The Living Wheel
and mystical experiences in nature
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What does it mean to live the Wheel of the Year? What does it mean to be in tune with nature or Mother Earth?
A lot of people want to do that. They recognize the benefits or feel a deep pull to connect with trees, stones, animals, and the earth.
Some of you know that the Nature Child Archetype has always been a core component of who you are. Others will have had some life-changing experience or initiation, and suddenly, they need to embrace a connection with the natural world's elements, seasons, beauty, and wonder. Still, others have a slow awakening of awareness of the world around them and gently and gradually come to know and love nature in a way they didn't before.
This idea of the seasonal wheel being a living experience and creating a repeating pattern and way of living in harmony with everything around you has been a focus of my thoughts and way of living for a long time.
The rhythms of the natural world stand in stark contrast to the human-created world we inhabit most of the time, whether through choice or because we are encouraged to revere technology above everything else.
The other day, I had an interesting experience that made me aware of how living with the seasons changes you from the inside out.
I love to feed the birds in winter and take that stewardship role seriously. It's a true joy to know that I am tangibly contributing to their survival, and it's endlessly fascinating to watch my feathered kin feasting at the feeders.
I had just refilled the feeders and was standing on the driveway watching as the birds eagerly returned. The sun was low in the southern sky, as it always is near winter solstice; its light is pale and slanted. Now that all the autumn leaves have fallen, the marsh is visible from that position, and the trees stand unapologetically naked, pristine, and strong.
The feeling was undeniably winter, specifically, nearing mid-winter according to the old calendar that sets the time frame for the Wheel of the Year. The Earth has her own wisdom and knows that winter solstice is mid-winter, not the start of winter, as man-made science would say.
I know this feeling. It is imprinted into every cell of my being. It is in my body, and the memory is in the hall of records in my mind.
Here's where it gets interesting, and we see the difference between simply being able to describe a season or remember an experience with a season and transforming into the energy of that season. I'll explain.
Mystical Transformation in Nature
As I stood watching the birds at the feeder and opening my awareness to the reality of nearing winter solstice and mid-winter, I suddenly heard a Tufted Titmouse sing out from the marsh. That call triggered a state change in my body; it wasn't as if I began to think; instead, I began to feel.
I became Spring in every fiber of my being and bodily sensation. There was a moment of visionary experience where I saw the woods and marsh in Spring with inner and outer eyes.
I could hear the Titmouse's song but felt Spring's distinct energy: the overwhelmingly tender and compassionately renewed life force pulsed in the fresh green shoots of marsh grass. The sun's light was young and trembling as it sought to warm away the winter chill of the earth. The fresh waters fed by Spring's snow melt laughed, danced, and moved through the wetlands released from their frozen winter prison. And there was hope, and relief and vulnerable youth in the earth. All this and more I felt in my body and my being. It was a felt experience in the present moment despite the external fact that it was mid-December. At that moment, I knew Spring in a profound way. I knew Spring was in my body, somehow encoded in my cells, not just a memory but an experience.
The unfolding tableau of the seasons wasn't over, though. In the same visionary and experiential state, Summer overtook the achingly tender beauty and maidenhood of Spring. The woods greened, and the timber and tone of the birdsong changed. Life was full and flourishing. The trees were fully alive. Green as a color, and an energetic wavelength streamed out and all around. The sun was high, its light burning hot, intense, and penetrating. The entire natural world was fully charged and running at full capacity. And it was good. The feeling of goodness, purpose, and passion realized was palpable.
Of course, nothing, not even the Earth, can run at total capacity all the time without powering down and recharging. Within me, I felt the shift again. The current of living energy began to tamp down. The feeling was one of satisfaction. There was a sensation of ripening, sweetness, goodness, and completion. The satisfaction was enormous, taking over everything else; fullness, satiation, and benevolence overwhelmed me. Then, another subtle shift of release and completion. It is finished.
The wave of living earth energy had come and gone in a moment of real-time, and I was standing again on the edge of winter solstice in my driveway. This experience, like other, dare I say, mystical experiences, is a gift. It uplifts, it teaches, and it imparts wisdom. It gives us what we yearn for: a sense of connection and oneness with all things.
It was quite extraordinary to travel through the energy and feeling states of the Earth around the entire Wheel of the Year in a few moments. My sense of connection to the world around me can't properly be put into words because it was so profound.
You can't manufacture this kind of experience; it arrives in the most mundane moments and departs as quickly and mysteriously as it came. However, you can cultivate the ground of your being to prepare for them and even create the inner state of invitation to make it more likely that you will be blessed with such moments of mystical experience.
Cultivate Your Connection to Nature
Cultivating your connection with nature takes time and can come through many practices. I've done many things throughout my lifetime that have led to the readiness for this kind of experience, which I consider a beautiful blessing and a great gift.
Here are some of those things. I offer them to you, and if any resonate, then you may make them your own. I garden, and that is a fundamental piece for me. I cultivate relationships with animals with pets, feeding the birds and regularly visiting and supporting rescue farms and wildlife rehabilitation centers. I keep a nature journal. I walk/hike slowly and contemplatively. I notice the night sky, the moon's lunation, and weather patterns; the Old Farmer's Almanac is perfect for both. I also look for the migration patterns of animals in my area. I bring things from outdoors indoors, stones, branches, flowers, shells, etc., and I often make those the subject of prayer and meditation. They frequently are part of my sacred altar. There's more, but those are straightforward and practical things you can do to attune yourself to the Earth.
This way of living and being has become my primary focus, and with each passing year, I am acutely aware of how important it is as technology and the push towards virtual reality and transhumanism, the melding of human and machine, relentlessly encroaches on the traditional harmony of living as part of the natural world.
What do you need to cultivate a relationship with the Living Wheel of the Seasons? What do you already do? What can I offer this community to help foster that in our lives? Do you have questions, topics you'd like me to cover, or courses you'd like me to offer? As 2023 winds to a close, I'm looking ahead to 2024 and opening myself to possibilities and new ways of working, being in the world, and building community. Your input is valuable to me.
The comments section is a safe and welcoming space to share your insights and experiences.
Comments and conversation are always appreciated and enjoyed, so feel free to let your voice be heard. I read them all and try to respond to each one.
Thank you for reading Hedge Mystic and participating in this vibrant and growing community of creative, spiritual humans. You are always welcome here, appreciated, and loved.
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Hi Melissa, I’m so happy that this resonates with you and brought you warmth on a chilly day. Tree Swallows are the migrating birds I miss the most. They live here in large numbers and by observing their behavior through the seasons you can know exactly where we are in the Wheel of the Year. In early August after nesting season and fledging their young you can observe the very first signs of them congregating to form their large flocks. At first it is just two or three flying together and circling each other. When I see that I know the season is changing. Their entire communal life is a kind of Wheel of the Year. So much to learn from Nature.
This particular Substack speaks to me in such a deep and honoring way. Every word and meaning you provide have warmed me on this chilly day. Thank you so much, Jan.
"I walk/hike slowly and contemplatively. I notice the night sky, the moon's lunation, and weather patterns; the Old Farmer's Almanac is perfect for both. I also look for the migration patterns of animals in my area. I bring things from outdoors indoors, stones, branches, flowers, shells, etc., and I often make those the subject of prayer and meditation. They frequently are part of my sacred altar."