WHAT SORCERY IS THIS?
The Celtic Wheel of the Year is an ancient calendar that follows the changes in nature and celebrates through 8 festivities (also known as Sabbat) the everlasting connection with Nature and Mother Earth.
SABBAT (8 FESTIVITIES)
We are most familiar with the main events of the year that are the big sabbat: Ostara (Spring Equinox), Litha (Summer Solstice), Mabon (Autumn Equinox) and Yule (Winter Solstice). In between these main festivities are Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh (or Lammas) and Samhain (also known as Halloween).
Each Sabbat has a specific symbolism and celebrates a particular moment of mother nature.
Details of the Wheel of the year
SYMBOLISM OF THE WHEEL OF THE YEAR
Although I knew of it, it isn’t until 2020 that I really became interested in this way of connecting with nature and its cycles. And as with everything that I connect with, I have to create art of it :) It’s my way to integrate a teaching.
Each year, nature goes through its cycle and expresses its power in different forms through the seasons. In pagan culture, each change was celebrated and thanked for the gifts that where given.
It is an endless celebration of (re)birth, life and death, in other words what we celebrate is transformation. Un eternal cycle between light and darkness.
And as everything that is external to us, we can find it also internally. We can find this cycle of birth, life and death in ourselves, whether it’s a project, a relationship, a thought, or quite literally how our time on earth is lived.
The cycle of the Wheel of the year is also connected with the Goddess and its different expression: Maiden, Mother, Crone. A woman’s body follows a same cycle of transformation and can be connected with the symbolism of Spring – (Maiden) – Summer – (Mother) - Autumn – (Crone) - Winter. And this occurs during a lifetime but also with our beautiful hormonal cycle of 28 days.
But why is it important to let the teachings of the Wheel of the Year into our lives? Here are 5 reasons why connecting with it would be beneficial for your life.
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YOUR DAILY TO-DO LISTS ARE TOO LONG
In everyday life, we are used to have very long to-do lists and the struggle to keep up is constant. It feels like, there isn’t any resting time left to recharge our batteries because tomorrow we have to start again.
It seems like we have separate ourselves from nature and are living a life-rhythm that isn't suited for a human experience. It seems like society is asking from us to be in a constant “Spring-Summer” vibe of productivity with a busy social life (light) but also with lots of things to do. What the ancient practices teach us is that everything needs rest and interiority to recharge and just sleep, like “Autumn-Winter”. But we don’t have to wait that Autumn is here in order to rest, no, no. We can use the knowledge of the cycles in our daily life and understand what is the time in the day that we just aren’t able to function and respect our inner “time” to rest. Though difficult to adapt to the times that are fixed by society, this is a way of understanding our cycles and create the life that we want.
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YOU FEEL “DISCONNECTED” FROM EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE
Do you have the feeling sometimes that you’re alone in this world? That you can’t share your struggles with anyone and that you’re feeling disconnected to everything and everyone? Disconnection is a coping mechanism that “helps” you cope with maybe a feeling of futility of life. I’m not a psychologist and therefore I won’t go into details, but I’m sure lots of us use this mechanism to retract and just not feel the heavy burdens of everyday life.
I feel that having an understanding of the Wheel of the Year, helped me reconnect with my body, my heart and my mind and their needs. But more than that, I felt a connection with all that is surrounding me again and with time and dedication, I felt less alone because I felt that I was part of something bigger than what I could see in front of my eyes.
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“STRESS” AND “ANXIETY” ARE YOUR MIDDLE NAMES
When I feel stressed and anxious, I feel that it’s an indication that I’m spiralling and that I need to ground myself. A part from useful practices such as yoga or meditation that are always welcome for grounding and dissipate stress and anxiety, I feel that in those moments I lack a sense of Ritual in my life. Rituals can have many forms, such as a bath each Friday night, for example. You have to find the ones that suit you and that speak to you and work into your life. When I spiral into stress and anxiety, I disconnect from my needs and it takes me a while to come back to them. But having the knowledge that I’m a cyclical being and trying to understand my needs brings me back to Connection. I ask myself, in which time of the wheel am I? And when I find the answer, I determine what kind of little simple Ritual could bring me back to my ground.
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YOU FEEL THE NEED TO (RE)CONNECT MORE TO NATURE
Walks in nature are a godsend to feel connected and are the number one recommendation when it comes to a need to (re)connect to Mother Earth. Though, if you’re like me, maybe daily walks aren’t always possible and maybe a forest or a mountain aren’t near your home. So, what about creating an inner, permanent connection with nature? Studying and practicing the teachings of the Wheel of the Year is a good way to bring nature into your daily practices and re(discover) your inner connection to nature’s cycles is a perfect way to be your own source of happiness :)
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YOU FEEL THE NEED TO RECONNECT WITH THE BEAUTY OF LIFE (AND YOUR INNER BEAUTY)
You are a beautiful being and life in itself is beautiful but the system in which we were born in doesn’t always shows us that. We do, we work, we plan, we stress, we must do, we must be. And so, we forget the beauty of life and therefore the beauty that we all are.
I promise that, with connecting to the cycles of life and let them nurture you, you will feel a powerful thrive toward a renewed self-love. Because, you’ll have the certainty that you are an important part of something big and beautiful that is Mother Earth and the entire Universe at large.
BONUS REASON: YOU ARE CALLED TO A DEEPER MEANING OF LIFE
And if anything from the above points applies to you, maybe you are simply called to a deeper meaning of life. The Wheel of the Year is a powerful tool to always have at hand, but it can also be perceived as the entry tool to begin your journey to understand (or try to understand) the meaning of life, the meaning of YOUR life. It can be used to connect with your incarnation, with the physical aspect of life, but when you keep going deeper, and you start to meet the goddesses and archetypes that are connected to different phases of this beautiful cycle that is life, you will have opened a door that opens other doors, and other doors… Good luck to you my friend, the journey has only just begun! :)
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