Learning on the Sun-Wheel

To follow the hidden path of witchcraft is to commit ourselves to a life of learning, and the Craft makes no distinction between learning from books and learning from experience. The same rules apply to both.

The stages in learning can be charted around the Sun-wheel, also called ‘the wheel of the year,’ since it is commonly used to map the eight Sabbats or ‘restful recreations’ of the witches throughout the year. ¹ It is also a guide to the elemental directions ² of the ritual Circle, and to the four powers of the witch. ³ The directions, Sabbats, elements and powers are mapped on the Sun-wheel thus:

Direction      Sabbat        (date)            Element          Power

North             Yule            (c. 12/21)       Earth              To keep silent

Northeast     Imbolc         (2/2)

East                Ostara         (c. 3/21)        Air                   To know

Southeast      Beltane       (5/1)

South             Litha           (c. 6/21)        Fire                   To will

Southwest    Lammas or

Lughnasadh                            (8/1)

West             Mabon          (c. 9/21)      Water                 To dare

Northwest    Samhain        (10/31)

 

The great Sabbats, Imbolc, Beltane, Lammas and Samhain, represent points of transition from one elemental quarter to another. The importance of these transition points can be seen when we chart the course of learning around the Sun-wheel.

The most important thing to realize in charting learning around the Sun-wheel is that it is a cumulative process, that is, the qualities of each direction are carried forward as we travel sunwise around the wheel. If the quality of a direction is relinquished or lost, the process of learning stops.

Any learning process can be said to begin in silence, at the northern point. We begin by knowing nothing about a skill; we haven’t even considered learning it as yet. When we hear of a skill or subject that it is advantageous to know, we begin to cross over from the quarter of silence to that of knowledge. Our knowledge of the skill is still virtually without content, but we have seen its spoor or track and begin to follow its trail. This crossing-over from silence to knowledge, corresponding to the Sabbat of Imbolc or ‘first stirrings,’ marks the moment of intuition that begins the learning process.

From the northeast to the eastern point we may receive several of these intuitions or signals, and as we proceed sunwise we investigate some of them. At the east we settle on one skill and begin to find out just what it’s all about. We are no longer following tracks; here is the animal itself. We open ourselves up to learning it.

This is the east, the point of knowledge, but it is only one station on the path of learning. Those who think otherwise become desultory readers and may spend their lives picking up odd scraps of information about a thousand and one subjects. The phrase ‘jack of all trades and master of none’ refers to them, the old term ‘jack’ signifying a beginner.

The effort of learning requires a union of the learner and what is learned, but this union does not involve a serious commitment until the southeastern point, corresponding to Beltane, the handfasting of the Lady and Lord. Here we take responsibility for learning, by recognizing the efforts and sacrifices we will have to make in order to master the desired skill. As yet our commitment is unrealized in action, but now we know in practical terms what is required to continue on the path of learning. We are at the transition point between knowledge and will, about to enter the quarter of elemental fire.

Will is inseparable from action. As we begin allotting a certain amount of time each day to learning and practicing the new skill, we are fired with the enthusiasm of the new. This regular sacrifice of time and and effort is the fuel that feeds the sacrificial fire, and this fire carries a message to the gods ⁴ that we are serious about learning.

At the southern point, the heat of our enthusiasm reaches its peak, and we receive a check. Litha, the Sabbat of Midsummer, is the hinge between the waxing and the waning year. It is here that the Oak King is defeated by the Holly King and imprisoned in the sacred oak till Yule. ⁵ This is the point in our learning where our enthusiasm flags; we have mastered the rudiments of the subject and now we are face to face with its deeper complexities. This is similar to wading out in the surf and suddenly losing one’s footing. Now it is time to start swimming!

At this point, a quality of persistence must come into play. Persistence is a quality of earth, and it is communicated to the learner along the spokes from the northern to the southern quarter, the Watcher of the North ⁶ responding to the many sacrifices we have made up till now. This is the most important point in the learning process, and if we can continue for a season without the fire of enthusiasm, we will be given something better in its place at the southwestern point, corresponding to Lammas.

As we labor to master the new complexities, we ourselves become the sacrifice, not just a few hours out of our days. It is no longer a question of studying or practicing from 5 to 7 every evening; every spare waking moment must be given to this labor. It probably crosses our minds more than once that if we knew it was going to be this difficult, we would never have begun! We are climbing a mountain, and it is a truism among mountain climbers that no climb is worth it without the feeling that it should never have been attempted in the first place!

When we reach the southwestern point of Lammas we will know it, because suddenly some parts of the new skill become easier. We are beginning to acquire a ‘feel’ or knack for it. If it is a subject, a light begins to shine in certain formerly dark corners. At the same time, and perhaps as a result, we begin to discover that we like what we are learning. Our old enthusiasm was no genuine liking for it; we were drawn on by the prospect of benefits, what we could gain by learning it. But now, for some odd reason, we begin to feel that it is ‘our’ knowledge, ‘our’ skill. We have acquired what the teacher Gurdjieff called ‘valuation’ of the subject. ⁷ This is the first or grain harvest, when the Holly King lays down his John Barleycorn aspect as a sacrifice in the earth. The learner likewise lays him or herself down in the earth of the subject and is transformed into the sacred loaf of the journeyman. Having acquired valuation, he or she can now see the way clear to mastery. Of course this will be mastered, for it is now a part of the learner!

The quarter of west or daring is where we dare to go beyond our present limits, giving ourselves up completely to the task at hand. Like water cascading over a cliff, we dare to ‘go under,’ borrowing a phrase from Nietzsche’s Zarathustra. ⁸ We may die in the attempt, but we are going to achieve mastery! And we begin to do so at the western point, the point of death and initiation.

And now the dead come visiting. The valuation gained at Lammas was the result of the learner reaching deep within, past the personality of this incarnation, to his or her root-soul in the Otherworld, and there contacting talents and abilities from past lives. By Mabon, at the western point, these talents, along with past life memory associations, begin traveling up into the conscious personality and manifesting in the light of everyday life. The dead come visiting from Mabon to Samhain, ⁹ including one’s own past selves. We are no longer who we were, but are transformed through our new mastery; and yet we are more fully ourselves than before.

Then, at the northwestern point, the transition from daring to silence, the dead return in the Wild Hunt to the Otherworld and the quiet of winter descends. The mastered skill becomes second nature to us, and we build on it in new directions. What cost us so much to acquire can now be taken for granted. It has become so much a part of us that we are ready to direct our conscious learning beyond it, using it as we use the muscles and sinews of our limbs. Thus it disappears at the northern point. We have come full circle in the path of learning and await the arrival of new intutions, new directions at the northeastern point of the Sun-wheel.

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