How I created my own Wheel of the Year

[@jenfries6417]

Thank you for this video! I did something similar to this, as a non-Wicca animist urban witch in New England, USA. I wanted a Wheel of the Year that helped me connect my practice and general life with the natural cycles, but without that heavy emphasis on rural living, and also without reference to religious or ancestral traditions that I'm not connected with. I ended up with a wheel focused on the solar and astronomical cycles in the northern hemisphere. I don't really have holidays - because I can't remember to do things on specific days anyway; I can barely remember my own birthday - but my year is full of festive seasons pinned to the equinoxes and solstices and the transitional periods between them. I not only plan my spiritual and magical practice on this astronomical calendar, I also use it to schedule changes in my home, career, etc.

[@m.m.6670]

Building my own Wheel of the Year has been one of the most rewarding parts of my Baltic animist pagan practice. I remember when I first decided to step into it, I was very much influenced by the US or UK-based books on the Wiccan yearly cycle, because it was everywhere and sounded exciting. But while some bits and pieces of it felt similar to what I grew up with in my culture (not surprising, given we've all Indo-Europeans), a lot of it just didn't make sense. So then I busted out the academic texts, the folklore tales and songs, traditional recipes, and basically anything I was able to get my hands on to start building my own version of it. Throughout my journey I realised how fluent the yearly cycle was for my ancestors, it didn't have fixed dates (that's a very Christian concept), but instead depended on the movement of the celestial bodies, especially the moon. Our Midwinter celebration was actually the first New Moon of the new year, which usually falls sometime end of January or beginning of February. That's why I now have a very fluid Wheel of the Year, based on the moon cycles, as well as how the climate has shifted. I'm happy that there's always something to celebrate every moon cycle, so instead of 8 Wiccan celebrations, I get to have 12. And who doesn't love more reasons to celebrate. 😂

[@reignofbliss]

I appreciate that you're intentionally connecting your wheel of the year to your seasons! I'm in Southern Arizona, so while most of my practice comes from Celtic pre-Christian traditions it's been very out of sync with the warm, wet desert climate I live in. But my area has two growing seasons and (by extension) two harvests, so I'll definitely have to keep that in mind as I design my wheel of the year. Thank you so much for sharing your process and encouraging us to develop systems that are meaningful for each of us.

[@ediedee9931]

I love your perspective on seasons for ancestors. I have Celtic, Germanic and Indigenous Mexican / Pueblo ancestry and have always felt its most natural for me to start honoring my ancestors with Samhain and Dia de Los Muertos and continue through the early winter into Yule. Personalizing how and when to honor ancestors makes so much sense!

[@witchburr976]

Thank you for sharing your process. This is so exciting and helpful. I love this rather than just getting a copy/paste version of your calendar. I will definitely use this as a tool to mark my holidays for next year!

[@heatherfeather1293]

This makes so much sense! I live in the state of Georgia in the US, and we have very long, hot summers and short winters (which I hate). *IF* we get snow, it is usually January or February, so our midwinter would be at the end of January. I get why people want to celebrate the coming of Summer, but to me, that is a horrible time of year. Fall and winter are when I want to celebrate 🙂

[@FreedomShakerHub]

Thank you so much! I was struggeling with similar things around celebrating in different parts of the year, I'm from Czech Republic (South Moravia) and seasons are totally different from what I read or learned so I wasn't celebrating anything much. Now I know how to tweek it to my preferences, thank you!

[@katlero28]

Within the first 2 minutes of this video, I realized my husband and I already have a wheel of the year for our household! Thank you! My practice is not tied to any specific culture or heritage so I’ve always struggled buying into and celebrating the common holidays. This just made me realize I can quite literally make my own in the way we already talk about and live our lives! Why did it take this long to click!?

[@RAG3D3M0N]

Literally just searched your channel for a wheel video and this was posted hours ago. Perfect :D Going to actually go watch now!

[@lilykatmoon4508]

This is great guidance! I love in SE Texas, USA and have struggled to connect to the wheel of the year. I’m an inclusive Heathen and witch who is still finding my path. We have super hot weather for most of the year and more than one growing season. I can use this to better research my climate to align my practice with. Thanks for sharing your ideas! Wonderful as always ❤

[@TehBuggy]

I appreciate that you walk us through how you came up with your ideas rather than spoon-feeding us 💜 Sharing ways to come up with our own “Wheels of the Year” is way more helpful than just copying someone else’s!

[@thewarriorscode2311]

Greetings from Ireland, Thank you for the video, I did something similar, I am more of a Celtic/Norse animist and needed to find a calender that fitted because I am living in the North West of Ireland our seasonal changes are abit different to other places to say the least. Once again cheers for the videos really enjoy them, all my best

[@BruceKaholo]

Love the video can we get more like this? More learning videos?

[@ZElhaz_]

This is a great idea! I did something similar for mine wheel of the year - went for the Slavic celebrations for the new seasons, but also added a few folk festivals from my country (some of which are now catholic, but for sure were pagan and more nature-oriented before christianisation - so it makes sense to keep the dates and some of the "core" rituals from them).

[@huntressmma1822]

I've always seen the wheel of the year in my head, since childhood, but it has always gone counterclockwise don't know why but there it is! Still does and I have no intention of changing that. I celebrate the season's, solstices and equinox.💜

[@knightofshallots]

I see a spiral racetrack with each year as a higher oblong ring on the spiral. The track stays still - we travel along it, upwards in a clockwise direction.

[@Willow-f1p]

Thank you for sharing how you made your own wheel of the year. Is is very helpful as I have been working on my own one.

[@thrivingselfcarerenee]

I'm a military spouse, ao I've lived in a variety of places throughout North America. When I started my Paganism journey, we'd just left 2 years of living in southern Alaska. The Wiccan Wheel of the Year made absolutely zero sense to me. Spring didnt start at Imbolc or the Spring Equinox but in May. The Winter Solstice was VERY significant because there was only 4 hours of "daylight" and it was basically dawn/dusk only for those 4 hours, then pitch black dark again. We recognized when the ice finally broke, when the Salmon ran, when the Salmonberry busbes were ripe for picking. Then we lived in Seattle Washington, so temperate rainforest climate. It was barely warm and wet or cold and wet, for the most part. Then Noeth Carolina, so southern and hot but definitely 4 seasons. One local harvest was potato season and we had the potato festival in our little town. 😊 Now I'm in Southern California and we have dry and hot and cool and wet where I'm at and HOT summers, but interesting microclimates just a few miles from each other. So the Wiccan Wheel of the Year never made sense to me. Plus, I'm urban, not rural, so harvest seasons sometimes felt like a stretch to me. So I follow the Solstices and Equinoxes and how our seasons shift and change locally/regionally. My favorite holiday is Halloween, but we celebrate it as a fun social observance, rather than a religious holiday. We quasi celebrate Christmas because our families do, so that's a small part of our Winter celebrations. I think its perfectly valid to celebrate the Wiccan Wheel of the Year. But I definitely resonate so much more with developing a personal Wheel of the Year based on where you live, your local/regional culture and observances, personal beliefs, etc.

[@UPGwithRuneandCo]

Thank you! I've been working on my own holiday calendar, too.

[@jensnow00]

This was very simple, yet very helpful. Thanks!

[@My_Darling_Decay]

Oml ive been needing this video so bad

[@lostmymindinbooks]

Loved this, really makes a lot of sense! I'd love to hear more on your take on the Rauhnächte!

[@NevHayze]

I like the way you think! I’ve looked into various alternative holiday systems and I like a lot of things about a few, but I mostly just abandoned holidays … I’ll be “present” for my family getting together, but don’t confuse it for celebration… lol. Like “Native American Memorial Day” -AKA- Thanksgiving. (There’s a lot of harvest history that was swept under the rug between natives and colonizers… the natives didn’t turn hostile until later and for good reason) Those two need to be differentiated, and the memorial incorporated. Maybe they’ll do that after they build that wall. 😒 🤷🏼‍♂️ ANYWAY… sorry bout that diatribe… lol 🖤🤍

[@NevHayze]

To be fair the colonizers were escaping totalitarian rule… this country was founded by rebellion! And they did plenty to keep the king and queen out! Now look at us.🤷🏼‍♂️

[@Pretoriacore]

I absolutely love your content thank you so much! ❤

[@codyharvey7867]

Thank you so much for this video Bente! I've been trying to follow the wheel of the year, but here in South Africa it's flipped...sooo yeah not ideal. But THIS, dankie! #Learning-Over-Spoon_feeding🙌

[@daynehoughton6130]

Thank you so much for this video ❤️💐🌸

[@minamara123]

Hi Bente, I find this a real interesting idea. I will take this and create something of my own. Though thinking about this, I really like most of the wheel of the year celebrations. I always feel in my body and mind the differences in the solar cycle, so it makes sense to me to follow at least the solstices and equinoxes. But some of the other celebrations don't speak to me as much. Living in the Netherlands, we celebrate freedom day on May 5th. This has always resonated deeply with me in feeling gratefull for the freedom I have and I think I will put this in my spiritual practice instead of Beltane. Further, we remember the deaths of war in Indonesia on August 15th. As my mother is from Indonesia, I think I will be putting in working and honouring those ancesters on that day instead of doing Lughnasadh. Thank you so much for sharing your way of looking at the calendar, it has helped me to think about the why of celebrations and see that I can change things to suit my practice best.

[@Dolly_the_Witch]

I’m definitely going to have to look into this process of constructing my own spiritual calendar 😅

[@KeithR.Abellanosa-hx5rj]

Wow! So cool! Thanks, hey i want to say thanks to every witch i came across who started from wanting a different religion to finding a different way of life with habbits. That is how lots of us found ourselves and our unique crafts, thanks, thanks.

[@LeComplice]

such an interesting video thank you so much for sharing!!!

[@EerieRavenling]

Very good approach to the subject 🫶🏻 i was struggling with following “wheel of the year” and kinda did the same, and created my own but it need some love still 😅

[@FirestyledSamaurai]

Thank you. I agree. You can make it complicated or simple. ❤

[@ediedee9931]

Love this!

[@annabelledrake2027]

I think i’m going to start celebrating the first proper snow fall. Growing up where I live in Canada, our winters could be pretty brutal. It was super common for us to have feet of snow on the ground before halloween. We’d have to wear our snowsuits under our costumes, I hated it. But now I can’t remember the last time we had snow before halloween. While the autumns have been more enjoyable, it makes me sad because it’s a noticeable effect of global warming. Last year, the canal, which is the longest ice skating rink in the world, didn’t open at all for the whole winter, for the very first time ever. It wasn’t consistently cold enough. The winters have been so much milder, it’s insane. While I dislike the cold, I’ve always liked that I lived somewhere that experiences a proper 4 seasons. I used to hate winter, but since last year when they didn’t open the canal, I’ve started appreciating and missing it. We got proper snow for the first time today. I’m so happy, I’ve been waiting for weeks! It feels like something worth celebrating with the current state of the world.

[@lilaott6495]

i’m in the midwest of america and i feel the same way! i remember every halloween was cut short by snow and now we finally got snow just at the end of last month. it really does make the snow more spectacular to me and i never thought i’d feel so distant from snow

[@TehBuggy]

I remember so many snowsuit Halloween costumes 😂 I’m in Atlantic Canada and always “celebrate” the first proper snowfall (last week for me) with family traditions, but I never thought of making it an actual part of my practice! Snow and winter weather have always made me feel really connected to home and my region overall, I’m always excited to find new ways to incorporate it 💜

[@buddhabro.9130]

Interestingly, you bring up this topic. My main spiritual practice is Mahayana/Theravada Buddhism and Euro-paganism. The temple where I practice Buddhism is Vietnamese so I celebrate Buddhist and some Vietnamese festivals with the holidays from the pagan wheel of the year.

[@brittneymillar6433]

I’m first generation Canadian on my dad’s side who was born in northern Scotland. I have a huge connection to that side of my ancestry and so I practice a lot of Scottish folk magic however being from Canada there’s such a large geographical disconnect that can make it very difficult to connect with land spirits and my ancestors because I’m like “hey! It’s me! All the way over here in Canada! lol I don’t know If that makes sense but that has definitely been a challenge for me. It’s different trying to practice certain folk traditions when you live in such a newer country like Canada. And obviously with Native American traditions you have to be the utmost respectful. I’ve always thought it would be cool to live somewhere hundreds of years old with lots of history. I always wonder if it would make my craft more potent or if it truly matters.

[@Jay-ql4gp]

Thank you!

[@sandyblack9698]

Hello blessings.. Tarot! Could you maybe do a short on the "hanged man" and the reference to Odin? Seems a lot of chat about it..🍄🕯️

[@cindyhernandez5795]

Yes! I made one for living in southern California because we only have 2 seasons: hot and hotter.

[@thrivingselfcarerenee]

Living in Southern California has upended any tiny ties I might have had to the more Wiccan Wheel of the Year. I live in the Los Angeles Area and even where I'm at we have micro climate differences too. I live near the Coast, so I'm often significantly cooler than the valleys areas. So I've absolutely come to recognize the value in local/regional observances of what the seasons are like where you are. 😊

[@pattyelaine9563]

I liked the video but it would have been much better if it wasn’t set up with a negative speech on spoon feeding. Almost made me just switch it off based on that.

[@TehBuggy]

I didn’t think it came across very negative, I thought it felt more learning-positive. For a lot of magicky things it’s so personal that copy-and-pasting doesn’t make sense, so I appreciated the emphasis on how to do things ourselves. That’s how I interpreted it at least 💜

[@brittneymillar6433]

@@TehBuggyI agree with you!

[@TheNorseWitch]

And that’s how it was meant! It makes zero sense for me to just tell people about my wheel of the year when it won’t apply to 99% of other people’s practices. Finding a wheel of the year that works for one’s life, practice and location is so personal, you CANNOT be spoon-fed it.