Paganism and Witches alike follow the Wheel of the Year. There are reasons for each celebration, and sometimes, there are darker reasons. The Gates of Life and Death is one of them.

When Energies Comes Out

For years, witches, Wiccans, and pagans alike have attested how Samhain was the thinnest veil during the year, marking it as the Witch’s New Year since it welcomes transformation through spiritual death. 

However, as I have attuned to nature, the energies during the months leading up to Samhain typically arise in September when the turn of the year starts in June, so the reflected energies should align with the sun’s waning. 

Since the Gate of Death is actually during the Winter Solstice now, the research we were going off of for when the Gates of Death occur is outdated. 

Once Samhain arrives, the energies are completely buzzing, and they stay buzzing until the Gates of Death open and swallow the energies, sending everything into a suspended slumber of static. 

The air feels heavy because the Gates to the Underworld are open, and its energies leak into our realm. We feel death.

What Is The Wheel Of The Year

The Wiccan Wheel of the Year is modelled after Celtic, Irish, Gaelic fire festivals. Their beliefs are modelled after the megalithic tombs that were found, which date back to the Neolithic era, around 3350 BCE. 

These tombs depicted the sun’s travel across the sky and had a makeshift clock to tell them when the solstices shifted. These petroglyphs showed that Samhain in November and Imbolc in February were the beginning and end of winter by judging where the sunlight fell on their sun chart. 

However, within the sun’s rays were dots at each line, the lines used as a marker for the sunlight’s travel in the sky. These dots represented the thirteen zodiac signs that rotated along with the sun. 

The Place Of The Zodiac With The Gate Of Death

In 3350 BCE, the Gate of Death, constellation Capricorn, would have been between the same time of what is now Samhain and Yule, landing approximately November 14th. The mythology around the fire festivals of the Celts was heavily based on this depiction in the petroglyphs on the tombs.

Astrology has always been particularly taboo, even though our travelling ancestors used the stars for various reasons. Most don’t even consider the stars regarding the turn of the year. They are primarily focused on the sun and the moon. 

The sun shows the year’s seasons and helps depict day from night, and the moon tells the days of the months. During the Neolithic era, the constellations reflected the changing seasons, marked flood seasons, and other seasonal activities that the sun could not. 

The oriented temples of the Neolithic era were erected to align with the heliacal rising of the stars. The earliest attested written records reflect this in the first dynasty of Mesopotamia in 1950 BCE. 

Constellations Of The Gate Of Death

Suppose you factor in the constellations and zodiac into the Wiccan Wheel of the Year and shift the focus from solely on the sun and moon. In that case, the significance of the meaning behind the sabbats has a greater emphasis. 

Modern Wicca and Neopaganism’s Wheel of the Year cycle is based on ancient temples built by our ancestors. They did not understand constellations and that they were a factor in their worship. 

It would leave the evidence suggesting that it was solely the sun’s position that determined the shift of the Wheel and the significance behind each of their Gaelic fire festivals. 

The Last Words On Constellations

If the ancient Gaelic followed the same astrological beliefs as those in Mesopotamia and Sumer, then it is safe to assume that they, too, noticed when Cancer and Capricorn rose in the sky. 

They were polar opposites and the highest constellation in the sky during the year. It signifies the Gates of Life during spring. Meanwhile, the lowest constellation in the south signified the Gates of Death during the final harvest sabbat of Samhain. 

If the shifting of the ages changed the energy influence over the period a constellation reigned, then it also shifted the significance of each festival. 

Where Lammas, Mabon, and Samhain still reflect the sun’s annual descent and mark the dying of the earth’s vegetation, the meaning behind Samhain being the Gates of Death, during which time the Gates of Death are openly shifted to the Winter Solstice instead.

Kasey