Your own "Wheel of the Year" mythic interpretation

[Tanbrid]

Does anyone have their own mythic or symbolic interpretation of the Wheel of the Year, or another cycle of holidays? I know a lot of people here have stated that the God being born/dying/rising again thing doesn't really click with them, so I wondered if anyone had some interesting alternatives.
Any concept of yearly cycles that aren't agricultural?

[Py23]

Does anyone have their own mythic or symbolic interpretation of the Wheel of the Year, or another cycle of holidays? I know a lot of people here have stated that the God being born/dying/rising again thing doesn't really click with them, so I wondered if anyone had some interesting alternatives.
Any concept of yearly cycles that aren't agricultural?

 
mm, I don't know if that counts as mythic interpretation, but where I live the wheel of the year is quite defferent. All the cananian wheel of the year praise the winter instead of the summer. The summers are the time of death and the winters are the time of rebirth. So, we celebrate the sabbats but with different stories, often from the local pagan traditions, to make them more suitable for the seasons.

[Sobekemiti]

Does anyone have their own mythic or symbolic interpretation of the Wheel of the Year, or another cycle of holidays? I know a lot of people here have stated that the God being born/dying/rising again thing doesn't really click with them, so I wondered if anyone had some interesting alternatives.
Any concept of yearly cycles that aren't agricultural?

 
All I've really got so far, in my quest to figure out a festival year that works for me, is a cyclical Wesir/Ra dynamic. Their light is equal at the equinoxes; the spring equinox heralds the light part of the year when Ra is most powerful, and the autumn equinox the dark time of the year when Wesir is most powerful. Wesir's power peaks at the winter solstice, and Ra's peaks at the summer solstice. I've been pondering other festivals or holidays that might work for it, but I think I'm probably just overcomplicating it. But mine's definitely not particularly agricultural. It's more tied to the seasons and the passage of the sun.

For me, it's not that I don't gel with the dying god mythos, because Wesir is a dying god, and the Mysteries of Wesir are one of my favourite festivals, if I can say it's a favourite, given it marks Wesir's death and establishement in the Duat/Afterlife, and it can be a very sad and solemn festival. It's more that, after many years of attempting to make the native Kemetic calendar work for my place, and my local seasons, I just couldn't make it work anymore. So I went back to the Wheel, and now I'm starting again with that. Apparently, I cared more about the yearly cycle matching my seasons more than I thought I did. It's very much a work in progress at this point in time.

[Materialist]

Any concept of yearly cycles that aren't agricultural?

In my Grhya practice, I have reinterpreted the quarterly festivals to center around the upkeep of cult objects, inspired by the festival of Sravani, which features the sacred cord (upavita). Caitri I've picked for the  urn; Agrahayani for votive candles, and Asvayuji for the jar of water.

[Kylara]

Does anyone have their own mythic or symbolic interpretation of the Wheel of the Year, or another cycle of holidays? I know a lot of people here have stated that the God being born/dying/rising again thing doesn't really click with them, so I wondered if anyone had some interesting alternatives.
Any concept of yearly cycles that aren't agricultural?

 
I struggle with the agricultural, so I try to look at the wheel more from an animal perspective:  what are the critters doing at any given time (being that I am also a critter!).

[Sage]

Does anyone have their own mythic or symbolic interpretation of the Wheel of the Year, or another cycle of holidays? I know a lot of people here have stated that the God being born/dying/rising again thing doesn't really click with them, so I wondered if anyone had some interesting alternatives.
Any concept of yearly cycles that aren't agricultural?

I end up following the wheel of the year cycle for the local UU pagan group I'm starting, but personally my calendar is coming together with the Gaelic fire festivals for Brighid and some separate-yet-intertwined cycle for Kemetic stuff. The Brighid cycle is relatively simple because I've been doing the fire festivals for almost seven years now. There's also the shorter 20-day cycle of my flamekeeping shifts.

The Kemetic cycle... this is my first year and I'm nowhere near recon, so I'm pretty much picking and choosing what festivals call to me. Wesir's Mysteries and Wep Ronpet are two festivals I feel need to be in there every year whereas I might shake up other holidays from year to year. Right now I'm in the state of "omg all the netjer are so cool" and don't have much preference, but Anubis seems like a good place to start. So I might poke my nose at festivals for Anubis and His family this year.

*muses the viability of a Brighidine Kemetic calendar*

[quarks]

Does anyone have their own mythic or symbolic interpretation of the Wheel of the Year, or another cycle of holidays? I know a lot of people here have stated that the God being born/dying/rising again thing doesn't really click with them, so I wondered if anyone had some interesting alternatives.
Any concept of yearly cycles that aren't agricultural?

 
I'm still trying to figure out my holiday schedule.  For the wheel of the year dates, I'm trying to celebrate Hellenic festivals from those time points.  Some are seasonal based, but they don't always tie in with agriculture.  I don't really feel called to celebrate the born/dying/rising thing, but it's nice to have some celebrations at the same time as others, even if your not celebrating the same thing.  I'm trying to do this to fit in the ADF high days in a Hellenic context, but I have no idea if I will keep with it or evolve it into something else.  I also want to celebrate Hellenic holidays that don't fall into the Wheel of the Year schedule.

[kiarakapow]

I struggle with the agricultural, so I try to look at the wheel more from an animal perspective:  what are the critters doing at any given time (being that I am also a critter!).

 
I also struggle agriculturally but I'm trying to get better!

For my interpretation I use the Sun and the Moon. For example, Yule would be the "dying" of the Sun since it's the longest night of the year the Moon takes over for awhile. And Midsummer would be the Sun taking over and the Moon "dying". I don't know if that makes sense to y'all but it works for me.

[Tom]

Does anyone have their own mythic or symbolic interpretation of the Wheel of the Year, or another cycle of holidays? I know a lot of people here have stated that the God being born/dying/rising again thing doesn't really click with them, so I wondered if anyone had some interesting alternatives.
Any concept of yearly cycles that aren't agricultural?

 
I've always struggled with figuring out things based on a yearly cycle, so lately I've just been spending time just observing the world around me and I also react to the changes in light and weather.

This is incidentally how I realized that I have seasonal depression and that understandably will flavor how I see things.

Still working out on what all this will mean to me in the end however.

[AmberHeart]

Does anyone have their own mythic or symbolic interpretation of the Wheel of the Year, or another cycle of holidays? I know a lot of people here have stated that the God being born/dying/rising again thing doesn't really click with them, so I wondered if anyone had some interesting alternatives.
Any concept of yearly cycles that aren't agricultural?

The Wheel of the Year I follow is partly based on an interpretation of the Demeter-Kore cycle. While that mythos has an agricultural foundation, the Wheel's turning is focused also on self-transformation using the transformational journey of the Maiden to Mother to Crone and reborn again as Maiden.

At Yule, the Mother gives birth to the Divine Twins, the Sun King and the Holy Daughter. While the Sun King follows the agricultural cycle (a complementary mythos that involves the Mother), the Holy Daughter has multiple roles through transformation. She is Named as an Infant at Candlemas or Imbolc. She plays as the Maiden at Ostara (Spring Equinox) and also returns as an adult version who will then become the (new-next) Mother. At Beltane, the younger Maiden begins to ask questions of herself. At Litha (Summer Solstice) she begins to seek answers as the Wheel turns from life towards death. At Lammas, she observes sacrifice and harvest, prompting more questioning. At Mabon, (Autumn Equinox), she descends voluntarily into the Underworld, seeking those answers as we do searching within ourselves for understanding. Upon Samhain, the Crone will also descend to become the (Dark) Maiden’s guide and then to be reborn Herself as the next Maiden at Yule (Winter Solstice). Here as the Light Returns, the Dark Maiden finds her answers and begins the long solitary  journey upward as the answers she has received are gestated and nurtured within her. She will return again with Beltane to become the next Mother and reweave what she has learned back into her journey.  

It is a Wheel/cycle that never ends and overlaps with both the Mother's journey and that of the Crone.

[yewberry]

Does anyone have their own mythic or symbolic interpretation of the Wheel of the Year, or another cycle of holidays? I know a lot of people here have stated that the God being born/dying/rising again thing doesn't really click with them, so I wondered if anyone had some interesting alternatives.
Any concept of yearly cycles that aren't agricultural?

 
I'm not a theist, so gods don't really have a place in my beliefs.  Agriculture (as in cultivation and harvest) does have a big part in my life.  I food-garden pretty intensively in our short season.  That said, I don't base my ritual year around it.

Instead, my ritual year consists of four natural points:  First Frost, First Flake, First Flower, and First Fruit.  These are loosey-goosey, personal (based on my own observation, not the "actual first snowflake that falls on my land") and not evenly spaced.  Our climate basically consists of a long, wet autumn and spring, with a short, fairly mild winter and summer at either end.  I do my best to honor them with offerings to spirits-of-place and activities that reinforce my connection to these cycles, though.

Brina

[Juniper]

Instead, my ritual year consists of four natural points:  First Frost, First Flake, First Flower, and First Fruit.  These are loosey-goosey, personal (based on my own observation, not the "actual first snowflake that falls on my land") and not evenly spaced.

That's lovely, I like that idea a lot.

I used to live a hectic lifestyle when I lived back in the UK, never stopping to allow time to notice anything around me (in both the natural world and my own domestic world too). Then I moved to rural Missouri and found myself unable to work due to the slow-moving immigration process and living in a house in the middle of the woodlands. It really made such a difference to my perception of the world and I began to realize how becoming attuned to the natural world around me did wonders for my psyche as a whole.

Even though I work again now and have bills to pay, multiple critters to care for, and land to maintain (we moved from the woodlands to a place with a little bit of woods, plus pasture) I still take the time to notice. Not because I force myself to, rather I just do. I can't imagine not anymore.

[Freesia]

I'm not a theist, so gods don't really have a place in my beliefs.  Agriculture (as in cultivation and harvest) does have a big part in my life.  I food-garden pretty intensively in our short season.  That said, I don't base my ritual year around it.

Instead, my ritual year consists of four natural points:  First Frost, First Flake, First Flower, and First Fruit.  These are loosey-goosey, personal (based on my own observation, not the "actual first snowflake that falls on my land") and not evenly spaced.  Our climate basically consists of a long, wet autumn and spring, with a short, fairly mild winter and summer at either end.  I do my best to honor them with offerings to spirits-of-place and activities that reinforce my connection to these cycles, though.

Brina

 
I haven't started any regular ritual practice yet, but I really like that climate based observation. I live in a desert environment and revere the moon and the rain so I may do something with that.

[Sophia C]

I'm not a theist, so gods don't really have a place in my beliefs.  Agriculture (as in cultivation and harvest) does have a big part in my life.  I food-garden pretty intensively in our short season.  That said, I don't base my ritual year around it.

Instead, my ritual year consists of four natural points:  First Frost, First Flake, First Flower, and First Fruit.  These are loosey-goosey, personal (based on my own observation, not the "actual first snowflake that falls on my land") and not evenly spaced.  Our climate basically consists of a long, wet autumn and spring, with a short, fairly mild winter and summer at either end.  I do my best to honor them with offerings to spirits-of-place and activities that reinforce my connection to these cycles, though.

Brina

I'm starting to see the Wheel in a similar way. I celebrate it from the perspective of (largely revivalist) druidry, which interprets the Wheel as closely tied to the land. I'm starting to celebrate Imbolc when I see the first snowdrop or crocus open (they're already popping up here! - spring can arrive early here), and the same with the other festivals e.g Bealtaine arrives with the hawthorn. That also works well with my reconstructionist-influenced approach too.

[yewberry]

I haven't started any regular ritual practice yet, but I really like that climate based observation. I live in a desert environment and revere the moon and the rain so I may do something with that.

Exactly.  If I lived in the Desert Southwest, or Upper Midwest, or the Florida Keys, my ritual year would be very different.

Brina