Sacred Days and the Seasonal Cycle as Metaphor

Sacred Days
~Sylviana


Every day is a holy day. We turn to face the Sun, and it 'rises' out of darkness, giving birth to and being 'reborn' into a new day. Yesterday is gone, except for the affect it has had on our lives and the memories we carry. No matter how beautiful or sad, it is done, and something new has begun in its place.

The aspirations and dreams we have built over time have new opportunities to be evaluated and progress. Each new day we live is a sacred day, a gift from the Gods. It is ours to live as we choose, though we are counciled to live it with all the wisdom and love we have inside.

"Saving time" is not possible, only choices in how we spend it are possible. Time is spent weather we will it or not, weather we are conscious of its process or not, and weather or not we become an active part in the process. It is given to you to spend, but be aware of both the gift and the spending.


Cycle of Seasons and Metaphor of Life


The cycle of seasons is a very real thing we can experience in nature. It is also a grand metaphor, and from watching the cycle progress we may learn lessons that help us to understand the cycles of our own lives better.

In our lives we experience the year long play of the seasons, this cycle which repeats year after year. We respond to them in different ways as we grow. As children, we looked forward to throwing snowballs in winter and eating ice cream on a hot summer day, and we began to understand them in reference to how they affected our play. We may have been curious at the different ways we noticed animals behaving at different times of the year- how we could hear baby birds chirping for food in the spring and summer- and how we saw them form ling lines and fly towards warmer places in the fall. However it affected each of us personally, an experience of the cycles of nature grows within each child. As we mature, we continue to experience the cycles of nature through how they affect our lives, and are more or less aware of the progression of seasons. This experience is a common denominator in the human experience of life.

Seasons have been a part of the lives of every person, and all living creatures. The experience of them may differ in places with climates and weather patterns that are not alike, but some forms of seasonal change exist everywhere on the planet. No matter how different the land or the time, there has always been a cyclical pattern of changes in weather and temperature which has been noted and experienced by its people. This cycle connects us to all of that history.

This year long cycle of changes has several phases. It has a beginning, a time which is a period of fertilization and new growth. It has a period of maturation, when things become ripe. It has a period of harvest, during which things are gathered and consumed or saved. It has a time of decline and passing, which we have more or less prepared for in the seasons that lead to it, and that season makes the world ready to grow again when the time is right. In its passing, it creates the circumstances under which the cycle may begin again and continue. The beginning is found in the ending, and the ending affects what will come to be.

It is life, and a metaphor for life. It is itself, and represents more than itself. It represents the history out of which it came, and the future which it will bring.

It represents the cycle of the life span of everything that lives; every person, every creature, every plant. There is birth; growth, fertilization, ripeness, harvest, contemplation, passing, and transformation. The present and continuing moment is a part of the movement of this cycle, and has a cycle of its own. Each day is a part of the cycle, and has a cycle of its own. Lives, years, seasons, days and nights all reflect in one another; they share common patterns. By experiencing the patterns of the seasons fully, and coming to understand them in a philosophical way, you may also come to understand other patterns. It will enrich your life and your understanding of life. As that understanding deepens, your ability to make good choices in living will expand, and you will be more able to bring into existence the things you want to harvest.