A lyrical, poetic chronicle of nature's annual cycle, blending ancient wisdom with modern science.
The Year takes us on a journey into how nature transforms across twelve months, each chapter focusing on a specific month's natural events, from spring's beginning through winter's end. It opens with an overview of our evolving understanding of time and nature, from ancient astronomy to the present, and concludes with a chapter on the impact of climate change. Spike Bucklow draws on both modern ecological studies and historical naturalists such as Aristotle, Gilbert White, Thoreau, and Aldo Leopold. Poetic reflections from Ovid, Shakespeare, John Clare, and William Wordsworth enrich the narrative, offering further insights into nature's changes. Blending modern science with traditional wisdom, The Year provides a positive perspective on ecological, global, and personal change, appealing to those interested in ecology, astrology, and the history of science.
'The Year is a contemplative almanac charting nature and culture through the zodiac, with a powerful message for our time of grave disjuncture between the two.'
Ferdinand Saumarez Smith, author of Eleusis and Enlightenment
'A wonderful book that invites you to read its words in ebbs and ows: a historical-cultural-aesthetic-poetic almanac to carry in your pocket, its sentences in your head.'
Julian Yates, H. Fletcher Brown Professor of English, University of Delaware
By:
Spike Bucklow
Imprint: Reaktion Books
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 216mm,
Width: 138mm,
ISBN: 9781836390787
ISBN 10: 1836390785
Pages: 232
Publication Date: 01 September 2025
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming
Prologue: Ecology and the Zodiac Chapter One March–April: Cardinal Fire, ‘Emergence’ Chapter Two April–May: Fixed Earth, ‘Flowering’ Chapter Three May–June: Mutable Air, ‘Mixing’ First Interlude: Summer Solstice Chapter Four June–July: Cardinal Water, ‘Nurturing’ Chapter Five July–August: Fixed Fire, ‘Ruling’ Chapter Six August–September: Mutable Earth, ‘Serving’ Second Interlude: Autumn Equinox Chapter Seven September–October: Cardinal Air, ‘Journey to the Other’ Chapter Eight October–November: Fixed Water, ‘Dwelling in Darkness’ Chapter Nine November–December: Mutable Fire, ‘Sharing Wealth’ Third Interlude: Winter Solstice Chapter Ten December–January: Cardinal Earth, ‘Return of the Light’ Chapter Eleven January–February: Fixed Air, ‘Information’ Chapter Twelve February–March: Mutable Water, ‘Ensoulment’ Fourth Interlude: Spring Equinox Epilogue: ‘Next Year’ Glossary References Bibliography Acknowledgements Photo Acknowledgements Index
Spike Bucklow is the author of numerous books on artists and their materials and methods, including Children of Mercury: The Lives of the Painters (Reaktion, 2022). He was previously Professor of Material Culture at the University of Cambridge.
Reviews for The Year: An Ecology of the Zodiac
The Year is a contemplative almanac charting nature and culture through the zodiac, with a powerful message for our time of grave disjuncture between the two. * Ferdinand Saumarez Smith, author of Eleusis and Enlightenment * The Year elegantly enacts the deep, encoded wisdom of traditional astrology as a key part of the indigenous Western worldview, a baby of truth repeatedly thrown out with the bathwater of “superstition”. In particular, this book shows the potential of that model to deepen our understanding of the most important single issue of our times, namely the ecology of the more-than-human natural world and our impacts upon it. And it does so by quietly correcting the prejudices that have come to dominate modern cultural life: the isolated individual over inter-connections, essences over relationships, becoming over Being, and humans over all other animals. These culminate in dangerous hubris which The Year both reveals and corrects. It is thus invaluable as both diagnosis and prescription. * Patrick Curry, author of Ecological Ethics * The Year provides a cultural-historical frame for readers to unpack the way Western and secular forms of time are indebted to, or expropriate concepts from, non-Western cultures. A wonderful book that invites you to read its words in ebbs and flows: a historical-cultural-aesthetic-poetic almanac to carry in your pocket, its sentences in your head. It is a joy to read as the year turns, but it also makes you think about the way global warming and anthropogenic climate change are altering our sense of the seasons, and our place within the world. * Julian Yates, H. Fletcher Brown Professor of English and Material Culture Studies, University of Delaware * Blending ancient wisdom with modern science, this ‘lyrical, poetic’ chronicle of nature’s annual cycle aims to provide a positive perspective on ecological, global and personal change. * The Bookseller *
