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Seasons of the Witch: Imbolc Oracle, by Lorraine Anderson and Juliet Diaz

Seasons of the Witch: Imbolc Oracle, by Lorraine Anderson and Juliet Diaz
Rockpool Publishing, 1922579785, 112 pages, 44 cards, November 2023

In the darkness of winter, Imbolc is a time of fresh starts, hope, and renewal, as we begin to see signs of the spring returning. While others rush to make their new year’s resolution in January, I’ve always known the potent magic in waiting until Imbolc to start crafting my intentions. And this year I’m really excited to have Seasons of the Witch: Imbolc Oracle by Lorraine Anderson and Juliet Diaz  to turn to for guidance as I map out my intentions for the upcoming months.

The Seasons of the Witch oracle series has already moved through Yule, Samhain, and Mabon, and with this deck Anderson and Diaz turn their focus to encapsulating the energy of Imbolc into the next deck in the series. Anderson and Diaz describe how they find Imbolc “to be the most suited for solitary work, a time when you turn inward and focus on your hopes and dreams.”1

“Each card was brought to light with the hope that it would stimulate self-awareness rather than focusing on other people.”2

To better acquaint myself with the deck, I decided to flip through the guidebook before delving into a reading. Following the author’s introductions, there is a list of themes and areas of focus for Imbolc, an overview of how to use the cards, and card spreads. I really liked the authors’ idea of pulling a monthly guiding-light card, photocopying it, and placing it in areas you’ll see throughout the day to remind you of the energy. Anderson and Diaz also describe how after reader feedback from other decks, they decided to shift from invocations to mini messages that give a glimpse of the card’s meaning.

The cards themselves have a calm, tranquil energy. I instantly feel at ease when I’m holding the deck. They shimmer with their navy-blue gilded edges, and the image on the back of the moon with candles surrounding it brings a soft, gentle illumination. The cards’ imagery remind me of the concept of hygge, bringing warming feelings of contentment or well-being. Some card names are Cinnamon Rolls, Casserole, Greenhouse, Amethyst, Snowflakes, Groundhog, Dawn, and Aquarius.

The coloring is a perfect mixture of healing darkness with soft light, reminding readers of the bliss that comes in the quiet stillness of the deep winter, but also honoring the winter blues. In the mix there are plenty of cards that invite the reader to delve into their grief and longing and create a sacred space for healing and transformation to occur. It is only through having the courage to face the dark that we can find the light within again; with this deck, we are safely held to explore our inner realms and wash away the old to pave way for the new.

My first time using this deck I did a one-card pull and got Arts and Crafts. It instantly felt very aligned, as I have been longing to create space in my schedule to do some crafting projects. Recently, I’ve been longing to create a winter vision board, bake and build a gingerbread house, and make my own witch’s ball and/or spell jar. The card felt like an intuitive nudge to follow this whim.

Then reading the message for Arts and Crafts hit home even more. It reads:

“The Arts and Crafts card comes to you when you are trying to manifest your vision using other people’s means and methods instead of creating something for yourself. . . Don’t cut yourself short thinking you don’t have the skill to bring your ideas and visions to life, because skills can be learned and mastered.”3

Recently, I have been relying on other people, hoping their dreams pan out and I fit in somewhere, rather than pursuing my own visions. This card was a gentle reminder of my creativity, from the daily crafts I will start to build to the greater vision of my life that I am now feeling ready to begin tending again.

My next time using this deck was to gain insight into how I could heal an important relationship in my life. I chose the Rosemary bread spread (yum, right?) that the authors warn “is not for the faint of heart”4 as it will reveal honestly if the relationship is better mended or if it has reached its natural conclusion and it’s time to part ways. The positioning of four main cards gives insight into whether or not the relationship should continue, and the cards five-a and five-b are to be read depending on if the answer is “yes” to mend the relationship or “no” to heal and move on.

When I read the first four cards in the spread, I was honestly shocked by the accuracy. It was as though the deck tapped into the situation perfectly and laid before me the truth that I had been unintentionally shielding myself from. The essence of the message was that my partner and I were not in alignment with our higher purpose; I am being non-committal, while he is lacking focus. The fourth card, Peppermint, revealed it was time for a clearing of toxic patterns. (Sidenote: It was interesting that Peppermint came up for me too because it’s an herb I’ve been feeling really called to work with recently!)

From the spread, I determined the message was to mend, and so I read the follow-up card that pretty much pointed to us needing to do some shadow work to overcome these recurring issues. Sharing this information with my partner led to a much-needed discussion about our future, and afterwards we felt more connected than we had in a while. I definitely felt the author’s intention for this deck to help readers focusing on their own inner work rather than other people’s expectations of you helped to restore balance in my relationship.

So far, I think this is my favorite Season of the Witch deck yet. Just like the others, it perfectly captures the essence of the sabbat. But I think Imbolc is often overlooked, as it has a quiet energy compared to some of the other more bold sabbats, such as Samhain and Yule. These cards are a perfect way to attune yourself to the gentle unfolding of Imbolc during the winter. Though, I feel there’s plenty of insight to gain from using them as one feels called throughout the year as well.

Overall, I highly recommend Seasons of the Witch: Imbolc Oracle. Anderson and Diaz are doing a wonderful job of distilling the essence of the sabbats into these decks. The cards for Imbolc perfectly capture the energy of this season; they are warm and cozy with unexpected depth. This deck will help you to delve into the hidden emotions to reconnect with yourself and determine what’s of true value in your life and worth pursuing as a new beginning.

Walking with the Seasons, by Alice Peck

Walking with the Seasons: The Wonder of Being in Step with Nature, by Alice Peck
CICO Books, 9781800652958, 128 pages, February 2024

Now that spring is here, I was really interested in learning more about how to get in tune with the cycles of nature. In her book Walking with the Seasons, Alice Peck provides lots of activities and suggestions for getting out in nature. As I flipped through the book and saw the beautiful photographs and different practices that she shares, I was excited to learn more!

Peck is a writer and editor, having written more than six books on herbs, trees, and meditation, including Tree Wisdom.  She has also edited numerous books on various metaphysical and meditation topics. She lives with her husband in Brooklyn, New York, and photos of New York City figure prominently in this work. You may follow her on Instagram @BeMoreTree.

What I love most about Walking with the Seasons is the structure, which makes it easy to navigate. It’s like a calendar to a year of walking. She starts the book in the Spring, which is the beginning of the astrological New Year and devotes a chapter to each season. The Table of Contents shares the nuggets in each chapter, making it easy to retrace your steps and find the practices or activities that you might want to enjoy later.

I decided to jump right into the chapter on Spring–both the verbiage and the photos had me craving more of the green in nature that is starting to bud and bloom in my area. Peck reminds us that we don’t have to find anything special in nature to benefit from a walk:

“A green space doesn’t have to be a forest or a hiking trail. Seek out the unexpected–even in cities you can find “secret” green spaces like church yards, botanic gardens, or areas near train stations.”1

Did you know that walking in nature for about an hour and a half can lessen depression, stress, and anxiety, as well as quieting negative mind chatter? She goes on to share that a research team from Stanford University confirmed this, as well as stating that spending the same amount of time in areas with concrete and traffic had no impact on depression.2

For one of the exercises in this chapter, Peck invites the reader to walk outdoors for at least 15 minutes a day “in the greenest place you have access to.”5 Do this every day for a week and monitor the changes in your mood.

She also includes what she calls a “Joyful Walking Meditation” and the value of walking with your dog. I particularly enjoyed how she shared the “5 ways of liberation” from the Buddhist path and how dogs embody these qualities: perfect faith, energy or persistence, mindfulness or memory, stillness or concentration, and wisdom. She invites us to “walk with your dog, just as you walk with the seasons.”6

Peck weaves beautiful quotes from thought leaders, athletes, and other dignitaries into the prose and photos, such as this one on trees:

“Trees are literally greater than ourselves … trees connect us directly to the life of more than human nature. -Rupert Sheldrake, Science and Spiritual Practices”7 

Eager to learn more about walking in nature, I turned to the next chapter on Summer. Here I was treated to beautiful photos of beaches, rivers, lakes and ponds, in addition to hiking trails and mountain vistas. The practice that caught my eye utilized the concept of “nowscape.”

“Everything then unfolds, unfolds now and so might be said to unfold in the nowscape. Psychologist Jon Kabat-Zinn incorporates the nowscape into a practice he teaches called choiceless awareness or the state of unpremeditated, complete presence without preference, judgment, effort, or compulsion. We can apply this understanding of the nowscape to walking with the seasons. As you wander do not just be with the place you are walking –be the walk itself…. Abide fully in the nowscape.”8

In the chapter on Autumn, I found what may be my favorite story or passage, which was one on grief.  A woman had lost her lover and best friend of 18 years. She was encouraged to go on a hike in the Catskills with a group of people and a grief doula. She shared this about her experience:

“The biggest tragedy of my life had led me to one of the most beautiful days I’d ever experienced. It felt healing, it felt like something positive. Gave me the strength to go on. The forest and the mountains welcome you; they hear you and if you let them in, they can help to heal you, too. – Danielle Davis”9

I was so encouraged by this story and the healing power of nature that I plan to add the suggestion of this practice to my grief work with clients. In fact, this book contains many helpful and healing exercises that I plan to incorporate in my coaching practice.

I love great bibliographies and Peck does not disappoint! She includes four full pages of her reference material for everything from “How much sunshine do I need for enough Vitamin D?” to “Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell and Know.”10 She follows the bibliography with a two-page index, which further helps the reader to find information, such as a passage on calorie burning, forest bathing or wishing stones.

She also includes photo credits for all of the beautiful images in the book. I love the flaps she included in this paperback version. The flaps make it easy to mark your place, as you read the prose or peruse the beautiful photos. The book is a nice size to tuck into a handbag or backpack and I can see myself keeping it in the car to re-read while waiting for my granddaughter to get out of school.  Here’s another one of my favorite passages, where she talks about the meaning of walking a labyrinth:

“The labyrinth is a metaphor for the journey of life… a path of self-discovery, a journey into the center of our own hearts. – John Mitchell, Sacred England”

Walking with the Seasons would be enjoyed by just about everyone. I can see someone who is new to meditation benefiting from the practices and tips, as well as a more seasoned meditator.  I can also envision someone who is a gardener or hiker or birdwatcher picking up this book. By utilizing the tips and practices, this person may add another layer to their enjoyment of the great outdoors.

Living a Hygge Lifestyle This Summer

Hygge is a Danish and Norwegian lifestyle concept that translates loosely into “hug.” Hygge has become very popular in the last few years with books and magazines dedicated to helping us bring this way of living into our daily lives. Most associated with the cold, dark winter months, Hygge promotes coziness, wellness, contentment, the warmth of friendship, and simplicity in food and decorative surroundings. Think candlelight, blankets, and steaming mugs of coffee and cinnamon pastries shared with friends around a table.

Winter hygge can be practiced alone – imagine sitting in an oversized chair, curled up in a chenille blanket with your favorite book in hand, seeing the snow fall gently outside your window as you light a candle on the end table. But most often than not, the hygge encourages interacting with friends; think sitting around a fireplace, drinking hot mulled cider, while playing board games with your friends. It’s this human interaction that helps get one through the cold, lonely winter months. 

I love to hygge in the winter but I also want to bring it into my life in the summer. Can it be done? Absolutely! Here’s how you incorporate hygge into the warm and light-filled days of summer:

✿ Switch your fire source
Move from gathering with friends and family around the fireplace inside your home to an outdoor fire pit. Even on the hottest of days, the evenings are cool enough to comfortably enjoy sitting around a fire pit. Laugh, talk, tell stories, make s’mores. Even consider buying some “magical” powders to change the color of the flame: potassium chloride for purple flames, copper chloride for blue flames, and lithium chloride for pink flames.

✿ Turn off the oven
Going in the complete opposite direction of winter hygge, try not to use your oven for cooking and baking. Look up no-bake dessert recipes to serve your visitors – from icebox cake, to key lime cream pie, strawberry pie, and crunchy candy clusters. 

✿ Host casual, outdoor gatherings
Continue to invite the company friends and family but move the gathering outdoors and make it casual. Think dinner under the stars either at an outdoor table or on a blanket. Create an outdoor movie theater with a projector and a white sheet – and bring the popcorn. 

✿ Relax outside
Move your alone time from your indoor cozy chair to a macramé hammock or under a tree, on the beach, or sitting in a garden (yours or a public one).

✿ Bring in the light
Change out your décor and use lighter colors.  This can be done inexpensively with just a few strategically placed objects that you find at a thrift shop or discount home decorating store. Develop a system of seasonally recycling what you already own – go “shopping” in the storage in your own home. Bring in the whites, creams, beiges, with touches of pastels. Look to nature for inspiration. And don’t forget the walls! Replace pictures of snowy woods, fallen leaves, and winterscapes with images of the lake, sea, or summer birds. 

✿ Spruce up your home decor
Change out your linens, fabrics, pillows, and rugs. Replace your flannel sheets with cotton ones. Remove your heavy down comforter for a cotton bedspread. Use lighter throw blankets. Change out your dark-colored throw pillows for lighter ones. Replace the velvets with cotton. Consider rolling up that heavy wool rug and replacing it with rugs that are made of natural fibers. Again, this can be done inexpensively by shopping at discount stores both online and at brick and mortar stores. 

✿ Eat lighter foods
Replace stews, roasts, and hot soups with quiches, salads, and cold soups. And eat your veggies and fruit – lots of them as this is the time that they are in abundance.

✿ Change your light source
Replace your candles with fairy lights – or better still, go outside in the evening and watch the fireflies dance around the garden. 

✿ Spend more time outside
Live outdoors as much as possible. And let the outdoors in by opening your windows as much as possible.

I hope you fill your world with summer days with hygge. Continue to enjoy its benefits of simplicity, friendship, and nourishing company and food in the dog days of summer. Blessed be!

A Spellbook for the Seasons, by Tudorbeth

A Spellbook for the Seasons: Welcome Natural Change with Magical Blessings, by Tudorbeth
Red Wheel Weiser, 9781590035375, 224 pages, March 2022

It’s always wonderful to step into a new season. How inspiring to embrace the changes in the natural world – differences in the light, the weather, the plants, the holidays. A Spellbook for the Seasons: Welcome Natural Change with Magical Blessing by Tudrobeth is a companion to the seasons that will greatly enhance your experiences and show you in so many ways how we are connected to the natural world.

Tudorbeth invites the reader to embrace the seasons and to “investigate these festivals (that are celebrated), the practical magic that flows through our seasons, and the gods that rule over the different times of the year.”11 I particularly liked that the book opens with two blessings: one for sisters and brothers around the world and one for the seasons and the turning of the wheel of the year.

The book is divided into the four seasons, with focus on each season’s garden, crystals, goddesses and gods, and spells, blessings and rituals. As I read the book in the spring, I focused most of my attention on that season. The spring months are associated with the Celtic deities such as Ostara, Belenus (Beltaine), and Brigid. The spring’s spells, blessings, and rituals include those for encouraging flowering in the garden, a daisy love ritual, and Ostara fresh air spell.

I performed the Ostara ritual on Ostara Eve, as the ritual is meant to embody hope, and then I made Ostara magic salt on the night of the full moon in March. When sprinkled around the home or office, it ensures bright ideas and business success. I now have my jar of pink salt sitting in a glass jar, ready for use! I enjoyed following Tudorbeth’s guidance and felt these small magical acts really attuned me to the energies of the season of spring.

For spring cleaning, there’s a small section on decluttering. I loved the Charm of Manannan. As Tudorbeth explains, the Celtic god, Manannan is a “foster father to the many children he takes under his care, and as a protector god he cares deeply for his children.”12 The Charm of Manannan is meant to bring about a loving and caring family home environment.

Additionally, there are rain blessings and rain energy spells that are meant to be done in a spring rainfall. The section on Beltane traditions provided an overview of Beltane, a cleansing detox ritual, and a spring sage clearing ritual. The Charm of Belenus is meant to be done toward the end of spring. The Charm is meant to invoke a happy, fun, and prosperous environment.

My recommendation for using this book to full advantage is to read the section on the upcoming season prior to the season’s arrival so that you have time to gather the items needed for the spells. While some might need to be collected at the last minute, such as flower-specific items, you can be prepared with other items such as salts, colored candles, essential oils, and shells. And then take your time in the season, experimenting with what you’re drawn to.

The sections on the season-specific garden offered suggestions on bringing wonder and magic into your outdoor space and inviting in the fairies. For spring, they include bluebells, hyacinth, and lily of the valley. As spring is associated with rain and showers, Tudorbeth focused on the power of the rainbow, and the suggested crystals include the colors of spring that form a pentagram of rainbows. The five spring crystals are rainbow opal, rainbow moonstone, rainbow obsidian, rainbow pyrite, and rainbow quartz.

The one downside for me was that some of the items were not readily available where I live such as periwinkle flowers or hawthorn twigs but again, with advance notice (e.g. reading the season in advance) I probably could have searched them out.

The other seasons are also given justice. Summer focuses on love, featuring Aphrodite and Apollo, a spell to welcome nymphs into the garden, Midsummer salt, a Lammas gratitude ritual, and a ritual for Midsummer enchantment. For Autumn, among other things, there is a clarity spell, an equinox healing ritual, a Mabon success spell, a Charm of Minerva (one of the three Roman deities who rule over the Autumn months), and a Samhain remembrance potion. Winter offers a first snow spell, an ice wand consecration ritual (if you are able to get an icicle), a Charm of Odin, midwinter tea, and an Imbolc ritual.

The most amazing part of A Spellbook for the Seasons is all the colorful, informative pictures. This is a gorgeous book to have on a table in your home because of the aesthetics that make it soothing to read through. The beauty of this book naturally entices one to want to perform with all the potent magic within. I really enjoyed the many hand-drawn illustrations, along with how the text on each page was simple and elegant. There is no clutter in the book, making it easy to focus on the spellwork or ritual you’re performing.

Tudorbeth is a hereditary practitioner of the Craft. The rules and gifts of herb lore, scrying, healing, tasseomancy, numerology, and candle magic have been passed down to her through several generations. I especially loved her reminder that we are meant to “use the gift that nature brings with these spells, but in return give something back … We are all connected to one another and everything around us. We are nature.”13 I highly recommend A Spellbook for the Seasons with encouragement to plan ahead to be able to use the knowledge imparted within its pages to full advantage.

Seasons of a Magical Life, by H. Byron Ballard

Seasons of a Magical Life: A Pagan Path of Living, by H. Byron Ballard
Weiser Books, 987-1578637232, 197 pages, August 2021

Take a breath, pause, and gift yourself the time to delve into Seasons of a Magical Life: A Pagan Path of Living by H. Byron Ballard. In doing so, use the wisdom shared in this book to create a guide to a more connected way of living and co-existing. As Ballard writes, “this book is an invitation to modern Pagans to return to a simpler and quieter time, either literally or virtually, through letters from a small forest-farm in the southern highlands of the Appalachian Mountains.”14

The educationally credentialed author, H. Byron Ballard (BA, MFA), is a teacher and folklorist as well as a senior priestess. Her life and work are centered in Asheville, North Carolina, where she is a co-founder of Mother Grove Goddess Temple and the Coalition of Earth Religions. 

As I read, I felt as if I was accompanying Ballard around her farm. I could smell the air, feel the weather, and taste the food offerings. I was afforded the experience of spending time with her and the life force that surrounds her in her mountain setting and, by extension, the life force that surrounds me in my setting. 

As the cover indicates, the book focuses on the celebrations, festivals, and rituals for the Wheel of the Year. It is divided into three parts. Part One is a five-chapter section that offers background essays “Animism, Mutual Aid, and Permaculture”, “Tower Time and the Conceit of the Ever-Turning Wheel”, “A Different Means to Reckon Time”, “Re-enchantment and the Uses of Magic”, and “the Good Neighbors, the Land Spirits”.

Part Two is comprised of two chapters, focusing on the Wheel of the Agricultural Year: “Winter, The Waxing Year” and “Summer, the Waning Year”. Within those chapters are the equinoxes of spring and fall. “The chapters are broken into the four seasons, with the Quarter Days a highlight within each, and include simple skills that accompany each marker of the year.”15

Part Three wraps up with “Hearth”, a “chapter on the spiritual and physical immersion into these seasons”16 no matter where one lives, rural, urban, or suburban. 

The essays offered in Part One are intended to “not only give the reader a map of (the) journey but also to introduce some ideas to better inform the journey.”17 Some essays were written as if Ballard was talking to a friend as they climbed a hill, while others unfold in a more informational manner, such as the sections on Ember Days and Embertide and Rogation Days.

As one who communicates daily with the trees and rocks that surround my house, I loved the writings on animism and permaculture. Re-enchantment? Yes, please; I could use a healthy dose of that. However, I recommend taking time to sit with what is being offered in these essays as some are more “heady” than others.

I liked how Ballard did not write about these topics in a clinical, detached manner. She walks the reader around her property as she delves into these subjects; the reader is invited to sit at her kitchen table as she prepares meals. Living seasonally, living and working by the natural light, living with the rhythms of nature. 

Wanting to not only read the book but also practice the activities offered, when I finished the section on the essays and moved to Part Two, the “Wheel of the Year”, I began reading the final chapter first, Chapter 7, “Summer: The Waning Year,” as I received the book a few days before Lammas, the Season of the First Harvest.

As with all of the sections on the Wheel of the Year, Ballard offers a letter from her forest-farm, skills to use, chores to be completed, foods for the season, traditions and celebrations, activities to do with children and other friends, an icon of the season and a concluding paragraph on season’s end.

For Lammas, in her letter from her forest-farm, she writes about how hot and dry the farm now is and surveys what is happening in the garden – an abundance of squash and tomatoes, days of “sweat and effort.”18 She offers a lesson on bread-making including the “philosophy” of kneading and sour dough. Chores such as canning and pickling are covered. Traditions and celebrations such as the blessed loaf and the ceremony of cakes and ale are introduced.

The Lammas section continues with recommended activities for Children and Other Friends, including shaping a loaf person and making corn dollies. The icon written about is Wheat as Lammas is “the first in a series of three harvest festivals that is usually dominated by bread – making it, shaping it, and eating it.”19

It concludes with a paragraph on Season’s End that encapsulates the essence of the season, for Lammas, namely looking to the “symbol of the harvest and what that means about gratitude in your life – how you express it, how you use it.”20

She asks the reader to look at the intention that was planted in the Spring — both literally and symbolically and see if the reader tended to this intention — and if it’s ready to “feed you now, that thing that you imagined planting?”21

The book’s final section delves into the aspects of hearth and homely life. She praises homeliness – simplicity in one’s home, comfort, pleasant but ordinary. She invites the reader to view the kitchen as living space for nurturing physically and emotionally. Home altars both indoors and outdoors are discussed as spiritual anchors. Ironically, while I have a home altar, I hadn’t thought of creating an outdoor altar until reading this book. She writes of – are you ready? – laundry as a meditative practice, which after reading I now understand. 

I especially love the book’s concluding lines, offered as a friend waving as you depart their home and sending you off with love:

“There is so much to do, every day, to tuck in the ends of this weaving we are creating: to observe and really see, to listen and really hear, to integrate our intuition and our Ancestral memory into a practice so practiced it no longer feels artificial. It only feels like living a good life and a full one.”22

I highly recommend not only reading Seasons of a Magical Life – but living it. For those who are looking to deepen their connection to the natural cycles of the year, this is a great book to have in one’s library. It offers simple, practical ways to engage with the seasonal energy of the year as it makes its way around the wheel of time. Many of these small practices are certain to enchant one’s life and bring a deeper sense of purpose to the small actions we do daily, fostering an appreciation of the current moment in time that is grounded yet extraordinarily magical.

Living a Hygge Lifestyle This Winter

Hygge. You might have seen the word. You might even be familiar with some of its concepts. You probably have a hard time pronouncing it! (It’s pronounced “hoo-guh” by the way.)

The concept of hygge is that of creating a feeling of coziness in the winter months. But really, it’s more than the accoutrements of coziness such as blankets and candles, although they are important parts. Hygge is a way of life in which one not only copes with living in the winter months but thrives.

Hygge is most associated with Denmark, where the Danes experience dark, cold winter months. Despite the weather, Denmark consistently ranks as one of the happiest countries in the world, if not the happiest. The country even has a Happiness Research Institute, a think tank that focuses on wellbeing.

It’s known that embracing the concept of hygge increases feelings of wellness and contentment. This is because hygge encourages you to embrace the winter season instead of curse it. It’s a shifting of mindset from thinking that winter is an isolating, depressing time to one in which you gain the opportunity to engage in self-care, warmth, quiet, and introspection. Seeing the benefits of each wheel of the year is the supreme act of living seasonally.

How can you embrace hygge and incorporate it into your winter lifestyle?

Comfort is key

Embrace comfort. Pile up the blankets. Wear comfy clothing and thick warm socks. Layer extra throw pillows on the bed or sofa. Create an environment where you feel warm and safe. Instead of wide open spaces, aim for creating a cocoon in a part of a room. Maybe it’s a chair in a corner that transforms into a reading nook.

Flame your fires

Cozy up to a fireplace. If you have one, light it. If you don’t have a fireplace you can improvise. Buy a space heater that simulates a fireplace, flame and all. Or, upload an image of a fireplace on your computer or television and sit for a spell.

Seasonal eating

Cook and eat comfort foods. Stews, soups, bread, warm drinks. Fill your belly with warmth. These winter foods tend to take longer to prepare, so slow down and enjoy the time chopping, kneading, baking, and simmering.

Decrease the electricity

Fill your space with candlelight. As daylight tends to be shorter, bring light in with candles. Allow the soft glow of real candles or even flameless candles to create ambience. Remember, don’t curse the darkness, light a candle! Turn off electronic devices and decrease the use of artificial lighting.

Fill up on fresh air

Get outdoors even if it’s in short spurts! Look at the different perspectives available to you in the winter months, when the bones of nature are exposed. Breathe in fresh air. Embrace a star-filled winter night sky.

Dress the part

Dress appropriately for the weather. Bundle up. Wearing the proper clothing will make it an enjoyable experience. Meik Wiking, Chief Executive of the Happiness Institute, is a proponent of what she calls the benefit of “outdoorphins.” The Danes have a saying that there’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.

Gather with loved ones

This year, with the world experience of pandemic, one of the most important components of hygge can’t be easily or safely experienced: communing with friends and family. Normally, sitting around a table sharing food, conversation, and laughter with friends and family is a big part of the hygge lifestyle. Just because socializing needs to look different this year doesn’t mean you should forgot about it as part of your hygge winter plans. If possible, have a bonfire party with social distancing. Ask everyone to bring a basket of food and drinks for themselves, and sit around the fire socializing, eating, and covered in blankets. However, if outdoor socializing isn’t possible (or permitted), embrace the moment and let 2020 be the year that you focus on communing with yourself.

Living a hygge lifestyle turns the concept of “coping” with winter into embracing it. Look at it as an opportunity to engage in self-care. Winter is all about turning inward. Use this time to rest and relax. The concept of hygge is meant to be lived and experienced as it provides real physical and emotional benefits. Remember to focus on the present, live in the moment, wrap yourself in warmth.

Winter, by Jo Graham

Winter: Rituals to Thrive in the Dark Cycle of the Saeculum, by Jo Graham
Llewellyn Publications, 0738763712, 211 pages, 2020

I was intrigued by the title of this book and looked forward to diving into it to familiarize myself with the saeculum in general — the season of Winter specifically. I had no knowledge of the concept of the saeculum, first mentioned by the Etruscans but also written about by the ancient Greeks and Romans. Saeculum roughly translates into the expected lifetime of an individual (80 years). It is based on the cycles of the Great Wheel that, if we live to 80 and beyond, we will experience during our life lifetime.  In Winter: Rituals to Thrive in the Dark Cycle of the Saeculum, Jo Graham does a marvelous job of detailing out the concept of saeculum and also explaining each season of the Great Wheel, including what to expect. She also goes back in time to what happened during each season in both recent and ancient history to help us understand the current time of Winter.

As Graham explains, the Romans called this 80-year cycle the Great Wheel, or the wheel of generations. The Great Wheel is aligned with the seasonal nature of all life. Each cycle of the Great Wheel lasts roughly 80 years, and each of the four seasons within the Great Wheel cycle lasts approximately 20 years. Each season is further divided into periods of 10 years, including Imbolc, Belatane, Lammas, and Samhain. Therefore, we are all born in a certain season in the cycle of the Great Wheel. Graham provides charts to determine in what season you were born. I was born in Spring of the current cycle. Therefore, I experienced my youth in Spring, adulthood in Summer, maturity in Autumn, and am now entering old age in Winter. I admit gasping at being categorized as being in Old Age, but in terms of the Great Wheel, we all get to live through each of the four seasons if we are blessed to live to 80 (at which point the cycle begins again). “Every eighty years we pass through what the Classical Greeks called ekpyrosis, a destruction by fire that then allows for rebirth and the growth of new things.” 13

Graham also breaks down how each of the so-called age groups (Millennials, Baby Boomers, Gen-Xers) are going to meet the Winter (the season in which we are living now) challenges in their own unique ways. According to the Great Wheel, we entered the season of Winter around 2010. In 2020, we are in Imbolc. Winter will be nearing an end in 2030. Graham goes into detail writing about how events that have occurred since 2010 are exemplary of things that happen in the season of Winter which, like anything natural, does not have a fixed start and end date. For example, the approach of Winter could be felt in the attacks of 9/11 and the stock market crash of 2008, which happened in Samhain in the Fall season.

Winter is divided into four sections: Introduction, The Crisis Approaches, The Storm Rages, and Aftermath. There is also an extensive bibliography at the end of the book. In each section, Graham describes what to expect in each phase of Winter, what happened in a Winter seasons in times past, and includes detailed rituals to help cope/survive and ultimately thrive during this season. In addition to explaining about the Great Wheel and the seasons, Graham also writes extensively in the Introduction about the last season of Winter, 1925 – 1945, which included the Great Depression and World War II. Definitely not good times for civilization. I shuddered to think that we are in this season again.

One ritual that Graham recommended in the Introduction was to help reconnect with ancestors who you know experienced the last Winter. Without going into too much detail, the ritual involved mask-making (how the Romans honored and invited in their ancestors) and also journaling to invoke our ancestors for counsel, wisdom, and ways to cope during Winter. I loved this ritual and was happy to receive guidance from grandparents and extended family who lived through this period. I was shown that while there was hardship, families worked together and everyone in the world was in the same boat – much like today’s Winter with COVID-19.

In the section titled “The Crisis Approaches,” Graham offers a broader picture of the last cycle of Winter. She also asks us to remember where we were when this current season of Winter began (around 2010), what we were experiencing in our life at that time, what our community, country, and the world at large was also was experiencing. She brings us back further in time through another journaling exercise to 2000, just before the start of the current Winter. When I sat quietly and journaled about this time, I realized that my 18-year marriage had come to a sudden end. As Graham writes, “Winter as a season is inevitable” and it always arrives. 16 

The first phase of Winter is what she describes as the “Gathering Storm,” 17 which is easy to dismiss as a gradual change in temperature, a few snowflakes. She encourages us to prepare for the Winter and not to be complacent and caught off guard. “We can get through Winter the same way our ancestors did: with planning, community, and faith.” 23 She also recommends journaling exercise with questions about our values. “Our values can help guide not just ourselves but those around us as we navigate this season.” 24 This exercise asks us to look at who we are now in this phase of Winter by answering questions on topics such as hospitality, honor, our relationship to the Earth, and how we feel about Pagan values. It was a very interesting exercise and I soon found out in the next section the relevance of the topics. As she cautions, “Remember, we cannot make good decisions about the events to come if we don’t realistically understand our own situation with its vulnerabilities and strengths and receive truthful information about events as they happen.” 25

In the section titled “The Storm Rages”, Graham helps us to prepare for the inevitable storm, including rituals to invoke Athena Strategos (for strength) and Hermes (for effective communication based on clarity and truth). She also asks us to choose what seeds we want to preserve through the Winter to plant in the Spring, not just for us personally but also for our country at large and includes a ritual to save these seeds. She also walks the reader through the process of creating a haven, once again not just for ourselves but also for others who might come to us seeking shelter from the Winter. There was a beautiful rite to Vesta to hallow the house, to protect it, and bless it, that I found quite moving. While the ritual is best done with a community, due to the pandemic I did this alone and found it equally as beautiful and beneficial. I especially like the direction to keep a candle burning (artificial) throughout the night.  

Heroes are needed to get through the Winter, and the final chapter in this section deals with different types of heroes. Graham offers an exercise to determine the type of hero we are based on our temperament. Ideally, we will want to be in a community of heroes who possess different skills and strengths: communicator, warrior, helper, and conservator. The exercise revealed that I am a helper warrior. Graham includes a ritual to make a bracelet to wear as a reminder of our hero skill-type; also recommended is a community-based ritual to help all of us carry out our unique roles depending on our hero-type. 

The final section is “Aftermath”. Jo includes a meditation to help us move from Winter into Spring. Included is a ritual to bring forth the seed we saved and preserved and how to decide how and when to plant it. There is also a ritual to welcome the returning Winter warriors and to honor the departed who did not survive the season. Graham concludes Winter with rituals for invoking Concordia, the daughter of Mars and Venus to “rule our interactions so that the world to come is the best we can make it” 26 and a ritual to banish Discoria, or lawlessness.

Do not expect Winter to be a quick read. I recommend reading each section slowly and engaging in the rituals, exercises, and meditations that call to you. It would have been personally helpful if I had read Graham’s first book, The Great Wheel, to have had an initial fuller understanding of the natural cycle of the Great Wheel. No doubt, the topics covered in the book are heavy, for Winter is not to be trifled with. At times, I found myself depressed, especially in reading that the coming years are those of cataclysm. But it also helped me put into perspective what is happening in the country today in terms of bad communication, unrest, a lack of empathy and civility, a pandemic, and governments turned on their heads. I very much enjoyed that Graham asked me to remember via a journaling exercise that my grandparents and extended family came through the Winter. It left me with hope that “in the early 2030s we will be charting new courses socially, economically, environmentally, and physically. Spring will be fully upon us.” 27

Enchanted Herbal, by Gail Bussi

Enchanted Herbal: Connect to Nature & Celebrate the Seasons, by Gail Bussi
Llewellyn Publications, 0738766119, 288 pages, December 2020

Living seasonally is a very important part of my spiritual practice. The best ways to connect with the seasons that I’ve learned over the years are practices that keep me grounded, such as cooking, journaling, and self-care. Though I’ve been living this lifestyle for quite some time, I have been delightfully surprised by all the inspiration offered by Gail Bussi in Enchanted Herbal: Connect to Nature & Celebrate the Seasons. This book is handy, practical, and filled with wisdom for all the seasons. Reading it just through Winter thus far, I’ve already felt a shift that deepened my mind-body-spirit connection to the season. I’ve also had lots of fun trying out new recipes and learning about seasonal herbs.

Immediately I resonated with Bussi’s words, “Each season brings its own gifts, lessons, opportunities, and sometimes challenges — but I believe nature also offers us the remedy for these challenges if we are open to connecting with her each and every day of the year.”25 By participating in the energy of the seasons, adjusting our routines accordingly, there is wisdom to be gained from the natural cycles of the Earth. Bussi’s writing nurtures the reader and enhances feelings of being calm and centered throughout the seasons. With this book in hand, I feel ready for all the shifts in nature through the year.

The book starts with Spring and moves along in seasonal order to end with Winter. Every season is divided into sections: Heart Notes, Create, Nurture, Grow, and Taste. The way this compendium of seasonal knowledge is organized makes it easy to find just what you’re looking for, whether it be general information about the time of the year, a scrumptious recipe, or an idea for a creative project. Enchanted Herbal has it all — simple practices to connect with the energy of the season, gardening tips, homemade body products, and a wide array of tasty delights.

What I like most about Enchanted Herbal is that it is a very hands-on book. Reading it makes one want to partake in the seasonal energy through the wide variety of projects, creative suggestions, and cooking ideas that Bussi offers. My initiative was ignited, but in the most soothing and centered way, as I am reading it during winter which is the “do nothing” season. The promptings to bake, cook, or partake in self-care felt very intuitive. I would feel called to try this recipe, or steep that tea, and the experience of reading through the book over the course of a few weeks yielded a Juniper Cleansing Mist, Eucalyptus and Jasmine Foot Soak, and dinner of Stir-Fry Brussel Sprouts with Bacon, Pecans, and Garlic (yum!).

Even though I only partook in Winter activities, I did read through the other seasons and got very excited for all the things I wanted to try out. My mouth was joyfully anticipating some of the recipes in the book, such as Chocolate Mint Pots, Fireside Mushroom Soup, Pumpkin Fritters with Sage, and Spicy Coconut Chicken. It’s worth noting that Bussi previously ran a catering company and has published a cookbook, so she truly knows her stuff when it comes to food! Furthermore, there are even recipes for enticing beverages – to name a few: Spring Morning Tea, Coconut Tumeric Latte, and Dandelion Wine.

Some other ideas inspired by Enchanted Herbal are planting an astrological garden, creating a nature mandala, and practicing the art of foraging. I’m very much looking forward to Spring now that I have this book to guide me into new ways to attune to nature and celebrate the season. I am already intending to create the Spring Morning Toner, which uses all the natural ingredients to refresh the skin, and Lemon Verbena Massage Oil that can be used for the skin or dropped into a bath. I’m pacing myself, but it’s tempting to not hold off on all the Summer recipes (Tri-Colore Tomato Salad!) and self-care DIY projects (Peaceful Nights Pillow Mist, After-Sun Soothing Tub) I’m eager to try out! 

Bussi has filled each season with so many ways to engage with the herbs that the reader has room to pick and choose as they feel called, coming back over the course of a long while to perhaps finally try it all. This is definitely a book that you will reference back to many times through the year, as the recipes are worth repeating and the instructions for projects like creating essential oils, foot scrubs, and aloe vera gel will always come in handy. It is a wonderful book to begin your herbal journey of healing and self-nurturance.

All elements of my being felt supported when reading Enchanted Herbal, as it truly teaches how to tend to one’s self with love and care to become more aligned with the natural energy of the year. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys cooking, DIY projects, or gardening that wants to further deepen their connection to the energy of the seasons. There’s magic in these everyday activities, and Bussi teaches the reader how to find joy throughout the year by living in harmony with the seasons.