For the Summer Solstice, the stag’s antlers have been adorned with horse brasses showing the symbols of the Zodiac. Horse brasses reflect the sun and are often used in protection magic to ward off evil.
The Wheel of the Year
The Ancient Festivals
The year can be divided into eight major festivals which
mark the passage of the Sun through the year and relate directly to the
agricultural cycle. This is significant
to many people (including witches) The
current festival is: Summer Solstice, June
21st.
Midsummer's eve is a time for great magic - herbs picked at
midnight have special protective qualities.
It is also a good time for love magic and charms.
The Summer Solstice is a fire festival and traditionally
fires are lit on hilltops to mark the sun’s change in course.
All witches will be celebrating this time of year- many will
stay up all night to watch the Sunrise on Solstice morn.
The Christian Church adopted this ancient pagan festival as
St John’s Day.
The longest day, plants and animals flourish, light and life
are abundant.
CELEBRATE THE SUN
KING!
For the Summer Solstice, the stag’s antlers have been
adorned with horse brasses showing the symbols of the Zodiac. Horse brasses reflect the sun and are often
used in protection magic to ward off evil.
The Sun and Protection Magic
Symbols of the Sun appear many times in the Museum’s
collection and they appear most frequently in our display of Protection Magic
in the upstairs gallery. For millennia,
people have viewed the sun as a friend - the provider of light, warmth and food
(the stuff of life). At the time of the
Summer Solstice, thousands of people gather at Stonehenge to pay respect to the
Sun and to see the spectacular emergence of the Sun through the stones.
Here we have a selection of items associated with the sun
and protection. Protection magic is
often used in doorways to protect the house from evil influences. This doorknocker is a reduced size replica
and has a feline, possibly lion face with the sun’s rays emanating from
it. The original 12th century door
knocker is on Durham Cathedral.
The idea of the sun providing protection seems to have
continued into more modern times as this Sun Alliance disk shows. Early insurance companies issued plaques such
as these to identify the houses that were protected by their insurance
company. When there was a fire, the
insurance company’s fire brigade would only put out fires on houses with the
right disks on them!
Images of the Sun regularly appear on horse brasses such as
these. Horse brasses were not purely
decorative but were originally a type of protection magic. They were designed to be shiny and to ward
off evil spirits by distracting them.
Their effectiveness was further enhanced by creating brasses which also
incorporated ancient symbols of protection such as the Sun.
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