If you've been following my work for a while, you may have noticed that I'm a bit obsessed with time. I love marking the passage of time, finding ways to celebrate, and being in connection with the natural world in a way that feels ultra tangible.
I used to have a paid version of this newsletter where I put out ritual suggestions for every month, and I included a breakdown of Nordic ancestral traditions. Before that, I put out New and Full moon ritual guides on my Patreon. It was funny - I poured myself into this work, but ultimately I kind of stopped doing it because it didn't seem to be what my audience was seeking.
(Perhaps that is actually just a book, not an ongoing serial on a newsletter. Much to ponder.)
But here I am, just a person trying to find balance in their own practice, reconsidering the beautiful (if constructed) simplicity of the Wheel of the Year.
Now before I get into it: I'm sharing my personal experience and observation here. If the Wheel of the Year, agrarian festivals, and holidays that I talk about aren't interesting or fun for you, by no means do you have to do them! This is me sharing how I'm thinking about my own annual celebrations because I want to, and because it might help you create your own holidays.
Ancestral to Modern Connections
In a recent post I talked about taking time off from magic - and that meant that I took some time to re-evaluate my own system of holidays.
A big part of my own natural noticing came from learning the Primstav, following elder Sara Axtell's work (listen to my interview with her here). The Norwegian Primstav is a calendar stick that dates back to conversion of Norwegians from paganism to Catholicism. It was originally designed to help people track all of the Saint's days and days when they would need to go to Church. If they didn't appear for these mass days, they would be fined.
And here's the thing ... there are a lot of Saint days! In one of the primary calendars I've used for the Primstav, there are 60. (Yes you read that right). I understand why they needed to create this kind of calendar - and trying to observe all of them can be very overwhelming. That is a whole lot of opportunities for me, as a descendent who doesn't need to go to mass on all of those days, to feel like a failure at celebration. There are definitely some ancestors in the back of my mind who are a little perplexed at why I was trying to follow these things when I very much don't need to. Why push yourself to overwhelm trying to track these days when you don't need to?
And so I've begun taking a bit of a gentler approach, both with myself and with the seasons.
There are definitely some days that I've learned about in studying the Primstav that I still want to celebrate. October 14th marks the beginning of the "winter" half of the year, and April 14th marks the beginning of the "summer" half of the year. I want to continue to mark these, especially as the climate changes, so that I can reflect on these shifts. For example, Cuckoo Mass is inspiring as a day of silly magic to bring in love. But they also feel like good touch points for different kinds of magic throughout the year. And I want to celebrate St. John's Mass as a day to collect the herbs that I will need for the year ahead and bless them.
At the same time ... I want to let these be optional moments of inspiration for spellwork, not an excuse to beat myself up for being "a bad folk magician."
If the holidays sound like a lot, it's because they are. 60 holidays! Far too many! Especially considering that I still need to celebrate other cultural holidays with my (non-Pagan) family.
Thinking Differently
As a part of my re-enchantment project I've been trying to find the points in my personal practice where I can welcome more joy and simplicity. And honestly keeping track of all of these different Saint Days on top of Blots on top of secular and family holidays on top of powerful astrological transits and weather.
That is all so much!
I've also noticed that for me personally, the ancestral holidays that I want to practice aren't necessarily in sync with the celebrations that my personal community and family are up to. I want to feel more connected with the Earth and my ancestors but I also want a little softness in how I celebrate. Maybe one year my community has been particularly hard it with death (like this year). Samhain is going to be a really important touchstone for us, in a way that it didn't used to be.
That is not to say that I'm abandoning all of the fascinating and weird ancestral practices. I'm just building more grace into that structure. Instead of panicking that I missed a specific day that doesn't mesh with my own life (like an old Agrarian Calendar day), I'm going to pay attention to the seasons as a whole and what makes sense within my community.
Is the answer actually ... an adapted Wheel of the Year?
There's a reason that the 8 Sabbats of the Wheel of the Year resonate with so many modern witches. Of course it's important to understand that the Wheel of the Year is a largely modern construct and that is based on conjecture and some historical agrarian cycles, with some Wiccan flare thrown in. But the Sabbats themselves as many of us understand them today aren't in the same form that they were back then.
But here's the thing: I'm ok with that.
I'm a busy witch! I run a business, have a day job, do readings for people, have a somewhat active social life, and juggle a lot of hobbies. Simplicity in my practice brings me joy. It allows me to share those holidays generally speaking with the people I love. It's much easier to plan and prepare for 8 major holidays than it is for me to make space for 60 different ancestral holidays. And all of the stress and overwhelm about "oh fuck am I doing it right?" isn't bringing me joy.
There are some other days that I want to observe that will get incorporated into my personal calendar, but it is far far FAR less overwhelming for me to try to observe 8 major holidays than it is for me to do all of that other work. The 8 Sabbats were constructed in a modern context in the 20th century and they make more sense for my life at this time.
I'm reading Kelly-Ann Maddox's "Rebel Witch" right now and one phrase that she uses a lot is asking if something makes you feel "fizzy." And I realized that simplifying my devotional calendar actually makes me feel fizzy. I feel more focused than I have in a long time, and I'm so excited to create new traditions.
And ... I want to share with all of you.
Welcome to a new series on the newsletter! You're a part of my witching community, and so I want to share the ways that I'm celebrating the rhythm of nature, the passage of the seasons. I want to share with you my own nature devotionals, as well as some of the research that I do about these things.
Patrons will receive the same content but 3 days earlier. So if you love the newsletter, consider supporting me.
See you next week!
This Week's Top Three:
+ AURORA! I bought tickets to see her in concert and I'm so excited.
+ Suspiria (1977)
+ As much as this letter is about Autumn I am still living my brat summer.
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Coming Up:
There are sooooo many markets coming up! I've compiled a list on the blog. We are fully in the throes of spooky season and as such I'm trying to be at as many markets as possible to spread the word about Lore.
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