The Nature of Ritual with the seasons

 

 

 

Ritual marks transitions, beginnings, endings and everything in between. It helps us catch up with ourselves and let our stories breathe for a moment. On the simplest level, spring-cleaning and gathering in the firewood are rituals that make us mindful of the changing seasons. Some people put away their summer clothes at the onset of the cold season, an action that expresses acceptance that the warm days are indeed over. Bottling fruit and haymaking are seasonal rituals based on storing goodness for lean times ahead.

Celebrating the seasons is as old as the hills. To celebrate the seasons is to join with the cycles of life: as the movements of the sun and moon bring changes to the face of the earth, so do the movements of our own lives bring changes and transitions.

Today, although many of us live in cities, the movements of the seasons are constantly with us. Just think of how often we listen to the weather forecast, and how remarks on the weather are embedded in our greeting rituals. Fashion houses greet each season with gusto, releasing their new spring or autumn collection. The changeovers from netball to tennis or rugby to cricket, and the opening of the yachting season, all get our attention.

And much of our experience resonates with the seasons.

In spring the blood quickens, there is often a new energy for life, and we are more ready to initiate new ventures. In winter we often go inward: not only literally, staying at home more, but also within ourselves. We face our fears, and may get sick.

It is a time for reflection, very different from the outgoing energy and renewed health that comes with summer.

Heightening our awareness of the seasons through ritual allows us to honour our own rhythms and cycles. We remember that we are not static beings whose lives move in linear fashion, but that we are held by the wisdom of the circularity of life.

Seasonal rituals connect us with the energies of each phase of the year and allow us either to celebrate or to mourn the passing of one phase into the other. The ritual allows us to leave something behind and to embrace the new, to live in the present moment rather than drag our heels in the past. For people in a grieving process, a new season may mark the end of a phase and the opportunity to move forward. The holiday season that follows summer solstice is an occasion for shedding the old year, often through the rituals of parties and going into a phase of renewal.

On a deeper level still, seasonal rituals connect us with a deeper reverence for life, for the mysteries of the natural world and a deeper reverence for the great power of the universe, whether we call it life force, the goddess, god or source.