Returning to the rhythm of the Wheel of the Year

So many people we speak to on our travels say how hard it is to find time for a regular spiritual practice.
Life is busy. There are constant demands on our time, and it can feel almost impossible to shift into a quiet space where we can connect with something deeper.

Once we find some space, we struggle to settle our minds and focus. Our devices pull our attention, and we lose hours on social media or YouTube rather than spending time on things that really nourish us.
Sound familiar? If it does, read on.

If this is your experience, I can really empathise. Years ago, I had a stressful corporate job and very little free time. I had to be really careful to schedule time out just for me and my spiritual practice. More recently, just a few years ago, having left that career, I noticed that although I had more time now, I was choosing to spend it in ways that pulled my focus away from what really mattered to me: on my phone or watching box sets.

It can feel as though our world is set up to distract us from the things that really matter, to keep us away from the very things we know would be good for us.

So how do you find time for a spiritual practice?

I can only share my own experience, and the approach I took by following what felt right deep inside. Had I not discovered this path, I often wonder where I might be now, because it led me to a very different life.

I believe, right to the core of me, that many of the solutions we are looking for lie in the old ways, in the beliefs and spiritual practices of our ancestors, who lived in a very different world, close to the earth, and in deep relationship with nature and the Otherworlds.

Divine dreaming

Let me begin by sharing a dream I had almost ten years ago.

Pan came to me… well, through me.

Pan is a Greek god. He is also, to me, an embodiment of one of the most recognisable ancient gods of this land: the Green Man, the force behind growth, vitality, and the greening of nature.

In my dream, Pan jumped right into me, and his words came out of my mouth.

Pan reminded me of nature's transformative energies, and that when I align inner work with the unfolding transformation in the outer world, great things have happened in my life.

The inner and the outer

When I say 'inner,' I mean the changes I have needed to make within myself to be different in the world and to create a different kind of life.

When I say ‘outer’ energies, I mean the shifts taking place in nature as we move through the year.

These changes are impossible not to notice, because they affect us so deeply and influence how we live.

So, if we struggle to find time for a spiritual practice, why not begin by aligning ourselves with what is happening outside our windows? It is a great place to start, and surprisingly easy to weave into a busy life.

This may be familiar territory for many of our regular blog readers, but I want to go back to the beginning. If you are already familiar with the Celtic festivals, feel free to skip ahead. Otherwise, read on.

The Celtic Wheel of the Year

One of the many things I love about aligning with nature’s cycles is that every six weeks or so there is a new energy, a new focus, and a new celebration.

I first came across this around twenty years ago. I was on a hen weekend in Keswick and had some time to myself before meeting friends, so I wandered into a bookshop and found myself browsing the Mind, Body and Spirit section. I was drawn to a thick book about working with the Wheel of the Year.

It was divided into eight sections and included the Celtic name of each celebration, the energy of that time of year, and ideas for marking it. I was hooked immediately.

I loved the idea of dividing the year into eight parts and following the seasons. I also loved that each point held an ancient festival, because by then I had already begun to sense that the Christian festivals of Christmas and Easter overlaid something much older and more rooted in this land.

To create the Wheel, first draw a line between the shortest day of the year, the Winter Solstice, and the longest day of the year, the Summer Solstice. Then draw a second line at a right angle to this. These points mark the Autumn and Spring Equinoxes, dividing the year into four quarters.

Then draw an X across the centre point.

This gives us the four cross-quarter festivals: Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh or Lammas and Samhain.

Imbolc lies between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox

Beltane lies between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstic

Lughnasadh or Lammas lies between the Summer Solstice and the Autumn Equinox

Samhain lies between the Autumn Equinox and the Winter Solstice

Overlay the two crosses and you have the Wheel of the Year, with all eight Sabbats.

Working with the Wheel

In Western culture, many of our holidays are already rooted in key points on the Wheel. Christmas marks the rebirth of the light, and is celebrated as the birth of Christ, the son of God. Easter is tied to the first full moon after the Equinox. We have May Day which is our Beltane, and we have Halloween which is our Samhain.

I will not go into detail on each of these ancient festivals here, as there is far too much to cover in one blog.

What I would like to do is share why I find this practice so enriching.

Working with the Wheel takes very little time for all the benefits it brings.

Firstly, it gives structure to the year. Every six weeks or so there is a focal point that calls me to pause and step out of ordinary day-to-day life for a moment.

Secondly, each festival carries a different energy. At the Winter Solstice, in the depths of winter, we are reminded to be still, which is something especially welcome at what can be the busiest time of year. At Beltane, as the trees come into leaf and everything greens up, we are surrounded by energies of growth and abundance. These outer energies are perfect to draw on for our own inner transformation.

Thirdly, it helps me join in with what is happening in nature around me. So many of us long to connect more deeply with the natural world, and aligning our own cycle with nature’s cycle is such a simple and powerful way to begin.

Fourthly, it helps me notice the subtler changes taking place all around me. I do not need a calendar to tell me that the light has shifted and the days are lengthening at Imbolc, or that I can smell autumn in the air around Lammas. If I listen carefully, I hear the great tits change their song just a few days after the Winter Solstice, and I love spotting the first daffodils heralding the approach of the Spring Equinox.

And finally, celebrating the Sabbats is something I can do with others. There is something very special about gathering to mark these turning points in the year, knowing that our distant ancestors would have done the same.

As Beltane approaches

Right now, as I write this blog, the next turn in the wheel is approaching, which is Beltane. This is one of the two festivals that mark the great transitions in nature: winter to summer. The other is Samhain, at the end of October, which marks the end of summer and the start of winter.

Of all the old Celtic festivals, Beltane is the one that intrigues me the most. It does not sit within the Christian calendar in the same way as some of the others, and so has not been preserved through religion. And yet the old customs remain.

Up and down the country, you will still find festivals that celebrate the Green Man and maypole dances symbolising the intertwining of male and female energies in an ancient fertility ritual.

Many years ago, I used to attend the Beltane festival in the village of Clun in Shropshire, where there was an enactment of a battle between the Ice Queen and the Green Man, with the Green Man victorious and winter officially brought to an end.

The old traditions run deep because this time of year carries a bone-deep memory within us. Celebrating this festival was important to our ancestors, and so for this reason it is important to me.

The Way of the Buzzard wheel of the year celebrations

Finding ways to mark each turning of the wheel brought me firmly onto the earth spirituality path. It led me to seek out others to celebrate with. This led me to meet Jason and to embark on training as a shamanic practitioner. Together we set up The Way of the Buzzard, and one of the first things we did was hold wheel of the year celebrations in village halls and at stone circles around the northwest of England.

Almost fifteen years on, we are still holding gatherings throughout the year, both online and out and about. We have found that this practice is the perfect antidote to the busyness of modern life.

It gives us an opportunity to pause, reflect on where we are, and notice what our hopes are for the coming months.

We are celebrating each of the Celtic festivals online this year, and we are especially excited about our Beltane gathering next Monday, 27th April at 7pm (UK time). Come and join us, and invite your friends too, as it is free for everyone.

Through Jason’s new Earthlight film, Spring in the Green, we will be bringing the energy of our own stomping ground into your living room. The film was shot here in the Silverdale and Arnside Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in north Lancashire.

Jason has spent the past week out in the woodlands and meadows around our home, capturing footage and listening for the message the land has for us. The theme he has been given is Spring in the Green: Nature, Nurture & Nourishment, something that feels very much needed by so many people right now in this topsy-turvy world.

Then, a few days later, we will be heading to the woods for the May Day bank holiday weekend with 150 like-minded travellers for the jewel in our year: Space to Emerge.

It takes place in a bluebell woodland rising from the banks of Lake Windermere in the Lake District, where together we step out of the usual pace of life and spend time in a setting that supports real rest, reflection and reconnection.

If you would like to find out more about either of these events, follow the links below.

Working with the Wheel of the Year is such an easy and rewarding practice. It helps you align your life with nature’s cycles and slow down to a more natural pace. Every six or seven weeks, there is a new festival to acknowledge, a new invitation to pause, and a new energy to work with.

However you choose to mark this next turn of the Wheel, Beltane, we wish you a deeply connected and special time.

Links to Our Beltane Events