WHEEL OF THE YEAR

If you think of our calendar as a circle, a wheel, with Winter Solstice being at the North, Spring Equinox being at the East, Summer Solstice being at the South, and Autumn Equinox being at the West, you have a Wheel of the Year. And in our northern hemisphere you could travel around this wheel along with these seasons. Though supermarkets, imports and more have made all sorts of food available most all year round, many if not all foods we enjoy, as well as customs, traditions, and holidays follow a cycle and pattern. These, have in times gone by, been dictated by what foods were available, harvested, growing, grazing, bearing young, lactating, roaming, and hunted. So food is indeed seasonal. And it should remain so for a plethora of reasons. I can only speak here as a northern child of our Mother planet, for that is how I’m oriented, and what my habits body and soul even are connected with. d

     In these modern times we can enjoy Chilean fruits and veggies, flown north daily, in the midst of our winters. And while I don’t disparage doing so, there was a time not so long ago that this was impossible, and generations before were accustomed to the seasonal bounty the earth gave us, pared with human ingenuity of preservation out of necessity. And we have primordial signals within our psyche that are connected to what we eat and when. And when we follow the seasons and foods there of, we are, id say, more in sync with the rhythms of our existence.T

     You might pshaw my theory but let me relate two little stories. There is a very lovely Australian actress with porcelain skin, who shall remain nameless as I’m borrowing her story, who tells of Christmas with her family down under. Being as they are of British descent… Christmas, which happens in the bloom of summer heat in Australia, was always kept in the usual traditions by many there all the way down to the food served. Heavy foods like turkey or ham,  cakes and puddings, and all manner of preparations that heat up the house to cook, and are meant to fuel up your body with pleasure and warmth to help through the cold.  Well one year as they sat down to Christmas dinner… sweating, eating food that sat on their stomachs like hot bricks, it occurred to them to change the tradition. The following year they were on the beach ringing in Christmas in their swim suits with flowers and melons and shrimp on the barbie. ð

     My second story is about an experiment done to test psychic abilities. A group developed a machine with a wheel of lights that were extremely sensitive to electromagnetic waves. It was a biofeedback mechanism. The point being that known psychics with telekinetic abilities could  turn the lights on or off with just the power of thought as they were connected to the machine. They gathered people from all over the world who had shown great abilities in this area. The experiment was quite successful. The instructions were to make the lights move around the wheel in a clockwise direction. And a great number of the subjects were able to do so. This showed that the sensitivity of the machine pared with the power of human thought, which by the way generates electromagnetic energy, is a real phenomenon. But something strange happened. Some of the subjects no matter how they tried to make a clockwise direction movement, came up with the opposite result, counterclockwise movement just as definite as some of the others clockwise movement. An astute member of the group thought and then checked into an idea. All of the folks who could only move the lights counterclockwise were born and raised below the equator, in the southern hemisphere. Where as you may know cyclones, storms,  and even draining water in the sink turn opposite from the way they turn here in the northern half of our little planet. And clockwise was determined by the circular movement of the sun through the sky, which is also opposite down under.ü

     So we are much more in tune with the tilt of our planet, the rotation of it, the gravity of our star sun, and its light and energy. We are but products of this wonderful blue earth, part of it, part of the food chain, part of the web of life. And part of the seasons and wheel of the year. And so let’s embrace what is given to us in the wonderful beauty of seasons. Where we are, what we eat, what is right for our bodies fuel at any given time or place. c

     My heading for this blog has a hint into this wheel, the seasons and foods associated with them, all displayed in the photos. It’s a limited look but a hint of where I travel around this wheel each year. And I hold traditions, rituals and the foods, customs and joys as a practice to the rhythms of life. So I will talk from reference to the western culture and life here in the northern half of this planet.  But I never want to express with intention of being egocentric and the only way to see things.  I hope to ever remain open to learning about other cultures, foods, geographies. Alas my reference point even though limited in the scheme of the globe, is personally intimately, connected to the seasonal body-clocks of me, those around me, and probably most anyone who might read my thoughts. |

     Ahhh ..for food is close, its our bodies connected to our own nature, its necessary, its about what is here and now. The artistic creation of a meal or dish is not placed in a museum for centuries but eaten enjoyed experienced and gone. Cooking is such a transient but rich, necessary and bound to the earth, but uplifting and transcendent type of creative effort. And as I continue circling the wheel of the year I will share, each cycle, and the blessings of food associated with  each time and place. ä

   Blessings mes amis