How to Weave Your Intentions into the Wheel of the Year.
No matter where you come from in the World, your distant ancestors would have worked with the seasons and had to know what was happening in Nature in order to survive. There are lots of different variations of the ‘wheel of the year,’ but if your blood line stems from the British Isles you have more than likely come from the Celtic version.
The Celtic wheel of the year is an ancient calendar that contains 8 festivals, or sabbats as they are also known. They are all connected with the movement of the Sun and the seasons and are placed 6 to 7 weeks apart throughout the year. As Nature was so interwoven into our ancestors lives and knowing the signs and seasons was crucial, their spirituality grew from this and they honoured Mother Earth through celebrations and rituals.
The 8 sabbats of the Celtic wheel of the year.
Samhain is the Celtic new year and traditionally time to honour our ancestors.
Winter Solstice (Yule) is a time to celebrate the rebirth of the Sun.
Imbolc is where we may spot the first signs of Spring and is a time to welcome in hope.
Spring Equinox (Ostara) is where we see balance as the hours of light and dark are the same. A tipping point as we enter the lightest phase of the year.
Beltane is full of abundance as we see Nature begin to flourish once again.
Summer Solstice (Litha) is where we receive the peak of light from the Sun.
Lammas (Lughnasadh) is the time of the first harvest.
Autumn Equinox (Mabon) is where once again there is a balance of hours between light and dark. A tipping point as we enter the darker months.
I have been working with the Celtic wheel of the year a few years now and I love how it invites me to pause in my life and just take note of where I am and what is happening around me in Nature. I’m quite an active person who struggles with just being. For lots of different reasons, I have ‘doing is achieving’ ingrained in me so following the wheel has helped me to take some time out to ‘just be’. Having these 8 ‘markers’ in my diary has provided me with some much needed balance and I have found that my intentions have stayed more on track throughout the year. For example, even though I had been teaching Yoga for 9 years, I had never committed to a website. It was always something that I wanted but I allowed other things to get in the way. Last year, I decided enough was enough, I was going to bring this intention into reality and so I began. I spent the Winter Solstice dreaming in what this would look like and felt into what message I wanted it to send out. I went through the whole process, following the energies of the wheel of the year and by the Autumn Equinox, it was ready to launch.
The seasons provide us with energetic support when we come to forming our intentions. Winter is a time for rest, a time to go inward, a time to dream. During the darkest phase of the year, around the Winter Solstice, we can feel into our hearts and start to draw up from the depths which direction we feel called to move in, as our new year approaches. Unlike the 28 day lunar cycle, which I also work with for different reasons, the Celtic wheel of the year gives us more time to really consider what is right for us and it also gives us more time to see progress and to take steps in bringing our intention into reality.
With the arrival of Imbolc and the first stirring of Spring, we have the support to start to take action, to formulate a plan on how we are going to fulfil our intentions for the year. Then as the Sun begins to move towards balance of the Spring Equinox we can take a moment to assess our path and ask ourselves are we still in balance?
The energy then starts to ramp up as we move towards Beltane and Summer Solstice and we can make the use of more hours of light to pull out all the stops for our intention.
As the wheel turns and we move to Lammas and the Autumn Equinox, this invites us to take a look at what we have achieved so far, how is our harvest looking and what are we grateful for? Finally, we arrive back at Samhain and return any seeds of intention that haven’t grown into their full potential, back into the ground, where we can sleep and dream on them over the Winter months and maybe bring them forward again in the next cycle.
Working with the wheel of the year is flexible and manageable. There are a few days either side of the sabbat date where we can still work with the energy of the festival. There is no hierarchy or no one telling us to honour that point of the year in a certain way. We can go all out or we can make our nod to the sabbat subtle, making it work for us and doing what we feel is right. It has offered me anchor points throughout the year so I don’t get too swept up with life and it has helped me to deepen my connection with Nature and the land I live on. At this point in time, I feel this is pretty special and something we could all benefit from on some level.
Love & Light,
Natalie.