Setting your Witchy New Year Resolutions

It is said that the ancient Babylonians were the first to set New Year’s resolutions, making promises to the Gods that would not gain them favour if they weren’t kept. Today, we still make promises to our Gods, or to ourselves, to improve some aspect of our lives, secure our health and maintain our wellbeing.

As workers of magick it is a good time to assess our lives and review what can be improved. One idea is to reflect on the past year through meditation asking for guidance as to what we should change. This can be done by lighting a candle or incense and staring thoughtfully into the flame or smoke.

If you are struggling to find some ideas of what resolutions to set here are some witchy ideas:

· Make a promise to set aside some time each day to work on your pathway. Perhaps this could be a simple meditation on waking, asking for guidance over your morning coffee or a few minutes of contemplation before sleep.

· Think about creating a meditation space, where you can burn incense, light candles and relax. Perhaps you will choose to take a regular cleansing bath with herbs sprinkled into the water and tealights burning or maybe you have a space in your home where you feel calm that you could decorate with flowers, crystals and pillar candles.

· Choose to honour the major festivals on the wheel of the year. Plan in advance how you will decorate your alter, what you will bake and how you will celebrate the passing of the year.

· Vow to keep a Book of Shadows. This can be a notebook that you write in, printed sheets that you keep in a folder or an online journal. Make a habit of recording your spellwork, rituals, images from meditation or do a little research and write up your notes. Remember this is a record personal to you, so it doesn’t matter if it’s not the neatest or prettiest, the act of recording something that matters to you is often the most important part of keeping a Books of Shadows.

· Learn a new skill. Most witches have at least one skill that they excel at so if you haven’t discovered yours yet, the coming year could be used to try a variety of new things. Popular skills are tarot or oracle card reading, scrying with a crystal ball or water in a black bowl, herbals remedies, crystal healing or divination using a pendulum. However, there are many more skills out there just waiting to be discovered.

Whatever you choose as your New Year resolution, promise yourself you will stick to it. Therefore, be realistic and decide on something that you can accomplish with a little planning or will power.