The Wheel of the Year is a Pagan metaphor and calendar for the cycle of the seasons. It consists of eight festivals, known as sabbats, spaced at approximately even intervals throughout the year.In many forms of Paganism, the passing of time is seen as cyclical, and is represented by a circle or wheel. The progression of birth, life, decline and death, as experienced in human lives, is echoed in the progression of the seasons. Many Pagans also see this cycle as echoing the life, death and rebirth of the God and the fertility of the Goddess.
As the Wheel originates in the Northern Hemisphere, in the Southern Hemisphere most Pagans advance these dates six months so as to coincide with the natural seasons as they occur in their local climates. For instance, an Australian Pagan may celebrate Beltane on the 1st of November, when a Northern Hemisphere Pagan is celebrating Samhain.
The Pagan Wheel of the Year turns through many significant dates and festivals. The highlights are the eight seasonal Sabbats, and the thirteen Esbats which we celebrate each Full Moon.
The Sabbats are divided into two groups. The Greater Sabbats; Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane and Lammas, fall on dates that represent high energy in the season. The Lesser Sabbats; Yule, Ostara, Litha and Mabon, fall on the equinoxes and solstices, the dates of which vary slightly from year to year, and they mark the changes of the four seasons. The Greater Sabbats are also known as the "cross-quarter" days as they mark the point between the solstice and the equinox.
This seasonal cycle is one of the key ways in which we see the processes of birth, growth, death, and rebirth play themselves out, and the myth of the Wheel of the Year was created to illustrate this cycle.
There are many variations of the myth throughout the different Pagan Traditions but the underlying theme is the same, and the rituals of the Sabbats are derived from this myth. A simplified version is given below:
In midwinter, the Goddess gives birth to a son, the God, who grows to adolescence by spring. In spring, the Goddess appears to the God in a youthful form. She falls pregnant to him and grows in beauty through summer and autumn. Over the same time, the God ages and slowly dies, symbolizing winter. In the darkest time, when the days are at their shortest, the Goddess gives birth to her son, the God, whom she will again take as a lover in spring, continuing the life cycle or spiral.
In this myth the Triple Goddess goes through the changing aspects of Maiden, Mother, and Crone. The God brings forth the force of projective energy, the Spark of Life, and also the withdrawing and destructive energy of Death. The Goddess absorbs, reflects and transforms these energies. The Goddess and God are viewed as immortal and imperishable; they are the Duality of the Divine. Their different aspects are a symbolic shifting of cycles, ones we discover within ourselves, our World and throughout our own lives. This is the process that produces balance; within and without, above and below....READ MORE...