This entry was originally published on Medium.com on January 29, 2023. I've continued to celebrate the seasonal changes and have made a new crown for each.
Snug in my cozy room, drinking chai and surrounded by dozing animals, I watch the snow fall outside my window and think what comfort the wheel of the year brings me, how glad I am to follow the natural path that humans followed for 99% of our history.
We’re in the last days of January 2023 as I write this, and winter’s beginning to wear on me, as I’m sure it is on so many of us in the Northern hemisphere. Although the days are getting longer, it’s also getting colder in some places, and it seems so long since the earth’s been properly thawed, or until it will be again. Hope can begin to fade as, like Persephone, we wait out our time in Hades.
It’s natural, then, that the pagan celebration of Imbolc falls on or around February 1 — it’s a cross-quarter day, an inflection point offered by the wheel of the year.
Cross-Quarter Days
One thing I love about the Wheel of the Year is that it includes the celebration of cross-quarter days, those days that fall at the midpoint between the seasonal changes.
In my personal life, they serve as reminders of the constancy of change — don’t cling, these days remind me. Whether I’m in the depths of despair or the heights of joy, change is coming. Life took on a certain ease once I accepted that.
Imbolc
While there’s not a documented throughline from the ancient celebrations of Imbolc to those celebrated by pagans today, that doesn’t trouble me. The implicit reality of the wheel of the year is what makes it sacred to me, as I know it did to my ancestors.
Just as nature dictates the moon and the tides, she dictates the solstices, she dictates the equinoxes. By observing these dates, we honor nature and align ourselves with the natural order. For me, it feels good and right.
As a person who’s struggled with Seasonal Affective Disorder since childhood, I find this alignment with the wheel of the year to be essential for my well-being. Without it, the long haul from “the holidays” to spring would be nearly unbearable.
If you haven’t already, I encourage you to consider incorporating some version of the wheel of the year into your life. You may be surprised at the comfort rethinking your conception of time can bring.
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