Dear Neophyte,
I'm not sure what official names exist for the time between Samhain and Yule, where time does not exist. We go into ourselves and become the fetus again, housed in our own wombs. You shed and bleed and go underground to heal. At Yule you become reborn and start the new year with a fresh face and a new outlook.
Some Pagans start this process at Yule and make it last a full 12 nights. For me I start it at Samhain and give myself till Yule to finish it up. I call this time of year the Old Year Dissolutions. All last year we did a LOT of stuff. It's also 2015 so there is no pretending that we don't all keep records of it everywhere. We journal, or we picture or we facebook or something. We do something by which we can look back on and say, 'Oh! That's what I did!:D"
I went through my old diaries, through facebook, through my blogs, my dream journal, books of shadows (yes, more than 3), including the multitude of piled up to-do and to-done lists I have lying in the paper box in my closet. I went through it all, pulling out the old and the new and everything in between and examined it.
What did I accomplish last year? I wrote it down and praised myself.
What did I not accomplish last year? I examined it and if it was still relevant I let go of the grief of not having done it yet and put it on a new to-do-list.
What did I let go of last year? I said good-bye to old goals I no longer want to finish and thus released any guilt left with having not accomplished something I wanted to. If it was something I still wanted to accomplish I put it on a 'to-get-to-at-some-point" list which will probably not see the light of day till next year.
What new thing do I want to accomplish? I made a list of this year's new goals. I researched how to write effective goal statements, followed the formula, and now have a list of what I want to do in the following year.
Where did I progress but not finish? I added these to my new goals and prioritized them. Working on them one at a time is much more energy efficient than trying to tackle them all at once.
For the goals I wish to accomplish I will add magic to the mix (if magic is applicable) and use the full moons and spellcraft to help draw them to me.
Also, I now own a gun.
Yep, you can reread that. How is it relevant in any way, shape, form, or fashion? Well I was writing down my goals from last year that I gave up on and let go of and one of them was owning a gun. I just don't have the money for it and because I know my current financial situation dictates that I'll be tied up monetarily for at least a year it is also not a foreseeable goal either. I was writing this down and looked over at my altar and though at the images of my gods, "You know, unless one of you wants to drop a gun in my lap which in such a way as to make it permanently mine and free." Less than week later my sister's exploded polycule fan whiplash lands a gun in my lap.
All I can really say is, "Thanks guys!"
The Old Year's Dissolutions are about wrapping up your unfinished affairs and carrying over your 'still working on it' projects to this year. It's about finishing what you started. New Year is a time for starting new things so that'll be a whole other post!
Salutations,
Sesh
