Others have seen what is and asked why
I have seen what could be and asked why not.
—Pablo Picasso
Creativity strikes us when we are least expecting it! If you'd have told me when I was first starting out that I would be drastically deviating from the neopagan wheel of the year I first learned, I would have called you a liar. I mean, that's the wheel of the year. But when the universe calls, it's important to slow down and listen.
Growing up, my family celebrated nearly any festival, holiday, and holy day that was printed on a calendar. My mom payed extra attention to saint feast days, and her favorite holidays were Christmas and Halloween (in that order). The decorations for any holiday would come out weeks in advance, and she would cook themed dinners. Still to this day I find myself traumatized after one particular Halloween when she decided to throw a “haunted house” in our driveway. She cooked spaghetti and put it in the fridge to cool. There was also a bowl of eyes, which I think may have been small hard-boiled eggs (or maybe peeled grapes?). All I know is that I ran screaming from my own house after my mother made me stick my hand in a bowl of spaghetti brains.
A few years back, I really started to analyze myself, my spirituality, why I did the things I did and believed in certain things. One of the elements I looked at the hardest was the wheel of the year. It didn't fit. Was I still obligated to use it to be a pagan or a witch? The answer is a resounding NO. This wheel was only created a little over sixty years ago, and you can deviate from it as much or as little as you'd like and still be a “real witch.”
When the English Wiccans decided to put their calendar together, they sourced most of their holidays from the Irish, Scottish, Welsh, and Germanic peoples. Not only did they take these holidays out of their original context with the original gods, but they gave no credit to the cultures and origins of the festivals, leaving many gaps in practice. It's taken many years for the wider pagan community to unravel the wheel and gain insight into the origins of the festivals.
There is one huge secret in modern paganism: you don't actually have to celebrate the festivals at the same time everyone else does. I personally don't celebrate most of the harvest festivals when the rest of the world does, because it doesn't make sense for the climate I live in. August 1 is the wheat harvest festival Lammas or Lughnasadh. South Florida is hot as hell in early August. We're not harvesting wheat here, and we certainly aren't baking bread. So this holiday is basically excluded from my wheel. Sometimes I do acknowledge it if I'm on vacation up north because it's fun, but otherwise it's not really a part of my practice.
The wheel you create is as flexible as you are! Some religious and spiritual holidays aren't superflexible—and celestial events aren't, either. (The solstice will always be on the solstice.) However, you get the freedom to choose when and how you will observe these traditions in your own practice. The wheel is ever turning, and it is as malleable as you are. Just because you decide something about your wheel today doesn't mean that you can't adjust it at a later date if need be.
When we first start building our wheel of the year and actually using it, it is really important to keep a written record. What festivals and celebrations have you partaken in, and would you do them again? Which parts were superfun and what made them so? Was it the schedule of events? The rituals you performed? The people you celebrated with? All of the above?
As we go through life, we are constantly taking in new information and shifting the way we handle things. If you discover new gods/goddesses along the way, or end up finding out things about your ancestry you didn't know previously, you're able to incorporate those elements into your wheel without much stress! When you move to a new place, you can either shift or create a whole new wheel that fits your new climate and routine. This allows you to have freedom not only in your practice but also in your personal life.
There are tons of pagan holidays outside of the eight that were picked to be on the wheel of the year. The exhaustive source Religious Holidays and Calendars lists thirty-one pagan holidays, not to mention tons of other festivals and holidays from any of the other religions. When you are creating your wheel, you are master of your ship. If you want to incorporate religious holidays from your culture, there is literally nothing that prevents you from doing that. Part of the reason that my wheel has twelve points instead of eight was so that I could incorporate other religious holy days into my wheel.
The best way to start creating your own wheel is to get a little crafty. Similar to how you might make a mood board (or a Pinterest board), you're going to make a board for your wheel of the year. You'll need some pictures, paper, scissors, and glue. I find that doing this by hand, rather than digitally, makes it feel more real when it comes time to actually build the wheel.
Starting with January, write down all of your thoughts related to that month. Then proceed through all the rest of the months.
Here's an example of what my list looks like, living in warm, humid South Florida:
January: mild weather, beaches, Art Deco festival, Valencia orange season begins
February: man-of-war fish, cool weather, food and wine, strawberry picking
March: Irish music, overcast, rainy, Miami Carnival, melon season begins
April: bright sunshine, hot but not humid, my birthday, tax time, blueberry season begins
May: hot, stressed, sun is bright but not obnoxious, mango season begins
June: rainy, hot, humid, avocado season begins
July: hot, humid, rainy, watermelon, good sunlight, plants can get injured in afternoon sun, fireworks, passion fruit season begins
August: hot, humid, don't go outside, grape season begins, Cotton Candy grapes at Publix
September: pre-Halloween, good afternoon sun, hot, squash season begins, tomatoes are growing
October: Halloween season, best light, books, navel orange season begins
November: daylight saving time, best light, early sunsets, dragonfruit season ends
December: cool, dry, blue-toned light, pomelo season begins
Once you've completed your list, add what you consider to be spiritual elements for each of the months. Below is an example of how I personally see the year, based on where I live and my personal life experience. I also like to assign an element that I relate to each month to make it easier to create spellwork and rituals. These elements change and shift through time, and location. I would expect that your elemental choices will look different than mine. Not only do I want that, I encourage you to make your own connections and truly take the reins in creating a wheel that works for you and your magick.
I tend to really notice the lighting during the year. It's not overcast where I live, it's not cold, there's no snow, and there's no death. There is literally no dormant season in Florida, and if anything, our winter is our most productive season. This is a time when you get to go through all of the holidays and festivals and see which ones align with how you view the year. Create a separate list in the same way as your spiritual notes and thoughts for the months of the year (here is mine for example):
Last, take note of any particular cultural traditions and established festivals you might want to incorporate. These can be secular, religious, spiritual, or even family-bound. If you want to hold a spiritual observance on September 11 every year as part of your calendar, you have the freedom to do so. Days of large-scale remembrance often come with a thinning of the veil, and I have no doubt that over time the American people have worn their veil thin on that day. Family events that may be added to your year of the witch can include birthdays, anniversaries, death days, recovery markers, etc. These days hold personal significance and when added to our wheels, allow us to maintain connections with our emotional needs as well as our spiritual ones.
Merging these ideas and concepts into one fluid wheel is the most exciting part of your craft. It does away with the pressure of doing things the “right” way when you first start. Creating a system that works for you allows the energy of your spirit and your ancestors' spirits to flow freely. Remember those pictures and magazines I talked about earlier? It's time to create a mood board. For each month, take a look at what you've described above. What are the characteristics you associate with each month? What do those characteristics look like? Give yourself free range to create a collage for each month. Use words, pictures, and your intuition to create your own piece of the year!
Taking a look at my wheel (in written form below), you can see that some of the modern pagan celebrations are not here: specifically Lughnasadh and Imbolc. To me, neither of these festivals really aligns with the nature I experience in a daily basis. Additionally, I observe three harvests specific to my climate: mango harvest, avocado harvest, and orange harvest. I have a mix of secular and religious holidays, and I observe the changing of hurricane season and “normal” season as my primary method of organization. My wheel also isn't a “circle,” but more of a tiered priority system. This is the wheel that works for me where I am in my life physically, mentally, and spiritually. Your chart will no doubt look different. Have fun filling it in and deciding when and how you want to celebrate it. Remember: there is no wrong way to be yourself!
TEMPERANCE'S WHEEL OF THE YEAR
Hurricane Season (June 1–November 30)
Avocado Harvest (May–June)
Mango Harvest (May–August)
Litha (summer solstice)
Mabon (autumn equinox)
Days of Mourning (September)
Yom Kippur (September–October)
Samhain (October–November)
Orange Harvest (November–April)
Not Hurricane Season (December 1–May 30)
Orange Harvest (November–April)
Yule (winter solstice)
Saint Valentine's Day (February 14)
Ostara (spring equinox)
My Birthday (April)
Shark Season (April)
Beltane (May 1)
After looking at my wheel, take a second to really evaluate the holidays that you plan to work with. Where do they fit in? Do they have their own independence, or are they tied to a larger season, like how mine are all tied to hurricane season? Hurricane season is a time of year with increased rainfall, so I like to pay reverence to the coming storm season.
If your wheel could look like anything, what would you have on it?
The last part of creating and crafting your own wheel of the year is creating seasonal traditions that you not only observe but fully invest in and pass down! When I was first married, I spent the Yule season at my in-laws' house. Every night, my mother-in-law sat down in front of the TV and created a beautiful needlepoint Christmas ornament. As it turns out, she had made one for every year that she had been married. The ornaments were all themed and reflected a major life event within their marriage or lives.
When I asked her about why she did this, she told me that when she was first married, she was given a book of traditions to start a new family. There were three that she kept, including the needlepointed ornaments, Thanksgiving Day bread, and Christmas bread. As a result of starting these new traditions, all of her children now incorporate them as well. Her daughters are all married, and each of them has started a family needlepoint ornament collection. Additionally, every child has learned the recipes for Thanksgiving Day bread and Christmas bread. Watching these traditions start in one generation and be passed down two generations showed me a level of stability and love that I hadn't experienced before. Passing down traditions from one generation to the next is how the love of all of our ancestors survives.
When you start a new family tradition, it can be as simple as saying, “We eat fresh baked bread on Lammas,” or as complex as taking twenty-five days to hand stitch an ornament for the Yule tree. The biggest catalyst for creating traditions and practices surrounding the wheel of the year was when I became pregnant. I had been living outside of the boundaries of “family” for over ten years at that point, having been orphaned as a child. I began to evaluate traditions and their importance to me and my growing family. What were things that I had done as a child that I could revamp now?
To me, the wheel of the year starts on Samhain, so that is where I started looking. I revived the family version of a dumb supper that I grew up knowing and loving. I moved into the orange harvest season next, which I have enjoyed incorporating into my yearly devotions. Where the north has apple picking, Florida has citrus U-Pick. Taking home bags of fresh oranges has its benefits—Pomander altar balls! Pomander balls are oranges that are covered with cloves in a decorative pattern. They are typically associated with the Yuletide season, and having picked them in November means I can make Pomander balls with my daughter for our seasonal altar to last through the season.
Growing up, Yuletide became a time when the hearth took priority in my home. If there weren't cookies in the oven, there was a pie or a cake. Nights were spent as a family watching old Christmas movies and reading books together. The value of Yuletide became presence—not presents.
Moving into the new calendar year, we observe the feast of Saint Valentine by cooking meals at home for each other.
During Ostara I drag my family and friends down to the local plant nursery to pick out the plants we want to grow through midsummer, and I'll occasionally pick up seeds for fall too. Planting seedlings in the garden allows for smaller children to be excited about creating and maintaining a small piece of the earth.
In April we celebrate birthdays, and welcome sharks to our waters. Sharks are a critical piece to the South Florida ocean life cycle, and I pray for their safety away from poachers. As the cycle starts again, I like to go to the beach and pick up trash that would otherwise end up in the ocean. I am devoted to a sea god, so I give my time in acts of service to try to help the health of my local waterways.
Each part of the wheel of the year has something small but significant that I do to reaffirm my devotion to my path. Being in ritual mode 24/7 isn't a sustainable or authentic practice for me, personally. I find that I am much more spiritually productive when I get time to be outside in nature creating and healing. Envision yourself during a harvest or holiday season when you want to start a tradition. What are you doing, and who is with you?