The cycle of life

The Wheel of the Year is a continuing cycle of life, death and rebirth. Thus the Wheel reflects both the natural passage of life, as well as revealing our connection with the greater world. All of creation is divine and by realising how we are connected to the natural world, we come to a deeper understanding to the ways in which we are connected to the God and Goddess.

Undoubtedly the significance of the Festivals has changed over the centuries, and it is very difficult for us today to imagine the joy and relief that must have accompanied the successful grain harvest.  What with factory-farming, fast freezing and world wide distribution, our lives no longer depend upon such things and as a consequence, our respect for the land has diminished in proportion to our personal contact with it.

What is of the utmost importance with the Wheel of the Year is that we understand what we hope to achieve through our festival celebrations, and avoid the trap of going through empty motions, repeating words from a book which may sound dramatic, but have no relevance in our everyday lives.  That simply leads to the creation of a dogma, and not a living breathing religion.  It is not enough to stand in a circle on a specific day, and “invoke’ forces of nature, those forces are currents which flow continuously through- out our lives, not just eight times a year, and if we choose not to acknowledge them in our everyday lives, there is no point in calling upon them for one day.

Although modern lifestyles do not encourage awareness of our personal relationship with the turning seasons does not mean that they no longer exist.  The ebb and flow of the Earth’s energies may be hidden beneath a physical shell of tarmac and concrete, and a psychic one of human indifference, but they are evertheless there for those who wish to acknowledge them once more.

From Book of Shadows