Happy Earth Day, Hermanas!

A year ago I launched this blog in time for earth day, and with my first real post, I offered a challenge to help save the planet in a bunch of small ways. This year, I want to offer a new challenge for anyone interested in trying it. This year the challenge is to tune in, and connect to the energies of the Earth. Does that sound strange? Keep reading.

This Earth Day, I’d like to introduce anyone not yet in the know, to the Wheel of the Year.

I first learned about the Wheel of the Year as a young teen when I was exploring pagan religions from the back rows of my public library. Noticing that these pagan holidays aligned with a lot of the religious and cultural holidays that I’d already been celebrating, my curiosity was piqued.

As I sought more information, I quickly found that many pre-christian agrarian societies followed a similar cycle of celebrations, generally based around agricultural cycles. While many of these holidays had theistic leanings or associations with various deities or mythology, they could also be boiled down to very straight forward, and fairly secular themes.

When I stripped away the dogma, the wheel of the year became a structure that fit naturally into my life. Living my life in motion with the Earth has also helped to deepen my connection to life and the natural cycles that connect all living things: Plants, Animals, and People.

What is it?

The Wheel of the Year is a calendar that depicts one solar rotation separated into eight points. These eight points are celebrations of each season, and they typically align with the quarter and cross-quarter days of the year.

The solstices and equinoxes mark the quarter days, and the half-way dates between those quarters are the cross-quarter days. These celebrations align with many modern holidays because so many of our mainstream religions stem from sun veneration.

Rather than go into all of the religious lore, I’ll give you a brief introduction to each seasonal celebration from a completely secular standpoint, this way you can practice tuning into the energy of each season over the course of the next year.

The secular approach is more universal in my opinion, and allows us to integrate the Wheel of the Year into our lives without having to contradict any established cultural or spiritual traditions.

While it may sound like this guide is ripped from a farmers almanac while you’re reading it, please keep in mind that in our modern lives, our harvest cycles have to do with our personal growth. Our crop is full of life lessons and defining experiences. Our processes to cultivate these lessons and experiences translate directly to our growth and expansion through them.

Winter Solstice (20-25 December)

The Winter Solstice is a celebration of the birth of the Sun. That sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

This seasonal celebration marks the halfway point in the darker half of the year. We celebrate the symbolic birth of the sun because after this day, which is the shortest day and longest night of the whole year, the days get incrementally longer.

On this day we recognize that despite the long winter that is still ahead of us, the light will return to our lives. In the meantime, we gather around with our families to create warmth that will last through the winter.

The Winter Solstice is a great time to prepare for the coldest period in our yearly cycle on a practical level. Make sure your home is properly winterized and that you have the supplies that you’ll need for the winter. Spiritually, it is also the perfect time to reflect upon the growth you’ve seen in the past year, and to begin dreaming up what you’d like to see sprout in the year ahead.

Mid-Winter or February’s Eve (1-2 February)

Mid-Winter is a seasonal celebration of the promise of spring. Because we are in the depths of winter, the mere memory of spring is what keeps us going. In anticipation for springtime, Midwinter is a great time for purification and cleansing. Get a head start on your spring cleaning. Get rid of the winter hoard to make room for what will bloom or bear fruit in the spring and summer months.

During this time, I like to revisit my new-years resolutions. Often, this means re-committing to the changes I’d like to make for the year ahead. Sometimes it means I’ll need to write off or revise some of the more impractical resolutions that I have not kept up with. This is a time to plant seeds. Spring is on the way, Mid-winter is your chance to celebrate the winter coming to an end, and a chance to prepare for the season of fertility and rebirth.

Vernal Equinox (20-23 March)

The Vernal Equinox, like the solstice, is a quarter day in the Wheel of the Year. Unlike the solstices, an equinox marks the exact moment when the sun crosses the celestial equator, when the day and night are equal lengths. The Vernal Equinox, also called the Spring Equinox, is a seasonal celebration of spring.

The celebration of spring is an inherent celebration of fertility as well. This becomes obvious as we see the resurrection of life on our planet. You may recognize the obvious symbols surrounding Easter, such as rabbits and eggs which were adapted from pagan observances of the springtime and what it represents. There are also themes of re-balancing and overcoming our shadow as the darkness and light become equals again, with the light on the rise as we move towards the summer.

In addition to that energy, the Vernal Equinox means it’s time to back up your plans for growth and change with actions. Rebirth yourself into the new season, and transform into your spring intentions. Sprout your own new growth alongside the saplings and hatchlings that are so representative of the spring season.

Mid-Summer or May Day (30 April-1 May)

Mid-Summer is the celebration of the Earth in her full glory. It’s an observance of the power of life in its fullness. On this day we honor the greening of the world, flourishing in its youthfulness. This is also an extension of the celebration carried over from spring, as the Earth enters the peak of her fertility.

The energy of the earth around Mid-summer is abundant and full of love. This is a great time to recognize the love and abundance within your own life. While this celebration can look like a simple inward reflection of gratitude, this day is also an invitation to express your love and abundance outwardly by smiling, laughing or dancing. Mid-summer is a wonderful opportunity to be alive, and to revel in your joy.

Summer Solstice (20-22 June)

The Summer Solstice is opposite on the Wheel of the Year to the Winter Solstice. This celebration marks the halfway point in the light half of the year. On this day, the longest day and shortest night of the whole year, the sun is at its full power. After the Summer Solstice, the days get incrementally shorter, as we move into the season of harvest.

The Summer Solstice, much like the Winter Solstice, is an important point on the Wheel of the Year, because it highlights a major turning point in the seasons. We’re celebrating the energy of growth and abundance, while recognizing the shift towards the darker half of the year. It is a simultaneous honoring of the sun, and an awareness and acceptance of the impermanence of the season.

First Harvest or August Eve (1 August)

The First Harvest is the celebration of another transition. This time, we transition from the end of summer into the beginnings of fall. It is an acknowledgement of the sacrifices made by the sun. As the sun lends its power to ripen our crops, he appears to weaken as we move relentlessly toward the season of darkness once again.

This is a great time to gather with family or friends, celebrating and enjoying the last days of summer. Take in your last big gulps of the ripe summer air before things begin to crisp up and slow down. It’s time to enjoy and appreciate the bounty brought in with the summer, and prepare to reap what we’ve sown. The season of introspection is on its way.

Autumnal Equinox (20-23 September)

The Autumnal Equinox is essentially pagan Thanksgiving. The general energy of this celebration is gratitude. As we harvest the blessings brought on by summer, we are called to reflect upon and appreciate them. To symbolize and honor the sharing of this bounty, this is a great time to hold a feast.

With the Autumnal Equinox, we are celebrating the arrival of the fall season. Again the sun crosses the celestial equator, and the day and night are equal lengths. As we move into the season of darkness, we also prepare for a period of introspection.

Halloween or November’s Eve (31 October)

Halloween is probably one of the larger cultural celebrations in the US, but in terms of the Wheel of the Year, it is so much more than candy and costumes. At this point in the year, we are in the depths of the dark season. The days are getting progressively shorter, and the nights grow longer. This is when the earth begins to fall dormant. We shake away our dead leaves, letting that which no longer serves us fall away.

During this time, we are called to look around at the death that surrounds us. Our final harvest is complete, and we’re storing energy to get us through the coming winter season.

This is a perfect time to honor our dead, and to reflect upon our own relationship to death and the dead. Some call this time the “thinning of the veil,” because during this season, it is said that our dead are closer to us than ever. This seasonal celebration is an acknowledgement of death’s part in the cycles of life. During this time, we recognize that death is a transition of energy, more than it is an end.

In the southern hemisphere, people are celebrating the rebirth and resurrection themes of the spring equinox, and this fact helps us to see that life and death are two sides to the same coin. Death may be rebirth into a new existence, we will never know for sure.

One thing that we can be certain of during this season, is an understanding that death makes way for new life, and birth is the very first step we take towards our death. These themes are intrinsically connected. This season is a reminder of this link, and an opportunity to reconnect with the loved ones that we’ve lost.

A Spinning Wheel

The Wheel of the Year is an endless cycle. We transition from November’s Eve back into the Winter Solstice, and the cycle keeps repeating.

Now that I’ve offered a brief idea of the different energy and themes of each season, I hope that this will help someone out there to move through the Earth’s cycles alongside her. You may find that you are already doing this unconsciously, because our society was built off of an agricultural framework, we’ve just moved our attention further away from those processes as they’ve grown more industrial and cruel, and unsightly factory farming practices become the norm.

Much like last year, this challenge is meant to be about exploring how the small changes can add up, or ignite an even bigger change over time. A years worth of introspection is a lot to ask, but each of these celebrations can be observed on a small scale. That’s how I started.

I first observed the Wheel of the Year in silence, with just a few moments of mindfulness and intention added into my established holiday rituals. My observance of the Wheel of the Year has grown each year, and has even begun to eclipse some of my older holiday practices, especially those which were closely tied to my former religion.

Each year my understanding of the Wheel of the Year deepens, and how I practice these celebrations grows and changes. The point is to move in rhythm with the earth, harmonizing your life with nature.

For anyone interested in more information about the Wheel of the Year, I might create posts breaking down each seasonal celebration in greater detail, or sharing their history and lore in greater depth another time. Let me know if that’s something you’d like to see. The information is out there, and it is endlessly interesting, so don’t be afraid to go exploring on your own.

Until my next post, I’m wishing you the reader a Happy Earth Day, a Happy Earth Year, and hopefully, eventually, a Happy Earth Life.