The Wheel of The Year is a journey through the calendar year, a journey that pauses to witness, mark and celebrate the key points of the year. Times when the daylight is beginning to grow or decrease, times when the days are evenly balanced with night.

The Solstices and Equinoxes are gateways when we can pause and move into a new phase of the year, a time of reflection and conscious movement.

The other four festivals are at the cross-quarter points of the year. These were historically celebrated around the full moon rather than observing the journey of the sunlight.

So the dates of festivals of Imbolc, Beltane, Lammas and Samhain move, but tend to be around the beginning of February. May. August and November. They teach us of new beginnings, growth, culmination and decay. All of which are necessary phases in the Earth's cycle of growth.

We can learn much from nature's annual cycle. Marking death and decay is as important as marking new beginnings. Honouring where we have come from in the Autumn can re-engage us with those gifts that we have inherited from our ancestors that remain dormant and as yet unused. In the dark of the Winter we can re-connect with our inner light, re-kindle those aspects of ourselves that want to grow, so that when the day begin to draw out and the sun is reborn, we can sow with growing awareness those seed-intentions that we wish to grow in ourselves.

The Celtic Year is one of deepening connection with your local landscape, of walking mindfully, and with respect the local paths and woods. Meditation on the changes in the landscape can help you notice correlations between your inner landscape and the outer landscape. Tuning into the gifts of the Elements helps to increase awareness of those Elements in us, so that we can develop them further. Living the Wheel of The Year can wake up your relationship with the land and the elements.

Living the Wheel of the Year can also help you nurture your spiritual roots by bringing regular committment to your spiritual practice. It gives you the time, encouragement and structure to work with nature spirits and deepen your connection with Spirit. It helps you refine and define a practice that works for you. It helps bring greater awareness of the sacred and the extra-ordinary in the natural world. Furthermore, it brings you into contact with like-minded travellors who will share some of their experience and journey with you. It is both a solitary and collective journey that we tread.Times are exciting and the crossroads at which we meet varied. We have this new virtual medium that can help us connect, and we can meet and walk the local woods together in gratitude. I look forward to our meeting and sharing something of our journey together soon.

In the meantime .....

'May the road rise with you

May the wind be always at your back

May the rain fall softly on your fields

May the warm sun shine gently on your face

Until we meet again, may the Goddess hold you

In the hollow of her hand'

Celtic Blessing