Wheel of the Year

wheel of year

Wiccans celebrate eight seasonal festivals of the solar year, generally called the Wheel of the Year. These eight "Sabbats" are ritualized in various myths of Goddess and God, as they correlate with the cycles of Earth and Sun in the ever-changing agricultural cycle. The eight-fold cycle of the Sabbats is a cycle of birth, death and rebirth. From its myths, and from our living within the cycles of Nature, we see the inevitability of change, the power of transformation and the promise that out of the death that is change, renewal will come. The illustration shows a sequential meaning for each turn of the Wheel of the Year, as it correlates with the agricultural cycle and with the meanings for each phase of the eight-fold cycle as defined by astrological philosopher Dane Rudhyar in his book, The Lunation Cycle. It was Rudhyar's insights that inspired my work in developing sequential rituals for the Sabbats in my book, The Witch's Circle.