This wild & precious life
Most of us live out of sync with our natural rhythm. So imagine for a moment we lived in sync with nature and with a map to guide us each year. The map is ancient and fool-proof and gives us clarity on what to do, in the words of poet Mary Oliver, with this ‘one wild and precious life’.
Our ancestors lived in this way. So, instead of imagining we just need to remember their wisdom, that is preserved in a map called the Celtic Wheel which follows the seasons of the year and how they affect us. In this column I will write about how you can use its invitations each season to elevate your life.
But first, let me share my story.
My life transformed six years ago when I left my job, as a corporate lawyer in a big-city law firm in Dublin, with no idea what I would do next. I was well paid and promoted in my career but I was lost inside. I had no interest or passion for my work and at age 34, with years of study and hard work invested in my career, I felt stuck. I started to practice yoga and meditation to ease my anxiety and discomfort. Each day I’d
sneak out of the firm with my yoga mat hidden under my coat in fear that I would seem available for more work if I was able to take my lunch break. It was on my yoga mat that I started to pay attention to my inner voice that was showing up as unease in my body.
Every day I put my hand on my heart and whispered “please guide me” and waited for the answer to come. On instinct I took a trip to India, to an ashram during my winter annual leave, to retreat and experience living in a spiritual community. I went for two weeks and was confronted with my truth. Truth, once we ask for it, will reveal itself in unlikely ways. One day in the ashram, I sat in the south Indian sunshine with books from the library sprawled out on the grass in front of me. I was reading about mantra, ritual and prayer with fervour and scribbling down notes. A woman who I had befriended sat down beside me. She asked me with interest one simple question that forced me to confront my truth. ‘What do you work as back home?’.
That was when the voice inside me screamed. My life, seen or projected through this woman’s eyes, seemed inauthentic and distant from the things that truly interested me. My legal career felt like an uncomfortable borrowed costume that I suddenly couldn’t wear anymore.
I handed in my notice three months later.
My ashram retreat showed me that when we take time to consciously stop and listen to our inner self, we will hear our truth. This can be uncomfortable and inconvenient and so, often for this reason, we stay busy and distracted in an attempt to avoid change. However, life will reveal our truth eventually.
So imagine once again, that instead of being confronted by our truth, we use the seasons of the year to guide us gently to our authentic life.
The Celtic Wheel charts eight festivals that we see in nature. It begins with Samhain (‘Sow-wen’) on the 31 st of October and from there it circles through the year with the festivals of Winter Solstice, Imbolc, Bealtaine, Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, Lughnasa and Autumn Equinox. Each festival brings a change to the natural landscape and to our internal psyche.
We can use these seasonal invitations to transform our lives.
Samhain is a time to stop, rest and listen to your truth (and you don’t have to go to an Indian ashram to do this). It is the time to ask, what do I need to let go of? Winter Solstice is a time to receive the vision and dream for your future. At Imbolc, the beginning of Spring, set your intentions for the year ahead. Supported by your restorative and illuminating winter and the growing sun at Spring Equinox, take inspired action on your intentions and see them blossom in summer and the festival of Bealtaine, and celebrate the manifestation at Summer Solstice.
Following the natural rhythm of all things, Autumn and the festival of Lughnasa will give you the chance to gather the wisdom and gifts of your process. You can begin to turn inward at Autumn Equinox to descend into your inner cave of transformation once again at Samhain.
We are now in spring energy with the festivals of Imbolc and Spring Equinox. Nature is coming alive again after its deep hibernation and renewal. Internally this is a fertile time in
our psyche to be clear about what we want to create, do and feel this year. Spring gives us a sense of new beginning and reminds us that so much is possible.
To begin to work with the Celtic Wheel ask yourself, what is looking to emerge in your life right now? What seeds of potential are you going to sow? What thing will you pour your
energy into this year?
Once you learn how to use the invitation of each season, you can use it’s wisdom to embrace new beginnings (for example, a creative idea or a new home) whenever and wherever they show up in your life.
In my next writing piece I’ll be bringing you through the next stages of the Celtic Wheel and share more of my story about following natural rhythms to transform my life.