Upcoming Events - Loxley Abbey Medieval Spiritualist Church

CURRENT MOON lunar phase	YouTube Videos from Loxley Abbey!

Below are general explanations of Loxley Abbey Celebrations. Please see the current event page for complete details of this years events.

Tree Wassail= 2009 Sat. 24th Starting at 4pm

We celebrate this old medieval ceremony at the end of the monath of January. A token tree is the centre of our rite where we sprinkled it with wassail (apple cider) to ensure a good crop.

Villagers gather around the tree & make lots of noise to scare off any evil spirits. Wassail songs are sung and dancing around the tree whilst toasting it is but just a bit of the fun we have.

Blessing of the plough is celebrated in Charmonath (February). The plough to be used in the fields for the spring crops is blessed, decorated & carried around the village. Garland dances are often performed on this day. This is also a tyme for a rhyming Mummers Play.

On this occasion, as the plough is the central feature, the dance is held around it. Blessing the plough in the presence of the Villagers and visitors is a token of divine beneficence on the agricultural work of the coming season.

This year we invite everyone to bring their hand plough or garden tool for Loxley Abbey’s Clergy to perform a Blessing.

This Old English custom begins the ploughing season with a blessing for a bountiful harvest! An outdoor gathering for all farmers, gardeners and their families to enjoy. Ploughs will be lined up in advance and a simple old style Blessing will be performed. Farmers may decorate their ploughs with ribbons and bells as was the custom long ago.

Socialize around the Beverage & sweets table after the Blessing while our Villagers perform a Medieval Mummers Play & entertain you with beautiful Garland Dances.

Visit with our Farm Animals too. A great tyme for the whole family to come out and meet other local farmers.

Based on an Old English/Medieval Seasonal Rite that represents fertilizing the fields.

Follow the Fool to the Bull Piñata, hear the story of this Spring Rite & then break the Piñata for all the goodies inside.

Bring your favorite Pot Luck Dish along with your own feasting gear & trash bag for disposal.

In Thawmonath (March) the celebration of the earth thawing & the struggle between winter and spring is held at the end of the monath. It is displayed in a tussle that dates back to at least the 13th century.

Awaken the Earth, Bless the Seeds, Furrow the Field & Plant the Crops. Join in the Spring Crafts for Children, Stick Dancing, & Pot Luck Feast. Dressing in medieval costume is welcomed & we offer costumes on loan too.

Bring your favorite pot luck dish along with your own Tableware & carry in & out bag for disposal.

It is the tyme to sow the seeds. The planting of the crops for the season, a Sowmonath (April) celebration. A seed dance is done where the dancers wield slaves with which they make clashing noises & thump the earth to make symbolic holes for the planting of seeds.

Also at the same tyme Villagers perform the ancient rites of waking the dormant earth. There is a blessing of the seeds & spring festivities honouring the God & Goddess which begin this day that is followed by a great feast.

Dance the May Pole at our 13 foot pole planted deeply in the ground. Bring your colourful 3" wide ribbon to attach & dance away. On to the Pot Luck Feast where you can relax & enjoy Good Food.

Next Loxley Abbey will hold a Fire Festival inspired by Scotland's Beltane Fire Festival. Follow the Queen of May & her Elemental hand maidens through the Archway to welcome Summer in. The Horned One will perform a dance with the May Queen to transform into the Greenman.

End the evening at our bonfire with Fire Hooping, Belly Dancing & many different kinds of Fire Dances.

This is a midsummer celebration and tyme to honour the grand splendor of the sun as it reaches its highest point in the year. From this tyme forward, daylyte begins to wane so it is with great joy that the Villagers lyte the bonfire and carry the torches in procession. We dance around the fire to purify and protect ourselves. The magic of this holiday is celebrated on Summer Solstice.

Our ancestors celebrated Midsummer with bonfires. It was the night of fire festivals. Villagers would jump through the luck-bringing flames. It was believed that the crops would grow as high as the folks were able to jump. Through the fire's power, spirits and demons were banished. Another function of bonfires was to give a boost to the sun's energy so that it would remain potent throughout the rest of the growing season and guarantee a plentiful harvest.

It is in the summer monath of July, when water is more precious, that wells are dressed with garlands of flowers and candles, blessed by parish clergy.

We too will Dress our Well in flowers & have our Clergy Bless it. There after offering a Blessing from the concreted water sprinkled on the Villagers in attendance. Followed by a visit to the Wishing well with our coins in hand asking for our wishes to come true.

Then join in the water games for adults & children sure to bring a smile to everyone.

Watch in awe as our Lady Godiva rides through Loxley Abbey covered in only her long blonde hair (and a skin-colored leotard!) Later, Villagers gather to hear her tell the Godiva Tale.

Epona is the protector of horses, stables, and horse owners. She is the guardian of agriculture and transportation. She has also been pictured with cornucopias and baskets filled with fruits, especially apples and thus been linked to fertility. Bring in her honour baskets of fruit especially apples. The Horn of Plenty, or cornucopia, filled with roses is a perfect gift, too.

Our Clergy performs a Live Horse Blessing on the Godiva Horse & for all horses. Next everyone gets to ride the Godiva Horse.

Also known as “the Feast of the First Fruits” or "Loaf Mass". This is a medieval/Old English harvest festival. A great feast of the wheat & grains, where offerings of thanks to our Holy Lord & Lady for the harvest given. A tyme to sample the first fruits which were planted in the spring. We rejoice in thanks for the fruitfulness of the harvest that will sustain us through the winter's dark tyme.

Lammas (Loaf-mass) is the festival of the first wheat harvest of the year. On this day Villagers bring a loaf of bread or produce from the new crop to the Abbey. In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, where it is referred to regularly, it is called "the feast of first fruits." A blessing of Bread is performed and potluck feast shared by all.

We give thanks as has been done for successful harvests since ancient tymes. Our celebration includes singing, dancing, harvest games, and decorating the horse's cart with garlands of flowers and colourful ribbons to carry the harvest. Baskets of food are collected for the poor and elderly of the local community. A Grand Feast is shared by all the Villagers.

Harvest is from an Anglo-Saxon word "haerfest" which means "Autumn." It then came to refer to the season for reaping and gathering grain and other grown products.

To end the day the Villagers enjoy a feast and give Thanks to our Holy Lord & Lady.

Octobers end brings to the tyme to remember those who have passed over either in this life tyme or of long ago.

We create individual outdoor altars with photos & items to remind us of those we loved so dearly or wish to know more about and spend tyme honouring them. This is a tyme to remember, connect with and be guided by them. On this night, we allow their wisdoms to be heard, and we give them thanks for their life with private prayers.

This is a "Hallowed Month", the earth is mostly barren of the fruitful growing life now harvested. It is a tyme to remember how we have been blessed in the months now pasted & pray for continued blessings in the cold dark months ahead. All must have faith that Our Lord & Lady with guide us daily.

This is the tyme when the fodder & pasturage becomes scarcer at the approach of winter & when the cattle & other livestock were culled in considerable numbers in medieval tymes. A feast of the last fresh meat till spring would be held & merry making for all the village.

We celebrate with a great banquet of fresh meat & many seasonal foods, coupled with medieval games for both the adults & children, a Mummers' Hog Play & a ceremony to honour the ideals of Robin Hood. We learn about St. Martin who's feast day is also Nov. 11th & how he relates to the of the number 11.

In the agricultural calendar Martinmas marks the beginning of the natural winter.

This date was determined originally by the first appearance of snow on the pastures. Eventually it was fixed in the middle of the November (11th or 12th). Loxley Abbey celebrates as close to this day as possible.

[Return to the top] [Go to Blot Tyme Photos]

Yuletide Festival= 2009 Sun. 19th Dec. starting @ 3pm

We begin with honouring Jesus with our Baby Jesus song & children's play. Mary holds baby Jesus, our little boy Shepard brings in his lamb, our costumed king brings presents & our angel spreads her wings to protect Mother & Child.

Next we honour the Hunt with our own version of the Horn Dance using stag antlers attached to long poles. The Bromley Abbey's Horn dance music accompanies our dancers as they dance around the fire & perform beautiful steps.

Loxley Abbey holds a Yule Log burning ceremony with the decorated log carried on poles to the fire. Around the warmth of the bon fire we sing songs, tell stories of Faeries & search for the bean in the Christmas cake .

St. Lucy is honoured with a chosen village girl dressed in white & wearing a wreath of candles. She slowly walks to the fire carrying her tray of sweet buns as we sing out the St. Lucina chant.

Tree Wassail January 24 (4 pm)	Blessing of the Plough February 22 (2 pm)	Haxey Hood Day March 28 (2 pm)	Seed & Furrow Day April 18 (2 pm)	Fire Festival (Medieval May Day Celebration - Fire Festival) May 9 (3 pm)	Summer Solstice Festival June 20	Feast of Epona & Lady Godiva August 22 (3 pm)
Well Dressing July 18 (3 pm)	Lammas Day & Feast of St. Catherine August 1 (3 pm)	Harvest Home & Michaelmas September 27 (3 pm)	Ancestors Remembered October 24 (7 pm)	Blot Tyme & Martinmas November 14 (2 pm)	Yuletide Festival December 19 (3 pm)	Feast of Epona & Lady Godiva August 22 (3 pm)