Caer Australis Blog

Ever since Caer Australis has published its findings regarding the Celtic calendar, the feast of Samhain and the timing of the Celtic new year on the calendar of Coligny and regards the fire feasts, there have been mixed responses, for and against CA’s conclusion and the evidence presented that the Celtic year begins at Beltaine.

This has been since 2002, when soc.culture.celtic was vibrant and vigorous in its activities. Today we continue to draw a wide audience, as shown by the visitor map to the CA home page this year, and post on Connecting Celts and Caer Feddwyd forum boards, and so keep the discussion alive.

We have a contact form, and every so often we recieve feedback. The other day the following arrived, and we welcome others to send comments. As long as discussion can take place, that is a good thing!

“Sir,

My name is Stanislas [surname deleted for privacy] and I am a Swiss fan of celtic civilisation. For this reason, I wrote a “thesis” or a “trial” (as you want) on celtic civilisation and, of course, of this calendar.

Normaly, I let people writing what they want on Internet about that. But this time, I can not.
Because you wrote a vulgarisation destinied to uninformed persons. In this vulgarisation, you based on one word, or on a limited translation.

For exemple, you wrote that Samonios is the month of summer. Because “Samon” seems like “Sommer”. So, I am agree with you that samon has the term of sommer in itself. But I am giving you three reasons which explain that Samonios is in November and not in May.

1st: in fact, it is your translation in your website: “Samhain – the Fire at the End of Sommer”, Sam “sommer” and Fuin “end.
2nd: I quote: Cuchulainn in “Tochmarc Emer”: “For two divisions were formerly on the year, namely, summer from Beltaine the first of May, and winter from Samuin to Beltaine”. So, Beltaine, we are agree, is in May and is the beginning of sommer, to Samoninios; so in November.
3rd: did you read “De Bello Gallico”? Ceasar says (VI, 18): “All claim Gaulous from Dis Pater. < ...> They measure the length, not by the number of days, but the number of nights < ...> and the early months and years counted by starting the day with the night”. This means the celtic year would begin with the dark part. So, before the winter solstice.

If you read french, you can see on http://www.arbre-celtique.com/ This is a very good website which explains some good things about Celts or celtic philosophy.

I hope you would change a part of your website, or explain the other theory of this extraordinary calendar. Because, all of us know that we do only theories.

In the end, I beg your pardon for my english, I hope you can read what I have written.

Cordially [etc]”

We do thank Stanislas for his feedback, and have invited him to visit (and he has) our exposition “Samhain is not the Celtic new year”, and hope there may be fruitful conversation to be had. We have linked the website he recommended to our Celtic Resources & Links list.

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Another email recieved came from Temple of the Dark Moon, who are publishing a book shortly:

“The reason I am writing is that I am in part way through a book on the Wheel of the Year from a Southern Hemispheric Pagan perspection, and one section of my notes mentions that the information used may have been adapted from your excellent and well reseached web site.

I have tried to find whether the wording has indeed been adapted (I have been in the process of writing this book for a number of years now) or whether it is still relatively word for word. However I have not been able to come up with an answer either way to completely satisfy me – so I thought I would write to see if I could actually include the section in my book with your permission (and full creditation etc).

The section is as follows:

Along with the “calendar” dates, there are also astrological influences that, for some, need to be taken into consideration. The following is taken from the highly recommended web site of Caer Australis (www.caeraustralis.com.au) :

The Southern Wheel
The more one investigates the Southern Sabbats, the more differences can be observed compared with the Northern Sabbats. Our ancestors, based in the Northern Hemisphere, guided by the stars and one constellation in particular was the Pleiades, the seven sisters. Bealtaine, in its true form, is linked to the rise of Pleiades. In the Northern Hemisphere, the first lunation of Summer, the rise of the Pleiades occurred in May (the modern month). The rise of the Pleiades was followed by the red star, Aldebaran (the brightest star in the constellation we know as Taurus), staging the setting for the Trinox Samoni, the three night feast of Summer. Likewise, during the seventh month from that date, the modern November, the first lunation of Winter was marked with the rise of Antares staging the prophetic setting of Samhain. ”

In sofar as information from our site is used here, we are delighted to agree, and have replied as such.