The Lazy Pagan?
The Wheel of the Year is a collective, modern representation of the various seasonal festivals celebrated by many pagan faiths, and is a mish-mash of various cultural and religious influences, primarily Gaelic, Celtic and Germanic in nature but with more ‘herbs and spices’ provided by other cultures than you can shake a broomstick at, all tossed into the melting pot of the dreaded term “neo-paganism”, and given a quick stir, before being whisked out and stretched over a framework for easy reference.
To follow ‘the turning of the Wheel’ is to celebrate the changing seasons, the various high- and holy-days of the pagan calendar, and/or the strengthening of various deities as they reach their peak influence, and you’ll see from the Wheel that they’re spaced quite regularly – roughly every 6 or 7 weeks. This means that, as the Wheel turns, there’s always something to be doing through the year – a celebration approaching, something to plan for and work towards within the faith, even if you’re not always entirely sure of the influence of a particular festival on your modern lifestyle…
For those people who take part in group celebrations, preparation for the next festival can start very quickly after the last one has finished, primarily because organising pagans is rather akin to the proverbial herding of cats, and getting such ‘free spirits’ into an organised and regimented collective, focused on a common goal can be time-consuming, frustrating and potentially fruitless endeavour, if there’s no solid commitment – but at least the next sabbat doesn’t come as a surprise to most, given it’s only 6 weeks away from the last one. For a solitary celebrant, the Wheel can provide the bones on which to hang their own personal code and beliefs, and to guide what is important to them and their own faith and spirituality, the highs and lows that they can celebrate within their own lives, and provide guidance, balance and structure to what can be a very ‘laissez faire’ set of spiritual experiences.
Now, the Wheel of the Year looks something like this (for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere - for those in the Southern Hemisphere, there's usually a bit of tweaking with the settings required, adjusting by 6 months give or take, so that the seasons line up correctly)...
However, I’ve always felt like something of a ‘lazy pagan’, because quite a few of the festivals didn’t resonate with my personal beliefs, or with my urban, city lifestyle, given they were originally rooted in more rural, agrarian times, where we lived off the land, rather than out of the supermarket…consequently, my Wheel of the Year is rather lopsided, looking more like this…
With two of the three harvest festivals gone (does anyone else remember those bizarre harvest festivals at school, where you had to rummage about at the back of the cupboards to find some pre-war tins of peaches and evaporated milk, which were then proudly displayed in the school hall in a large pile, before presumably being shipped off to the needy?! Although whoever was needy enough to need pre-decimalisation cocoa powder and bordering-on-out-of-date tuna, we never actually found out…) and also the first of the spring festivals (because having a touch of the OCDs, I’m busily spring cleaning at the first sign of a bit of a change in the weather that lets you get the windows open without risking hypothermia, so I don’t have time to be buggering about, worrying about whether lambs are getting enough milk!), it certainly looks a bit skew-wif, but it contains all the elements that I need for my year:-
The Vernal Equinox/Ostara – because all the good pagan boys and girls get their chocolate eggs today! And Hares! And finally getting the feeling that Winter is letting go and colour is coming back into the world. Out with the cold, in with the…okay, so it’s still cold, but you’ll chance a day without a coat and opt instead for a body warmer and a scarf, before realising that you’ve jumped the gun and it will be another 6 weeks before you risk going back out without at least 3 layers on, and a hot water bottle strapped to your tummy.
Beltane – because, you know, rumpy…who doesn’t love a good go round the maypole?! And the smell of the hawthorn in bloom…and while I may not have any cattle to drive between bonfires, I’ve leapt the flames myself and found it a very liberating experience! It’s a great time to celebrate fertility – not just the ‘count the number of legs and divide by two’ kind of fertility, but the opportunity for nurturing growth, imagination, and giving birth to new ideas and new opportunities.
The Summer Solstice – because now it’s warm enough to sit out in a beer garden or outside a coffee shop without risking frostbite…that, and I have a set of very fond memories of celebrating the Solstice at Glastonbury Tor, with the sun being drummed down over the horizon, and then welcomed back the following morning with more drumming, lots of dancing around, some lovely hot earl grey tea and digestive biscuits, the Glastonbury mists, a microlight aircraft, and a mahoosive breakfast (not necessarily in that order!).
Samhain – the ‘thinning of the veil’, and celebrating memories of our friends and family members who have crossed over. It’s quieter and more introspective than the commercialised Hallowe’en that it’s become, and just allows me to reconnect and remember my roots and where I came from, and to refocus on the year ahead…and usually the point in my year when I’ll do readings for myself for the coming year.
The Winter Solstice – because I love gift wrapping (with a passion!), and sharing the Yule season with my family and friends!
I’m certainly never at a loss for things to do, things to be thankful for, and opportunities to ‘sharpen the saw’ when it comes to my Tarot work…but my wonky Wheel of the Year certainly provides me with opportunities for expression and celebration that might otherwise just be spent curled up with a good book and mug of tea. Maybe I’m a lazy pagan…maybe I’m just a pagan with a small p rather than a capitalised, 365-days-a-year Pagan…or maybe what my faith means to me has been moulded by my experiences over the years into something that’s personal, relevant and rewarding to me, without it feeling as if it’s been shaped by a cookie-cutter on a factory conveyor belt.
What opportunities do you take for celebration and introspection in your year? How do you mark your progress and track the year? How do you measure the turning of the Wheel? How does your faith enrich your Tarot practice? I’d love to hear your thoughts and your experiences!
