The Wheel of The Year

    Everything in nature has a cycle ‑ the sun rises each morning, climbs the skies to reach its highest point in the middle of the day, then descends back towards the horizon where it sets, and night begins. The natural cycle of nature is birth, growth, maturity, decay, death, rest, and then re‑birth. Each of the cycles of nature gives us a wheel within a wheel as we operate on our differing timescales – to a tree that has been around for hundreds of years we human beings must seem to come and go and scurry around the way mayflies come and go for us. 

    When, thousands of years ago, our planet was bombarded by showers of meteors and asteroids, part of the debris formed our moon and the Earth tilted. Its large size and close proximity means that our moon has a gravitational pull on our oceans, and a stabilizing effect on the atmosphere that surrounds our planet. Our planet is at just the right distance from the sun- any further away would be too cold, any nearer would mean that our life-giving oceans would turn to steam and evaporate. The spin of the Earth on its axis is what gives us our seasons, as different parts of our mother planet are nearest to the warmth of the sun at different times. Marking this changing pattern of the seasons in some meaningful manner is what makes up the traditional celebrations of the "Wheel of the Year".

    The old British and Celtic way was to begin each day at dusk ‑ which is why so many of our traditional celebrations take place on the night before the significant day ; for example May eve, and Halloween. Their attitude was that there is always darkness before light, and this is why the calendar of the Old Ways began with Samhain (the old name for Halloween) which celebrated the start of the lengthening nights of winter.

    The traditional names given to the eight points on the Wheel of the Year are a mix of Old-English and Celtic. The Wheel is made up of two four armed crosses overlaid -

The fire festivals -

Plus the solstices and equinoxes -

 The Wheel Turns

Beltane to Midsummer Solstice

 Autumn Equinox
Day and night are once again equal and the Autumn Equinox marks a time of going inwards as the nights grow longer. Nature begins to sleep and gestate its way through the colder months. It was once the time when the weakest animals would be slaughtered to provide food for the coming winter, with the strongest animals being kept to be fed ready to be bred from in the spring. The autumn harvest would be stored away as families would gather once again after being separated by duties in summer pasture land and the tending of summer crops. Celebrations would be held to bring the light indoors. Symbolic wooden candles that carried the light through the seasons would be replaced by real ones as the evenings grew darker. It was the beginning of a time of creativity, storytelling, and gatherings beside the hearth fires to weather the winter storms..

Samhain
'Samhain' comes from the old Celtic word meaning 'summers end'. According to legend the four Great Grandmothers of Halloween hold the four greatest treasures - the cauldron of rebirth, representing pleasure the stone of destiny, representing power; the sorceress's spear, representing courage; and the invincible sword, that represents knowledge. Samhain was regarded as one of the most important of the witches , sabbats, or gatherings. They would burn herbs, or make ointments, before going on visualisations, or flights. Halloween is still an important time for predictions and fortune telling. Dreams at this time are given more significance as omens of things to come. The veils between the world were thought to be at their thinnest at this time, with the dead visiting the living. Candles were left burning to light their souls on their way. Some were put in hollowed out turnips or pumpkins to scare off any mischievous spirits. In many countries celebrations are still held in graveyards. Masks and disguises were worn to keep people from harm. Halloween is a good time for reflecting on our own mortality, on the things we want to do and have left undone, and for congratulating ourselves on the things we have achieved.