Alternatives to the Wheel of the Year?

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Saturnessa

Alternatives to the Wheel of the Year?

Post by Saturnessa »

Yesterday I responded to the thread "Southern Hemisphere- Seasonal or Traditional?", posted in this very forum... and it got me thinking. As I said there, I live in the S. Hemisphere and I find myself currently in conflict with the Wheel of the Year.

Even when I invert the dates to follow the local seasons, I can't help but to feel like there's something wrong. Recently in my country they have begun to sell Halloween things by the end of October. We celebrate Easter here around March/April - even though we are experiencing the Autumn Equinox at the moment. And Christmas... we have fake snow and Santas dressed in winter clothes even though it's 40ºC (104F) outside.

In the beginning it was easy to simply invert, but nowadays I feel a bit like an impostor trying making mini maypoles (I'm a solitaire) while shops are decorated with pumpkins and skeletons.

Some Pagans and Wiccans here celebrate the Northern wheel as it is. But that also feels wrong to me - how can you pretend it's autumn equinox outside your window when (at least in my lil' corner of the country) the flowers are blooming and you have spring showers every day? It baffles me. They say that the 'egregore' of the dates is more important. Like, these dates have been celebrated by different people for ages, and this group energy is more important than the seasons.

I feel very lost. I'm a non-Wiccan pagan but I have always enjoyed observing the Sabbats. But nowadays I don't feel true doing it, it feels both disconnected from the local nature AND disconnected from the group energy. I spent years trying to transform family Christmas in Litha celebrations, to no avail, because the traditionals elements of the date are everywhere.

I was wondering if anyone feels the same. Have you ever thought about creating your own alternative Wheel? How do you balance the differences between your environment and the tradition?

Thanks for reading my long rambling. It's a problem that has been driving me mad, lol.
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SpiritTalker
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Re: Alternatives to the Wheel of the Year?

Post by SpiritTalker »

I can only imagine, as I'm in the Northern hem. Perhaps there is a way, at least for your celebrations, to connect with the native rhythm of the earth, in spite of the pop culture. Research to put yourself in tune with what they have already established and acknowledge, and follow that thread. Or party twice...once for pop culture, once for the true earth energies.

Maybe learn to orient to the south compass point. Scout out those texts written for pagan communities specifically in the Southern Hemisphere. If it was me personally, I'd want to give precedence to Nature, not cultural overlays.

Not all traditions follow 8 holidays. Some observe only the celestial solstice and equinox patterns and don't follow the agricultural cross quarters.

Edit

There are texts and you.tube with teachings from the Andean Mtns, and there are the Yoruban practices...you don't have to adopt the paths, but they have things to teach about the cycles.
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Re: Alternatives to the Wheel of the Year?

Post by Firebird »

Oh my, you really do have a dilemma.
You did speak about the solstices and equinoxes being switched, so is that everyone in the country I suppose?
Your having Christmas time in the middle of summer? (My relatives are from Hawaii and it's never cold or wintery feeling there when the Yule trees go up)
Since you practice solitaire, maybe for the sake of the growth pattern associated with the wheel of the year you do just the opposite of what you are experiencing there. Getting ready for Bealtaine. It would feel weird with everything else being opposite but climaticly speaking you cannot get around it, and if you really wish to go with the cycle of tradition, I would go with the natural flow.
Personally I would have great difficulty with it too, can't really see putting a tree up in the hot summer time!
I also wonder about indigenous peoples from your country, how do they honor the cycle?
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Re: Alternatives to the Wheel of the Year?

Post by SnowCat »

I think Firebird has a good idea. Research what the indigenous celebrations are or were, and tailor your own wheel to work for you. Go ahead an X enjoy the secular celebrations as secular celebrations, but celebrate your spirituality on your terms. You can have extra celebrations that way.

I think a large part of the conflict comes from the Southern hemisphere originally being colonized by Northern hemisphere people. They brought their traditions with them, and unfortunately, paid little mind to what was already in place. I think that's something that we rebel against to at least some degree.

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Re: Alternatives to the Wheel of the Year?

Post by smogie_michele »

I just sent an email to a friend of mine who is a Christian witch that moved to brazil after we graduated high school- she had mentioned something to the effect of "I am writing my own wheel of the year to incorporate both of the hemispheres that I live in." Apparently she had the same issue that you do. If she writes back to me in a timely manner and is okay with me posting it here, I'll post her response! maybe you could borrow ideas from her if it resonates with you.

It has been a little over a year sense our last conversation, so who knows if she will actually respond, but it is worth a shot.
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Re: Alternatives to the Wheel of the Year?

Post by Saturnessa »

SpiritTalker wrote:Maybe learn to orient to the south compass point. Scout out those texts written for pagan communities specifically in the Southern Hemisphere. If it was me personally, I'd want to give precedence to Nature, not cultural overlays.

Not all traditions follow 8 holidays. Some observe only the celestial solstice and equinox patterns and don't follow the agricultural cross quarters.
Yes, I should probably see if there's anything about the indigenous traditions here that make more sense. The problem is that all pagan/wiccan books for the S. Hemisphere just take the Northern wheel and flip or tell you to follow the tradition, period, which is rather uninspiring.
firebirdflys wrote:You did speak about the solstices and equinoxes being switched, so is that everyone in the country I suppose?
Your having Christmas time in the middle of summer? (My relatives are from Hawaii and it's never cold or wintery feeling there when the Yule trees go up)
Yes, in the S. Hemisphere we have high summer during Christmas. Poor Santa Clauses almost die inside their winter clothes. And Samhain, of course, happens while the flowers are blooming. Of course, this is in the region I live, other places in the S. Hemisphere are different, some don't even have four seasons at all!
firebirdflys wrote:I also wonder about indigenous peoples from your country, how do they honor the cycle?
SnowCat wrote:I think Firebird has a good idea. Research what the indigenous celebrations are or were, and tailor your own wheel to work for you. Go ahead an X enjoy the secular celebrations as secular celebrations, but celebrate your spirituality on your terms. You can have extra celebrations that way.
Yes, that is something I'll have to research! I Sadly a lot of the traditions got lost during the colonisation, with the death or conversion of Indigenous people.

And I like your idea, SnowCat, to start celebrating our season-weird Christmas, Halloween, Easter etc. as secular dates, rather than religious ones. It's a shame tho', the meaning behind these dates become more deeply buried in shadows here. People don't even understand why they celebrate the way the do. <sigh>
smogie_michele wrote:"I am writing my own wheel of the year to incorporate both of the hemispheres that I live in." Apparently she had the same issue that you do. If she writes back to me in a timely manner and is okay with me posting it here, I'll post her response! maybe you could borrow ideas from her if it resonates with you
Oh, that sounds interesting! If she ever shared her experiences with her own Wheel with you, and gives you permission to share to, I'd love to hear more.



I just found that ChaosWitch created her own "8-spoked wheel", based on the natural aspects and the seasons of Australia. It's here: http://www.chaoswitch.com/tag/wheel-of-the-year/
But it's the only example I have found so far.
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Re: Alternatives to the Wheel of the Year?

Post by Shireside »

Reviving this thread because I'm utterly gobsmacked by what I'm reading here.

I've never left the northern hemisphere before, so I can only imagine how bizarre this social phenomenon must be. That being said, I have a very good imagination, and holy craaaap, what a mess! There's racism, there's sexism, and I'm afraid to say that in the media there's also hemisphereism.

You've either got to laugh or cry.

You wouldn't celebrate the full moon at noon just because it's midnight somewhere else. You wouldn't go foraging for wildberries out of season just because the bushes are primed for the picking across the globe. So why would you go through the motions as if the veil between the living and the dead is at it's most permeable (Samhain), when in actuality it is the opposite....juust because it's the case for the other side of the world?

The wheel of the year isn't just symbolic. The story that is commonly used to illustrate and personify the seasonal changes has a hidden meaning in that it also illustrates the cycle of the spirit 'world'. Like most things involving the temporal gauging of things, what is true in the northern sphere is the opposite in the southern, and honoring the spiritual aspects of these seasons against the grind of your reality is about as nonsensical as wearing sunglasses at night, regardless of the supposed egregore. The Unseen world may accommodate to some degree, going with the flow of your intentions, but it's like driving four hours in reverse to get somewhere: possible, but why make it so awkward and difficult?

This is one of those situations in which the majority is...wrong. They can try to be as PC about it as they want, leaning on the crutch of an egregore to match their practices up with the crackpot motions of the public world's attempt to mimic the other hemisphere, but it just doesn't hash out like that in this case. Looking up the seasonal cycles of Aboriginal people had some hits, and while these may not be accompanied by a tidy Wiccan-esque narrative, getting creative with your path is one of the greatest things ever.

Best of luck. Stay true to yourself.
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