The Wheel of the Year by Rebecca Beattie — Thoughts & Reflections
Introduction
So I’ve just read the introduction – which is awkwardly not included in the page count of the book so I can’t accurately put a percentage for how far through the book I am, and all further percentages will be skewed, so I just won’t use them.
In the introduction, author Rebecca Beattie begins giving a little backstory about herself and then moves onto explaining the origins of The Wheel of the Year in Wicca and Druidism. She explains it all clearly (if not briefly) and I learned some things right off the bat. I’m personally very interested in paganism and witchcraft but Beattie also makes it clear this isn’t a book solely about Wicca and her target audience is anyone interested in nature-aligned living.
My only hang up so far is that she touches on alternate “Celtic” names for the Sabbats like Ostara, Litha, etc. and then says she won’t be using them because they are widely controversial and considered arbitrary because they came later. This seems strange to me and I’d like to know more. I don’t understand why these names are any more arbitrary than the previous Sabbat names, when Beattie herself acknowledges that the modern concept of the Wheel of the Year was made up (blending older traditions) in the 1950s and 60s. I guess this is something I’ll have to do my own research on.
So far, this book seems to be exactly what I was looking for: Detailed information on the phases of the year for the purpose of living more slowly and mindfully in connection to the natural world.
Chapter 1 – Midwinter or Yile
I love the comment by Mary Webb that Beattie chooses to open this chapter:
The most rthereal forms belong to winter; hers is
the beauty the leaf has when substance and sap are
gone and only the frail white outline belongs. This is
the best time to learn the proportions of things.
— Mary Webb
Beattie starts her book on the wheel of the year at Midwinter, which makes perfect sense to me; however, she assumes that the reader might be confused by the decision and goes on to explain it. She writes it is because it is the time of the “birth of the infant sun/son god”. I hadn’t put together the link between the growing of the sun from midwinter to the birth of Jesus in Christianity. I had assumed that Christians appropriated the pagan midwinter celebrations as an arbitrary bid for control (especially seeing as many Christians believe Jesus was born at a different time of year) and hadn’t considered there was such an obvious link of themes.
On a similar point, Beattie takes the opportunity to point out she doesn’t think it is important who celebrated Christmas first, Pagans or Christians. Part of me feels that she’s only saying that so as not to alienate any Christian readers away from her book. I have nothing against modern peaceful Christaians, but I do feel that historical Christian invasion or persecusion should not be overlooked. That being said, I do have a large bias in this matter. I’ve always been interested in the native folklore of my coutry (ghost stories, superstitions, faery stories, animism, and earth based worship) and I feel very resentful that so much of it has been erased by invaders. Meanwhile places like Scotland, Wales, and Ireland have retained a lot more of their culture, giving a hint at what ours could have been like while not actually being ours. From the Anglo-Saxons, to the Vikings, to the Normans, and the Romans, England has been invaded over and over again, and much of its native culture lost to time. I recognise the irony here, in the fact that Britain was one of the biggest invaders and collonisers in the world for hundreds of years, and that is a part of English history that I not proud of whatsoever. It’s difficult to find identity with a country where so much of its legacy is atrocity, and the more resonant parts have been washed away.
Another point of recurring tension between Beattie’s tone and my beliefs is where the subject of Celtism is concerned. I pointed out in the introduction how she disregarded Celtic terminology as arbitrary, and I noticed multiple other points where her I thought her tone showed disdain. However, before I get into that, I did do some research that confirmed that names like Ostara and Litha do seem like they were invented in modernity while names like Yule and Imbolic have much longer historical backing. However, it’s a misconception in itself to label Ostara and Litha as “Celtic”. So while I have educated myself enough to see Beattie’s got good reasoning not to use those terms, her labeling them as Celtic is just further evidence to me that she seems to dislike Celtic paganism. Now I’ll get onto those other examples I was talking about: On page 4 she writes “not all pagans identify as Celtic in their outlook.” and on page 6 “this is not only a Celtic phenomenon” when talking about solar monuments like stonehenge. I admire Beattie’s dedications to providing representation of different cultures and traditions but I wish she could do it without putting the term “celtic” down so much. But then again, I could be the one with a disproportionate bias.
Beattie gives several examples of activities or rituals to try for midwinter. These include decorating for midwinter, observing the bare bones of winter, a recipe for solar healing oil, and a ritual to celebrate midwinter. There is a diversity of tones and purposes in this list: celebration, levity, observation, reflection, and hope. I have always thought of winter as a time for quiet and reflection only while modern Christmas traditions are a capitalist takeover desisgned to distract us with materialism and forced busyness. Quite a cinical outlook, I realise, for what is often thought of as the most wonderful time of the year. (Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy Christmas; but its also hard work.) I realised that although nature definitely uses winter as a time or rest and dormancy, humans are social creatures who have always celebrated midwinter as a means to get together and create levity amongst cold, lean, hard times. Christmas wasn’t invented by businesses to make money. It was invented by our ancestors to get through long hard nights that we don’t raelly have to endure any more with our heating and our lighting and our imported food. It was Beatie’s first suggestion to decorate for midwinter that really helped me come to that realisation and I’m now in the process of recalibrating my expectations for what winter can mean.
That said, I think I know the reason why I’ve always felt drawn to the dark, still aspect of winter, and that’s because I’m drawn to the dark and the cold in general. I hate the heat and the sun. Being busy, going out, socialising, and trying new things drains me, probably beacause of my neurodiversity. Therefore, when I learned that winter was supposed to be time of rest… well, you didn’t have to tell me twice. I leaned into that aesthetic so far that I lost sight of anything else.
This links nicely into Beattie’s section on Being a Human Lighthouse, where she encourages us to support each other and be a light in the darkness. It’s a lovely message which she balances well with the concept of self-care. She writes about how we may not be able to change the world, but we can impact our corner of it. And then she writes “ripples upon ripples upon ripples” which I think is beautiful.
Finally, I enjoyed Beattie’s suggestions for the actual celebration of midwinter itselfr. She gives context on the meaning of what a lot of pagan witches do, a few simple suggestions, and then a longer ritual suggestion. I liked it because it incorporated respecct and reverence for the darkness and introducing light and inviting new hope. She was also clear that you can be flexible in the way you wish to go about celebrating midwinter. Overall, all Beatie’s suggestions throughout this chapter seemed accessible to me. Even the making of the solar oil used in the final ritual—which involved ingredients—was quite straightforward, and I appreciate that.

Did you enjoy this post?
If you did, here are some completely optional ways you can say thank you.
Comment Here
Telling me you enjoyed my writing is the number one guaranteed way to make my whole week.
Comment below!
Interact
Engaging with my social media helps me reach more readers. Perhaps you can even think of someone to share with?
Donate
Even the smallest donations allow me to keep doing what I love. Thank you for considering.