New Year's Eve

Tonight is New Year's Eve - a big night for many people. W and I are visiting family for the New year's weekend, as has been our tradition for many years now.

This is the final day of 2025; it's time to see it out, and welcome in the New Year! 

Agenda today:

1. 

Kwanzaa principle

2

.

 

Light a pretend candle for celebration

3. Read "Revolutionary Witchcraft"

4. Soyal retreat practices for celebration

5. Celebration brainstorm

6. Resolutions

7. Make noise!

1. Kwanzaa principles:
The sixth day of Kwanzaa is dedicated to the principle of Kuumba (koo-OOM-bah), which is creativity. I can use my creative energies to build a beautiful and vibrant home and community.

2.

 

Light a pretend candle for celebration:

At Soyal, I review the Divine Laws, as I see them, meditate and write about my priorities, and make plans for the coming year based on guidance from the Spirits. 

Today I am giving attention to my priority of

 celebration: connecting to the cycles of the seasons, sharing my traditions, bonding to my community, strengthening my spiritual understanding, and to exploring my playful and imaginative qualities. 

I light an imaginary pink candle for celebration, and ask the Spirits to bring the rain of loving care down upon the whole world. I ask:

How can I remember to celebrate each day as a sacred gift, with attention on Love, Truth, and Creation? How do my celebrations become an expression of my life, my spirit, and my inner cycles and seasons? 

What is my personal sacred calendar? How do I become indigenous to the place I live, and connect deeply with the unique cycles of the seasons? 

How can I celebrate the seasons and transitions of life with simplicity, creativity, and integrity? How can I express my love of folk customs, crafts, ceremony, and foods and without practicing appropriation?  

How can I share celebration with my family and community in a way that fosters growth for all?

How can I remember to lighten up and be spontaneous?

3. Read "Revolutionary Witchcraft":

I'm just starting this sweet little book by Sarah Lyons (2019)  that I got from my daughter for Christmas. The subtitle is A Guide to Magical Activism.

"Being an activist means, in part, being actively engaged with the world around you. It's like making a pact between yourself and the spirit of the earth, that you're going to continue fighting for it, and looking at the bad parts of it, even when that is uncomfortable."

Chapter 1 is A Witch's Place is in the Struggle. She begins by defining magic, politics and, and witchcraft: Magic is the art and science of causing change in the world, through the mastery of our inner world - leveraging the power of belief. She describes examples of this happening all around us. 

I'm setting aside the rest of that chapter for now in order to find something to help me in this moment. I've moved on to Chapter 2 and a section on initiation. She compares it to Wokeness, when you have a moment that shakes you up so you see things in a different perspective, and are never the same again. I've certainly had some of those moments. She mentions the 2016 election as an initiation, "a night that will live in infamy."

Since my theme for the new year is creative perspective, I've decided to have a rite of initiation for the New Year, culminating on my birthday in one week. Here are the preparation steps she describes:

1. Cut a bunch of strips of paper, 1x4-inches long, and choose a time each day to write down on these strips all the things that oppress and limit me - all the negative forces in my life that keep me chained down. Continue this every day for the week before the rite.
2. Choose a symbol that represents all the negative forces in my life - a dollar bill, or photo or drawing, or a word written on paper.
3. Also choose a symbol of my liberation - something I can wear or display as a reminder of my power.

4. Soyal retreat practices for celebration:

This Christmas I am using the Soyal Way of Being as a guide for my days; that is, I'm keeping Mother Earth in my thoughts as I move quietly and respectfully about my days, in order to establish the right mood for the coming year, and reach a unity of everything in the universe. Each day I will fit in some reading and writing, some focused walking, and some order-creation. At the end of the day I will brainstorm some goals and resolutions for 2026, based on guidance from God.

My practices today are:

1. Start an initiation ritual. 
2. Waltz Walk in the neighborhood (using the mantra Guide-ing-Light), and use movement and mindfulness to connect to creative energy and my guiding light.

5. Celebration brainstorm:

I'm fascinated with seasonal celebrations and customs from around the world, and with creating my own simple ways to mark the wonder of passing moments: Food, art and craft, ceremony and prayer, study and social action. I find that celebration connects me to the cycles of nature; brings me clarity on my inner cycles and seasons; reminds me to lighten up and be spontaneous; puts me in community with my friends; and strengthens my connection to the universal Spirit and to a life of virtue and integrity.

My ideas for celebration so far:

1. Simplify and hone my celebrations to a personal sacral calendar, and connect it to the phenology of my neighborhood. Define and develop personal symbolism, crafts, ceremonies, and traditions that honor my valley, my heritage and my Quaker beliefs.
2. Practice daily, weekly, and monthly cycles of reverence for the Earth, that remind me to celebrate each day as a sacred gift, with attention on Love, Truth, and Creation.
3. Root myself in this land and community, so that my service has stability and power.
4. Plan and organize shared celebrations with my family and friends that have meaning on many levels, and that leave room for spontaneity.
5. Add back to my days some witchy rituals, to build power and creative perspective shifts.

6. Resolutions:

Ah, January resolutions! As usual, I'm ready at the New Year to upgrade my health habits, take control of my moods, and have more discipline in general. I know I'd better start with small steps that I can easily maintain, and stick to just a few specific, well-defined intentions.

My resolutions for 2026 are:

1. Walk more: Use the habit-building practice I learned last year to re-build a habit of daily walking to connect to my body and my neighborhood.
2. Practice equanimity: Become the Zen Grandma I want to be, with patience, peace, courage and wisdom. Work on self-regulation, new narratives, empathy, magic, creative shifts, and any other thing that works.
3. Create order, so that everything I keep has a place, all things are honored, and I know what is in each space; Simplify my spaces and my life down to the essentials; Finish the projects I've started, and find a balance of order and natural chaos.

7. Make noise: 

Noise-making is considered an effective way to drive off the spirits of the old year and awaken the sleeping new year. We will gather horns, bells, pots, pans, and whistles, throw open the door at midnight, count down the final seconds of the old year, then let loose with whoops and cheers, bangs and toots, to welcome in the New Year!