This pair of books looks at the eight Wiccan Sabbats in the context of the year's original division into two seasons, Winter and Summer.  A recent review (by Marie Jones for bookideas.com) notes the volumes' "extensive and comprehensive view" and says "O'Gaea writes with clarity and style as she takes each season of life and shows how to celebrate it with a deep connection to the natural world, a connection mirrored by our own inner need to understand ourselves through ritual, symbols, and meditative practices."

Celebrating the Seasons of Life: Samhain to Ostara These books have other unique features to recommend them, too.  For one thing, as far as we know, they're the first books to look at Druid and Asatru approaches to the holidays they share with Wicca.  "Wicca's heritage is both Celtic and Anglo-Germanic," O'Gaea remarks, "and we need to be more conscious of that."  For another, in response to reader frustration at so many Wicca books' advice to do this or that "in the usual way" when so many readers don't have usual ways, Samhain to Ostara includes complete directions for casting and conducting a Circle, without claiming that it's the only way.  For readers frustrated by most books' references to outdoor Circles, Beltane to Mabon looks at "living room Wicca" and explores ways of making preparing indoor space for ritual.  Both volumes build on the information about child development first set forth in Raising Witches, and include lots of suggestions for involving children age-appropriately in our celebrations of the seasons of life.  "After all," O'Gaea grins, "children are themselves a major celebration of life, so it's only fair to include them in the rest of our seasonal celebrations."