To the ancients time was circular rather than linear. They saw the year, marked with its seasonal change, as a great tuning wheel that shifted the world from light to darkness, spring to summer, fall to winter, as bounty turned to want. They created calendars set by the waxing and waning of the moon, divided into quarters by the solstices and equinoxes. The Wheel of the Year is one such calendar. It divides the year into four sections, each beginning with a quarter day (spring equinox, summer solstice, fall equinox, winter solstice). Each of these sections is further divided, creating four cross-quarter days or the midpoint between a solstice and equinox (Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh, and Samhain) to reflect the natural procession of the seasons and the changing tides of the cosmos, or the tides of the year that shift at the Solstices and Equinoxes.