Several narratives describe the cycle of the Wheel of the Year. For many Wiccans, the most common cycle involves the dance of Earth and Sky, represented by the duality of the Goddess and God.
In one Wiccan narrative, the God, as the infant sun, is born from the Goddess at Yule, the shortest day of the year. From Yule onward the hours of daylight slowly increase.
At Imbolc, the festival of waxing light, the Goddess renews herself, as life stirs in the belly of the earth and the ewes begin to give milk.
When day and night are equal, the Goddess as the "maiden of spring and dawn" dances across the land at Ostara/Eostre, causing the flowers to sprout. The God ascends in the first of spring from the underworld with the new green growth.
The God, as the God of the herd animals, the Horned God, Lord of the Trees, the Oak King, the Green Man, courts the Lady in her maiden aspect at Beltane.
At Litha or Midsummer, the couple celebrate together. The Goddess is the fertile Earth Mother. The God is the burning bright Sun King, as well as the verdant Green Man. He transforms into the God of the Grain, also known as John Barleycorn.
The grain dies at Lammas, when it is cut at the first of the three harvests.
At Mabon, the acorns fall from the oaks belonging to the Oak King. Night and day are equal. It is the second harvest and the Wiccan Thanksgiving. The God has transformed into the God of the vine and fruit.
At last, he descends into the underworld at Samhain, where he transforms into the Lord of Shadows, Lord of Winter, the Holly King. The Goddess in her Crone aspect mourns him. Yet he will be reborn again--as the seasonal Wheel turns--from a spark of sleeping seed in the womb the Goddess. Thus we end with the beginning.
The above is a modern story based on timeless themes of death and rebirth. This narrative was orginally modeled after motifs and seasonal cycles mostly evolving in the British lsles, but it fits with USA Mid Atlantic seasonal cycles. There are endless variartions on this cycle in modern Neo-Pagan thought. For example, some start the cycle with the birth of the God at Imbolc. Generally, indivdual groups adjust this generic myth cycle to fit with the seasonal cycle in their own geography--as well as whatever pantheon or deity names the group works with on a regular basis.
Another version, promoted by Janet and Stewart Farrar in Eight Sabbats for Witches, explores a solar motif throught medieval iconography involving vegetation by focusing on the cycle of the Holly King and the Oak King. These two figures struggle with each other endlessly and is based on Celtic story cycles of two "kings" vying for the attention of the Earth Mother. (The Earth Mother, or Celtic Goddess of the Land, experiences transformation in this narative as well. Indeed at Imbolc, she is honored as the threefold Goddess.) At Midsummer the Oak King is at the height of his glory, but the weakened Holly King also begins to grow in strength as the days grow shorter. At the Autumnal Equinox the power shifts in the Holly King's favor, and he vanquishes the Oak King at Yule, who is honored with the oaken Yule Log. However, the Oak King regains his strength, and finally manages to shift the power at the Vernal Equinox. The brilliance of the Fararrs in using this motif is it also combines the archtypal images of the Green Man and Horned God. In the British Isles, the cycle of the growth season of plants is similar and meshes nicely with the solar cycle of lengthening daylight hours and heat. The plants grow as the sun grows.
Some, such as Feminist Dianic Wiccans, focus primarly on the transformations of the Goddess. At Imbolc, she renews herself in an underground hot spring. She ascends from the underworld and arises with the dawn at the vernal equinox and flowers spring up in her footsteps as she traverses across the land. At May Eve, she is the Faerie Queen, the nymph who revels with her people of peace in the Greenwood. She tranforms into the image of Empress seated on the green earth as her many children play around her at Mid-Summer. At Lammas, she is the Goddess of the Grain, the reaper, the Lady who bakes the bread loaf. At autumnal equinox, she is the Harvest Mother, the Lady of Abundance. At Samhain she is Wise Crone, the Winter Hag who descends to the underworld. There she grows young and is impregated with the new Sun which she will give birth to at Yule. The key importance in this Wheel of the Year narative is to explore and acknowledge all the faces of the Feminine Divine.
There are several mythic naratives or story cycles that involve the Wheel of the Year. An ancient example of the narrative of the seasonal wheel is expressed in the cycle of Greek festivals of the Eleusinian mysteries involving the spring maiden Persephone, the grain Goddess, Demeter, and the Lord of the Underworld, Hades, also known as Plouton. The year is divided by the pomegranate seeds eaten by Persephone in the underworld, marking the fertile and infertile cycle of the year. It is important to remember that the agricultural year of Greece is very different from that of the British Isles or the Mid-Atlantic USA. In Greece, the summer is too hot and dry to grow grain.
In Eleusis, the Greater Mysteries of Persephone and Demeter began on September 20. This festival involved the reconciliation between the figures in the mythic cycle, Demeter, Persephone, and Plouton. It had nothing to do with the harvest, which did not take place in the autumn.
The rites of Kalligenia on October 23 marked the Ascent of the Maiden, the time of planting barley seed. It was at this time that Demeter and her daughter were re-united.
January 10, the Festival of Haloa marked the celebration of new green growth both in the cultivated fields and the uncultivated, wild areas.
The Lesser Mysteries of Eleusis were celebrated in spring on April 12. It was a ceremony recapping the mythic growth cycle.
During Midsummer (June 28) was the Skir festival. This festival marked when the Maiden descended to the underworld. Persephone and Plouton united as the grain was stored away until planting. The fields would lie fallow until the rites of Proerosia on October 7, which involved pre-plowing rituals.
Viewing the dates, the seasonal and agricultural cycle of Eleusis in Greece is radically different than that of the British Isles, Northern Europe, and the Mid-Atlantic USA. Hence, the seasonal times of ascent and descent to and from the underworld are radically different as well. The cycle of the growth season of plants does not mesh with the solar cycle of lengthening daylight hours and heat.
Nevertheless, the timeless themes of planting/growth/harvest and birth/life/death are the same. During the infertile time of the year, Persephone resides with Hades or Plouton, lord of the underworld. In the fertile part of the year, Persephone resides with Demeter.