The Solar Year

On the Southern Hemisphere Wheel of the Year Calendar the symbol of the Sun simulates its path taken over a solar year. Rising high in the sky at summer solstice, low at the winter solstice and rising and setting exactly east and west at the equinoxes.

The Earth can appear to revolve or orbit around the Sun in a clockwise or anti-clockwise direction, it just depends on where you are viewing from. 

In both the southern and northern hemispheres, the Sun rises in the east and sets in the west. In the southern hemisphere when looking north towards the equator, the Sun appears to move from right to left, or anti-clockwise. In the northern hemisphere the Sun appears to move from left to right, or clockwise.

During summer the Sun travels a high, longer path across the sky. Shorter days occur in winter as the Sun travels a shorter path closer to the horizon. When the Sun sets furthest to the northwest it is winter in the southern hemisphere, and when it sets at its furthest to the southwest it is summer. At the equinoxes, Earth’s two hemispheres, north and south, are receiving the Sun’s rays equally.