Why is the Wheel Turning so Quickly?

Why is the Wheel Turning so Quickly?

Has anyone else felt that this year is going by quicker than any other?

A couple of weeks ago I went to see one of my favourite bands Le Vent du Nord at our local arts centre. Man, this has come around quick, I thought, we only saw them live back in February. But it wasn’t back in February, it was last August, exactly a year ago to the day.

It really opened my eyes to what had been happening.

Last year, as the year descended into Winter I made a conscious decision – to really look for the beauty of the season. It’s no secret that this Solstice-born Gemini is solar powered. For so many years I’ve almost wished the Winter away so I could welcome back the Sun, but that is not healthy – to wish away so much of one’s life. So that was the pact I made, and on-the-whole it worked. There were some days of wind, grey, rain, mud, that I felt to need to call one of my Winter-loving friends and have them explain to me why this was so much better than green, warmth, sunshine, and being able to sit on the dry earth. Some days even they couldn’t explain, but the Winter months were much more enjoyable, making the effort to see that beauty. The time seemed to go quite naturally too because having that conscious awareness helped to connect me day-to-day.

Then Spring arrived.

It was a busy Spring with travel and concerts. It was wonderful. But what I didn’t notice until yesterday is that I went from zero to 100mph in an instant. All of the conscious connecting that I’d been doing during the Winter disappeared, and I was instantly swept along on a roller coaster that only came to a stop yesterday.

It’s not just busyness with work that has swept me along. It’s been the utterly depressing political climate, not only here in the UK with the ‘B’ word, but also seeing what’s happening in other countries around the world. And that discomfort and fear are then expressed by my friends on social media, seemingly all the time. Facebook is not a place I really want to hang out right now. That absorption in world politics is not healthy for me. It can get so loud that it becomes all-encompassing, and I then miss seeing the gulls playing in the wind, the peregrines teaching their young to hunt, the blossom on the trees becoming ripening fruit, the green corn turning gold and falling to the harvester.

That’s what I noticed yesterday as I walked along the river with Oscar, as I have done every day this year. The blackberries were ripening, on many trees the haws were already red, the sloes had turned purple, and my head had been so full of politics, social media noise and opinion, and a deafening inner discussion, that I’d failed to really notice the change.

I’m not normally one for conspiracy theories, but sometimes it does feel like the populace is far easily controlled when it is in a constant state of fear – more easy to manipulate and influence. I’ve spent most of this year seemingly in a trance and yesterday I woke up. Now it’s my aim to stay awake. The political noise will continue, and I don’t intend to hide from it, but there is also so much more value in maintaining that connection with our spiritual paths. To walk with an awareness of our relationships to the spirits of the land, sea and sky, to the Otherworld, to the Gods.

So I light a candle today on my home altar to shine as a beacon to bring me home, should the noise become too much again. I sit in meditation to bring me into awareness of my true place in the Universe. I walk the land as human-animal, part of the natural way of life, death and rebirth. I walk once more back into the embrace of my Horned God, and my Earth Mother, and look forward to hearing their words once more.

Deep within the still centre of my being,

may I find peace.

Silently within the quiet of the Grove,

may I share peace.

Gently and powerfully,

within the greater circle of humankind,

may I radiate peace.

15 responses to “Why is the Wheel Turning so Quickly?”

  1. The winter months, though dark, wet and windy, is to me, like the earth a time of slowing down, a form of mental hibernation. The stark beauty, the earthy smells, time to observe, breath and plan. A recharging of physical, mental and spiritual batteries. Spring arrives, a restlessness, an urge to be, batteries charged. Smell in air changed, childlike thrill of the first buds and leaves. Big intakes of breathe, like the cocoon of winter slipping away, feeling lighter and the wheel turns. Summer camps, gatherings, gardening always busy. Sun on your skin, warm rain, fresh meadow smells. Pleasantly weary, as it starts to head back into autumn. Looking back, where did summer go? It went at speed, as we went at speed, always something happening. Autumns gentle cloak lays on our shoulders, slowing us down, as we return to gather our berries, watching the glorious colour of nature, our minds and eyes observing again as we return to recharge our batteries once again.

  2. Totally agree with you my good friend. And as life goes on the years even seem to pass quicker ! Its up to us all to savor every moment we have been gifted in this beautiful isle. Especially not to be bogged down by politics which is in an awful place. Take care bud 1 xx

  3. I guess that spring and summer are the times when our being goes out in action, in doing, in participating, only to be a bit lessened when we have our festivals and turn more to the inner world. Then, as autumn is slowly coming back, we tend to draw back more to our inside, in preparation of the winter when the weather and the short days naturally make us stay at home more and contemplate. If we were still working the land, we would understand this more easily as a self evident cycle.

  4. Damh, you aren’t the only one with this feeling that the cycle is speeding up. I hope it isn’t like the rubber duck circling faster and faster as the bath drains. I know there is a scientific/psychological view that everyone experiences time faster as they age, because proportionally, every new hour is a smaller ratio to your overall life. I also get the feeling that public life is becoming more cartoonish, a parody of existence. Thanks for your encouragement to turn back to nature for its rich authenticity.

  5. I came off Facebook & Twitter in April, I can honestly say it has been the best thing I have done in a long while. Where as you hadn’t noticed things Dave in the past few months,I certainly have, if that was a gift from the gods on your behalf then I thank you . Blessed be you beautiful soul x

  6. We watched a documentary on Netflix called “the Great Hack”, that talked about the scale and severity of how we are manipulated through social media – typically for political gain. It was eye opening in a very factual way – not conspiracy theories, but solid examples. It certainly made us reconsider our social media presence and the opinions we hold and how we came to them.

    Completely agree that a candle on the altar is a great time and place to return to center. I cannot wait for Autumn.

  7. Yes it is overwhelming, it’s not a conspiracy theory if there’s some reasonable evidence to at least give some credence. With climate change, there are very very powerful interests trying to obfuscate and manipulate people. They spend an awful lot of time and money to make sure people are manipulated into their point of view, or fall into apathy and despair. This is not fantasy, they employ companies that specialise in psychological manipulation, especially by overloading peoples’ systems.

    What you feel is the same as I, the same most people feel. Things are happening so fast it feels like everything is a blur and one month/year merges to the next – though in my case it may be due to the fact that I’m in my sixties 😀 – it’s good that you can ground yourself and at the same time rise above the noise, people need voices like your own in order to do the same.

    For myself, it was the loss of my wife at Imbolc that grounded me, it shocked me into remembering the impermanence of things, yet looking at my children at that time, how it was part of the great cycle. The wheel turns, change is the only constant, but if you can ground yourself at the centre you can see it all in its true perspective, I’ve had to ground as they needed me, that strength to get them through a terrible time. It definitely puts the information age into the correct perspective.

    You can be the change, yet still be the you that you always were or indeed were meant to be. For many these days that is an increasingly important voice to hear so they have chance to think. Keep on rocking Damh

  8. I have never been on facebook twitter or any other time wasting groups, present company excepted.

    I am now trying to get rid of the TV, everything is repeated over and over and it is boring anyway, I am now going to sit down finish my granddaughters cardigan, start on making Christmas presents for friends and family and start on my rag rug for in front of our log burner mainly for Jake our dog to lie on if the cat will leave him alone. I too hated the dark winter months suffered SAD very badly but being busy helps so much, doing these things in front of a roaring log fire is just so cosy, and daylight bulbs in all of our indoor lights make a big difference too.

    Happy Autumn and Winter to you

    Ann

  9. I’m a Capricorn, born on the 3rd day of January & I generally feel happier in the less hot months of Autumn, Winter & early Spring. I try, however to enjoy all the seasons & look forward to spotting the early signs of each of them. I’m lucky to live in a rural setting & to be surrounded by fields & woods. I watch the fields go from brown to green to yellow & finally to gold. This way I can follow the Wheel of the Year. Similarly, I watch the trees & bushes in the woods go from barren to bloom & follow the sounds & sights of the birds, including swallow, swift & cuckoo. And yes, Damh, I do think that the year seems to have just flown by, it doesn’t seem a year since the fields were being harvested, the visiting birds preparing to leave & the hedgerows showing their ripe, & delicious, fruits!

  10. The’Orrible ‘Orrible truth is we are getting old and the older we get time zips by really fast, I read the papers and they say the same thing a different way as we age for instance
    “Nick Baldwin a Man living in Banbury” when I am 20 to 40
    ” Nick Baldwin a Middle Aged Man living in Banbury” when I am 40 to 60
    “Elderly Nick Baldwin from Banbury” when I am 60 to 70
    AND NOW
    “75-year-old Retired Pensioner from Banbury called Nicholas Baldwin”
    God only knows what I will be reffered to next!!

  11. I agree this year is simply zipping past; I only commented to my husband the other day that I couldn’t believe we were already halfway through August. I too put it down to getting older – crone-dom looms large for me now!
    I’ve never used Facebook or Twitter, I don’t even have an account with them. The downside of that is I miss out on a lot of news, as so many things are only available via a Facebook group; but I refuse to subscribe to what I see as a giant data-miner.

  12. Two years ago, I was walking through an (to me) unknown forrest in France…. and I got utterly lost in it….. so I walked guessing my way through it, when I suddenly realized that I felt very content and happy about this situation… i asked within myself, why would I feel happy?and my “inner voice” answered….”because for once you are really living in the now”… i realized that this was true.We so often do 3 things at the same time, already planning things in the future, without (often), conciously really live in the now… Time does slow down, when we live our days more conciously…. i have stopped watching the News a long time ago, reading the news I find much better because than you can choose, when it is enough…. yes there are many depressing things happening in the world, but also many beautiful one’s, they are just not often heart and talked about… The darker it sometimes seems to get, the more we need to connect with the light, harmony and love for our world, and learn to just BE xx

  13. Thank you for this wise commentary. As I grow older, I appreciate every little thing SO much more. I feel like I’m clinging to summer with my fingernails, futile as that is, and even though I love fall and winter too.Thanks for the reminder to look to nature for wisdom regarding the passage of seasons. Blessed be!

  14. The last couple of days my husband says I have been nesting! .. I am having one of my biannual clear-outs. I have one after the winter, ready for spring and summer, and this one, to prepare for the winter. I feel like it’s come a bit early this year, this summer has been full of amazing experiences, and is not over yet, but I wonder if I’m starting to feel ready to slow down like the year.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.