Title: Sabbats
Author: Edain McCoy
Pages: 355
Genre: Non-fiction, informational, religious (Wiccan)
After the table of contents, this book starts off with its first chapter “The Pageantry and Meaning of the sabbats”. It is sort of an introduction and sort of a catch-all for various things the author wanted to include that may or may not relate to the subject area. It goes through the Wheel of the Year and explains which holidays are practiced in which Pagan cultures around the world. It takes a brief detour from sabbats to go into ritual tools, the elements, how to make a robe, the role of ritual and about this book.
After the introductory chapter, there is one for each sabbat, which is about 20-30 pages long each. Each chapter contains 4-8 pages on the historical context of each sabbat, a few recipes, a few crafts with complete how-to guides, an idea for a ritual, and ideas for activities. Sometimes there is one or two music suggestions for each sabbat as well.
On page 201, part 2 of the book begins. It is entitled “Rituals”. It contains 60 pages of sabbat rituals for groups and solitaries. Finally, we have the appendices. Appendix 1 has an outline for ritual construction. Appendix 2 has the elements of spell construction. Appendix 3 has a glossary. Appendix 4 is a resources and merchants guide. Appendix 5 contains the instructions for making felt sabbat calendars. Appendix 6 has various correspondences such as other names, symbols, colors, animals, deities, activities, stones, foods, taboos, plants, meaning, attunement teas, ritual oils, and mythical creatures associated with each sabbat. Appendix 7 has Pagan symbols with their meanings. Appendix 8 has cross stitch patterns.
At the end is the bibliography and selected readings followed by the index.
Verdict: 10/10
This book actually contains more than you really need in a book about the sabbats, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It gave a ton of information about each of the sabbats, a bunch of recipes, ways to celebrate culturally, crafts to make, sample rituals for both solitaries or groups. I was annoyed initially at not getting a generic list of activities and or Gods/Goddesses associated with each sabbat, but the appendices had these in them too!
I actually found this book early on in my spiritual journey. I was really excited because it contained pronunciations of the different sabbats. I wanted to talk to my family about the holidays I was practicing, but didn’t know how to say them!