There is a joke among the Druid community that you can ask ten Druids what Druidry is about and you will get at least twelve different answers. However the one thing that Druids will all agree on is the wheel of the year. This is a calendar of festivals that combine the solar events of the summer and winter solstice and the spring and autumn equinox with the four Celtic fire festivals of Imbolc, Beltaine, Lughnasa and Samhain. This alternating arrangement fits neatly together to give a focus and a festival approximately every six weeks.

Since the winter solstice the days have been imperceptibly lengthening and where I live in the North of Scotland the sunrise is currently 08.30 and sunset 16.45 so it is starting to make a difference to the daylight hours but I look out of my window at the land and at first glance there are no changes, the land still seems to be deep in its winter slumber and yet looking closer I see that the catkins on the hazel bushes have dropped and if I crawl under the hedge there are the first snowdrops, a week or so ago I saw a frog hopping around deceived by the warming temperatures but then we had snow and once this had thawed there was a dead toad that had made the same mistake. We have just celebrated the festival of Imbolc which traditionally is when the Ewes first milk comes and the lambs start to be born. So we are just tipping over into the days of growth and plenty. This is a good time to start new projects, set the intent and begin.