Into the Arms of the Wild: The Wisdom of the Wheel of the Year

The Wheel of the Year is an annual spell. Every Sabbat a knot in the cord and when we arrive at the ritual feast we can tend to the threads of the year, the places that need repair, where new weavings are needed, and old ones can be returned to the earth again.

The structure and seasonal holidays of the modern Wheel of the Year is largely based on both real and mythical Pre-British, British, Anglo-Saxon, and Celtic agrarian cultures (I explore more of this over in Spiraling Into the Center: The Wheel of the Year and the Lunar Sabbats). I feel relatively safe in assuming that most of the folks reading this post and practicing in some way as modern Pagans do not live with the lands that birthed these cultures. Even if you do, the Wheel of the Year, like most everything in modern Paganism was never meant to be an unchanging dictum from whoever is claiming to be the King of Witchcraft at any given time.¹ One of the great delights of modern Paganism is that it is a religion by and for the people, meant to grow and change as we grow and change, to reflect the many places and cultures we live in, and a practice that is as much a part of the diasporic experience as it is the lands it was first dreamed.

So let's explore how the Wheel of the Year can be engaged as a more open framework to make it intimately relevant to your personal practice. In another post I'll explore how you dream into being your own Wheel of the Year, but for now we'll continue to reference the eight Sabbats while expanding beyond their original cultural references. Much of modern Paganism is about the return of the old ways and the re-membering of traditions disrupted and hidden away - so adapting the Wheel of the Year to meet your needs as a Pagan living in the cultural diaspora of the Wheel's land-based origins is one of the ways we thrive as a Pagan people. We are coming home again to our practices wherever home might be for us.

image via @matthiasoberholzer

The Sacredness of Every Season

The Wheel of the Year reflects seasonal changes on a practical level that help us to connect to the land, sea, and sky, pay attention to important rhythms for growing crops and animal husbandry, and, especially in this day and age, measure time beyond the confines of capitalism's dangerous obsession with work and productivity. 

But the Wheel of the Year also reflects the transition of life that we all go through, from birth and death, to transitioning identities, new responsibilities, periods of learning and teaching, and all the spiritual and emotional experiences that come along with these things. The Wheel of the Year is a way, around every six weeks, to pause, recalibrate, and reconnect with that which you find most sacred in your life.

Pagans are by and large not a faith-based but an earth-based and relationship-based people. When compared to other liturgical calendars the goal of the Wheel of the Year is less about worship and more about re-weaving ourselves back into the world and honoring the holiness of all things no matter where they are in the process of being.² All is holy, for example, at the time of darkest night at Midwinter and all is holy at the time of the long day of Midsummer. How we recognize, engage with, and remind ourselves of that holiness changes from Sabbat to Sabbat but is reflected in ritual choices, spellwork, community work, and more. The holiness of a harvest festival may be recognized by honoring all that has been worked for and achieved in the past year, while the holiness of Imbolc might be centered around the sacredness of vow-making and choosing a path ahead. In other words, for many modern Pagans, we aren't as concerned about growing our faith in our God/dess/es but growing our awareness of and honoring our deeply interconnected relationship with all that is.

Most importantly, as you explore the Wheel of the Year it's important to ask yourself  Why? Why observe the Wheel of the Year (or similar variation)? What purpose does it serve in your life? How does it make you feel? What's the point? How do you need to be held throughout the year?

image via @matthiasoberholzer

For me, the Wheel of the Year serves as points of stabilization, where I can ground and center, and reconnect to what is most meaningful and valuable to me and my life. In the overculture I live in, the Wheel is a radical way of measuring time and feels like an easy and joyful rebellion to choose, that enriches my life and my practice. I have found solace in the Sabbats when my life has felt full of contentment as well as when things are tumultuous - the Sabbats are expansive points of space and time that can hold space for whoever I am and whatever I'm experiencing when I show up. I encourage you to take a moment and reflect on what the Wheel of the Year means to you and why you want to participate in its turning.

When you're ready, let's look at the broad underlying spiritual framework of each Sabbat. I've touched upon the mythology of the Wheel of the Year from a (mostly) Wiccan perspective to give you some mythological inspiration, but remember that this is only one tradition within Paganism that follows the Wheel, and there are as many myths as Pagans for each of the Sabbats.

Samhain: The New Year, a time for endings and beginnings, the third harvest when the veil between the worlds is thinnest. Connecting with ancestors and ancestral traditions. An auspicious time to divine backwards and forwards in time. Honoring those who have departed in the previous year. Making space for the holiness of grieving, especially being able to grieve as and within a community. A time of reconciliation. Making space for quiet and reflection. The death of the Old God, the Goddess as Crone and Midwife of the Dead. The Maiden begins her training in the mysteries of the underworld.

Winter Solstice: Celebrating moments of "a light in the dark" and the birth process whether connecting to birthing offspring, birthing a new idea or concept or birthing a new cultural movement. Recognizing the interconnectedness of life and death, honoring our fragility and vulnerability, as well as the people, places, and systems which help us feel safe. A time of honoring parents, especially those who identify as mothers. The Crone Goddess as Midwife, the Goddess as Mother, the God as the Child either in the womb or being born (the Oak King). The height of the Holly King's power.

Imbolc: Celebrating the spread of an idea, concept, movement, breakthrough. Honoring potential. Honoring the waking land as winter slowly recedes. Celebrating transitions of moving from one stage of learning and understanding to another (i.e. graduating high school and entering college or starting a new degree study as a Priest/ess). The Child God, the Crone Goddess returning to the lands of winter and/or is reborn as the Maiden Goddess bringing the promise of spring.

Spring Equinox: Honoring the lively and greening land. A time for cleaning and cleansing. An auspicious time for celebrating what is re-emerging and re-turning home as well as newly claimed identities. A time for celebrating youth and blessing young ones (i.e. baby blessings, namings, etc). A time of the Young God and Goddess. The death of the Holly King and the beginning of the reign of the Oak King.

image via @jleeems

Beltane: Honoring the Good Folk. Relationships of all sorts, including romantic ones. Celebrating the diversity of sexual identities and the way that our sexual identities change and grow. Fertility of all kinds, including of people, and the land. The holiness of physical form. Connecting with descendants and what traditions we are passing on and creating for our descendants. The God/dess/es as Lovers. 

Summer Solstice: Honoring the abundance of life. Celebrating a time for (re)energizing movements and movement building activities. Celebrating community groups and mutual aid projects. A time of honoring parents, especially those who identify as fathers. A time for celebrating middle age. The God/ess/es at middle age. The height of the Oak King's power.

Lughnasadh: Celebrating the first harvest and the coming end of summer. (Re)commiting to supporting groups which work hard to make sure our communities feel secure. Recognizing what it is we have to share and what it is we need more of in order to thrive. Honoring those who have struggled for the betterment of the community and performed extraordinary feats of self-sacrifice and compassion. The God/dess/es of the Harvest are celebrated. The death of the Earth Goddess of Summer or Tailtu and emergence of the Crone. 

Autumn Equinox: Celebrating the end of the harvest and what will sustain us in the year ahead. A time of feasting and gathering together. Affirmations and further development of personal and community resiliency. Cutting cords with things, thoughts, people, that no longer support your ability to thrive. Balancing what needs to be balanced in your life. A time for celebrating old age. The Old God is dying and the Crone begins to guide them to the Summerlands. The Maiden journeys to the underworld. The Holly King rises to power. 

image via @heftiba

With these broad spiritual themes you can start to adapt these Sabbats to your own life, cultural myths, and seasonal changes. You can explore how you already celebrate the different themes and ideas of each Sabbat in your life and ways that you might want to incorporate others (i.e. developing an ancestor-honoring practice and anchoring it to the season of Samhain). Transform any of the key concepts in the descriptions of the Sabbats above into sacred questions such as "How am I honoring the abundance in my life?" to better understand the Summer solstice. Another comforting aspect about the Wheel of the Year is the way that I feel connected to followers of the old ways all around the world during particular points of the lunar month and solar year - it is a grand spell against loneliness and one that brings me a lot of peace. 

The Wheel is an external reflection of our own internal circumnavigation of our soul's temple. How do you tend the Wheel of the Year and how does it tend you?

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The title for this post, like the first in the series exploring the Wheel of the Year, was inspired by a Beverly Frederick song:

Humble yourself in the arms of the wild
You've gotta lay down low and
Humble yourself in the arms of the wild
You've gotta ask her what she knows and
We will lift each other up
Higher and higher
We will lift each other up
Higher and higher

I hope that you're feeling inspired for your own practice and how you travel the Wheel of the Year. May the ever-turning of the wheel bring you peace and reunion with all that you know you love and all that love you’ve yet to know.

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

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Footnotes

1. According to my calculations the current King of Witchcraft is the mildly feral community cat who lives on my street and goes by the name Hyssop (or Hap for short). Feel free to honor him at the beginning of any of your rituals as you see fit until a new King is elected by the mysterious gentleforces that be.

2. The big caveat here is that modern Paganism is very diverse and for some traditions the wheel of the year is very much about faith and the worship of the God/dess/es.

Spiraling Into the Center: The Wheel of the Year & Lunar Sabbats

My herbal and magickal practice is deeply tied to the rhythms of the land - and that rhythm is set by the steady turning of the Wheel of the Year. The sacred turning of seasons known as the Wheel of the Year is celebrated by modern Pagans who either are Wiccans or Druids or practice a tradition derived from (at least in part) Wicca or modern Druidry. That is not to say that the festivities found within the Wheel of the Year are exclusively Wiccan or of the Druid tradition, but the structure of these celebrations within an eight Sabbat format is directly derived from Wicca and modern Druidry as we’ll learn below.

I realized that while I’ve been writing about the individual Sabbats, I hadn’t taken time yet to invite you in to learn more about the Wheel of the Year as a tradition, from its structure to ever-changing meaning to the ways that we shape it into a tradition informed by the land we live with. So in this three part series I’ll do just that!

Let’s start by diving into where the Wheel of the Year comes from and it’s structure. If you’re looking for a broader discussion on making the wheel of the year more personalized to your practice, come this way.

Where does the Wheel of the Year come from?

While there was no ancient version of a eight Sabbat Wheel of the Year, each Sabbat is based on ancient seasonal and celestial festivities for time periods important to those ancient peoples as reflected in the sacred sites left across the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Europe (such as Stonehenge) as well as the folk festivals and customs that survived from Pagan periods. The Wheel of the Year is one of the most popular modern Pagan calendars, but it is not the only one and there are lots of culturally and locationally specific calendars with additional or completely different festivals. Hellenic Pagans, for example, celebrate festivals based on ancient Greek tradition exclusive of or in addition to the Wheel of the Year.

The Wheel of the Year as we know it today is based on scholarship and modern inspiration, primarily - though not exclusively - codified in the 1950s by Gerald Gardner, the father of modern Wicca, and Ross Nichols, founder of the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids. Early inspiration for the structure of the Wheel of the Year came from the work of Margaret Murray, Robert Graves, and earlier Victorian magickal practitioners and folklorists. If you're wanting to learn more about the history of the Sabbats, the wikipedia page on the Wheel of the Year is pretty great with a lot of good resources in the endnotes.

Structurally, the Wheel of the Year is a made up of eight seasonal festivals, spaced roughly six weeks apart, that consist of festivals of primarily Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, and pre-Celtic British origin. The codification of the Wheel of the Year happened between Gardner and Nichols, where "popular legend holds that Gardner and Nichols developed the calendar during a naturist retreat, where Gardner argued for a celebration of the solstices and equinoxes while Nichols argued for a celebration of the four Celtic fire festivals, and combined the two ideas into a single festival cycle." (1) 

Names for the Sabbats were developed on further in the 1970s by Aidan Kelly, another early influential figure in Neopaganism, furthered named three Sabbats: Litha for the Summer Solstice, Ostara for the Spring Equinox, and Mabon for the Autumn Equinox. (2)

If you're looking for the primary resources used for the reconstruction of these Celtic, pre-Celtic and Anglo-Saxon festivities, the Celtic Reconstructionists have compiled vast resource lists. Paganachd is a good place to start with extensive guides to reconstructing Celtic traditions and what that means as well as a good reading list to start working through. I recommend enjoying the primary resource rather than getting too stuck with the gatekeeping and constant search for authenticity (which is such a complicated idea when it comes to spiritual and cultural practices) that can go on in some of the CR forums. For a deep dive into the origins of the Wheel of the Year, and just how Celtic it is or is not, as well as exploring the Coligny calendar (the oldest surviving example of a Celtic solar-lunar ritual calendar), The Celtic Calendar and the Anglo-Saxon Year by Richard Sermon is a good read.

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What is the structure of the Wheel of the Year?

The eight Sabbats of the Wheel of the Year fall into two categories: The Cross Quarter Festivals and the Quarter Festivals. If you want to see additional names for each Sabbat and well as more information on how to celebrate each, be sure to click through the links for profiles on each.

Cross Quarter Festivals (aka The Fire Festivals or The Greater Sabbats):

• Imbolc

• Beltane

• Lughnasadh

• Samhain

Quarter Festivals (aka The Solstices and Equinoxes or The Lesser Sabbats):

• Yule (Winter Solstice)

• Ostara (Spring Equinox)

• Litha (Summer Solstice)

• Mabon (Autumn Equinox)

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The "Quarter" is in reference to the four quarters of the year which can be measured seasonally (spring, summer, winter, and fall) and astrologically (i.e. the start of a season measured by entry into one of the four cardinal signs of the zodiac). The Quarter Sabbats mark the beginning and end of each season while the Cross Quarter Sabbats mark the height of each season. This measurement doesn't always make sense outside of specific environments (i.e. more northern climates), but for many Pagans, there is still an energetic if not obvious start, height, and end to each season that roughly aligns with the Sabbats. So, with this understanding:

• Yule is the end of autumn, beginning of winter and Imbolc marks the height of the winter season.

• Ostara is the end of winter, beginning of spring and Beltane marks the height of the spring season.

• Litha is the end of spring, beginning of summer and Lughnasadh marks the height of the summer season.

• Mabon is the end of summer, beginning of autumn and Samhain marks the height of the autumn season.

Finally, the Celtic people did mark the dark half and the bright half the year, which has influenced the way the modern Wheel of the Year is conceived. Samhain to Beltane is the dark half of the year, while Beltane to Samhain is the bright half of the year. Samhain, the beginning of the dark half of the year, marked the beginning of the year for the Celts, much as sunset marked the start of the new day. Marking the beginning of the year at Samhain is commonly celebrated by many Witch folk, myself included.

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In the above graphic you might have noticed a series of eight symbols or glyphs in the center of the wheel corresponding to each of the Sabbats. I don’t know where these originated from and I have a vague memory of figuring this out years ago but haven’t been able to find my notes on the matter if I did (take good notes, kids!). I think that the Quarter Festivals were created first, followed by the Cross Quarter ones, but again that’s going on fuzzy memory at this point. If you know the origins of the Sabbat glyphs, please let me know. The glyphs may represent the following:

The Samhain Glyph: A sacred knot representing the cycle of life death and rebirth, showing the interconnectedness between the worlds.

The Yule Glyph: Winter store of food, people, embers of the fire and/or a sacred cairn or burial mound showing stylized bones and points of life (representing the hope of rebirth) within.

The Imbolc Glyph: Shows new seedlings and plants emerging from the earth after winter.

The Ostara Glyph: The young emerging Sun/Horned God. I also see this as an egg symbol cracking open.

The Beltane Glyph: The maypole! Or wheat stalk representing agricultural fields.

The Litha Glyph: The Sun at full maturity pouring light out across the land.

The Lughnasadh Glyph: Perhaps representing the setting Sun, who is now in decline at the beginning of the harvest season.

The Mabon Glyph: A stylized cornucopia overflowing with plenty, also perhaps a stylized stang.

When are the Sabbats celebrated?

The Cross Sabbats are observed on fixed dates throughout the year - through you might find discrepancies between texts on what dates they should be fixed to. Some books for example will say that Lughnasadh is on August 2 while others will say it is August 1. What's happening here is that for the Celts the start of a new day began at sunset - so the sunset of August 1 to the sunset of August 2 would be a day within a Celtic calendar. Hence, Lughnasadh can be celebrated from sundown on August 1 to sundown on August 2 or on just one of those days.

The Quarter Sabbats are celebrated at the solstices and equinoxes which are astronomical events that have slight variation from year to year. Yule, for example, might be on December 19 one year and December 21 the next year depending on when the earth's pole tilts furthest away from the Sun.

The dates for each Sabbat (Northern Hemisphere):

• Samhain : October 31

• Yule: On the day of the Winter Solstice usually around December 19 - 23

• Imbolc: February 1 - 2

• Ostara: On the day of the Spring Equinox usually around March 19 - 23

• Beltane: May 1 - 2

• Litha: On the day of the Summer Solstice usually around June 19 - 23

• Lughnasadh: August 1 - 2

• Mabon: On the day of the Autumn Equinox usually around September 19 - 23

The dates for each Sabbat (Southern Hemisphere):

• Samhain : May 1 - 2

• Yule: On the day of the Winter Solstice usually around June 19 - 23

• Imbolc: August 1 - 2

• Ostara: On the day of the Spring Equinox usually around Septmeber 19 - 23

• Beltane: October 1 - 2

• Litha: On the day of the Summer Solstice usually around December 19 - 23

• Lughnasadh: February 1 - 2

• Mabon: On the day of the Autumn Equinox usually around March 19 - 23

While the dates I just listed are the most common observational times for each Sabbat, there is also the astrological timing of each Sabbat. For the Quarter Festivals, the above and below dates align (i.e. the Winter Solstice happens when the Sun enters the sign of Capricorn at 0 degrees). It is with the Cross Quarter Sabbats that you find variation of dates. You can reference an ephemeris or your favorite astrological calendar for these dates. While celebrating the Sabbats on the above dates are most common, there are a number of Pagans, especially those with an affinity for astrological work, that celebrate the astrological dates Sabbats, too.

The astrological timing for each Sabbat (Northern Hemisphere):

• Samhain: Sun at 15° Scorpio

• Yule: Sun at 0° Capricorn

• Imbolc: Sun at 15° Aquarius

• Ostara: Sun at 0° Aries

• Beltane: Sun at 15° Taurus

• Litha: Sun at 0° Cancer

• Lughnasadh: Sun at 15° Leo

• Mabon: Sun at 0° Libra

The astrological timing for each Sabbat (Southern Hemisphere):

• Beltane: Sun at 15° Scorpio

• Litha: Sun at 0° Capricorn

• Lughnasadh: Sun at 15° Aquarius

• Mabon: Sun at 0° Aries

• Samhain: Sun at 15° Taurus

• Yule: Sun at 0° Cancer

• Imbolc: Sun at 15° Leo

• Ostara: Sun at 0° Libra

Each season of a Sabbat lasts for one and a half signs of the zodiac. So Yule lasts all 30 degrees of Capricorn and 15 degrees of Aquarius. Then Imbolc begins on 15 degrees Aquarius and moves through the last 15 degrees of Aquarius and then all thirty degrees of Pisces. And so the wheel turns and turns through all of the signs of the zodiac.

You may have noticed that the Wheel of the Year is shown moving counter-clockwise - this is to match the Wheel with the zodiac. The planets move through the zodiac in a counter-clockwise motion so the zodiac is drawn to reflect that. To match the Wheel of the Year with the zodiac it moves in a counter-clockwise motion, too.

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What are the Lunar Sabbats?

I've been seeing Lunar Sabbats showing up more and more in recent years where before they were mostly known to folks who purchased We'Moons - which makes sense because it was the folks at We'Moon (according to email conversations with them) who partially developed the practice. I love celebrating Lunar Sabbats and was lucky to be introduced to them early on in my practice of shifting time away from a measurement that is capitalistic and consumption based to one that is cyclical and reverent to bodies, places, and spaces beyond commodification. I've written about Lunar Samhain before, but here is a brief summary from my personal practice of what a Lunar Sabbat is.

Lunar Sabbats are different than Esbats - a term introduced by Margaret Murray and popularized within Wiccan tradition - as the celebration of different lunar phases (primarily New and Full Moons). Esbats are another beautiful tradition and deserve their own post, but Lunar Sabbats are tied to the solar based Wheel of the Year and serve as Moon-based equivalents to the Cross Quarter Sabbats or the Fire Festivals of Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh, and Samhain. Why not the Quarter Sabbats, too? Because the Quarter Sabbats, marked at the solstices and equinoxes are already celebrations of both solar and lunar movements.

Because of their origin partially within the We’Moon community, the Lunar Sabbats are tied to womxn's culture and feminist spirituality, connecting to a powerful thread of revolutionary and transformative magick. (3) For me, I love celebrating the Lunar Sabbats as a more quiet, more intense, and more personal Sabbat celebration. When I’m able to, after attending a public and community-oriented Sabbat celebration, I love being able to gather together with close witch kin for a Lunar Sabbat celebration. If the Sabbats are a bright mirror reflecting the energy of the season in our lives, the Lunar Sabbats are the black mirror of scrying, where we draw energy up from our depths and are guided by the turning of our inner compass.

The Lunar Sabbats can be measured in different ways, the simplest being the Full or New Moon closest to the solar date of a Sabbat (i.e. the New Moon closest to October 31 to mark Lunar Samhain) with New Moons for the dark half of the year (Samhain and Imbolc) and Full Moons observed for the bright half of the year (Beltane and Lughnasadh).

Then there are two different ways to measure the astrological timing to the Lunar Sabbats. The first is how the Sabbats are measured via the We'Moon calendar system.

In the Northern Hemisphere:

• Lunar Samhain: New Moon in Scorpio

• Lunar Imbolc: New Moon in Aquarius

• Lunar Beltane: Full Moon in Scorpio

• Lunar Lughnasadh: Full Moon in Aquarius

In the Southern Hemisphere:

• Lunar Samhain: Full Moon in Scorpio

• Lunar Imbolc: Full Moon in Aquarius

• Lunar Beltane: New Moon in Scorpio

• Lunar Lughnasadh: New Moon in Aquarius

The above system has a beautiful and purposeful symmetry to it. The dark half of the year at Samhain marked with a New Moon Lunar Sabbat is reflected in the bright half of the year with a Full Moon Lunar Sabbat at Beltane. The same symmetry is found at Imbolc and Lughnasadh. This is the system you’ll find in your We’Moon planner.

The second way of calculating the Lunar Sabbats is:

Northern Hemisphere:

• Lunar Samhain: New Moon in Scorpio

• Lunar Imbolc: New Moon in Aquarius

• Lunar Beltane: New Moon in Taurus

• Lunar Lughnasadh: New Moon in Leo

Southern Hemisphere:

• Lunar Samhain: New Moon in Taurus

• Lunar Imbolc: New Moon in Leo

• Lunar Beltane: New Moon in Scorpio

• Lunar Lughnasadh: New Moon in Aquarius

With this system, all four dates for the Lunar Sabbat are more directly tied to the solar astrological timing of the season (i.e. Beltane happens when the Sun is at 15° Taurus so the New Moon in Taurus becomes Lunar Beltane). Which is the better system? There’s no better system - it’s completely a matter of personal preference and whatever way gets you showing up to the work of knowing yourself and holy community. I’ll be writing about each of the Lunar Sabbats in the future, so if you want to know when those posts will be published you can sign-up for my newsletter.

Is the Wheel of the Year an exclusively Celtic, pre-Celtic, Anglo-Saxon thing?

A little bit yes but mostly no. Yes, in the sense that these are seasonal festivals based on practices from these specific cultures. I think it's important and really enlightening to know the origins of the Sabbats (as much as we can) and give honor to the ancestors who helped their descendants to dream of them again. It is no small feat after centuries of forced conversion and propaganda against Pagan ways that the Wheel of the Year, a Pagan and earth-honoring system of experiencing time and toppling oppressive nature-denigrating institutions of power, is part of one of the most rapidly growing religions (at least in the United States of America). (4)

And also no, in the sense that the Wheel of the Year has grown far beyond the confines of a tiny island nation and the people like Gerald Gardner, Ross Nichols, Margaret Murray, Doreen Valiente, and Robert Graves who were attempting to revive a cultural inheritance at danger of being lost. It's important to remember that we don't know exactly how or why Celtic, pre-Celtic, and Anglo-Saxon peoples celebrated seasonal changes and even if we did have exact details of these festivities, we are not our ancestors, but their miraculous descendants who live in a different time though connected through the land, sea, and sky. In that spirit I see the Wheel of the Year as a living, breathing, and adaptable tradition, meant to be celebrated by a wide and diverse network of people committed to earth-based spiritual practice.

The beauty of the Wheel of the Year and the fact that its celebrations are rooted to seasonal changes means that it’s a framework that can be applied to any part of the world by the Pagans who live there. I think that the Wheel of the Year works for so many Pagans around the globe because of this flexibility of application and I find this vastness of shared seasonal philosophy to be beautifully unifying amongst a people who have no central leadership (with the exception of a few tradition-specific groups) or singular holy book and pride themselves on being both community-oriented and idiosyncratic.

What is the spiritual meaning of the Wheel of the Year?

That, my friends, is what we'll be exploring in our next post. 

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The title for this post was inspired by a beautiful Pagan chant written by Beverly Frederick, from her album Into the Arms of the Wild, which goes as follows:

Spiraling into the Center,
the Center of the Wheel.
Spiraling into the Center,
the Center of the Wheel.

We are the Weavers, we are the woven ones
We are the Dreamers, we are the Dream.
We are the Weavers, we are the woven ones
We are the Dreamers, we are the Dream.

It’s a lovely song that I’ve sung dancing around Maypoles, journeying with community between the worlds at Samhain celebrations, and in hopeful revery during the longest night of the year. I hope it brings you a lot of joy, too. It can be especially beautiful to alternate “the Center of the Wheel” with the line “the Center of us All.”

If you're wanting to dive into more inspiration about the Wheel of the Year, check out my series of might-do lists for the Sabbats. I’ll be writing two more posts on the Wheel of the Year in the coming months as well as a series on the Lunar Sabbats a little after that, too. If you’re looking for more seasonal magick and healing, check out my Witchcraft + Weeds series.

Wherever the turning wheel finds you, I hope that you’re coming ever closer to home.

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

Footnotes

(1) The Wheel of the Year. The whole relationship between Nichols and Gardner is a really interesting and influential one in the development of modern Paganism as Nichols was a covenmate of Gardner's and he would later go on to create the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids (OBOD) which is a supremely lovely community of magickal folk. Phillip Carr-Gomm, former head of OBOD, and who was a student of Nichols talks more about the relationship between Gardner and Nicholas if you're wanting to learn more - I believe in a Druidcast episode. And then if you're going to read about Gardner, please read everything you can about Doreen Valiente who rescued Wicca more or less (from innumerable (mostly) menfolk who couldn't seem to see beyond their own noses and were constantly embroiled in conflict with one another), infused it with incredible Goddess-led inspiration, and she was herself by all accounts a delightful and kind weirdo (and maybe a spy for the British government!).

(2) From The Wheel of the Year: "Aidan Kelly gave names to the summer solstice (Litha) and equinox holidays (Ostara and Mabon) of Wicca in 1974, and these were popularized by Timothy Zell through his Green Egg magazine." You can read more about Kelly’s thoughts behind the choices here.

(3) To be abundantly trans-inclusive, non-binary loving, genderweird, and gender atheist affirming (a few of those ways which I identify as, just fyi): Womxn's culture is inherently trans and nonbinary inclusive, open to all of those who in some way, shape or form identify as a womxn, and are participating in the long and varied tradition of being seen in the world as womxn and shaping culture from that perspective and experience.

(4) Growth of Religion. The United States also has a growing population of “Nothing. The United States is not the only place where modern Paganism is on the rise - it’s just the place I’m most familiar with Pagan demographics. Iceland, for example, has had a rapid rise of Ásatrú, which in some ways can be seen as a re-indigenization of a population.

The watercolors that I used to paint the illustrations used throughout this post were created by Ojibwe artist, Anong Beam. Please join me in supporting her indigenous, female-led, watercolor company, Beam Paints.

A Might-do List for Midsummer

Midsummer, also known as the Summer Solstice, Litha, and Alban Hefin, marks the longest days of the year. Many ancient megaliths were built to align with the movement of the sun on Midsummer, the longest day of the year. Midsummer celebrates the height of the sun's power as well as the still distant but ever growing turn towards the cooler months. The Summer Solstice is also a day long associated with the magick of the Good Folk who are said to be more present than ever across the land. At Midsummer we celebrate the brightness of living and so much abundance that we have plenty to give and receive in turn. Now is a time to celebrate the expansiveness of life and the unique ways we express ourselves as necessary and loved members of our wider community. Continuing a project started last Lughnasadh, here’s a list of nine things that you might-do (or not) for the long day festival and hot season of the Summer Solstice.

Rise with the Sun. A simple and very sweet ritual is to rise with the sun on Midsummer. Meditate in silence or celebrate in song as the Sun rises up into the day, shedding light across the land. Planning to have special foods ready for breakfast can be an extra bonus.

Build simple stone cairns with friends and family. Glennie Kindred has a lovely suggestion for creating a participatory and engaging ritual space in her book Earth Wisdom. As folks are gathering together in the ritual space have them look for or bring five stones - one for each of the five elements of Earth, Air, Fire, and Spirit. As part of the ritual, each of the elements are called in and one-by-one folks bring their stone for each element into the center while offering personal thanks and blessings at each turn. Slowly a cairn or mound of stones will be formed by all of the stones placed by those gathered. Cairns can be left up (if environmentally appropriate) and used as places to make offerings to the Good Folk, but at least for the rest of the ritual the community-created cairn serves as a focal point for chanting, dancing, and general merriment.

Self-Heal (Prunella vulgaris)

Harvest herbs. The Summer Solstice is a traditional time to harvest herbs and especially those herbs associated with the Good Folk, the energies of love, and the powers of protection. St. Joan's or John's Wort (Hypericum perforatum) is traditionally harvested at Midsummer and turns into a beautiful red oil symbolizing the regenerative lifeblood of the land. Be sure to harvest herbs in a way that respects the land and its inhabitants tending to the places where they grow with as much care as plants tend to our healing needs.

Create some beautiful solar themed decorations. Decorations that catch the light and are bright in color are all wonderful options for Midsummer. Make faux stained glass with crayons and wax paper or your own sun wheels out of thread and twigs. Sun-shaped salt dough ornaments, wreaths made of dried herbs, and wild grass crowns are all seasonally appropriate and easy to make. Sun catchers and crystals hung in windows can bring rainbow light into our homes as well as outdoor ritual spaces. Whenever making or purchasing items, consider their long term environmental impact and try to align your choices with your earth-centered and celebrating festivities.

Energize culture-changing movements. Midsummer is an excellent time to call in and store up energy for the coming months and into winter. You can be intentional with your energizing magick and help to direct it towards and store it up for culture-changing movements and protests. I like to turn protest signs into magickal objects, bless my street medic bag and supplies, as well as raise energy and store it into other charms and amulets that I use in my work for a more just and kind world. 

Practice the magick of generosity. At the longest day of the year, marking a season of abundance and the peak of growth before the First Harvest in a few weeks time, Midsummer is an opportunity to practice the magick of generosity. I love the sentiment expressed in Circle Round: Raising Children in Goddess Traditions: "The Goddess at Summer Solstice gives us not just what we need, but extra. We can feel close to her by being generous, giving more than we're asked to give, doing more than our fair share. That way we make abundance for all." Generosity comes in many forms, but consider the ways that it is built into your magickal and spiritual practice at Midsummer, vowing to continue to act in abundance in your life and the lives of others.

Built an altar to the Sacred Dreamer. There are different myths from around the world about the shift of power from the light to the dark. At Midsummer the light of the Sun is at its peak - but from here on out the dark and lunar energies begin to rise. Some folks work with the myth of the Oak and Holly Kings and their never ending battles (and if you have an opportunity to see a ritual battle it can be a lot of fun). My own traditions align with stories of holy isles and descents into the underworld, where we draw closer to the world of dreams. Again, quoting Circle Round, they speak of the transformation of the God, noting that "[e]verything and everyone who fulfills their purpose must change… Now he becomes the Dreamer, asleep in this world but awake in the world of dreams and visions, the seeds of what will come to be in this world. He becomes the Messenger, carrying our hopes and prayers to the spirit realms." The Sabbats are a time to remember that change is a holy and necessary thing, that we aren't always meant to be doing the same thing throughout the year, but growing and retreating, shifting and changing with the seasons. 

Cast spells with candles. An alternative - and much shorter - version of the might-do lists for the Sabbats would simply be "Every six weeks(ish), burn stuff." The tracking of light and dark along with the necessity of fire for warmth and in the preparation of food stuff shows up powerfully in different ways at each Sabbat. The two times of year that candles are especially essential to my magickal practice are at Imbolc and then again at Midsummer. Whether building a dream altar to light the way for the Sun to descend into the underworld, to more traditional pin and candle spells, using fire in our magick at Midsummer can be a powerful act of energetic alignment.

Create a beacon of light. Lighting bonfires on hilltops is an ancient tradition of Midsummer that is still carried on in some Celtic cultures. You can create your own beacon of light whether an actual candle burning in your window or a piece of art displayed in a way for others to see. Fires on the hill were/are a form of spiritual devotion but also connection and community-building. What sacred symbols do you want to see more of in the world around you? How do you move through the world as a person of sacredness? What are the beacons that you're wanting to see to help you know that you're not alone in the work of repairing the world? If you're looking for social justice and mutual aid oriented images, Just Seeds is always a great place to check out. You can charge up your beacon from sunrise to sunset on Midsummer day, infusing it with the holy constant of solar light.

Check out all of my might-do lists for the wheel of the year. Learn more about magickal practices for the season of summer or cast some cards for the Summer Solstice. Here’s a midsummer brew to try and you also might like the refreshing taste of swamp tea. Finally, here’s some more herbal lore on the magick of the Summer Solstice.

May your day be bright and abundant of blessings. May your heart shine like a bonfire guiding you from longest day to slow-growing night. May we all come together in the spirit of generosity, knowing that there is enough, committed to the change needed to create equitable and holy access, and dancing all the way home.

❤︎ This post was made possible through patron support. Thanks, friends. ❤︎

A Might-do List for Beltane

Beltane, known also as May Day, Lá Bealtaine, Calan Mai, marks the first day of summer. Cattle are moved to the summer pastures, the Good Folk venture forth from their wild places to join in the festivities of mortals, and the fertility of the fields is celebrated. Beltane acts as the summer gateway to winter's beginning at Samhain - both festivals are seen as times when the veil between the worlds is particularly thin. While Samhain emphasizes connection with our ancestors, especially those recently departed, Beltane is sometimes seen as a festival of connecting with the Good Folk (who some see as our most ancient ancestors having long ago traveled to the worlds beyond and between). At Beltane we celebrate pleasure and joy, especially as we experience it through the holiness of our physical form, relishing in our mortality and the ephemeral moments of connection, as well as remembering our ancient connections with the spirits of the land. Continuing a project started last Lughnasadh, here’s a list of nine things that you might-do (or not) for the merrymaking festival of Beltane.

Celebrate love in all its forms. Beltane is a festival tied to love in all of its forms. Romantic love! Platonic love! Love between family and friends! All the love! Make space in your ritual celebrations to honor and celebrate the many forms that love takes knowing that we need all of it in order to make the world into a more kind and more just place. It can be a very sweet practice whether as a family or in your coven to offer up what love you're celebrating and are grateful for as well as the ways you're going to keep nurturing and growing that love.

Give tokens of love. Creating and giving tokens of affection to those we love is a sweet and simple way to celebrate the energy of the season. These little objects of love - whether making a parent's favorite cookie recipe or presenting a child with a special stone to friendship bracelets or a bouquet of flowers - can also double as charms of peace and harmony to whoever you're giving them to. You can also send out letters of gratitude to those folks you know and may not know but who you appreciate and admire - Beltane is about seeing and being seen in all the ways we love.

If you're called to it, get handfasted. Beltane is the traditional time of year to take vows with romantic partners. The vows of a handfasting last for a year and a day upon which they are then renewed. These days many Pagans use the term handfasting interchangeably with marriage but the year-and-a-day practice still exists and is a very sweet one. A handfasting typically involves fastening the hands of those making the vow with ribbons, vines or cloth, demonstrating the weaving together of hearts and commitment to one another. Add additional traditional features to the rite by jumping over a bonfire and/or broom upon making your vows.

Wash your face with the dew of the early morning. The early dew of Beltane morning is supposed to be especially blessed and washing your face with it promises beauty and longevity for the year to come. I love this tradition and have been practicing it for years - it can be a very sweet and quiet way to start the day's festivities which are often much more raucous in nature. I also spend this time connecting with the Good Folk and the spirits of the land. 

Make a flower crown. Flower crowns are the sort of activity that can be adapted to all sorts of situations - you can spend the time in focused and quiet meditation, weaving together spells as you weave together flowers or it can be a time of singing and laughing, sharing food and drink. Flower crowns as Beltane can be kept and dried to be used as offerings to the fires of Midsummer. 

Dance, jump, and make merry!  Jump over bonfires and brooms for blessings of luck and protection all summer long. If you have a maypole, name every ribbon for a different form of love in the world and weave it together in unity as you dance. You can still bring in the energy of a maypole without one by making ribbon wind catchers or tie biodegradable cloth, yarn or thread to trees. It's traditional to bless cattle by steering them between two bonfires, but we can bless ourselves by doing the same, speaking prayers of thanksgiving for the animals of the world that we care for and rely upon. A local Druid group has an absolutely adorable tradition of handing out cow masks to the children and then having them run through two bonfires, mooing and cheering as they go.

Cast spells and rituals for creativity. In addition to a festival of celebrating love, Beltane is also a time of celebrating our creative potential and power. Rituals and spells to help support and nurture our creativity are auspicious and can be woven throughout the festivities of the day. You can focus on the fire aspect of the festival by performing a ritual full of candle and flame for sparking creative desire or call upon the five elements of Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit to help you find your creative flow in all aspects of your life. It can be a good day as well to bless all of the tools you use for your creative pursuits from sketchbooks to pens, paints and clay, cloth and thread, and whatever else you use.

Bless the holiness of your physical form. In the Charge of the Goddess, She tells Her followers that "all acts of love and pleasure" are Her rituals. Of course, there are many ways to feel and be and do love and pleasure, but there's a special place at Beltane to honor the physical form and how we experience pleasure through it. Modern Pagans, in general, are not focused on a promised life given to us after we leave our bodies, but rather in awakening to the holiness of the world within and around us as we live and breathe. Body blessings, workshops with your coven about physical pleasure, learning about, celebrating, and sharing sensory differences, are all ways of celebrating the physical form.

Honor the green spirits of the land and bring their energies to the protests. The season of Beltane is full of myths about the Green Ones who live in the woods and hills, coming down from the mountains or coming from lands of warmth bring summer to our celebrations. These are the Old Wild Ones who are more plant than person, often playing a trickster role in celebration. Robin Hood and Maid Marian are said to be early modern interpretations of the Green Man myth and their socialist, earth-centered visions are excellent energies to bring to May Day protests and celebrations for justice for working people.

Check out all of my might-do lists for the wheel of the year. I have a card spread for the season of Beltane and find more inspiration for summer magick over here. And here’s a tarot spread all about the heart featuring some traditional Beltane herbs.

May the fires of Beltane light up the season of abundance and harmony for you and your loved ones. May we stand with the Green and Wild Ones as we work for a more kind and more just world. And may you laugh like embers scattered across sky, lighting up the night with the joy of our being.

A Might-do List for the Spring Equinox

Ostara, known also as the Spring Equinox, the Vernal Equinox, and Alban Eilir, is the first official day of Spring. Just as there are three harvest festivals later in the year (Lughnasadh, Mabon, and Samhain), Ostara marks the second of three spring festivals landing in-between Imbolc and Beltane. The holiday is tied to the movement of the Sun, when the Sun enters 0° Aries and marks a point of equal night and equal day with the nights becoming shorter than days until the Autumn Equinox. It’s a time for celebrating the return of youth to the land and the retreat of winter back up into the mountains or deep below the earth. At Ostara we prepare ourselves, along with our homes and gardens, for the coming of warmer weather and the quickening of life across the land. Continuing a project started last Lughnasadh, here’s a list of nine things that you might-do (or not) for the greening festival of Ostara.

Spring cleaning in your home and community. Was this the most obvious suggestion? Yes, and it’s a good one. Following the cycles of nature and celebrating the wheel of the year is not just about filling up your calendar with celebrations (though this is a great thing), but connecting what is happening around us to what is happening within us. As we clean our homes, prepare our gardens, pick up trash in our neighborhoods or the parks and trails that we frequent, we are also participating in an inner cleansing and renewal where we’re preparing our spirits for spring. Make washing your floors and windows a ritual and include stewardship of the land into your ritual celebrations. In her book Earth Wisdom: A Heartwarming Mixture of the Spiritual, the Practical, and the Proactive, Glennie Kindred suggests going on a community walk to your ritual site or spring picnic, making sure to pick up trash along the way. She also suggests a lovely chant to tie your ritual work and community together:

Building bridges between our divisions,
I reach out to you as you reach out to me.
With all our voices and all of our visions,
Together we can make such a sweet harmony.
Together we can make such a sweet harmony.

Get to a local market. Farmer’s markets are opening again but there are all sorts of warmer weather festivals and fares happening. Get out and support your local community, re-connect with what is happening in your local world, and eat some spring berries while you’re at it.

Invoke the winds of change. In the part of the world that I live in as well as the one that many of the ancient beliefs of the modern wheel of the year comes from, March is a windy time of year. The winds of spring hold a certain sort of wildness that make them distinct from winter’s gales, summer’s sweet breezes or autumn’s gathering in storms. Connecting with these winds of change through spellwork like tying loose biodegradable threads to trees that carry your wishes to the Ancient Ones help us to bring our inner and outer worlds into balance. Invoke the winds of the season to blow through the land, bringing justice and kindness to all. 

Bring energy to new endeavors (and re-energize old ones). As Ostara marks the beginning of Aries season and the restart of the zodiac’s own turning, connect with the energetic and ambitious energies of the Ram by blessing new projects and endeavors. You can also re-invigorate old projects that still want doing, dancing with the newness of spring in order to guide you back to your inspiration. It can be a great time of year to build an altar to any endeavors you might have, feeding your vision with song, candles, incense, and other offerings relevant to your own tradition.

Bless young ones. As seeds bud up, baby animals emerge from winter burrows and new ones are being born, and trees begin to flower, Ostara is a celebration of youth and the young ones in our lives. Now is a lovely time to hold baby blessings as well as welcoming in littles ones into your spiritual community (i.e. a Wiccaning or similar such ritual). 

Create an altar of flowers. Speaking of young ones and the young at heart, creating altars and sacred designs made of flowers is a beautiful and tactile way to celebrate the start of spring. Flower crowns are also a beautiful way to celebrate and they can be kept, dried, and offered to the fires of Beltane. Don’t want to pick flowers? Then enjoy the altar of flowers that the earth has already made by being in bloom. For some, this is the first time of the year to comfortably hold rituals outside after many a month spent mostly indoors - so get outside!

Hold rituals of re-emergence + identity. There are a number of myths associated with the re-emergence of spring in the land from the Greek story of Persephone and Demeter to the tale of Brighid and the Callieach or the trial of Innana and Ereshkigal. One of the underlying meanings of these stories is that of stepping into new identities and the process of loss, coming out, and joyful empowerment these times of transition can represent. Now is an auspicious time to hold rituals of re-emergence (such as stepping back into power in your life) as well as celebrating new identities, coming out, and transitioning. 

Choose movement. Part of the holiness of our bodies is the amazing state of movement we are always in. Whether the movement of our blood through our bodies, the flow of oxygen to our cells or the constant electrical impulses helping to power movements both big and small, the movement of our bodies is a sign of life worthy of care and recognition. You don’t have to do anything fancy, join any gyms or online programs promising to change your life with their in-depth regimen or force yourself to push your body to your limits. Rather, the spring is a time to move with the flow of nature - stretching our bodies, breathing deep, and just choosing to move as we are called to do. 

Plant a garden (or at least cast a seedbomb). Whether you have a yard to plant in or a selection of pots with kitchen herbs growing on a windowsill, reconnecting with our very ancient impulse to purposefully seed the land and grow along with it is a very effective way to connect with the season of Ostara. If you are feeling inspired, buy or make some seedbombs to spread wildflowers in your yard or vacant dirt lots that might be hanging out around your city. Planting is an opportune time for spellwork, as well, and you can plant and grow your dreams along with your greens.

Check out all of my might-do lists for the wheel of the year. If you’re the card-casting type, here’s a tarot spread for the season of Ostara and for those of you who enjoy creating your own herbal remedies check out my recipe for spring dreaming. If you’re looking for an overview of spring magick, come this way.

May the winds of change bring all the inspiration you need to grow a life big enough for all your dreams. May we nurture our common roots and grow strong in our dreaming. May your spring be a full and blessed one.