| My personal journey with the Wheel of the Year | | | | from that ceremony lasted for weeks. |
| began in 1988, with my soul's first deep longing cry | | | | In a large Summer Solstice celebration one year, I |
| for the voice of the Divine Feminine. That August I | | | | created a ceremony around abundance to honor one |
| had just moved from Los Angeles back to the land | | | | of the primary teachings of that season. One of the |
| of rain, trees, and family on the outskirts of Atlanta | | | | key elements I included in the ceremony was a fun |
| where I grew up. All of my early childhood church | | | | dance called an "a-bun-dance" to call abundance into |
| study and later metaphysical training up to that point | | | | our lives. We danced all night, activating abundance, |
| had only a Divine Masculine voice, and I ached for the | | | | and came away revitalized. |
| balance that could only be found when the richness | | | | The Wheel gradually took deep root in my life, and |
| of the feminine was included. | | | | as I worked with it personally I also began facilitating |
| As I searched for the Goddess, I grew frustrated | | | | it in workshops. Then a couple of years ago, when I |
| with celebrating religious holidays that I no longer | | | | was doing research for another subject, I made a |
| connected with. Books began to cross my path that | | | | key discovery. I found out that in ancient China, |
| spoke of the Wheel of the Year and I began | | | | people interested in observing nature placed a pole |
| working with those magical times. Eventually, a friend | | | | approximately 8-feet tall in the ground and measured |
| and I gathered a group of women together and we | | | | the amount of shadow and light created by the sun |
| created a ceremony for each of the Wheel points: | | | | over the course of a year. The resulting pattern |
| Winter Solstice, Imbolc, Spring Equinox, Beltane, | | | | from these measurements became one of their |
| Summer Solstice, Lughnasad, Autumnal Equinox, and | | | | most sacred symbols - the yin/yang. The sun actually |
| Samhain. Honoring the wheel in this way for the first | | | | creates the symbol in shadow and light over the |
| time actively opened me to a greater connection | | | | course of a year. While I knew the patterns of light |
| with nature and deeply anchored the wheel in my | | | | and dark changed, I had never seen it as so |
| psyche, enlivening it in my life. I began understanding | | | | balanced. You can see on the symbol the movement |
| the fluidity of holding a circular/wheel understanding | | | | of the sun as its most extreme dark time in the |
| of time rather than a strictly linear one, and the more | | | | Northern Hemisphere, Winter Solstice, brings forth |
| I worked with the Wheel, the more those revelations | | | | the light cycle and as the most extreme light time, |
| continued to show themselves to me. | | | | Summer Solstice, subtly gives birth to the dark part |
| One of the most potent inner transformations came | | | | of the cycle once again. Also, the yin/yang shows |
| as I began decorating my tree for Winter Solstice | | | | the two places where the light and the dark fall into |
| with a magical theme, instead of modeling it after the | | | | complete balance when the equinoxes occur. |
| décor matching trees of my youth. I brought | | | | Understanding where this powerful symbol of balance |
| in a living evergreen tree, which I would later plant in | | | | came from assisted me in more deeply understanding |
| my yard, as a symbol of the everlasting nature of | | | | the Wheel of the Year and how energies flow |
| the Goddess. I then connected each aspect of | | | | throughout the life cycle as well. The cycle of the |
| decorating my tree to what I wanted to create in | | | | Wheel and the cycle of life take the same journey-- |
| the growing year. I hung gold balls to represent the | | | | starting with the dark, fallow time in winter as the |
| sun, long strands of silver tinsel to represent rain, and | | | | earth rests and rejuvenates, moving to the gradual |
| pinecones and nuts to symbolize fertility in all my | | | | warming of the soil with the light of the sun until it |
| endeavors. I created ornaments with words such as | | | | heats enough for planting in the spring, then moving |
| love, creativity, and happiness and I tied little sparkly | | | | into the full brightness of light during the summer |
| bundles of money to the branches. My tree became | | | | growing time. Then, the light gradually recedes to the |
| a place of gratitude for the blessings found in my life | | | | fall harvest, and finally diminishes until the crops die |
| both at that moment and for the year ahead. | | | | and the earth settles in for its period of dark winter |
| My magic tree helped me to integrate my family of | | | | rejuvenation once again. For most of us, the cycle of |
| origin's celebration of Christmas into a time of year | | | | life follows this same pattern as we gestate in the |
| that we all could celebrate with more authenticity. I | | | | womb's darkness, are born and grow from childhood |
| started honoring the entire period from Winter | | | | into adulthood and then into our elder years, moving |
| Solstice through Christmas. I hosted a ceremony for | | | | on to our death and our next expression. |
| Winter Solstice and then enjoyed some of the | | | | The energy of the great wheel has shown me that |
| traditions of Christmas with my family. A few years | | | | too much light and outer world activity leaves little |
| later, I began holding Wheel of the Year ceremonies | | | | time for rest or quiet and burns out my system. A |
| and celebrations in my community. The first year, six | | | | busy external life requires balance found during the |
| people attended Winter Solstice. Now, 15 years later, | | | | darkness, the peaceful rest times. That quiet inner |
| this ceremony averages well over a hundred | | | | time creates the place where I am receptive to inner |
| attendees. | | | | voice of Spirit, and where the seeds of my desires |
| In the years that followed, on Imbolc, the cross | | | | are planted, developed, and grown. Working with the |
| quarter day between Winter Solstice and Spring | | | | Wheel, l have learned to appreciate the light and |
| Equinox, a group of friends and I conducted a | | | | bright times of life that bring me into the outer world |
| networking ceremony. At this seasonal time we | | | | for growth, joy, and creativity, as well as those |
| traditionally chose additional 'seeds' we wanted to | | | | times that take me deep into my inner darkness for |
| plant in our lives for the growing season, and we | | | | rejuvenation, and physical and emotional healing. I've |
| applied that to our professional lives. In our | | | | connected to my to my own yin and yang cycles, |
| ceremony, each of us spoke about our professions | | | | my inner balance and wholeness. |
| and shared business cards, with the intention of | | | | The light balances itself fully over the course of a |
| sowing a more abundant work season through | | | | year, with time for outer world growing activity, |
| networking for the upcoming growing cycle. | | | | harvest energy, and then time for deep reflection. As |
| One of the most memorable Spring Equinox | | | | Earth's seasons turn and change, I learned from |
| celebrations I co-created and participated in happened | | | | nature that my life follows this same rhythm of |
| with my first women's group. We focused our | | | | constant transformation. Sometimes the shift from |
| ceremony on honoring our child within. We brought | | | | one thing to another expresses in a subtle and |
| pictures of ourselves as children, made a bunny cake, | | | | gradual change and sometimes it is quick and |
| ate candy, blew bubbles, sang children's songs, and | | | | impactful. Yet the undercurrent of motion keeps the |
| laughed all evening. The upliftment we generated | | | | energy turning. |