Changes of Twenty Years of Honouring the Wheel of the Year
I sat quite in awe, I found myself reflecting on how much life has changed with paganism in 25 years.
These women weren't pagan, or witchy, just normal women wanting to honour the seasons through holding a women's day / circle to mark the wheel of the year.
A little blog of reflection of walking a pagan path over twenty years. Last weekend, on Imbolc, I was invited as a guest to hold a ritual for Brighid at a women's circle. I was invited because I had held a ritual to share the Brighids flame of peace from Kildare in Ireland at a fellow doulas mother blessing ceremony, when I was her doula. She has recently begun holding seasonal women's circles and invited me to share this ritual. The ritual is a sharing of the flame of peace from Brighds flame in Kildare, a place where the nuns keeps her flame lit for peace. I had lit the flame of my candle at this incredible place on a pilgrimage a few years ago. the location is called Solas Bhride, You can go an light a candle from the sacred flame that remains lit to carry peace.
I sat in the women's circle last weekend quite in awe, I found myself reflecting on how much life has changed with paganism in 25 years.
These women weren't pagan, or witchy, just normal women wanting to honour the seasons through holding a women's day / circle to mark the wheel of the year. They opened the circle with a welcome, sharing, a meditation for Imbolc, then I did my ritual.
I found myself reflecting on how much its changed being pagan, being able to be open and not be the weirdo. That people are recognising the importance of working with the seasons and cycles and its normal. Its no longer hippy, or weird, or just pagan. Twenty five years ago when I was first aware of paganism, I wouldn't have given myself the label. However I was interested in the ritual, the honouring of the Sabbats through the wheel of the year. I would do my best to mark them with my children in my own little way. Then I discovered witchcraft, I looked at joining a coven. I found Shamanism, and began a training. I then through shamanism found druidry. I was aware of druidry, but had thought it seemed quite male dominated and couldn't get my head around the white robes Id seen them wear in Avebury when i saw them at a solstice gathering in 2001. I was so interested in what they were doing then. And I fell in love with Avebury. My love of all this became a little secret, until I found friends that enjoyed it, and my dad began joining me at rituals. I realised my dad had a love of all this, and all that our grandmother and step grandfather had done with us as children had planted seeds of my love of nature and the seasonal changes.
Many of the friends I met back then that attended rituals and pagan moots were also quite quiet about their growing connection and beliefs. Many people i knew had private Facebook pages too so they could join the pagan groups but work and family wouldnt know and judge. IT really was a little closet, and like coming out when you spoke it these things publically. But I just felt i was at home in these circles. I loved the marking of the seasons, the magic and ritual. I loved the feel and view of the world through shamanic consciousness. No it feels like is becoming a normal way of being for so many people. I am still in a small bubble within the UK, as i mix with doulas, holistic therapists, and many people that love the more eccentric ways of life, the deeper connection with nature and don't like the restrictions the human world puts on people.
However I do really see and feel a difference. Twenty years ago women's circles, and seasonal gatherings to mark the wheel of the year only seemed to exist in pagan circles and within Steiner. Now it is common, they are popping up everywhere. There is a choice of beautiful events to celebrate the changing seasons, and to celebrate rites of passage. The honouring of rites of passage too is becoming so wide spread.
It's beautiful. Really beautiful for our children that this is becoming normal.
I think a lot of relaisons of peoples connection with nature came during the time of the lockdowns too, when nature was all we had for sanity. We noticed the wildlife returning to our gardens, our countryside, the seas, and skies. So many people had big life realisations and changed their lives for the better. One aspect being their wish for spirituality, connection, and nature. I know that the Order of Bards Ovates and Druids had so many more members during this period too. in the UK in 2011 the UK Census had 17,000 recorded people saying they were pagan. in 2021 it was 71,000. I imagine its rocketed since then!!
Yet whilst I'm writing about paganism, the love of nature is increasing not just with people identifying as pagan but with many more people with different beliefs and backgrounds. It's amazing!
Last weekend the Sunday following the circle, I held a drum making, again with a group of women. But each woman knew Imbolc, marked it in their own way. Again I came away reflecting in awe that this dream of normalising the sabbat and marking the cycles is now reality for so many.
I use to think to myself, if everyone could honour the Sabbats and know their connection and relationship with nature and how our health depends on it, the world would be a different better place. It feels as though its getting stronger, and growing as much as it feels like humanity is falling apart.
Maybe it's just my pocket of the world, maybe its just my own reflections still but I'm loving it.
It was such an honour to honour Brigid last Saturday too. It felt a really beautiful act of service in a way. It felt like a recognition of my walking a pagan path this long through all its changes, all the exploration of myself and my friends. As when I light this flame at groups, and teaching sessions I hold I always have my fellow friends that have walked this path in my heart too. It feels an absolute gift to share the beauty of this path with the world, with interested people. It is so important in saving our beautiful planet.
I have no connection with Native America but I would love to share something spoken by Wallace Black Elk, in Black Elk Speaks, that I read about in a training I did that I will leave you with. I don't recall it word for word but I recall the meaning so Ill share that with you.
When humans lived in round houses they new their relationship to the land, children new stability because they knew their way in the world strengthened by rites of passage and their relationships with nature, which wasn't separate but a relation. He speaks of looking after our relations for the future seven generations. He speaks of how when a child learns about a tree and forms a relationship, how they will protect that tree with their heart.
We really need to remember this and return to this way of being, and I truly believe slowly we are.
Blessed be.
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