How can I intentionally celebrate the changing of the seasons?
In 2020 I wrote a series of articles about the eight days in the wheel of the year and in 2021 I added eight meditations, one for each holiday. In this main post you can find all the relevant links as well as an explanation for why I believe there is value in intentionally celebrating the changing seasons.
This year I plan to collate inspirations on how to actually actively follow the wheel of the year for myself as well as others who might be interested. All suggestions should be seen as just that. Obviously they can be mixed and matched as well as added to according to your preferences.
Venturing outside
Since all this is basically about our connection with Nature, the first point of order is to go out and experience your surroundings with all your senses. I plan to choose one plant and record its changes throughout the year by taking photos and noting down any other impressions.
What do gardens in your area look like? What about the wilder areas? Which animals are present, which are just returning from far away countries, which ones are starting to leave again?
Gardening
If you have your own garden you are already connected to the change of the seasons and can include your impressions and experiences in the list. Even if you only have a balcony or a little space for some pots on your windowsill it is very valuable to follow the lives of a few plants throughout the year.
Meditating
Aside from my own there are countless other meditations out there, freely available and covering a broad range of interests and tastes. To me it feels instructive and therapeutic to sit in a relaxed state listening to questions that sound out my subconscious and inspire my phantasy.
Getting creative
Here you can revive all your favourite crafting techniques to create objects along the theme of the holiday in question. You might want to knit, crochet, do origami, potter, write stories or poems, whatever inspires you.
Listening to or making music
It is not only around Midwinter that we can find the appropriate kind of music. I have no idea what music classes were included in your primary school education but I remember singing a lot of songs around the agricultural year when I was a child. To this day, some of these songs bubble up and get stuck in my mind. Sometimes even at the right time of year. Even if we do not actively contribute to agriculture, theses songs touch something deep inside of me and connect me to my being human and to Nature.
In addition there are always classical pieces like Vivaldi‘s Four Seasons. Maybe you can even think of contemporary songs that express the theme of a special seasonal holiday. This is all about you feeling personally inspired and about this inspiration happening on as many sensory channels as possible.
Reading
Those of us who love reading might find poems, stories or even entire books with a meaningful link to a particular season. Reading those with intention may present us with new nuggets of wisdom or relevant quotes.
Asking questions
In my 2020 series of articles I listed seasonally and thematically relevant questions for each holiday. I will recap these and work out the relationships between them. If consulting an oracle is in your praxis, this is a good occasion to include that instead of just asking yourself the questions.
Focussing on your most important findings
This recent blog post describes my concept of a physical anchor to myself and the world. In the following months I will keep such a focus and use it to store the most meaningful objects resulting from my activities mentioned above. How exactly this focus wil look I am not sure right now. It will be a result of actual practice. There might be quotes, words or symbols that popped up during my work with the seasonal themes, any results from my crafting sessions and any messages from meditating and asking questions.
The first holiday of the year is going to be the 2nd of February. Shortly before that date I will blog the first post in this series and afterwards add all the others accordingly as well as list all the relevant links here and in the main post.
What about you?
How do you feel about the changing of the seasons? Do you feel there is meaning in consciously celebrating special days within the year?
List of days throughout the year:
2nd of February – Ready, steady…
20th of March: When the spring comes in
1st of May: A time to be merry
21st of June: Long slow summer days
1st of August: will be added
22nd of September: will be added
1st of November: will be added
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