Everything Under the Moon

This will be a total newb question so I apologize in advance. Is the one year and a day a requirement for Wicca, more of a guideline for study or total bunk in your opinion? I mean what makes a Wiccan I guess is what I am getting at

currently I still consider myself a Pagan moving towards Wicca...so I thought I would ask

thanks

Whether or not to follow the year and a day guideline varies in each situation. Generally, it's to make sure that you're ready. Really ready. "Is that your final answer?" kind of ready. It's a sort of fail safe to weed out the wanna-be types. It's mostly used by covens. To be in a coven is a commitment, and the High Priestess uses the year and a day to not only make sure that people are serious about the path, but to also to see if the seeker is a good match for the coven. Think of it as the courtship phase.
Solitary practitioners sort of do as they please. Some follow it by studying for the whole year and a day before attempting their first spells and rituals. Others just start whenever they feel ready.
There's no solid right or wrong here, just what feels right to each person. But the Universe does have a bit of a say. If you're not ready, your spells may flop. Take it as a learning experience by waiting a little longer and maybe reading another book or two. Then try again. Follow your heart.

Foxface wrote: ↑Wed Jun 18, 2014 6:20 pm This will be a total newb question so I apologize in advance. Is the one year and a day a requirement for Wicca, more of a guideline for study or total bunk in your opinion? I mean what makes a Wiccan I guess is what I am getting at

The Hemeric school’s traditional year-&-a-day study period was adopted by Gardnerian Wicca along with the ceremonial magician style of ritual format and tools. It comes from the past when books and internet weren’t available for independent, self-directed study. The period of time allows the fledgling to familiarize themself with the nuts & bolts of the Craft; the Elements, the mechanics of ritual & to experience the significance of a full-year’s earth and moon cycles. The annual cycles of Nature are the source of a witch’s power & sustenance. Life depends upon seasonal warming & cooling for crops; fish, geese and deer migration follow the cycles. Awareness of this is the backbone of witchcraft; when are natural forces beneficial for spell crafting and how to compensate when energy’s are perverse?

A year and a day has a very long history, It is something that's even stuck in some prison systems,It is basically to say that it is more than expected but not unreasonably so.

So... a year and a day is more of a coven thing. Each coven does it differently. Some do not do it at all. (All covens are autonomous. ) The original idea is for studying. Since rigorous training is required. But another reason I have actually heard is because covens did not vet long enough and intiatited prematurely, so the early intiatited tended to be "crack pots". A year gives them time to see if you're serious or not, and get to know you.

If you're solitary, you need not worry about it.

The year and a day brings one back to the day one began their spiritual quest.
It's a spiritual "Birthday" and sounds better than 366 days.
365 plus one day, and yea It's to weed out those who may be just casually interested. I can tell you from experience that most who fall away do so at about 4 months.
FF

A year and a day, also known as 'the year and a day rule' has ancient origins and had common usage in law / establishing legal status until it was repealed in 1996.

As other societal rituals also carried certain terms of limitation (handfasting perhaps?), it wouldn't be a stretch to assume that it was a common period of time for legal/societal/ritualistic arrangements (without referring to its apparent occult use).

As said, it is a cycle. A lunar year (13 lunar months of 28 days) plus a day is a solar year (365 days). 366 days would be a full year even if a leap year day is included.

Corbin wrote: ↑Thu Apr 08, 2021 12:13 pm As other societal rituals also carried certain terms of limitation (handfasting perhaps?), it wouldn't be a stretch to assume that it was a common period of time for legal/societal/ritualistic arrangements (without referring to its apparent occult use).

The little discussion group I belong to was just talking about this. For a handfasting it was a good time frame to "try" that co-habituating thing with a lover. They were also called greenwood marriages and children who were born of these unions frequently took the name of the (eh=hem)... sperm donor, and they became the surnames we have today like Richard"son", David"son", Thompson, Ericson, you get the picture.
And in the northern countries girls were "dodder" dottier" "dauter" like Jacksdodder, but it could also follow the mother, like Jeansdottier.
If after a year and a day the union wasn't a good it was not a problem to walk away. It was giving the thing a shot too, we'll try for this (X) long
In anycase as Corbin mentioned it was a time span, but the phrase is ominous enough to sound pretty witchy!

bb, FF

Indeed. I am a 'Robinson', a name which is said in antiquity (pre reliable contreception) to be derived from 'Robin Goodfellow' - children concieved, often during festival excess, in lust or passion, yet not in matrimony.

The lunar year is of course ancient and was easily kept by the many people who lacked literacy to chart the passage of the seasons. 'and a day' sounds an awful lot like a closing ritual to my ear.

Although reclaimed by pagans, we never lost handfasting really - it just became 'engagement'.

Sadly, we no longer drink mead (being an athrodisiac, especially warmed) for a lunar month after tying the knot - but we still call it a 'honeymoon'.

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'... August's rare delights may be April's fool...'

- Velvet Green

Corbin wrote: ↑Tue Aug 17, 2021 11:15 pm Sadly, we no longer drink mead (being an athrodisiac, especially warmed) for a lunar month after tying the knot - but we still call it a 'honeymoon'.

I have the hardest time finding a decent mead anymore , I love this tradition, wish it was still a thing
it's probably how come we had so many Robinsons!
bb, FF

Paganism in a country that has 4 seasons gives chance to study/read/practice the growth cycles of nature, the different walks like a fall woods walks full of leaves and the spring when new things appear from forest floor.
The snowy cold winter for study, reading, reflection, quiet times, rest. The energy of summer.
Lately seasons are bit erratic all over the place. Gone are true winters, very little snow recent years.