How the Wheel of the Year changed my life.

My own practice of connecting with the Wheel of the Year has had a profound effect on my life. For as long as I can remember, I was a sufferer of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), spending months at a time feeling depressed and inert, disconnecting from family and friends, my creativity and from Nature.

When I began to consciously to connect with the eight festivals of the Wheel, it changed my whole state of being. Suddenly the dark winter months, didn’t seem so interminably long.

When I started to see myself as a reflection of Nature, I understood that in the autumn after the harvest, when the trees lose their leaves and the sap returns to the heartwood, it was ok for me too, to have less energy and to take time to go within. Time to reflect on what I had harvested that year as I moved into the winter months.

In the dark time of the year, life is still unfolding under the surface. Seeds are being nurtured and held by the Earth, until the time comes for them to germinate when the light returns and so too with us.

Just seven weeks after Samhain (Hallow’een) is the festival of the Winter Solstice – the return of the light. Slowly the days begin to get longer, the buds start to come on the trees and the bulbs emerge from the dark of the earth. We can start to plan and think about what seeds of intention we want to sow for the coming year..

Just 6 weeks later, it is Imbolc, meaning “in the belly”. The belly of the earth, as the first day of Spring signals a waking up, early  lambs are suckling their mother’s milk and some birds are even thinking of nesting!

Seven weeks on it is the Spring Equinox, light and dark are balanced, all over the world! We feel the rising of the sap. The trees have been blossoming for weeks, the birds are nesting, there are early vegetables available to eat in the garden. Nature is providing her own abundant plate of food for foragers: cleansing teas from nettles, cleavers, dandelion and chickweed. we can feel the possibilities for the year ahead!

Six weeks later it is Beltane…………in another seven weeks it is Summer Solstice…….six weeks after that, Lammas, the first of three Harvest festivals……sevens weeks later the Autumn Equinox and then six weeks on we start all over again with Samhain, the Wheel of the year has completed it turn!