The Great Wheel of the Year
Wiccans see nature as a cycle embodying the polarity of deity, and this is no more clearly expressed than in their ideas of the interweaving of female and male forces in the Wheel of the Year. For Wiccans, the Goddess is personified by the Earth and the Moon. She is the eternal Great Mother who creates all life from the Elemental Forces of which she is composed. Green and fresh in the spring, magnificent and powerful in the summer, she has her repose in the latter half of the year where she dresses in more somber shades of brown and grey.
As the Goddess Luna she is the silver, shape shifting Queen of the Heavens governing the tidal forces, as well as the monthly and nightly cycles of life on our planet. The God is embodied in the Sun who travels over the sky in his great chariot of flame. At full power in midsummer, he provides the Goddess Earth with the energy to grow strong. From this point he gradually loses ground until he finally dies after the autumn equinox. Born again in midwinter, he grows and climbs through the early months of the year, to eventually rise triumphant and fertilize the Goddess around the spring equinox. He governs the annular cycles of life and the rhythms of our days.
Some Witches have added to these basics, where they have introduced an Oak and a Holly King [2] that help to express the interplay between solar energy and Mother Earth. The Oak King rules the waxing part of the year from midwinter to midsummer, whilst the Holly King rules the waning part of the year from midsummer to midwinter.
The two compete for the attentions of the Goddess as the seasons ebb and flow, and have been incorporated into rituals marking the various stations of the year. The seasonal cycles and the parts played by the Goddess and God are celebrated in the Greater and Lesser.
However, as we shall see, the Goddess and the God are not only thought of as the embodiment of the Earth, Moon and the Sun.
Polarity and sexuality
“We are all spun on the wheel of the Goddess and it is the God who spins the wheel...”
In the battle of the sexes, which should have precedence? The God is all Men… The Goddess is all Women… But if the myths tell us anything, it is that they do not exist alone.
The wheel of the year speaks a tale of how the God and Goddess relate, one to the other - and how their interplay weaves the web of life that sustains us all. The light is born from the darkness of Her womb, grows to blaze at His zenith, then sinks back into the darkness of Death - knowing that He will find rebirth once more within Her. The Moon and the Sun weave an intricate love-chase across the sky throughout the year, as the stars revolve around them both. She weaves an enchantment of brightness and shadow around herself every month - and for love of Her He sacrifices first His seed and then Himself.
The one cannot be without the other: Without the Goddess, the God can not be born - without the God, the Goddess is barren. It is not their independence but their union that gives life.
"Let the hammer strike the anvil, let lightning strike the Earth"
It is the tension between the Black and the White that creates the Grey. The flow between Yin and Yang that forms both the Tao and the Ten Thousand Things. It is Male and Female that creates life. Soul and Matter. Birth and Death. He and She.
In our legends, the God is born from out of Her Darkness, and yet He flees Her embrace: fleeing Her overwhelming passion that threatens to consume Him before He has had a chance to grow. Yet in fleeing Her, He also flees life - and so finally finds the true darkness of His own death.
But in His Journey, He has learnt, and so He surrenders to Death and becomes Lord of it - and thereby transforms Himself from child to King: a God in His own right.
But She yearns for Him yet, and pursues Him - as passion must. And seeing Her truly, He loves Her - knows Her - and embraces Her at last. And so He becomes the light that dwells within matter - the soul within the world.
He gives Her the circle of rebirth: an eternity of existences strung together by the thread of their love. She gives Him the Cauldron and the Sword: the womb of desire, and that which gives it life. She is Eternity. He is change. And yet - They love, and are One.
"For all things are spun from the wheel of Diana and it is Lucifer that spins the wheel"
Our myths tell us the story of how the world came to be - yet this is also a tale that the seasons write upon the earth and the sky every year. It is this wheel of loving and becoming that we work throughout the sabbats and the ezbats.
At Yule, the God is reborn as the Light from the dark womb of the Great Mother. He is the light of hope within the darkness of despair - and the spark of awareness within the enfolding sleep of matter. She is the darkness of Winter and withdrawal, and yet she holds Herself full with the promise She has nurtured throughout the previous year.
At Imbolg the light of the God has started to grow, yet He is still only a cold light within the enfolding greyness. But, in this coldest of months, life starts to stir in readiness for the spring to come - and so we remember the Goddess as threefold: Maid, Mother and Crone, and we celebrate as Diana reclaims both Her power and Her independence and becomes Maiden once more.
Spring Equinox marks the equal point between the lengthening day and shortening night - and the strengthening light and vigor of both the Sun and the natural world. Within this dynamic balance we are reminded of the Wheel from which we are all spun - and the God becomes the priapic Pan who is the hub about which all revolves.
This Sexual drive reaches its peak at Beltane. Both God and Goddess have come into the full flower of their youth and sexuality: the Goddess as Queen, and the God as King. They dance the chase of love as each recognizes their equal - yet both also surrender to the passion that will be the source of all life for the rest of the year…
Midsummer, and the Sun is crowned King at the height of His power whilst The Goddess swells with life and promise - the Sun's other self who will be born at the next Yule. They are the Emperor and Empress: rich and full and overflowing with splendor.
Lammas, and the God has matured with the wisdom of rule. He realizes that all power must come at a price - and so sacrifices Himself so that His people may survive the rigours of the winter. But this is already His second encounter with sacrifice: the sexual union of Beltane contains within it the sacrifice of the God's seed to the Great Mother, a reflection of the greater sacrifice He now makes.
Autumn Equinox is the second balance point as we move into darkness. As the wheel dips, it reveals a mystery as the God journeys towards his second kingship as Lord of Death - knowing that beyond it lies rebirth.
Samhain sees the end of His Journey - and the return of both His throne and His Queen. He is Hades, She is Persephone - and together they are the parents of matter from which we all will arise.
Within the wheel of the year is the drama of our own lives. We learn of the nature of sacrifice, and the meaning of power - the value of love and surrender, and the necessity of balance. We are taught how our own lives are interwoven with those whom we love - and how none of us can ever be alone.
We learn that for a wheel to turn it needs both rim and hub, and spokes to brace between them. A surface that is strong enough to endure the stones and potholes of life's pathway, and a center that is still and whole so that all else can revolve around it. And we learn that enlightenment is gained only from living - fully, freely and with love for all.
.