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 the Autumn Equinox

The Autumn Equinox, known also as Mabon, Alban Elfed, Ingathering, and Harvest Home, for a variety of Pagans, it’s a beautiful celebration of the end of the most abundant point of the harvest season. Continuing a project started at Lughnasadh, here’s list of nine things that you might-do (or not) for the Autumn Equinox and the season of Mabon.

Go apple-picking. The Second Harvest is also known as the Apple Harvest and some of my favorite years spent celebrating the season have been when I’m apple to go picking apples. And cutting an apple lengthwise to reveal the pentagram within is a very fun sort of magick. If apple picking isn’t available in your area, celebrate with other seasonal fruits.

Have a festive meal with friends and family. Getting together for celebratory harvest feast with your friends and family is a wonderful way to celebrate the start of Fall. The Second Harvest of the season is sometimes called Harvest Home and for many Pagans, myself included, it’s the choice time of year to hold a big friends and family feast. It’s also a time to be aware of and address the fact that we live in a world where there is enough food to eat but not everyone gets access to the table. Events like Pagan Pride in September gather food and supplies in order to support community members in need and you can spend time (perhaps after your Autumn cleaning), donating goods to local shelters. Even better, get involved with local efforts to create long-term sustainable support for folks struggling with homelessness and the many issues that intersect with it.

Perform a tree blessing. Honor the trees that surround you with a blessing. Whether through song, incense, water or other earth-friendly biodegradable offerings, honor the trees which shade us, provide food and shelter, oxygenate our air, and contain the wisdom of the ages. Get involved with local and global tree conservation efforts as a way to live your gratitude.

Cast a spell for community resiliency. Work local magick for your local community. Whether performed in your backyard, bedroom altar or local sacred site, in a rising tide of global misinformation and conflict, working spells of peace for our neighborhoods is powerful stuff.

Rebalance your days and nights. As the Equinox is an equal point between day and night, so we can look at our lives and assess where we need more balance. Whether that’s clearing extra activities from our schedule, going to bed or rising earlier, choosing to step into our lives and out of our screens more, 

Autumn cleaning. While spring cleaning is a more well-known practice, it’s just as important to clean up and clear out before the cold settles in. It can be a time of pulling out warmer clothes (including donated extra clothing to charities and shelters), making sure the house is winter weather ready, and energetically shifting the space to support you in the dark of the year.

Attend Pagan Pride! September is the month of Pagan Pride celebrations. It’s a great way to connect with community, attend public rituals outside of your tradition, donate goods to local charities, and generally have a good time. 

Cut cords. It’s an auspicious time of year from now til Samhain to cut the cords that bind you and entangle you to people, places, and ideas that no longer serve you. While I use the terminology “cutting cords” it’s a similar energetic practice to uncrossing work, a taking off or receiving a limpia and other culturally specific cleansing practices. All of this energetically aligns with the ebbing energy between now and the Third Harvest - where we cut away what is no longer necessary in our life and choose only to carry with us we love and need as we go to meet our ancestors between the worlds.

Study + practice ancestral traditions. Speaking of ancestors, it’s a beautiful time of year to spend in study and practice of ancestral traditions. An ancestral English custom for late September was singing and shouting at the end of harvest, decorating the home with boughs of grain, and transforming the last standing sheaf in the field as the cailleac, a corn dolly that would be kept in a place of honor until the spring season of planting. Learning of our ancestral heritage (and I speak of this in the broad sense of biology, culture, and spiritual ancestors), is one way that we open up lines of communication with our ancestors. We reverberate the web with our curiosity and the web sings back. 

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Our next might-do list is going to be all about the season of Samhain. Looking for even more magick for Mabon? Check out my Autumn Equinox tarot spread as well as healing and magickal practices for the fall. You can also check out the rest of my might-do lists.

Friends, may the season of Mabon bring you closer to the ones you love and the abundance of a joyful harvest.

Witchcraft + Weeds : Healing + Magickal Practices for Autumn

The Autumn Equinox acts as the hinge of a door, where we swing from the bright half to the dark half of the year.

Known by many names such as Mabon, Alban Elfed, the Feast of Avalon, Winter Finding, the Second Harvest, and Witches’ Thanksgiving, the Autumn Equinox is an opportunity to give thanks for the abundance of the year and prepare for the slower months of winter.

The air has started to turn cooler and the leaves paint their faces red, orange, and yellow as they prepare to descend to earth. In September, I begin to pull out my knitted clothing and find myself preparing heartier meals as well as teas full of berries and roots. During the later months of autumn, especially between Samhain and the Winter Solstice, I pay attention to the movements of the land spirits and the migratory patterns of the Wild Hunt, setting out offerings and lit candles for both. 

The Autumn Equinox marks the turn of the wheel from the healing mutable earth sign of Virgo to the harmonizing cardinal air sign of Libra. The bright and bold energy of summer laughs and tumbles with joyful exhaustion to the cool embrace of fall. There is a necessary period of reassessment as we organize for autumn and winter after the more lax period of the summer. But it’s not an excuse to get so tightly wound that we forget about the pleasure of the season and growing dark. Spend time not only preparing your home for the healing embrace of dark, but your body, too. Drink nutritive teas, eat healing and hearty stews, and add spice into your diet to support your inner digestive fire.

Weeds

Body System Focus : Skin + Nervous System
or Give Thanks + Rebalance

Within the four elements system of traditional western herbalism (I write more about TWH energetics over here), the season of autumn alchemizes fire into earth or heat into cooling dryness. Our bodies are awoken from the languid repose of heat into a sharpening crispness in the air. The summer is over and we are in the midst of harvest season. It's time to shift our focus from the outward growing of the summer to the gathering-in of resources in the autumn. Make warming stews full of herbal and vegetable roots. Integrate oily herbs into your daily routine to nourish your nervous system and protect your skin from the inside out. The plant allies of the Autumn season help us to get grounded as the winds of the season rush around us. Many of the weeds of the season are hearty berries and roots which restore the nervous system and balance the landscape of the skin. If you’re struggling to get grounded and find your flow this autumn, check out the healing ways of Virgo.

While our foraging opportunities grow smaller as the days grow colder and darker, there are still some amazing herbal allies to connect with. While the trees and bushes are losing their leaves, what remains are bright antioxidant rich berries sharply accented against grey skies. The energy of the fields that were full of green herbs in the spring and summer have now gone down below into the ready-to-harvest roots. Enjoying foraged weeds as food and medicine is an amazing way to connect with the season and practice self-care. If you want to learn more about the healing properties of weeds, I highly recommend checking out The Wise Wisdom of Weeds: 13 Essential Plants for Human Survival by Katrina Blair.

Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) : The red berries of the Hawthorn bush glow bright as the light fades and the skies grow heavy with clouds. Hawthorn is one of the first herbs many Traditional Western Herbalists turn to for supporting cardiovascular health. The herb nourishes and feeds the heart working best as a long-term tonic (i.e. multiple months of use if not longer). In other words, Hawthorn is a cardiac tophorestorative - which is a restorative tonic for the heart - bringing the hard working muscle back into balance whether from an illness, stress, or the affects of aging. One of the folk names for Hawthorn is “hagthorn” reminding us of the plants long connection with hags, witches, and otherworldly womxn that we can choose to connect with as the veil thins towards Samhain.

Burdock (Arctium lappa) : A wonderful blood purifier and kidney detoxifier that pulls waste from the cellular level, Burdock is an excellent ally to work with throughout autumn and winter. Because Burdock is so cleansing, it is of benefit to combine it with diuretic herbs (such as Dandelion Taraxacum officinalis) to help flush out the system. It's consider an oily herb in traditional western herbalism, which means it helps with dried out conditions as well as lubricate the nervous system and other passageways of the body. The internal cleansing that Burdock brings about manifests externally, too, helping to alleviate skin problems such as acne and eczema. The herb supports a healthy immune system and has historical use as an ally during times of dire illness such as leprosy and cancer.  

Goldenrod (Solidago virgaurea) : Every season needs a good bitter herb and Goldenrod delivers. The bitter flavor of a plant lets us know that it is good for the digestion, helping us to absorb nutrients and eliminate waste. Goldenrod is indicated when there is a runny nose, watery eyes, and a state of uncomfortable damp. Sinus and ear infections can be helped with the cooling and anti-inflammatory herb. The plant is also a wonderful topical remedy for sore muscles and inflammation. 

Rose Hips (Rosa spp.) : Another flash of bright red in the landscape, Rose Hips are wonderful allies in keeping us healthy during the cold months of the year. Rose Hips have one of the highest concentrations of vitamin C found in a herb - about 1700–2000 mgs per 100 dried grams. The herb also helps with digestion and elimination, which is especially useful as we switch over to heartier food. Since they are cooling, Rose Hips are also useful in reducing fevers and their astringency helps with runny noses and other symptoms of colds. They are an excellent addition to convalescent brews and, being Rose, they are also helpful in all matters of the heart. 

Elder (Sambucus nigra) : The deep purple berries of the Elder are a welcome sight during the autumn. As humxns we’ve had a long relationship with the Elder Mother who has been cultivated since the stone age. It is one of the fastest-acting immune herbs that I’ve experienced and my absolute favorite for preventing and reducing the length of colds and the ‘flu. Since they are so high in antioxidants, Elder berries also protect against oxidative stress and can be used over a long period of time to restore a body to balance and health. The plant is under the guardianship of Venus (especially when the energies of the planet manifest as a Crone) and is an excellent ally to working with the sign of Libra. 

Dahlia Flower Essence : If you are someone who struggles with the growing dark and feel increasingly weary and sad during the cold months of the year, Dahlia might be a good ally for you. The essence helps us to reconnect with happiness from a place of resiliency, placing aside the expectations of how we and others think we should be and stepping into a more optimistic and confident expression of our self.

Witchcraft

Autumn is a time of gathering in energies after the exuberance of summer. It’s time to put to good use what you’ve learned so far this year and stretch your magickal muscles. Try out new magickal techniques or dust off old ones to try again with renewed focus. The days are growing shorter and the veil is becoming thinner. Spend time connecting with your ancestors and those that have gone before you. Remember that you, too, will be an ancestor one day - what is the legacy that you are leaving behind? It’s time to practice your magick from a place of sovereignty and confidence. Below I’ve listed three paths of autumn magick that I practice to help me connect with the energies of the season.

3 Paths of Autumn Magick

Clearing Out : We clear out stagnant energy so that we may be renewed again at the coming new year at Samhain. Rituals include all forms of purification and cleansing magick for yourself as well as your home and belongings; burn clearing incense such as Juniper (Juniperus communis), Hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis), and Copal (Bursera odorata), followed by herbs that bring in energies and qualities that you desire (such as Rose (Rosa spp.) for love or Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) for psychic gifts); hex-breaking baths and charms; cleansing and aligning your energy centers; grounding and centering meditations; divination to help you discover what needs cleansing or letting go of; clean and organize your house; renew the energies of your altar; pay attention to and release negative self-talk that doesn’t serve you; let go of relationships that don’t affirm and celebrate who you are.

Clearing Out Meditation : In a comfortable position, visualize a warm red glow descending from above towards you and emerging up from below you. The red energy flows throughout your dislodging and removing stagnant energy. Next, visualize a orange light coming from above and below to flow through your body with its gentle cleansing glow. Continue in this manner with the following colors: yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. When all seven colors have moved through your body and aura take a deep breath in and visualize the colors settling around you like a protective circle. 

Giving Thanks : We give thanks in order to recognize and celebrate the abundance in our lives, honoring the people, places, and opportunities that have been of benefit to us. Rituals include ones of gratitude and giving back. Write that letter, email, text or pick up the phone and call the person who deserves your thanks and gratitude; light a candle or hearthfire and name the multiple streams of abundance in your life whether it’s a job, comfortable housing, the technology to access the internet, clean water, good food, family and friends, the ancestors who insured your ability to exist, and more; invite friends and family over for a thanks and gratitude community potluck (aka Witch’s Thanksgiving); donate time and money to a local community cause from food kitchens to animal shelters, community gardens and youth programs; recognize the ways that you don’t celebrate abundance in your life and work to shift your perspective; create an abundance branch in your home to hang above your altar with ribbons, leaves, and other objects with what you’re grateful for written on them; give offerings to the land spirits, the ancestors traveling the land, and honor the Wild Hunt who helps lost spirits find their way home to peace and rest.

Giving Thanks Meditation : Get cozy and draw your attention to your heartbeat. We are shaped by the sounds of hearts beating - first the one we felt in the womb and then our own. If you can be grateful for nothing else, choose to be grateful for the heart beating in your chest, which give you life and possibility. Taking a deep breath in and guided by your heartbeat, think or say out loud, “I am thankful for…” and notice what comes up for you. You might think “I am thankful for…” and an image of your garden shows up in your mind. Hold your hands over you heart and say or think, “I am thankful for my garden.” Continue in this fashion for however long you like. Just before you’re done, say, “I am grateful for those things I have not remembered and honor them still." Finally, raise your arms to the sky and say “I am uplifted by my gratefulness.” Touch the ground (or reach towards the ground) and say, “I am grounded by my gratefulness.” Finish by placing your hands over your heart and saying, “I am centered by my gratefulness.”

Going Deep : We draw our energy inwards into our own depths so that we might better know the roots of who we are and where our power emerges from. Rituals include ones that evoke deeply meditative states and direct your energy to the underworld; trance and journeywork to the underworld and the realm of the ancestors; ancestral rituals and honoring, including setting out an extra plate at meal times and leaving a bowl of water (changed regularly) on your altar; performing shadow work and soul alignment work; seeking out therapeutic support (such as EMDR) for processing past traumas that prevent you from calling all parts of yourself home; soul retrieval rituals; working with Sage, Crone, and Elder God/dess/es; learning how to scry; doing grief and sorrow magick; allowing yourself to mourn for that which has been lost, including mourning the current state of affairs in the world; take time to sit in the dark without any source of light; spend a day and night in silence.

Going Deep Meditation : Go to a dark space. Wear loose, dark clothing. Lie down and place a heavy rock or weighted pillow or something similar on your belly. This is the anchor which draws you down into the depths. Bring yourself into a meditative space and then visualize a staircase below you. Walk down the steps slowly. When you reach the bottom notice what is there - this will offer you insight into what you keep hidden from the world yet is a significant part of you. Find the dark pool of water - it may appear suddenly, it may be hidden. Gaze into the pool of water, asking to be shown a message of wisdom from your deep self. When all has been seen, give thanks, and return up the staircase to your body. Remove the stone from your belly, giving it a kiss to thank the earth for giving you form, and then perform a grounding and centering of your choice.

Hot Cocoa Contentment Charm

This time of the year is not just about doing depth magick, but autumn is also a time of gathering in for the purpose of getting cozy and comfortable. The spring and summer are busy and energetically outward driven times of the year, so when autumn finally arrives it can feel so good to put on our oversized sweater and curl up with a good book. And you know what would make that scene even better - a hot drink to enjoy. The Hot Cocoa Contentment Charm will help you brew up some contentment to help you settle back into your body and magickal practice with comfort and ease. It’s a get charm to do after a house cleansing or any time you need to help settle the energy in your self and your home.

For this ritual you’ll need your favorite hot cocoa mix (you can try one of mine if you like), your mug of choice, and a bit of peace and quiet. Cacao (Theobroma cacao) or chocolate is a great messenger plant - it delivers the message of whatever charm you’re using it for to it’s desired location. In this instance, Cacao is helping us distribute a sense of contentment within ourselves and our home. 

Brew you cocoa and as you do, chant the following charm while stirring it:

One bird,
One toad,
One serpent,
One hare,
Each bring four blessings
To my brew here
Of peace,
Of ease,
Of love,
Of pleasure,
So I may know
the joy of leisure.

Go room to room in your home with your cup full of hot cocoa saying each time:

Contentment is delivered to this place
I now dwell in a peaceful space

In the final room to be blessed, and the one where you are planning on getting cozy and drinking your hot cocoa, end your charm by saying “Blessed Be!” three times.

Tell me about your favorite magickal and healing practices for autumn in the comments below. Check out my recipes and herbs for the autumn season as well as a tarot season to help you connect to the energies of fall.

Balancing : An Autumn Equinox Spread

The Autumnal Equinox (or Mabon as it has become popularly known because of the works of Aidan Kelly) is the second harvest of the wheel of the year in many a modern Pagan tradition.  Astronomically speaking, it is when the center of the Sun is matched to the Earth’s axis which means that day and night are of equal length for that time period. We are firmly in the season of descent and the darkening year and the Autumnal Equinox is a time to gather together for a harvest feast, to take stock of what we have worked for all year and what will support us through the winter. Our Autumnal Equinox Spread examines the need for balance and the preparation for descent as well as honoring the harvest by both giving and receiving.

1. INHALE.  What are you breathing in? What are the sources of your vital energy during the season of the second harvest? This card may point to balances or imbalances in consumption of food, time, stress, sleep, and other day-today activities.

2. EXHALE.  What are you breathing out? What are you shedding and undoing – how are you clearing your own body its harvest work in order to allow for the strengthening fallowness of winter to take root?

3. DESCENT.  How are you preparing for the descent to Samhain?

4. GUIDE.  Tools of the journey. These may be skills to use or guide(s) to build relationships with to help you navigate the descent to the realm of the Ancestors.

5. HARVEST STORE.  What have you harvested this season – how has your hard work of the previous year manifested itself?

6. HARVEST GIFTS.  What abundance of harvest do you have to share (or should share) with others? This may be new skills or insights learned from your previous year’s work. It also may be a reminder to repay the debts you owe others.

7. BALANCING OUT.  What needs to be balanced by expanding your energy outwards?

8. BALANCING IN.  What needs to be balanced by retracting your energy inwards?

For my southern hemisphere folks, check out my Brightening: A Spring Equinox Spread.

Looking for more magickally inspired Tarot spreads?

You're invited to peruse my tarot + divination series. Or do you want to learn about herbalism and tarot? Check out The Tarot Apothecary. Find all the tarot spreads in my Wheel of the Year series via the links below:

• Hallowing: Samhain Spread

• Darkest Night: Winter Solstice Spread

• Quickening: Imbolc Spread

• Brightening: Spring Equinox Spread

• Fire + Fields: Beltane Spread

• Bonfire Offerings: Summer Solstice Spread

• First Harvest: Lammas

• Balancing: Autumn Equinox Spread

Find more magick for your season of Mabon over here. Wishing you and yours a festive harvest full of abundance and merriment!

design by Alexis J. Cunningfolk | background by James Wilkinson