat, barley, lettuces, fennel and various kinds of flowers were grown and tended for eight days, chiefly or exclusively by women in spring after which they make offerings to the strong Goddess.  At Easter Sicilian women sow wheat, lentils and canary in plates, which they keep in the dark and water every two days. The plants soon shoot up; then 12 of the stalks are tied together with red ribbons, and the plates containing them are placed on graves on Good Friday, just as the gardens of Adonis were placed on the grave of the dead Adonis. The whole custom is a continuation of the worship of Adonis.
23 A Festival of Mars and Nerine, the marriage of Mars to the Sabine goddess whom people identified with Athena/Minerva or Aphrodite/Venus.
Tubilustrium Another festival in honour of Mars. On this day weapons and war-trumpets were cleansed.  
24 The Rites of Venus Urania/Astarte and Adonis at Byblos, all the people in mourning enter a deep cavern, where the image of a young man lies on a bed of flowers and odiferous herbs. Whole days are passed in prayers and lamentations. Adonia were solemn feasts in honour of Venus, and in memory of her beloved Adonis. They lasted two days: on the first, images of Venus and Adonis were carried, with all the pomp and ceremonies practiced at funerals. Among the Egyptians, the Queen herself used to carry the image of Adonis in procession. The Egyptian Adonia are said to have been held in memory of the death of Osiris.
Ishtar and Tammuz. The Goddess descended to the underworld to bring back her youthful husband from the dead. Women mourned for the dead god in Babylon.
25 The Hilaria – Festival of Joy. The divine resurrections were celebrated with a wild outburst of glee. The God of joy Hilaritus was invoked. This became Passion Sunday for the Christians. The day before had seen rites of the wildest sorrow; they sought and mourned for Attis on the mountains. On the 3rd day, he was found again, the image of the Goddess Kybele was purified from the contagion of death, and a feast of joy was celebrated as wild as had been the days of sorrow. They sang this chant: “O Mother of gods and men… O life‑giving Goddess that art the counsel and the providence and the creator of our souls… O thou that givest all good things… Do thou grant to all men happiness, And that chief happiness of all, The Knowledge of the Gods!” Culian, Hymn to the Mother of the Gods.” 166CE
Eostre – Easter derives the word from Eostre, Northumberland spelling of Eastre stara, the Saxon goddess of spring, another form of Astarté the Sumerian fertility goddess whose festival was celebrated in Europe at the vernal equinox by cheering “Wassail. Hail and be whole, be well!” as a salutation over the spiced‑ale cup, that was drunk on the day when the civil and legal year ended and began again on March 25th. It was not until as late as1752, the historic year was changed to January 1st.
26 Mabon’s Day – Celtic
The Requietio of Kybele is mentioned in the Calendar of Philocalus, written in 354, as the day following the Hlaria as a day of rest.  Demeter and Persephone bring back the life of spring in the form of a tree or a maiden, summoned to rise from the sleeping Earth, not a young god.
The Irish Grey Woman of Crotlieve, a pillar stone set up in prehistoric times is elaborately dressed up like a woman for the Easter festivities.
Khordad Sal Birth of Prophet Zaranhushtra – Zoroastrian
28 Spells performed to Ishtar for the healing of sick man: “In the month of Tammuz, when Ishtar causes the people of the lands to weep for Tammuz, her husband, then, when the families of humankind are gathered together there, Ishtar appears, and, beholding the situation of humankind, takes away sickness and causes sickness. On the twenty‑eighth day of the month, the day of sheep‑folds, thou shalt offer a vulva of lapis‑lazuli and a golden star to Ishtar; thou shalt name the name of the sick man and say, “Deliver the sick man.”
29 The Hieros Gamos, or Holy Marriage was the most significant rite of the Pagan New Year. Thos symbolic wedding between the king, who represented the god Dumuzi, and a priestesses, who represented the Goddess Inanna… she was to be the dominant partner, since She makes him king asked as Queen of Heaven to allow him to enjoy long days – re-enacted in many late Pagan festivals.
Basilissa. The most important Greek ceremony of the Anthesteria. A moveable feast where a local king pays Ishtar to bestow upon him his regal authority. The marriage of the Basilissa or wife of the Archon Basileus, with Dionysus, the Basilissa representing the country. The ceremony took place in the older of the two temples of the Lenaeon, which was never opened except on this occasion.
Ishtar’s Day. Sacred to the ancient Babylonian Goddess of Love
30 The Fixing Of Destiny to Mammitu was the Goddess of Fate. A procession along the Sacred Way from Esagila to the bit‑akitu, or Festival House outside the city; in which the king took the hand of Marduk, to lead the god out at the head of the procession, followed by all the visiting gods, Inanna/Ishtar/Belat to court the favour of the stars in the solar system which have the power to determine the prosperity of the city in the New Year.
Festival of Salus, the Goddess of salt, salaries, greetings, safety and wellbeing. Optimum time for personal protection spells
31 Aradian festival of Luna. Originally a Thracian Goddess of the moon and Magick. The Greeks identified her as Artemis, Hecate and Persephone. The worship of this imported Goddess was so popular that it became a state ceremonial at Athens, a public torch lit festival called the Bendideia. Eventually she became the Italian Goddess of the Moon and still has an ancient sanctuary in Rome today.
Mawlid an Nabi – Islam – The birthday of Prophet Muhammad, founder of Islam, in about 570 c.e. The prophet’s teachings are read and religious meetings are held.

APRIL
1 April Fools Day
Veneralia Festival of Venus, goddess of love and beauty who makes fools of us all. Burn some valerian for Aphrodite on this day to aid love.
3 Pesach (Passover) is the main Jewish festival of the year Jewish 8-day celebration of the deliverance of the Jews from slavery. A special meal is a central feature
4 Megalesia  Festival of the Great Mother was a festival in honour of the Magna Mater, celebrated with processions and games. Derives its name from the Greek meaning to meter, as it also commemorates the books of the Sibylline Oracle brought by King Attalus from Pergama near the temple of this Goddess to Rome.
5 Lady Luck Day Festival of Fortuna, the goddess of good fortune
6 Manannan’s Day – Celtic
7 The Day of Kindly Ones – Blajini – Kindly spirits are honoured on this day in Romania near natural water sources.
8 Hana-Matsuri, the Shinto festival of  the running naked man. A human scapegoat takes all the ill luck for a year. Dedicated to Shaka the Silent Sage from Japanese Shintoism.
9 Mordron’s Day – Celtic
Lumeria – the festival in honour of the Lemures, the spirits of dead family members who wander the earth on these three spring nights. The term Lumerians is derived from this festival and is an allegorical word for “Those Long Dead”  Vampires Day – Christian mutation of the above
12 The Cerealia  another festival to Ceres
Festival of Water – Buddhist statues are washed and then the water is thrown on the followers as a purification ritual.
14 Baisakhi (Vaisakhi) Sikh
15 Fordicidia Festival of the earth goddess Tellus / Gaia to ensure plen­ty during the year. Celebrated under the management of the Vestal Virgins
The Thesmophoria – Demeter Hiesmophoria, a surname of Ceres as lawgiver, as the foundress of agriculture and of the civic rite of marriage.
Yom HaShoah – Jewish
16 Celtic Tree Calendar month of WILLOW. Gaelic: Saille. April 16 – May 13.  Willow tree has always been associated with death.   In Northern Europe, the word witch and wicked is derived from the name of the Willow.  It is considered to be a tree of enchantment. 
The Feast Day Of St. Bernadette. (Christian) At the age of 14, she claimed that she had experienced a number of visions of the Virgin Mary. Furthermore, the girl said that the Virgin had imparted miraculous powers of healing to the waters of a spring near a grotto in Lourdes. The Roman Catholic Church declared her visions authentic, and the Lourdes grotto became a shrine for Christian pilgrims though it had been a Pagan sacred site of healing for centauries.  
19 The Cerealia, festival of Ceres, the grain goddess
20 Taurus Fixed Earth Sign Planetary Ruler: Venus
Western Wesak – Visakha Puja – Theravadin Buddhist– It is the anniversary of Buddha’s Enlightenment, birth and death all said to have occurred during the Taurus full moon. Westerner’s take the date of Wesak from this sect. A Scorpio full moon in Taurus is very powerful magically and particularly significant if there are 2 full moons (a blue moon) in that sign then it is held on the second full moon.  Wesak is a sacred valley in the Himalayas to which tens of thousands of people from all around the world travel on a pilgrimage as it is said that the Buddha appears at a table like outcropping of rock at the end of the valley on Wesak eve to bless humanity together with a company of immortals from Shambhallah. Wesak is celebrated on the first full moon in June in Tibet only in the Wesak Valley.
21 Festival of Pales the Goddess of herds and flocks. It was during the celebration that Romulus built his city.
22 Earth Spirit Day– Wiccan – a day to work with earth elementals and to perform healing rituals for Gaia
23 Saint George’s Day. A day to lament the loss of Dragons
Vinalia festivals, festival to Venus when the wine of the previous year was broached and a libation from it poured on the sod; and on August 19th. Venus, who, as goddess of gardens, had vineyards also under her protection. Professional ladies offered her incense of myrtle and mint and bunches of rushes and roses for success in their businesses as well as for beauty and popularity, charm, and wit.
The Parilia, Southern Slovenian peasants crown their cows with wreaths of flowers, libations of milk are offered to the Goddess “Pales” from whom we get the term milk-pales. In the evening the wreaths are fastened to the door of the cattlestall, where they remain throughout the year.
25 Anzac Day
The Robigalia Festival of The Green Man God of growth.
28 Celtic celebration of the God Lludd
29 Festival of Flora, goddess of fruitfulness and flowers
30 Walpurgis Night The date of the Pagan festival marking the beginning of summer when the old Pagan witch­world was supposed to hold high revelry. Brocken of Germany was a favourite spot for these revelries. Walpurga was the sister of Saints Willibald and Wunnibald, a Sussexborn woman saint who immigrated to Ger­many. Interestingly, Walburg is an old Teutonic name for the Earth.
Taliesin Night’s (Merlin’s night) – Celtic celebration of the High priests of Magick

MAY
1 Major Solar Sabbat | SAMHAIN in the Southern Hemisphere. Caileach Beara, a Celtic Goddess, turns to stone. She is reborn on October 31, Samhain.
Bona Dea (Roman) The festival of Bona Dea, the Roman fertility Goddess. Held on behalf of the public welfare, in the house of the officiating consul or praetor of the city, by matrons and the Vestal Virgins. Similarly to her festival on December 4, no men are allowed to be present here either.  
Belenus, the Celtic god of fire and the sun.
2 Vesta “Where the sacred fire of the moon is tended by Vestal priestesses, they are usually responsible also for the rain rituals…” In ancient Rome the Vestal Virgins, guardians of the sacred fire of Vesta, performed a ceremony at the Ides of May, the time of the full moon, to regulate the water supply.
6 Lag B’Omer  – Jewish. The link between Pesach and Shavout.
8 The Festival Of Mens, the Roman Goddess of mind and consciousness.
Furry Dance Day – Cornwall – Dance in honour of the horned god to bring good luck to your town.
12 Cat Parade Day – Belgium. Europeans parade and worship their cats on this day.
13 Fatima – Anniversary of the Goddesses’ appearance to 3 children in Fatima in Portugal in 1917, the last appearance was on Oct
Bran’s Day – Celtic hero’s day
14 Celtic Tree Calendar month of HAWTHORN – Gaelic: Huathe – May 14 – June 10- Fair among the open blossoms – Co-responding to the Ogham alphabet’s equivalent to the letter H, the Hawthorn tree associated with the sacred and the unlucky.  To destroy a Hawthorn was to incur great peril to the person responsible.  The Hawthorn tree is embodied in the character of the chief giant Yspaddaden. It is associated with Govanna (Vulcan) a smith god that is the custodian of the celestial fire and higher powers of the mind.  Thus it is symbolized as the Chalice as it too represents divine secrets and everlasting life.
15 The Mercuralia, the festival of Mercury/Hermes, the God of intelligence, magick, communication, merchants and travellers. On this day the merchants sprinkled their heads and their merchandise with water from his well near the Porta Capena.
20 Plynteria – Festival to Athena the goddess of wisdom 
Olwen’s Day – Celtic
21 Gemini Mutable Air Sign Planetary Ruler: Mercury
Maeve – the most truly Venusian of the strong Celtic goddesses. It is for her that hawthorn was named May, or Maythorn. She became the goddess of Beltane in whose honour the May queen was crown­ed… Her most recent name in English lore is Queen Mab of the fairies.
23 Shavuot – Jewish celebration of receiving their “Book Of The Law” from when he Moses descended from Mt Sinai with the ten commandments. Plants and flowers are used in decorations.
24 Birthday of Artemis (Diana the moon) and her twin brother Helios (Apollo the Sun)
Queen Victoria born, May 24 1819, was in her lifetime worshipped as their chief divinity by a sect in Orissa.
The Lama Dawo: Sandup confirmed that, Tibetans believed that the moon Goddess, “Dolma” had come back to life again to rule the world in the person of the Great Queen of England; as the likeness of the Queen on English coins was very similar to that of their moon Goddess. Owing to this the British Representatives of the Queen then met with an friendly reception in their negotiations with Lhassa, although unaware of its reason.
27 Pentecost – Celebration memorialising the early Christians receiving magical abilities from the Holy Spirit.

30 Burning Times Remembrance Day. On this day in 1431 Joan of Arc was burned at the stake for the crimes of witchcraft. It is a time to work ritual for religious tolerance and for freedom from dogma and the crimes committed against others by fundamentalists.