Throughout the world, in every culture there are traditional celebrations associated with different seasons of the year, often corresponding to harvest cycles, solstices, equinoxes, sun cycles, and phases of the moon.
In the neopagan tradition, these seasonal celebrations are referred to as the Wheel of the Year. They are generally based upon traditional European, Celtic, Greco-Roman and Germanic pagan holidays although this is not always the case, depending on the tradition. In fact, many of our western holidays are actually based upon these older, more ancient traditions, which have simply become assimilated into our culture and our prevailing belief systems.
Celebrating the seasons of the year and connecting with the natural cycles of nature can be a wonderful tool for personal and spiritual transformation and growth. It can also be a way to become more deeply aware of how interconnected we are to the planet and to our natural surroundings. The mythology of the pagan Wheel of the Year offers a metaphorical illustration of the deeper truths inherent in the natural cycles of the seasons.
Our lives revolve around cycles. The changing of the seasons and the wheel of the year correspond to processes which occur in human life as well as in nature.
