The glow of the secular new year surrounds us as we leave the darkness of the past year ending. The year 2024 was a bit rough for many. For every wedding, graduation, and holiday, there were three times as many deaths, funerals, memorial services, and disappointments. In some ways, we ended the year feeling as though we are holding on. Mars is in retrograde, challenging us to look at our internal approach emotionally to anger and our energy levels overall.
So, as we start a new 2025 – let’s not forget why we are here. The best reward and win is to live our best lives – and that’s not going to look the same for everyone. This is a good thing. We are not cookie cutter, and should not be. We are human with variety in spirit, in motivation, and in results.
British Library, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Wheel of Fortune – British Library, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
For some, the welcome is the rush to grasp gym memberships we may abandon in February, to focus on beginnings, to shake off the extended holiday times with family, friends. We make dedications to what and how we want our lives to be – we affirm or pledge to take steps forward to realize our dreams.
For the ill and those whose lives are hanging on for a thread- a good year may mean a life with as little pain as possible or one where physical pain maybe present, but doing what brings love and joy overall.
For the bored, a good year means finding a new purpose or a genuine connection to what we know brings us purpose.
For the lonely, a good year may include discovering not just where belonging can be found – because living or spending time alone does not mean automatic loneliness – unless that is what the individual wants.
For the non-stop workaholic, a good year may shape itself around the nature of the business that consumes the individual. There is the workaholic who sees how this gives life purpose, the workaholic who embraces the overwhelming nature of work due to not knowing what else to do with the time allotted to being human, and the workaholic who uses the act of working as societally approved punishment for crimes unknown.
For those in the colder northern hemisphere, January falls in the middle of cuffing season. For those paired up, perhaps a good year would be where a decision is made as to whether this is a good time to settle down for more than a few months with one special person or in one loving situation.
Like the god, Janus – we are able to look forward and backward at this time. Whether it is the cold, turn of the calendar pages, or just the break in time when we can simply sit and be with ourselves – we see who we are, where we have been, and where we wish to go. These recollections and anticipated future journeys may be painful or filled with hope, but they are present in each of us for as long as we live on this plane of existence.
As humans, we are a chronological memory book of experiences. As we see our own children repeat acts of curiosity and joy that we learned when we were their age, the wheel turns. We simultaneously recall ourselves as children, while living our current lives as adults. We hold compassion, empathy, and sympathy for others’ mistakes because we have made them at some point ourselves.
The newness gives us renewed opportunity to live life on our terms. For those embracing one of the many paths in Paganism, Heathenry, or polytheism, we often are challenged to take the path that scares us because that brings growth.
We use religion and spirituality under stress to make life bearable and to find meaning when it appears that there is no reason for our burdens and pains. When life appears to make no sense at all, this is when we fall back on divinatory tools for guidance, to our connection with the Gods for guidance, and to our individual traditions for wisdom and understanding.
January acts as the fulcrum point for the year. While we do not often mention it, gratitude abounds both in where we start the new year as well as how we choose to start the new year.
Each new year brings the opportunity to erase the harsh edges from prior years. A good recent example occurred with the passing of Jimmy Carter, humanitarian and the 39th President of the United States (1977-1981).
Carter Center, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
President Jimmy Carter during a 2007 visit to Savelugu Hospital in Ghana. President Carter and the Carter Center played a huge role in Ghana’s fight in eradicating Guinea Worm Disease. Carter Center, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Known for successes as a peacekeeper and a humanitarian. His devotion to the eradication of Guinea worm disease combined with other good works, such as building homes with the organization founded in 1979, Habitat for Humanity craft a picture far removed from when he left office in 1981. Carter demonstrated through his actions how to live a good life by never giving up going after what he wanted.
In a world where greed and materialism are commonplace, the accolades Carter received at news of his passing are for the opposite, putting others ahead of himself. One of his last acts involved his choice for his end-of-life care: hospice. End-of-life discussions and hospice care specifically represent the achievement for many dying with dignity. Carter’s act of servitude in this area shed light on an area often shrouded in stigma resulting in a resistance to the idea of hospice as a viable option for a death on one’s own terms. Carter’s choice to enter hospice in February 2023 meant that he spent nearly two years in a state often misunderstood: the beneficial role of hospice.
How others see Carter at death versus how he was viewed four decades earlier changed. He changed from just a politician to an example of a good human being.
As we begin the nine year grants its first stop with the Wheel of Fortune represents the energetic signature for January 2025. As Blood, Sweat, & Tears reminds us – the wheel spins. The nine year reminds us to celebrate the joys, release the sorrows, and take the steps forward that the month of January brings in a form similar to the Magician who has all the tools needed spread on the table before them.
Happy New Year Ya7yow, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
We have what we need. The wheel spins and where it stops no one knows. Let’s grasp what lies before us. Take a chance. Grab the spinning wheel and ride it.
Wishing all wisdom, guidance, and understanding as we step through the doorway between what we left behind in 2024 and what lies before us in 2025.
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