The witches’ year
My year-ahead spread from 2019
I’ve been reading tarot cards since about 2018, and each year I’ve done a 12 + 1 card spread to forecast the year. Like many modern witches, I find myself balanced between the conventions of the Gregorian calendar that drive our modern western culture and society and the more ancient, nature-based wheel of the year followed by wiccan groups and others who practice magick.
In the Gregorian calendar, which was developed by a Pope in the 1580s (pretty suspect already, right?) was developed to match our timekeeping on earth with the solar calendar, or the 365.2425 days that it takes for the earth to complete one full orbit around the sun.
In the little bit of research I’ve done, it seems that January was marked as the start of the year to correspond to several important political and social events such as the election of new government leaders or popular saint’s days in the Catholic church.
Tied to our human constructions of culture and religion, the Gregorian calendar is decidedly out of touch with nature. It does not follow the seasons or the phases of the moon. It disregards many of the natural indicators of time passing right in front of us that we can see, hear, feel, touch and taste. Time becomes an abstract tool for the missions of men instead of a reality that we must live on this plane of existence.
Time exists, but our concept of it in terms of the modern calendar is a human construct.
As I wrote yesterday about this being a Chariot year, we are going to be faced with many opportunities to decide for ourselves which way we want o steer our own vessel. Where will we go with the flow, and where will we veer off from the worn track in the grass and forge our own path?
As I prepared to complete my year ahead spread this January, something kept pushing me away. I didn;t do it on the 31st. Not on the first. By the 3rd I realized what was going on. My internal witch clock was just not feeling the January 1st reboot. And from what I’m seeing in my coven and on social media, a lot of other witchy folks aren’t feeling it, either.
January 1st is a cultural reset, not a natural one.
We have come to participate in this collective portal through habit and tradition, not because the energy of the season demands a restart. That energy begins to flow in March, as we approach the Spring equinox in the Northern hemisphere. When the sap rises and the snow begins to melt, new life emerges. Ancient festivals such as Ostara mark the onset of spring and the time for new beginnings.
Soon after Ostara comes my solar return, on April 6th. Despite my Scorpio moon, I am a spring witch through and through. With both my sun and Venus in Aries, I am supercharged with the energy of the new beginnings, the innovative idea, and the fresh start.
Each year of my spiritual practice has brought me deeper peace but it has also brought me deeper sensitivity, insight, and above all intuition.
Where I once tried to argue with my (often highly illogical) intuitive sense, I now more often than not give in to whatever my body is saying and ignore my mind, which generally wants to protect my ego and make sure that I am not cast out from the group, stoned to death, or burned at the stake for heresy.
In listening to my own insight, I realized that I did not want to do and forecasting until Ostara this year. This week so far in my own readings I have pulled both the Wheel of Fortune and the Devil twice. Things are still in motion, the wheel is still turning, and there is still a lot of work to be done before we can wipe the slate clean and start again.
I’ll be doing a 12-card forecast for my birthday this year instead of for January 1st. It feels good to take one more step away from conditioned behavior and into my own power, strength, and rhythm. This is what works for me and, if there is one thing that being a witch has taught me, it is that the source of our personal power is our intuitive knowledge about how we, personally, are best aligned in action. This aligned action is what allows us to function to our fullest potential and purpose within the collective.
Perhaps by shifting my own forecasting cycle, I may uncover some truths that are useful for the community and the collective. If nothing else, i am strengthening my own magick in the process.
