New Years Resolutions

As a pagan, the new year is a little more fluid for me than it is for many.  Many pagans see the new year  as starting at the beginning of November, when Samhain is celebrated.  This is part of the Celtic tradition which has heavily influenced Wicca and is part of the Celtic Reconstructionist paths.   Some pagans follow more modern traditions of starting the new year in January.  This too has it’s basis in the past in the Scottish traditions of Hogmany.  This is very similar to our modern new year traditions.  Think Auld Lang Syne.

So I do usually have a few New Years Resolutions in the traditions of my past and of my ancestors. This year I have two:

The first is to smile more.  I’ve had my children tell me they love my smile, but they don’t get to see it enough.  I’ve had my husband and loved ones wonder if there’s something wrong.  It seems, for whatever reason, that when I’m concentrating, or reading, or just not really thinking of anything I look a little scowly.  So a new practice for this year is smiling meditation.  To smile can change our biochemistry.  It can change how those around me perceive me.  Plus, I’ve got entirely enough frown wrinkles. I think I’m going to carve those crow’s feet at the corners of my eyes a little deeper this year.

The second is about my relationship to things.  The last few years have taught me a lot of lessons about my relationship to money and attachment to physical things.  We moved and I let things go.  I’ve had to let go of old houses, of stability, of ideas I had about money from my suburban upbringing. I’ve let go of the idea of showing love through big expensive gifts.  I’ve realized that I can find creativity anywhere, and while I enjoy using paint and canvas or other bought items, I can use local materials with good effect and less damage to the earth.

I also usually start the year with divination. I have had a number of divination sessions, both my own and from others, that indicate that this may be a challenging year.  It seems it may be filled with some fairly serious change for me.  One of the things that was indicated was that there was something or some things that need to be offered up in order for this change to occur successfully and well.  Thus we come again to attachment to things.  I will focus on letting go of my need for stuff and of my fears about money.  I will embrace simplicity more fully and with more joy in my heart.

I am a priestess of ADF, and I’m still figuring out what that means.  The old stories tell us limited things about what the priesthoods of our pagan past actually did.  The threads of lore must combine with inspiration to fill in the gaps.  I have bits and pieces. There are stories of gifted madmen and women who could speak with the birds and the animals.  They ran wild in the woods with nothing at all, not even clothes.  There is evidence that the Volva, a keeper of the sacred songs in the northern lands, would travel from one village to another, never staying in one place very long.  There are the Vaidelutes, fire priestess who committed to tending the sacred flame for all their lives.  Though wealth is not viewed as a bad thing, in pagan practice, it seems to me, that when we look at the lives of those who were the keepers of sacred knowlege, it was not their primary goal.

I’ve never been very good at making money, so I will continue to focus on saving money by needing less.  I’m not sure how that will turn out, and hopefully I will find guidance and wisdom in the seeking. I do want to continue to grow my creative outlets and discover new ways to create income to help my family, but I will do so in ways that focus on my vision of creativity in harmony with the earth.