A christian Journey into the Eightfold Wheel
At the start of my journey into Christian Druidry, I resisted the wheel of the year to be honest, being a Christian I wasn’t too sure what to make of this ‘Wheel’ that just at the time seemed ‘Pagan’ (not that I had anything against pagans or paganism.)
I already recognised how Christian holidays always were entwined with paganism, but this felt like a different level with Lughnasadh which seemed clearly named after the god Lugh.
Still ancient Celtic Druids were Pagans, but just as Jesus was a Jew and practiced the normal Jewish stuff himself, Christians weren’t Judaist (well not all of them anyhow) and I’d been given the idea that Druidry meant that you didn’t have to be pagan either, so at the beginning I wasn’t sure what to make of the Wheel of the year. I have to be clear here, I thought and still do think pagan-Druidry is beautiful and authentic in every way, just as Muslim-Druidry, Buddhist-druidry, Zen Druidry and Hasidic-Druidry and all the other diversities that exist, but this was about understanding ‘why’ I was doing something, I’m not dogmatic for a reason and if I’m doing something, I like to understand the meaning and if it’s authentic to my spiritual path.
I did more research with Celts observing the solstices and equinoxes and I found Four of the festivals had Celtic origins which are known by their Celtic names, Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain and come from the ancestral Celtic tradition, they are at least 2000 years old, but no one seemed to know their origin and how really old. There known as the fire festivals that fall in the key moments of the agricultural year that was relevant to Britain.
This I found interesting as the agricultural year that’s relevant in Britain, isn’t relevant to someone else where in the world, Celtic origin or not, so people in the world who practiced Druidry were moving the dates, this I realised meant it’s the events happening agriculturally that were relevant and was because of nature and what was going on in nature in that part of the world, (not the name or actual date!) unless of course the date was correct agriculturally in that part of the world.
This showed that the prominence was based on creating a relationship with the Land, rather than god’s or dogma. So, the names (although with their own stories and lore to be explored) become a non-issue here for me. For a Druid it could be a time just to honour the land and season, nothing more if they choose.
The other four Solar festivals marked the passing of the sun over the year and go way back to at least the Neolithic ages and were observation of natural happenings in nature that our bodies have adapted to and our cultures from all over the world have been influenced by since the beginning, no faith owned that, it was simply scientific.
I also discovered that Garald Gardner spent much time in Asia as a young man which kinda explained why the Eightfold Wheel of the Year looks a lot like the Buddhist dharma wheel.
It started to become clear that the Eightfold Wheel of the Year clearly wasn’t as pagan as I’d initially thought and actually more a tool that pagans used to recognise the natural happening to make that special relationship with nature, you could put any names on the dates really, it’d still be Druid!
Because druids (unless they choose too) aren’t worshiping any specific God on these days, the dates aren’t about a ‘God/gods’ but solely nature. They weren’t just inspired by Celtic culture but cultures from all round the world!
As I said before, I had no problems with pagans or paganism, I could happily celebrate all the seasons with anyone, as no particular faith or religion owns them. With us all respecting each other’s faith, regardless of God/god's (or just atheism alone) we could all just ‘agree to disagree’ while honouring Nature, discovering the beauty and lessons her seasons has to offer, side by side.
The Eightfold Wheel and some Druid rituals, I come to realise brought together all different faiths, I found this very beautiful, this meant that ‘Labels’ under the one banner of certain ceremony’s had Universalism and Universalism needeth not always mean syncreticism, because we could all 'agree to disagree' with whatever label we choose ( 'Pagan' 'Buddhist or 'Christian' ) Nature in all its pureness, does that syncreticism part, we can all just hold hands and admire that Sunrise, together.
(By Vincent Loates)
