Firstly being in tune with the energy in the weather and the seasons is incredibly helpful in my own magickal practices. You have to work with what you have and a piece of magick that resonates best with the particular emotions and feelings captured by long hot balmy summer nights works less well in the dead of Winter covered in frost and snow. Better attuning yourself to the energies of the season allows you to understand the best way to perform your magick in harmony with the energy available to you. It is simply another form of energy and power to utilise in your workings and one that is varied and abundant. However it is also a fickle and changeable energy which is why it is important to attune yourself. Whether you are Wiccan or not, the eight Sabbat festivals of the year which mark a mixture of Solstices, Equinoxes and important agricultural dates give a good basic framework for attuning yourself to the changing energy of the seasons. They provide a great template for the big energy peaks but I want to delve a little deeper that this. Whilst a night of celebration is great fun and can be spiritually moving, I don’t agree that one big party for a couple of hours is really the full story. The seasons change gradually through a number of small signs, my method of working is to slowly absorb and notice those signs, gradually moving myself into a different energetic state by a small amount each day at the same pace as the season itself changes. The festival is then a ultimate celebration – a feeling of having arrived, but importantly I have made a journey to reach that arrival. This is a more organic way of noticing and attuning and it allows you to really luxuriate in the changes which is important for point number two…
Secondly I want to enjoy my life. I don’t want to spend each Winter pining for the Summer, wishing my life away. Looking for the good things in each season may sound like an annoyingly Pollyanna way of working, however when it comes to the weather (especially in the UK) the only thing you can rely on and control is your own reaction. I do not mean to dismiss those people who suffer SAD, I think that they have an unfortunate burden to bear which no amount of positive thinking can erase. However for the rest of us we can find the good in all the seasons and by finding what is enjoyable we can start to enjoy them.
I love the first frost and the first daffodils, I love the bare skeletons of Winter trees and the lush abundance of my Summer garden. I love it all, no matter how wet or annoyed I may get at times.