I’ve quoted him before and I’ll quote him again. Author and teacher Ivo Dominguez Jr. remarked in his book Casting Sacred Space: The Core of All Magickal Work that “In its fullness, a Circle can contain a richness so complex that if all of Wicca were lost except for the way to cast a Circle, and its symbolism, the faith would renew itself from that one seed.”  The Circle is of vital importance to Wicca both thealogically and magickally.  It represents cycles.  It represents the eternal present moment.  It represents here and there and in-between.  It is a dynamic balance of a multitude of energies, all in play at once.

Here’s a secret for you.  The Magic Circle and the Wheel of the Year are the same thing.  We call it the Circle when we’re working in a particular space at a particular moment.  We call it the Wheel of the Year when we’re marking the passage of time in a cycle.  But, as science tells us, space and time are really facets of the same thing, the same fabric of reality that makes up this universe.

Here’s another secret for you.  All of the correspondences in the archetypal Circle are happening all around us all the time.  We place them at certain points on the Circle to better help ourselves understand the magnificence and complexity of this universe, but that doesn’t mean that they only exist at that point on our depiction.  People don’t just die at Samhain.  The wind doesn’t always come from the East.  Even in the depth of winter, some plants flourish.  Everything in the Circle/Wheel is happening all around us all the time.

Elements and Sabbats

Let’s look at the correspondence on the archetypal Circle.  At the most basic level, we have the elements: Air in the East, Fire in the South, Water in the West, and Earth in the North.  Each Element extends from cross-quarter to cross-quarter; that is, Air covers northeast to east to southeast, Fire covers southeast to south to southwest, Water covers southwest to west to northwest, and Earth covers northwest to north to northeast.

These elements correspond with certain parts of the self: Air represents the mind, Fire represents the will, Water represents the emotions, and Earth represents the body.  From these correspondences, we also get the process of creation: Air represents inspiration, Fire represents creative drive, Water represents emotional investment, and Earth represents manifestation.

Finally, these elements correspond with certain times of life, which also have correspondences in the quarter days, also called the Lesser Sabbats, of the Wheel of the Year.  In East, we have Ostara, the Spring Equinox, which is about birth and new life.  In South, we have Litha, the Summer Solstice, which is about the fullness of life.  In West, we have Mabon, the Autumn Equinox, which is about aging and decline.  And in North, we have Yule, the Winter Solstice, which is about the mystery of death and rebirth.

But we’re missing something: the cross-quarter days, also called the Greater Sabbats.  In the northeast, we have Imbolc, which is about germination and preparation.  Ever wonder why in traditional circles you enter in the northeast?  This is why!  The first time you step into circle you’re about to be born as a witch, and every time after that you’re reliving that moment and all it means.

Okay, secret over.  Back to the cross-quarters.  In the southeast, we have Beltaine, which is about youth and leaving the nest.  In the southwest, we have Lughnasadh, which is about maturity and building a legacy.  And in the northwest, we have Samhain, which is about decay and the inevitability of death.

When the eightfold Sabbats and their correspondences are merged together in the archetypal Circle, new correspondences reveal themselves.  We see three sabbats that deal with fertility of nature: Imbolc, Ostara, and Beltaine.  The first is fertility of plants, the second of animals, and the third of people.  We also see three harvest sabbats: Lughnasadh, Mabon, and Samhain.  The first is the harvest of grain and fruits, the second of nuts and gourds, and the third of animals in the form of slaughter for meat.  The two sabbats that remain, Litha and Yule, are about resting.  Litha is about resting while work comes to fruition.  Yule is about resting in preparation of new work to be done.  These are different types of rest: at Litha, we see lots of family and community barbeques and outdoor recreational events, and at Yule we see lots of family gatherings indoors and quiet time for extra sleep.

So this is our Circle/Wheel as it represents cycles of life, nature, and manifestation.  But there are other types of correspondences to be aware of: correspondences having to do with different spiritual entities.

Spirits and Deities

Let’s start with the Quarters.  Each quarter has an element associated with it, each element has entities called elementals that are associated with it, and each elemental has a ruler that governs them.  These mighty forces embody the nature and correspondences of each element.  In the east, we have sylphs, ruled by Paralda.  In the south, we have salamanders, ruled by Djinn.  In the west we have undines, ruled by Nixsa.  And in the north, we have gnomes, ruled by Ghob.

Now let’s add Deity to the picture.  Depending on your tradition, the Goddess may rule from Beltaine to Samhain and the God from Samhain to Beltaine.  Or the Goddess may rule the entirety of the Wheel and her Consort in the form of the Oak King and the Holly King may change at Litha (to the Holly King) and Yule (to the Oak King).  Either way, this divides the circle into a light half and a dark half.  

In my tradition, the God is associated with the East (light and activity) and the Goddess with the West (darkness and reflection).  Because they are a divine pair, they both rule the entirety of the Circle, though in different ways at different times.  But that’s a whole video in and of itself.  For now, just see them as equal and balanced partners.

There are other entities we work with in my tradition, namely the Ancestors.  They are associated with the North, the place of death and rebirth.  That’s because in my tradition, the Ancestors are those who have come before and those who will be among us again.  The spirits or personalities of individual ancestors dwell in Summerland but the soul returns again in a new body with a new spirit/personality to learn new lessons and remember, seek, find, and know once more their spiritual family.  In our tradition, the Ancestors really refer to all humans who have died, because science tells us that we’re all distantly related to one another.

Finally, in the South, we have both the Self — that’s our own spirits and the spirits of living people — and the Familiar Spirits — that’s any spirit entity that we’ve come to know and work with.  South is the place of life and activity, the place of creative willpower, so it’s appropriate to represent ourselves here on this archetypal map of the cosmos.  Likewise, living non-corporeal entities like dryads, devas, animal spirits, and spirit allies, belong here because they are alive and have their own will and agency.  Individual familiar spirits will have their own strengths and weaknesses, their own talents — just like us as human beings — but as a whole they’re represented in the South.

Sun, Moon, and Stars

The last correspondence set that I want to share with you on our archetypal Circle/Wheel is that of the sun and moon phases.  We’ve already talked some about the sun phases — the solstices and equinoxes — but let’s get specific about both the sun and the moon.

Let’s start in the East.  Ostara, the Spring Equinox, is the time when the Sun reaches zero degrees Aries.  It’s celebrated between March 20th and 23rd.  Beltaine, the traditional beginning of Summer in the Celtic Calendar, is celebrated on the calendar as May 1st but astrologically when the Sun reaches 15 degrees Taurus.

In the South we have Litha, the Summer Solstice.  It’s celebrated when the Sun reaches 0 degrees Cancer.  Like Ostara, it’s not a fixed date but rather somewhere between June 20th and 23rd.  Lughnasadh is next, and it’s celebrated on the calendar as August 1st but astrologically when the Sun reaches 15 degrees Leo.

In the West we have Mabon, the Autumn Equinox.  It’s celebrated when the Sun reaches 0 degrees Libra.  On the calendar that’s between September 20th and 23rd.  Then there’s Samhain, which is celebrated on the calendar as October 31 but astrologically when the Sun reaches 15 degrees Scorpio.  Side note, it’s also the traditional beginning of Winter on the Celtic calendar.

Finally, in the North, we have Yule, the Winter Solstice.  It’s celebrated when the Sun reaches 0 degrees Capricorn, which on the calendar is between December 20th and 23rd.  After Yule comes Imbolc, which on the calendar is February 1 and astrologically is when the Sun reaches 15 degrees Aquarius.

While we’re in the northeast of our archetypal Circle, let’s talk about the moon phases.  The moon is a waxing crescent in the northeast, a first-quarter moon in east, a waxing gibbous in the southeast, and a full moon in south.  Then it’s a waning gibbous in the southwest, a last-quarter moon in the west, a waning crescent in the northwest, and a dark moon (astronomically called a new moon) in the north.  Here’s another little nugget of traditional knowledge for you: in the First Temple tradition, the dark moon is when the moon is at 0% illumination, and the new moon is when you can see the first little sliver of it in the sky, about 6% illumination.

Circle/Wheel in Four Dimensions

Up to this point, we’ve discussed our archetypal Circle in two dimensions.  But as you may have already figured out, the cast Magick Circle isn’t actually a circle — it’s a sphere or ovoid shape that not only encompasses the ground we stand on but also the air above it and the rock below it.

And that’s where the Axis Mundi comes in.

In Celtic mythology, the tree is a rich symbol in and of itself.  Its roots reach deep into the land and pull water from hidden places.  Its branches stretch into the sky to seek energy from that great ball of fire we call the Sun.  Its trunk is the conduit from roots to branches and the support of the entire tree.  This concept of connecting the realms — Upperworld, Middleworld, and Underworld — together and providing a means of travel between them brings a third dimension into the concept of the archetypal Circle, a dimension that is only revealed in a cast Magick Circle.  Because the Circle is a place between worlds, a neutral space where beings from our realm and from other realms can comfortably interact, it also provides for the ability to comfortably travel to those other realms.  By using the Tree as our image, we can think of this travel upward or downward or forward or backward or outward or inward as hitching a ride through the fibers of this vast celestial Tree that connects all things in space — and in time.

In a cast Magick Circle, there’s also a timeless quality that I call the eternal present moment.  It’s a sense of immediacy that doesn’t carry with it a sense of urgency.  It simply exists, mindfully present, from moment to moment.  When we interact with it, we too feel mindfully present and able to exist in the moment or cast our thoughts to the past or future in a deep and meaningful way.  We can experience time in a different way, not in the strict linear fashion that we do in ordinary reality, and this spinning, whirling, flowing spiral of events is the mysterious fourth dimension of the Circle/Wheel.  I can’t say more about it as, like all true Mysteries in Wicca, it must be experienced in order to be understood.