Turning The Wheel Upside Down

If you've spent any time exploring witchcraft online, you've probably come across the Wheel of the Year. Eight seasonal celebrations, spread throughout the year, marking the changing relationship between light and darkness, life and death, growth and rest. It's one of those things that can feel wonderfully ancient and mysterious when you first discover it.

Then you start reading about these celebrations from a Southern Hemisphere perspective, and things can get a little confusing. So many of the books, websites and resources we come across were written for people living north of the equator, where the seasons fall at completely different times to ours.

You'll find rituals describing the arrival of spring in March, while we're heading into autumn. You'll see summer solstice celebrations taking place in June, when we're rugging up for winter. And when December rolls around and we're being told to celebrate Yule and the return of the Sun, we're actually experiencing the longest, brightest days of our own summer.

It can leave a Southern Hemisphere witch wondering whether we're supposed to follow the dates in the book, follow the seasons outside our window, or just make it up as we go along.

Thankfully, it's not quite that complicated.

The Wheel of the Year is based around the changing seasons and the cycles of nature, so it makes sense that those celebrations should shift depending on where you live. The Earth hasn't changed its mind about which way around the Sun we're travelling, but our experience of the seasons certainly changes when we cross the equator.

Here in Aotearoa New Zealand, December is the beginning of summer. January and February bring long days, warmer weather and that distinctly Kiwi feeling that perhaps we should be outside making the most of it. By March, the days begin to shorten and autumn starts to creep in. Our nights grow longer, the air becomes cooler and the world begins its slow transition towards winter.

By June, we're at the height of winter, with the shortest days of the year and the longest nights. Then, gradually, the light begins returning. July and August carry us towards the first signs of spring, September brings the spring equinox, and by October we're well on our way towards summer again.

So if we are going to work with the seasons, why would we celebrate them according to a calendar designed around somewhere else?

We wouldn't.

That doesn't mean we have to throw away the traditions associated with the Wheel of the Year. It simply means we turn the Wheel to face our own seasons.

Turning the Wheel South

The eight Sabbats are generally divided into the four solar celebrations, which mark the solstices and equinoxes, and the four cross-quarter celebrations that fall between them. Together, they create a cycle that follows the changing seasons and the movement between darkness and light.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the Wheel traditionally places Samhain around October and November. Down here, that same seasonal point arrives around April and May, when autumn is settling in and the world is beginning its descent towards winter.

Yule, the winter solstice, falls in June rather than December. Imbolc arrives in August, bringing us towards the first stirrings of spring. Ostara follows in September with the spring equinox, then Beltane in October as spring begins moving towards summer.

As the year continues, we reach Litha in December, our summer solstice, followed by Lughnasadh in February and Mabon in March as we begin moving back towards autumn.

Samhain in May

Samhain (pronounced "SOW" like cow and "IN") is often presented alongside images of October pumpkins, falling leaves and chilly Northern Hemisphere evenings. Here in New Zealand, our Samhain arrives around May, when autumn is well underway and winter is beginning to make itself known.

It's traditionally associated with endings, remembrance, ancestors and the thinning of the veil between worlds. Rather than trying to recreate somebody else's autumn, we can look around us and notice what our own season is doing.

The leaves are falling, the days are becoming shorter and the darkness is returning. The themes still make sense. We're simply experiencing them at a different point in Earth's journey around the Sun.

Yule in June

This is perhaps the most obvious Southern Hemisphere switch.
While people in the north are celebrating Yule around December, we are doing it in June.

June in New Zealand is dark, cold and often gloriously miserable in that very particular winter way. The days are short, the evenings arrive early, and there is something deeply satisfying about lighting candles, making something warm to drink and celebrating the return of the light while the wind rattles the windows outside.

Yule is the winter solstice, the longest night of the year and the turning point where the days begin, slowly, to lengthen again. That makes a whole lot more sense when you're actually experiencing winter.

Spring arrives in August

By August, we reach Imbolc, traditionally associated with the first stirrings of spring, renewal and the returning of life. Here, that means something quite different from celebrating Imbolc in February.

We're coming out of winter. The days are gradually getting longer. Gardens begin waking up, buds appear and there are little signs everywhere that the world is preparing to grow again. Then comes Ostara in September, marking the spring equinox when day and night are approximately equal. Suddenly, the Wheel begins to feel very much like the world outside our windows.

It's more than changing the dates

It might be tempting to think that Southern Hemisphere witchcraft is simply a matter of taking the Northern Hemisphere Wheel and moving everything six months. But it can be much more meaningful than that.

The Wheel is about observing cycles. It's about noticing what the natural world is doing and allowing those changes to influence our own rhythms, rituals and reflections. If the season around you doesn't match the season described in your ritual, you're missing part of the experience.

Imagine trying to perform a ritual about the first signs of spring while surrounded by the blazing heat of December. You can certainly do it, but why ignore what is actually happening around you?

Instead, look outside. 

What is the land doing? What are the trees doing? What are the birds doing? What is happening in your garden? What does the weather feel like? How does the amount of daylight affect your energy and your routines?

Those observations can become part of your practice.
Your Wheel doesn't have to belong to somebody else's landscape. It can belong to yours.

Our own little turn of the Wheel

One of the things I love most about working with the Wheel of the Year is that it gives us permission to slow down and actually notice the passing of time. Modern life has a funny habit of making every month feel exactly the same. We work, shop, clean, pay bills, answer messages, make dinner and wonder how another year has somehow disappeared.

The Wheel asks us to pay attention.

It reminds us that there are seasons for growing and seasons for resting. Times for beginning and times for letting go. Times when the world seems full of energy and times when everything becomes quieter. When we turn that Wheel according to where we actually live, those changes become much more tangible.

So no, you don't need to celebrate Yule in December simply because that's when you've always seen it written in books. You don't need to pretend it's autumn when you're surrounded by summer. You don't need to force your practice to fit somebody else's calendar.

Turn the Wheel. Stand where you are. Look around.
Notice the season you're actually living in.
That's where your magick begins.