The Wishing Tree Wheel of the Year

this article originally appeared in The Fellowship Journal of UUFLB in January of 2005.

If things went as planned, those of us who gathered for the Winter Solstice/Yule celebration, made a Wishing Tree, and I hope we’re able to continue to meet and create our trees throughout the coming year. I found the idea online at Ivy’s Pentacles. Throughout the year as the seasons change, you make a Wishing Tree, creating your tree and decorating it to look like the outside world. And as the seasons change, we will be meditating and reflecting on our wishes, and how they have been granted. At least, this is my wish for the coming year.

In the beginning, at Yule, the tree is resembling a sprouting plant. Yule, the Winter Solstice, celebrates the longest night on the calendar, in December, and the return of longer days; in a sense, the “rebirth” of the Sun. This is a time to look to the coming year, and since the days are growing longer, a time to start planting your own “wish seeds.”

The next celebration, Imbolc, celebrates the growing light, and very beginning of the planting season. Now is when we start making our plans for the future, and on the Wishing Tree, we would create its branches, and hang our wishes for the coming year from the branches. Imbolc is halfway between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox, and is usually celebrated on February 2^nd. This is also a time to celebrate new beginnings, and honoring the Maiden aspect of the Goddess.

With the Spring Equinox in March comes the balance of light and dark – day and night are of equal length, with the light growing towards fullness. Plants start to sprout, and we see life coming out of the ground that was frozen not that long ago. Some call this spring balance Ostara, or Eostara. This is when we start to put our plans made at Imbolc into motion, and on the Wishing Tree, we would add the first leaves to the branches.

When the Earth is at its fullest, lushest, and greenest, it is time for the celebration of Beltane, usually the night of April 30^th and the day of May 1^st. Great bale-fires were lit in honor of the fertility God and Goddess. This is when plans conceived at Imbolc, and set in motion at Ostara, begin to grow into what we expect. Buds of flowers will be added to the Wishing Tree as the Earth blooms to fullness.

At the peak of this fullness is the longest day of the year and the shortest night – Midsummer, or Litha. This is the Summer Solstice in June, and at this time our Wishing Tree will have opened flowers on the branches. The God is at his height, and the Mother aspect of the Goddess is honored in this celebration. Some believe that on this night, the realm faeries is most active, as it also is on Halloween.

The God wanes after Midsummer, and knows he is dying. Lughnasadh, named for the Celtic Sun God, is a celebration on August 1^st of the first harvest in the waning summer. The days are growing shorter, and on our Wishing Tree, the flowers are now closing and withering.

Again, day and night are equal at Mabon, the Autumn Equinox in September, and the light is noticeably waning. The Goddess is honored in her aspect of the Crone, the Wise Woman, as she prepares the God for his death. This is a second harvest festival, and a time to complete any old, unfinished business. On our Wishing Tree, the withered flowers will “fall” from the branches to the flower pot below.

The God dies at Samhain, on October 31^st, to be reborn at Yule. This is the dark time of the year, and a time to rest and meditate. Samhain is also the time when the veil between this world and the next is believed to be at it’s thinnest, and on this night, we can commune with those who have passed on. The leaves will finally “fall” from our Wishing Tree, and we will burn the wishes, and use the ashes for next year’s tree. And so the cycle continues on, as do we.

See you Sunday,

Trys

Sources:

* Ivy’s Pentacles: The Sabbats

* Holidays, by Akasha: The Celtic Connection

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