About Us
Our background and aims
Gylden Community is a magickal and spiritual group. We support, promote and organise pagan events within the Surrey, Hampshire, Sussex and Berkshire areas. It's a place for all those who feel drawn to nature-based beliefs and for meeting like-minded folk. You’ll find us at spiritual events throughout Southern England, celebrating sabbats, publishing regular magickal help and having lots of laughter at gigs, picnics and socials too.
Gylden Community is not a traditional pagan group. We link to our friends in Basingstoke, Portsmouth, Bracknell, Farnham and anywhere else that hosts magickal or spiritual groups. We visit to share fellowship – and they can visit us too.
As a pagan library, we share knowledge and experience with others, not only via monthly publications or online files, but also at themed discussions or fayres where we can put aside time to show others what each of us can do or have learned along our specific pathways.
Gylden Community works with Guildford Diocese, Woking Action for Peace and other Interfaith bodies to promote spiritual tolerance. We raise funds for charity whenever possible via our presence at public fayres. In 2020, we raised donations for Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice and for Step By Step charities.
Gylden Magick magazine
Our regular monthly magazine is also on: www.facebook.com/groups/gyldenpaganfellowship/
Our April 2024 issue includes the following features:
- Beltaine celebration and magick
- nature: 30 Days Wild
- science: nacreous clouds
- crystals: garnet & ruby
- history: Glasgow witch-hunt of 1597 and Marion Walker
- science: fusion energy
- folklore: wyrms
- science: shark teeth analysis
- celestial forecasts for April (also published in full on Facebook)
- Sussex Wildlife Trust spring photos
- sacred art: India (Hindu) - Rama's Day.
Visit our Gylden Magick magazine archives for past issues.
Working with others
Pagan/ spiritual groups in the Gylden Community area - all are listed on meet-up or Facebook.
Arun Traditional Witchcraft (Arundel)
Association of Sussex Pagans
Basingstoke Pagan Circle
Basingstoke Pagan Moots
Berkshire Witches & Wiccans
Blackthorn Witchcraft UK (Havant)
The Circle of Ankerwycke (Staines)
CoA Southampton Witches
Colours of the Oak Moot (Bracknell)
Crawley and Horsham Pagan Moot
Godalming and Villages Moot
Guildford Mantra Meditation
Guardians of the Grove (Chichester)
Hampshire Pagans for Environmental Change (Southampton)
Horndean Positive Living Group
Horsham and West Sussex Pagans
Moon Rituals Portsmouth
North Surrey Pagan Circle (Weybridge)
Pagan Federation South Central
Reading Berkshire Pagans
Rollright Circle of Friends (Chipping Norton)
Rowan & Thorn Druid Grove (Alton)
Seasons of Albion Moot (Farnham)
The Witches' Inn (Redhill)
University of Portsmouth Pagan and Spiritual Society
University of Southampton Pagan & Witchcraft Society
Worthing Pagan Moot
Alban Eilir/ Ostara/ Eostre 2024 ©
Alban Eilir (meaning the light of the earth) is known by several other names, such as Ostara, the Festival of the Trees, the Rite of Eostre or Earrach, depending upon which path or culture you follow. Earrach is the Irish-Gaelic word for Spring, but most people refer to this festival as the spring or vernal equinox and, this year, it falls on Wednesday, 20 March.
In Saxon times, the Earth goddess, Eostre, was honoured at this time for new life and growth. Alban Eilir celebrates balance and fertility, both new life and rebirth, symbolised by the egg and by the hares that look for mates at this time of year. Yet we are aware that the first buds and blossoming flowers have appeared on the trees and spring bulbs are blooming. Both plants and animals can sense the return of life to the soil as the power of the sun increases each day and the nights get shorter.
Alban Eilir is a festival of hope and joy, celebrating the gradual dawning of longer, warmer days, new light and the promise of summer. It is halfway between Imbolg and Beltane and all things are in balance: Goddess and God, Life and Death, light and dark. March is the worm moon: this is the time to build the foundations of new projects and start on new directions that you have planned throughout the winter months.
O Brighid, our Lady, Goddess of fire,
Mother of hearth, home and desire,
You are the passion in Cernunnos’ heart,
So that inside you, his seed of life does start.
O Brighid, you are the Queen of Spring -
Bring life and light to all living things.
In Celtic tradition, hares are sacred to the Moon Goddess, namely Hecate, Freyja and Eostre. The date of Easter is determined by the phase of the moon. Both the moon and the hare were believed to die daily in order to be reborn and a hare is a symbol of immortality. It is also a major symbol for fertility and abundance as hares can conceive while pregnant. Over the centuries, the symbolism of the hare has evolved into the Easter Bunny who brings eggs to children on Easter morning.
Eggs symbolise the rebirth of nature, the fertility of the Earth and all creation. The practice of decorating eggs in bright colours is ancient, with early examples dating back to 60,000 BCE (South Africa) …long before Easter. Eggs are usually blownand the shells kept for the designs. Decorated eggs at this time come from Ancient Egypt, Persia and Eastern Europe too. Sometimes, the egg is a symbol for the whole universe, with a duality of male and female or light and dark in the egg yolk and egg white. The egg can represent the gold Sun God enfolded by the white Goddess.
© 2024, Written by Gylden Fellowship
Blessings for Alban Eilir