After spending a lovely break at home with my family for the Christmas holidays, I am ready to jump right into 2023.

I’ve spent the morning dismantling Christmas tree decorations and our Yule seasonal alter, getting the house ready for the new year as well. I’ll be preparing our seasonal alter to look toward Imbolc later this week (and I’ll share pictures) but I did want to detail a short ritual I did last night with the family.

My word for 2023 is Intention, and what I love about this ritual is, besides it’s simplicity, it sets the intention to recognize and celebrate the Wheel of the Year. It’s a simple thing, following the year as it unrolls and changes from season to season. It is so easy to pay little to no attention when the new year begins, and then look up and realize it’s late fall.

Following the Wheel of the Year involves slowing down enough to observe the seasonal changes, and finding reason to celebrate, even if it’s not your favorite time of year.

This New Year’s Vow ritual is taken from Mandy Mitchell’s Hedge Witch Book of Days, which is a great resource to read throughout the year.

I started by preparing 16 small pieces of paper, and drawing, in duplicate, a picture to represent each of the eight festivals on the Wheel of the Year. Any picture that represents the festival will do, but I did choose to go with Mitchell’s suggestions for each one.

Wheel of the Year

Imbolc: a candle
Ostara: an egg
Beltane: May pole
Litha: the Sun
Lammas: a corn sheaf
Mabon: an apple
Samhain: a pumpkin
Yule: a pine tree

I then cut sprigs from my Christmas tree and removed the needles – enough for nine small fingerfuls.

For the ritual, I first lit a white candle. Then, for each festival, I held one of the corresponding paper images (with tongs) and stated my intention to observe and celebrate that festival. I then burned the paper in the candle flame, dropped into the cauldron, and then added a small amount of pine needles.

After the first set of papers were burned, along with the pine needles, I then placed the duplicate set of festival images into a small envelope along with a fingerful of needles, sealed and labelled. This envelope will stay at my alter as a reminder of my intention to observe and celebrate the Wheel of the Year.

Next year, before repeating this process, I will burn this envelope.