My Sacred Wheel: Midwinter

 I’ve been walking the path of pagan and witch for over 30 years, and during these decades, my path has changed many times. I’m very eclectic, and also mostly Kindred taught (Ancestors, Nature Spirits, Deities). I study what They lead me to. Some of it is just to learn more about other traditions and cultures, and some of it is to practice, be that practice temporary or long term.

A lot of things have changed, and some have stayed the same for the most part. One of the major things that seems to change every year are my holy/high days. I’m a big believer in that if a holiday or whatever one wants to call it isn’t fun or has lost its meaning—you just don’t connect to it—CHANGE IT, so it does hold meaning to you or just do nothing. There’s no rule saying that you have to observe and celebrate holy days, depending on your path.

Who cares if a day isn’t ancient? Ancient doesn’t mean better.

Does it mean something to you? No? Screw it, either toss it, tweak it, or invent a day to honor whatever, secular and not.

What’s the point otherwise?

When I was first starting on my path, the Wheel of the Year was strictly Wiccan (mostly because that’s all any really wrote about when I was a witchling in the 1990’s), whereas today it’s more of a general paganism thing. I wasn’t Wiccan, Celtic, Welsh, whatever, so I disconnected with the Wheel of the Year. I wanted to celebrate, too. But I couldn’t connect with those myths, I didn’t share the same deities, and the weather changes that were happening in my area weren’t the same as the blanketed sabbats in those old books—authors that forgot or didn’t realize that the weather changes drastically coast to coast, north to south, mountains to deserts to plains to swamps, northern hemisphere to southern hemisphere, and so on. You can’t just have blanket statements across the globe.

Over the last 2 decades, I’ve been tweaking, researching, inventing. Paying attention to what nature is doing in my region/area (although thanks to Global Warming, it’s all a little f’ed up).

This is what my Wheel of the Year looks like (my Sacred Year actually has more holy days than 8):

1. Midwinter - Feb 1st

2. Spring Equinox / First Day of Spring - March 20-23

3. Midspring - May 1st

4. Summer Solstice / First Day of Summer - June 20-23

5. Midsummer - August 1st

6. Fall Equinox / First Day of Fall- September 20-23

7. Midfall - November 1st

8. Winter Solstice / First Day of Winter - Dec 20-23

One such day that I struggled for years with was Imbolc. It was a day that I just couldn’t connect to and only celebrated with others. It’s a day usually associated with the Goddess Brigid and Her many names, forms, and domains. Since I was young, I’ve experienced Brigid, be Her passing on a message for someone else or me encountering Her during someone’s ritual. But She never came out and said that She wanted me as a devotee.

Same happened with Hekate. She was in my life off and on as a Divine Messenger, but not as one of my Personal Pantheon. Until some odd years ago when She finally claimed me as a Child and later a Priestess.

But I wanted to celebrate Imbolc….I just couldn’t connect to it. So I turned it into a day to honor my Hearth and Winter Entities. I adopted some things from my local grove’s Imbolc rites honoring Brigando, like the blessing of a healing blanket. I crocheted my own, using old projects, frogged projects, and scrap yarns, and with some help from my kids. My Hearth Mothers and Entities blessed it with healing and comfort energies.

When my kids are sick, they usually ask for the Healing Blanket. During winter, it stays out in the living room for anyone to use it, compared to other times of the year where it only comes out when needed. Come February 1st, I will cleanse the blanket and ask for blessings.

I also changed the name of this holy day. Since the Winter Solstice/Yule is the First Day of Winter it made sense to have February 1st named Midwinter. I know some people also associate Imbolc with the coming of spring, but around these parts it’s still very much winter. In fact, spring doesn’t usually start looking and feeling like spring until April/May. And I grew up with “Don’t plant anything until after Mother’s Day”. I won’t touch my yard until after Mother’s Day, because there’s still a lot of critters using those dead plants as shelter, food, nurseries, and so on.

I also don’t have the space or money for seed starters. I don’t usually know what I’m doing with my garden until I’m at the store for soil and seeds.

Midwinter for me is a time to count your blessings, honor the Hearth and Winter Entities, and focus on good health and protections for my loved ones. I also love snow. I’m not a fan of bitter cold and brown winters. It has to look the part, too, or my SAD isn’t great. I’m super grateful for all of the snow we’ve had this winter.

Instead of using a groundhogs’ shadow, my kids like the story of The Cailleach and whether or not She’s going to collect firewood on the day.

This is what my correspondences look like for Midwinter:

• Energies: Rest, Purification, Patience, Introspection, Quiet, Warmth, Healing, Community, Charity.

• Kindreds: Hestia-Vesta (whose names have combined into Vestia lately), the Vestals, Hekate, Frigg, Freyja, Loki, Reindeer Mother, Skadi, The Cailleach, Mother Holle/Hulda, Frau Perchta, Hags, Disir, Tomten, Nisse, Agathos Daimon, and others.

• Colors: White, Yellow, Orange, Red, Black, Gray, Blue.

• Symbols: Distaff, Fiberart Tools, Hearth/fireplace/campfire/stoves, Candles, Handmade Winter Gear, Crockpots/Cauldrons, Family, Antlers, Drums, and others.

• Animals: Winter Animals.

• Feast Foods and Beverages: (Celiac here, so no breads—gf breads just taste like failure and aren’t worth the carbs) Root Veggies, Chicken, Game Animals, Honey, Milk, Pot Likker, Bone Broth, Spicy Foods, Soups, Stews, Chilis, Canned Foods, Dried Foods, Hot Teas, Hot Chocolates, Coffees, Mead, and others. I’m very much into soups, stews, and broths—I’m a Crockpot Witch for sure.

February 1st is right around the corner, and just when I think I have things figured out, well, I find myself strongly connected to the Seasons of a Witch: Imbolc deck. A Yule gift from this past holiday. To my surprise, The Cailleach has claimed that deck for our sessions.

THEN Brigid came to me in a recent trance, finally coming forward to claim me as one of Hers devotees.

With this new Hearth Mother, shall I change the name of my Midwinter to Imbolc?

Nah, at least not yet. I guess we’ll see how my ever changing and e-re-volving Sacred Wheel looks in a couple of years.

~ Dedicant & Hearth Keeper Foxlyn

(also posted on my Substack)