The Blessings of the Wheel

I love the way our Pagan Wheel of the Year works its magic. It lies at the very heart of my spiritual life and I’m sure, like many other Pagans, the more I have worked with it, the more my own life has changed to reflect the turning of the seasons. So now, as the nights have drawn in, and the leaves have fallen once more to the ground to nourish next year’s growth, I too can feel the busy-ness of my own life changing. But just as the birds and animals are still busy searching for food, so I am searching for the Awen to inspire new songs, and to bless me with the insight for the arrangements of the songs I’ve already written.

I’m heading back into the studio to record a new album – the first album of my own songs since The Cauldron Born released in late 2008. I have a couple more concerts this year, and a couple early in 2012, but I have consciously created a space for that Awen to enter. And as I look outside at the late Autumn day I can see and feel that the energy is right.

The origin of some people’s inspiration is action, from friction and intense activity. Some people find their spiritual connections also come from that space, from drumming and dancing, screaming and chanting. I love that too, but I also know that the foundation of my inspiration comes from stillness, from peace. And that is another reason why I love the Wheel of the Year. The Spring and Summer are times of activity, when I am out playing at festivals, dancing around a burning Wickerman, running through a labyrinth, losing myself to the fire and power of the Pagan drummers. So when Autumn and Winter arrive I am ready to welcome their energy too – energies of reflection, and peace. I know that my spiritual life is enhanced by these changes. If all I knew was hot, how could I fully understand and appreciate it if I never felt cold? If all I knew was light, how could I fully understand and appreciate it if I never knew darkness? So if all I knew was wildness, how would I fully understand and appreciate it if I didn’t know stillness and peace? 

The Ancestor is standing at the Threshold. The woodland is still, and filled with the aroma of decaying leaves. And I am now ready to approach the Ancestor, to seek entry into the Grove of Reflection, to sit in stillness with eyes open, and to allow the woodland to accept my presence. Only then will the Faerie come out once more to dance, to show themselves to me, and allow me to hear their music.

4 responses to “The Blessings of the Wheel”

  1. So well illustrated there Damh. It is indeed a a still time in the North, the trees now dormant for a few months so the perfect time to be still, be quiet and allow that inner voice to pur to us what it will. A lot of it may seem gibberish at first, but with patience crafts itself into something wonderful.

    Its a good message you are saying there as folks are too easily lured into panic to get things done, decor, food, gifts to entertain others, causing themselves melancholy thinking they maybe relieving melancholy in others.

    Aye, a time to be still like the trees, indeed, to fuel up for the other lively 9 months of the year.

    • The trees are indeed wonderful teachers. All summer I felt the nemeton’s desperate desire for water, and was spurred on to provide it at any cost. At the equinox, there was a quiet receding into the cool darkness by my valley oak friend, without a thought for what was to inevitably come, which is the same feeling that Damh’s post gave me. Only by appreciating each part of the whole as its unique self, I think, can we truly appreciate the wealth that is inherent in our life. To everything there is a season. Awen be with you.

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