Imagine that you're standing in the middle of a clock-face, facing 3.
Stretch out your right arm towards 5 and your left towards 1.
Now face East and hold your arms out in the same way. Extend the angle of your arms all the way out to the horizon.
Here where I live (44.9778° N), that's how far the Sun travels from one Sunstead (Solstice) to the next. Same with the Western horizon.
Due East and West, of course, mark the Sun's rising and setting positions at the Evendays (Equinoxes).
The midway points between the Sunstead and Evenday risings and settings mark the Cross-farthing points: Samhain-Imbolc (southerly) and Bealtaine-Lunasa (northerly). From wherever you live, you should be able to point out these places on your own horizon. If you're not paying attention, you're not pagan.
Having lived in the same house for almost 30 years now, I know these “Stations of the Sun” very well indeed. I'm nonetheless always astounded at how quickly the Sun moves along the horizon. The rising point now is well past the Imbolc mark, well on the way to Ostara/Easter, and we have the dawn skies to prove it.
At the very heart of our Yule each year turns the Great Dance of the Wheel, the dance of the Sun's Rebirth.
Listen while I tell of it.
Wearing holly, the circle of men faces outward. Wearing ivy, enclosing, the circle of women faces in.
The two circles take four steps toward each other, then four steps back.
Then the circles wheel. One moves sunwise, the other, widdershins.
Again the concentric circles expand and contract. Once again they wheel, reversing direction.
The song that accompanies the dance tells the seasons of the Sun's life: winter, spring, summer, fall, and back again to winter. In one infinite instant, the Sun is begotten, born, begets, and dies. Like the dance, the song wheels, returning again to its own beginning. In the end, it becomes a round, turning and turning on itself.
In this way, we work our magic.
What would you do if a non-binary person (like myself) wanted to dance?
It’s December, and here in the UK that means grey skies, dampness, cold conditions, bare branches... it would seem like madness to be talking about signs of spring.
Except that I can see them.