The New Year

Wishes tied to action, have a good chance of growth.

Art by Elin Manon

Hello Lovelies,

The threshold of the new year on the Gregorian calendar is here, and we will soon be in 2023.

This isn’t a time I personally celebrate as a new year, Samhain is my time for this, but, with the power of the collective and the growth of daylight, I still like to mark my intentions or wishes going forward at this time, feeling into the path I wish to tread, and sending love to where I’ve been.

There is no denying the power that can be felt at this time. This mighty collective power is in the air, as so many people mark this moment as their threshold of change, new beginnings, and a turning over of a new leaf. Also, the changing of our year number, certainly does make this time feel like a page has been turned, and a new chapter is ready to begin.

Art by Tin Can Forest

In our modern western culture, we often don’t hold space, ceremony or ritual for ourselves or for others to intentionally explore where we are at in our lives.

Exploring where we are at, with intention, through the realms of feeling, is vital if we are to grow well, for it is through doing this, that we get to know what needs to die in our lives, and what the seeds within us feel like. It is through finding space to really listen, feel and acknowledge ourselves, that the steps forward are revealed.

Ceremony, rites of passage and ritual combined with nature, used to be a way in which we as humans could learn to see more clearly, could gather medicine from our hearts and use it to nourish our lives and eventually the lives around us.

Art by Rosanna Morris

As a society, we still have scraps or remnants of moments such as winter solstice, christmas, birthdays, New Years, Samhain, death, birth, Easter, summer solstice and many more, that were once old times of ceremony, that brought honouring and gratitude, a deeper sense of connection to our inner and outer nature.

They were times of ritual that were there to bring us closer to life, to help us through certain times, to bring us back to the heart of the matter. But in these modern times, these moments on the calendar have most often, become a little misshapen with capitalism, mixed religious messaging and a culture hell bent on distraction and numbing out.

But, we can still reclaim these times, and do something that feels more heartful or inline with what our souls are calling for.

And this threshold at the end of December, this changing of the year, is one of those times. A moment that whispers an invitation to us, to hold with love and gratitude, all that has gone by, and all that is calling to be grown in the year to come.

The question that arises, is what do we wish to leave at the gates of this threshold, and what do we want to walk towards? what is this threshold a gateway to, for us personally?

In a way, this time of new year, is a time of wishes, of tender hopes and dreams. Often though, I would throw my wish to the fates, the gods, the roots of trees. I drunkenly made promises with friends as the clock strikes midnight or jotted something down in my notebook. But in all of those past times, I forgot, that wishes are like seeds, they need other factors in order to grow.

One of the biggest factors, is our own action.

When we link our wishes with our own actions, it has every chance of growth, of blooming and fruiting, so we may harvest its bounty.

I used to wait for someone to save me, for someone to change my life for me, for some magical moment to appear. It took me years to realise, that I was waiting for myself.

Only I could really save me, only I could make the big changes. I had to stop throwing wishes into the breeze, but plant them firmly in my heart, my legs, my hands, my gut and my mind, so they became the igniter of my actions.

Yes of course we are helped along the way by community, human and non human. But we cannot be a passive passenger. We, are the writer, alchemist and gardener of our own lives.

All too often, the wishes we imagine, are the finished product, the end result. And they can feel intimidating, unrealistic. We forget that a wish is a journey, a path way of exploration, of trying, of shaping and forming with the tools we have at the time, and along the way, we pick up new tools that slowly bring us closer to that beautiful wish.

Art by Taryn Knight

Wishes when tied to our own power, can be like water on rock, slowly carving a new path way through which we thought immovable.

And so I like to try and do this moment in the calendar differently to what it once was for me personally. I like to try and create a moment where I can feel and sense whats within and mark it somehow. Creating a moment I remember, through self generated ritual, and in that way, it becomes a touchstone in my psyche that reminds me of what I wished for, it reminds me of the feelings I felt, and helps me step back on the path when I get lost.

A self generated ritual can be done in so many ways, in a way that is meaningful to you, but, it has to be different from the everyday, so its memorable. Planting a seed in the dark earth of a forest, speaking to the mycelium as you plant it. It could be offering herbs into a fire and claiming your intentions, it could be swimming in wild waters to wash the past away and step into the new.

However you choose to mark this time, or not mark this time, for that is valid too, I wish you well and much wild beauty.

See you on the other side!

Art by Tijana Lukovic