As well as meeting for the eight Sabbats, covens meet in between the solar Sabbats for lunar Esbats.
The Esbats are lunar in nature, working with the energy of the moon, often with more of a focus on working with the goddess. Traditionally these are held on each full moon, allowing coven to work with full moon energy and with lunar cycles. However, in reality they do not always fall this way. This in turns gives covens the opportunity to work with the energy of the new moon, waxing or waning moon.
If you are a solitary witch, you may already be working with the full moon to do magic as part of the lunar cycle, however the term “Esbat” refers specifically to group magic.
As part of the focus on working with the Goddess, these Esbats may see the ritual involve the coven drawing down the moon. This involves the coven invoking the goddess and drawing down goddess energy into an individual, typically the high priestess. The high priestess may then be inspired to give messages from the goddess to the group. The invocation and charge (words spoken) may be learnt from the Book of Shadows, written and learned by the individuals writing the ritual and taking on these roles, or spoken in a more spontaneous, free form way.
Whilst the Sabbats are celebratory in nature and typically have an emphasis on story telling, the Esbats have a focus on magical working and allow the coven to respond to both group and individual needs. This might include healing, spell work and/ or divination. Although the rituals are typically written in advance, there will tend to be space for more spontaneous magic and/ or healing that crops up for the individuals and group that can be added in on the day or as required.
Covens may opt to have an annual focus for their Esbats to enable the coven to broaden its knowledge, magical experiences and group egregor (magical, unified coven mind). For example, we have had an annual focus on planetary magic within our Esbats with magical working linked with planetary energies.
Some examples of our recent Esbats:
- Working with the Goddess Hera: a path-working to meet Hera and receive a message from her
- Healing crystal grid: using a crystal grid to bring healing energy to the coven
- Text divination: using text to receive messages of divination
- Sigil magic: cross stitching sigils and spell work to bless and empower them
- Astral Temple Esbat: working together to visualise and visit our shared Astral Temple
- Clay talismans for mercury: making clay talismans and working with mercury to imbue these with our intentions
If we have trainees working with us then they will typically stay for the social time at the start of the meet and join in with any crafting before we do our walk through and ritual as initiates.
As with the Sabbats, there will also be feasting! Food serves to ground the group after the magic and allows for quality time as a coven, notoriously chaotic, coven members will not be wrangled into a food list so it’s a surprise in the night… as long as there is humous all we be well!