MIND-BODY-SPIRIT
Wheel of the Year — Late Autumn and Winter
BY LISA ADAMS
Nature always shows us what to do. The solar-based agrarian mod- el known as the Wheel of the Year creates understanding of the natural F\FOHVRIWKH6XQ0RRQDQG(DUWK:HNQRZZKDWVHDVRQZHDUHLQ what nature is doing, and we — as “farmers” in our lives — work the cycles of planning, planting, growing, tending, harvesting, letting go, DQGUHVWLQJ,WLVWKHF\FOHRIELUWKOLIHGHDWKDQGUHELUWKWKDWLVLQ - ¿QLWH«DQGRIWHQJRHVXQQRWLFHG 0XFKRIRXUVRFLHW\LVGLYRUFHGIURPWKHRQJRLQJFKDQJHVLQQDWXUH and the necessary adjustments and toil our ancestors made for simple survival. We live luxurious lives by comparison, often not knowing where our food was grown, or the name of the animal whose life was JLYHQWRQRXULVKXV:HXVHDUWL¿FLDOOLJKWEDUHO\JRRXWVLGHDQGKDYH no idea what phase the moon is in at any given moment. Our ancestors lived closely attuned to the Earth’s cycles, as they relied upon farming, growing their own food, tending livestock, and facing survival in the harshest climates and seasons. While we are blessed with comforts and luxury, our instinctive or intuitive senses have dimmed, leaving us out of touch with Nature’s LQ¿QLWHF\FOHV$VZHOODVIXQGDPHQWDOWUXWKVLQKHUHQWLQSULPDODQL - PDOLQVWLQFWVWKH\LQVWLQFWLYHO\NQRZZKDWWRGRDQGZKHQ 0RGHUQ society’s complexities may also leave us longing for simplicity.) Winter’s Death Cycle :H FXUUHQWO\ ¿QG RXUVHOYHV EHWZHHQ WKH $XWXPQDO (TXLQR[ DQG :LQWHU6ROVWLFH5LJKWDERXWQRZRXUDQFHVWRUVZRXOGKDYHFRPSOHW - ed their summer harvest, would be working with cold weather crops (like potatoes and squash), butchering livestock to store, and would’ve canned and stored food to get them through the winter months. They would also be cleaning up the garden, tending their compost piles, stacking wood, fattening the livestock, and shoring up their homes for warmth during the winter months. Winter was the most perilous time
llustration 160949893 © Elena Ray Microstock Library © Elena Ray | Dreamstime.com
for survival. Nature is perhaps the very best teacher and example of how to live life fully. When we follow ,WVH[DPSOHZHNQRZZKHQWRVHHGJURZIHUWLOL]HIUXLWKDUYHVWVKHG die, lie fallow, and begin again. We can adopt Nature’s cycles meta- phorically, as a model for what to do and when to do it; we need only apply the metaphor to plans, relationships, situations, projects, goals, and ideas. Over time, the more tapped in we are to these truths and F\FOHVWKHPRUHZHUHWXUQWRDQGHPEUDFHRXUWUXHQDWXUH,QVWLQFW² the more we know simply because we are.
continued on page 26
PATHWAYS—Winter 22—25
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