THE EVER-WIDENING CIRCLE A New Pattern Glimpsed in the Holidays

[icymist]

INTRODUCTION
Have you ever held a kaleidoscope up to the light, turning it this way and that, for the sheer pleasure of the beauty it brings -- when suddenly, to your startled delight, the pieces fall into place, and you see a pattern that you've never seen before, one that makes sense?

I do that with the Wheel of the Year.

This particular kaleidoscope has long been my favorite toy. Again and again, I return to the Wheel of the Year, not only for the shifting beauty of Nature as seen through its moving prism, but because nothing else grounds our existence on this planet so completely, and nothing else can equal the comfort of its never-ceasing lessons of renewal. Yet every now and then, as I hold the Wheel up for inspection, gently turning it, a pattern will suddenly show itself, one that I fancy has gone unnoticed until now. This happened once before with my seasonal interpretation of The Death of Llew. And now it appears it has happened once again.

This "discovery" may not be as flashy as my reinterpretation of the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi, but it has a subtle charm all its own. Also, whereas my former essay tended to appeal mostly to specialists in Celtic mythology, this one is equally accessible to the generalist. It is based on a succession of folk customs connected with each of the holidays on the waxing side of the year. And while I lack specific analogous folk practices from the waning side of the year, I believe at least one other folk belief about the calendar will shed enough light to bring the Circle to a close.

With one exception, all these folk customs were mentioned in my previous essays on the Pagan holidays, and have been sitting there patiently waiting for me to notice their pattern for over 15 years! Consequently, it seems easiest to quote the significant passages from those earlier articles, following each with a comment on why it helps create the pattern. In this way, we can see how the Circle is born, how is expands, and how it reaches its final limit.

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