Weekly Rituals: December 19th to 26th
Welcome to my weekly experience as a practicing witch, priestess and spiritual human!
It occurred to me that while I talk about the intricacies of these practices I’ve woven into my life, I don’t outline how they interact with each other on a daily and weekly basis. I wanted to show you how I have woven these into this week: 12/19 to 12/26. Yes this is an “8 day” week, but it also gives an extended insight into 3 cycles that I follow: the lunar cycle, the witch’s sabbath and Aphrodite’s worship.
On my daily routine:
Daily ritual bathing or showering towards the end of my day: imagining the energy of those around me being rinsed off and spiraling down the drain.
Dimming the artificial light, and lighting candles.
Putting my music on shuffle and dancing. This is a dual creative and somatic release for me. I am a dancer by training and to freely express through music as a vehicle is a self-love modality that has deeply healing somatic benefits as well. By moving my body it releases energy from my tissues and also has the benefit of exertion before drifting to sleep.
Speaking of sleep, I use soundbaths or Hz. frequency music. This helps me in a few ways: it helps create a serene cocoon away from the noise of living in a city AND helps my mind slip into a deeper sleep state at a faster rate. That’s something about me that my family and friends deeply understand… I need high quality sleep and I need a lot of it.
My weekly events:
Tuesday 12/19 - The first quarter, waxing, moon. Pulling tarot cards for the moon, meditation and journaling about them with relevance in my life. I pulled these cards:
What’s working since the New Moon: Judgment
What needs adjustment: Reversed Ace of Wands
What action I need to take: Emperor
Divine advice: Reversed Five of Pentacles, Ten of Cups & Reversed Two of Pentacles.
Wednesday 12/20 - Nothing in particular was added to my daily routine on this day. It was my company’s holiday party so my vibration was already higher due to the celebrations.
Thursday 12/21 - The start of Yule! Yule starts at sunset and celebrates the Winter Solstice, the longest day of the year and the light’s return to Earth. There are many different ways to celebrate, but here’s how I celebrated. With all sabbat’s I like to have a reflective activity, a symbolic activity and something active
I lit my candles and turned off all overhead lighting. This symbolically represents the light beginning to return amidst the darkness surrounding us. It also harkens to the fertile possibilities of rebirth after this “death” upon the earth during winter.
Mulling cider isn’t something you may think of immediately, but it’s a comforting warm drink that has all of the warm spices of the winter season that show up in our baking -cinnamon, all spice, clove and nutmeg - and it’s a hands-on activity which is something I desired to do to inject intention. I get the benefits of “drinking my intention” while also having a yummy treat.
Pulling cards for Yule is something that I always do, with the moon, my mood and the sun. Here are the ones I pulled:
Rebirth: What is being birthed under the growing light? King of Swords
Midnight: What within me fears the light? What likes the darkness? Eight of Cups
Gift: What gifts do I have, and do I hide them from the world? Seven of Pentacles
Friday 12/22 - Reverence for Aphrodite.
One of my intentions for my work with Aphrodite is to love myself to then better give her offerings of love in return. In order to do this this week, I took care of my body. I went to bed early and meditated on her essence. The meditation also corresponded with a book I was reading earlier today that described her energetic frequency as feminine with masculine qualities. It was an interesting correspondence that I explored further within myself.
Saturday 12/23 - Jade Egg (also known as a yoni egg) practice. I like to do this at the end of the weekend to anchor into myself before starting a new week. Because this is on Christmas weekend and I have two parties on my Sunday, I moved it over to Saturday as a way to celebrate the beginning of my time off from work instead!
Sunday 12/24 - Because of the family parties that I have, I am practicing glamour magic today. Glamour is a protective magic as well as a self-confidence boost. The way I practice it is by using makeup and clothing to create a shield around me, another layer between me and the external world. Some people may ask - why do I feel the need to do this at a family party and celebration… simply overstimulation. I’ve noticed that without alcohol, coffee or my anxiety medication in my life that I am much more highly sensitive and the glamour is a nice subconscious buffer that I get to control what happens around me. My family is yelling about food, laughing at each other, and screaming at football and I’ve come to appreciate the benefit of this subtle magic.
Monday 12/25 - Merry Christmas! This is the last day of my true holiday season, and I’ve had a family event on the 23rd, 24th and two on the 25th for the holiday. I’m a part of a huge family and this is a big time in my family, so to take care of myself during the crescendo day I abstain from all alcohol and heavily limit caffeine. These are two “vices”that tend to get me into a triggered state, and after the known fatigue then I would be buzzing around the christmas tree and not in a good way.
Tuesday 12/26 - Full Moon in Cancer. I pull tarot cards on this lunar cycle as well and I put out some of my crystal collection outside under the moon. The cards I pulled are:
Zodiac: The Chariot
Connection to me: The Tower
Lesson 1&2: The Hermit & Ten of Pentacles
Caution: The Star
Manifestation: 1&2: Seven of Wands & Wheel of Fortune
Thank you for spending this week with me from a bird's eye perspective! It was a wonderful practice for myself to take time to take an accurate inventory about the different practices I do day to day as well as throughout the week. If you’re interested in the Tarot part of my week, if you sign up to my newsletter you get the tarot spread I use every new moon and full moon for free and there will be a tarot specific blog post in the coming weeks.
