Recognising the Eight Seasons of Northern Finland
By Francis Joy
Seasonal Attunement
The imagination acts as a bridge between the conscious and unconscious minds. When we look around us, we see buildings, automobiles, and aircraft that were all imagined as possibilities before they were brought into their respective forms. We, likewise, see forests, waterways, art, sculpture, and even human beings through the lens of ancient spiritual, cultural, and ecological beliefs.
We have many systems inside our bodies that support life, which many of us have never seen but nonetheless recognize are there. If we look at the spiritual traditions of past and present cultures, we notice the importance placed on the relationships between people, animals, spirits, and sacred landscapes. Many of these relationships are connected to trees and forests.
Attunement to the seasons has ensured the survival of cultures for millennia. However, the rich traditional seasons of Northern Finland are threatened by climate change, which is causing disruption of the annual cycles.
The Sámi people have their own comprehension of the eight seasons and subsistence activities connected with reindeer herding enshrouded around them. The Finns of Northern Finland also have an understanding of endemic seasons. Rather than limited to four seasons, the region has at least eight:
• Pakkastalvi (frosty winter)
• Hankikanto (spring of crusted snow, snowdrift spring)
• Jäidenlähtökevät (ice break-up or ice-run spring)
• Keskiyönauringon aika (light green summer or nightless night)
• Sadonkorjuunaika (harvest time)
• Ruska (colourful autumn)
• Mustalumi (first snow)
• Joulukaamos (Christmas or polar nights) (City of Rovaniemi) (Figure 1 below)
Awareness of the turning of the seasons depends largely on the perception of changes in plant life for survival.
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Figure 1. The Eight Seasons of Northern Finland. Image Copyright: City of Rovaniemi
One of our approaches to encountering forest sentience is to reinforce seasonal consciousness of human relationships with plants and trees. A focus on the outer and inner worlds through exercises will help participants communicate with trees and other plants through the inner eye of the imagination. The aim is to open one’s imagination up to the wisdom of the forest.
Through meditation and visualisation, participants will be guided through the eight seasons by adjusting their personal rhythms to each season as a method to engage with forest sentience in different settings. Seasonal attunement will become a basis for art, photography, poetry, stories, performances, and songs demonstrating each participant’s transformation.
