Holding on is believing that there’s only a past; letting go is knowing that there’s a future.
As we approach our collective threshold moment, let’s reflect and contemplate a bit. We will be crossing into a new day, a new month, and a fresh year.
We carry our familiar stories with us like well-worn companions. Yet there’s an undeniable alchemy in the turning of the calendar – a whispered promise of renewal that emerges from our year-end rituals. Even as our past travels faithfully beside us, these ceremonies of completion and beginning work their quiet magic, offering us that rare gift: a moment to reset, reflect, and reimagine.
Before Letting Go, We Honor
We can’t move forward completely free of the past. The past is part of us. It informs our thoughts and feelings. It shapes our soul. So before we let go of the heaviest parts of the past year, we honor the experiences and events that played a part in our 2024. All of it; the good, the bad, and the ugly as they say.
This is where ritual comes in. I imagine you have some rituals for the end of the year. Here is one of my rituals for honoring my experiences throughout this year. The main reason I perform this ritual is because it helps orient me in my own timeline.
New Year Ritual #1 - Review and Relive
I usually grab my calendar and my journal and go back to January. I take one month at a time and re-read the journal entries and go over all of my appointments and events that month.
I will write a few words to summarize the month, or highlight particular aspects that in hindsight had a significant impact on me or my year. I might then find an image, a poem, or quote that helps me connect with any emotions that come up. I put these words and scraps into a separate journal as a collage.
I do the same thing for each month, adding to the collage as I go. The collage summary of my year will span several pages. Sometimes, I will add stamps or doodles or designs. I just follow whatever my creative mind comes up with. When I am done with the whole year, I burn my 2024 journal. Don’t worry, I have the summary of my year in a separate journal, that consists only of summaries of previous years.
Letting go of the heaviness of the past comes with burning the journal. I imagine all of my anger, angst, sadness, grief, and disappointment being released my mind and heart as the pages burn. The smoke lifting my spirits ever upward.
New Year Ritual #2 - Framing The New Year
Once the journal is burned, I open my new 2025 journal and write a summary of what I am bringing into the new year. Things I cover
- my feelings–what is still raw or in need of processing
- my personal situations–health issues, legal or business matters, personal projects–anything that will carry over to the new year
- my relationships–friendships, partnerships, business colleagues, etc
This year I will be adding a section about our political climate. This section will focus on acknowledging that there will be considerable opportunities for me to feel scared, angry, schadenfreude, and more I am sure.
I want to provide myself with a plan to stay grounded and in my body when fear or anger spikes. I want to remind myself of who I am and who I want to be for my clients and my friends/family. Reminding myself of the many tools I have gathered to regulate my emotions without spiritual bypassing or living in negative emotions for too long.
I do not want to become someone who hurts others because I am hurt and this will require some prep while i am in a good space. I want this section of my 2025 journal to be a reference for myself that I can easily go back to when I need support.
The goal of this ritual is to stay conscious of what is on my plate, remember what I am choosing to bring with me to the new year, and provide myself with an inventory of tools and practices to be my best self and stay true to my values as best I can.
New Year Ritual #3 - Card Readings
Now for the fun! I will do several different spreads for the year ahead. I do a large spread covering each month first. I have a specific way of doing this spread, and I encourage everyone to create their own. I use Pinterest often to find spreads to spark my creativity.
Then I will ask a series of questions and do a spread for each. These are simple three or four card spreads that help me look at different aspects and angles of those situations I need help moving through.
My questions are usually about personal situations and how collective situations will impact me. When I ask questions I am looking for perspective, insight, influences I may not see right now, and what the likely outcome might be. Remember that how you ask questions in very important. Questions need to be open ended, not yes or no. Something like, “what do I need to know about xyz?” Download Asking the Right Question.
Card readings are like weather reports, unpredictable and sometimes inaccurate. You want to know how best to move through a situation to elicit the best outcome possible.
They are prescriptive not predictive. How can I behave or manage it. Instead of what will happen. The future is unknowable. There are way too many moving parts for predictions to be accurate even half the time. So you are asking for how you can think about and respond to situations for best outcomes. You aren’t being told what that outcome will be.
Beginning Again
I am ready to put 2024 behind me. It wasn’t a terrible year but it was a complicated year with significant disappointments. I am preparing myself to be loud and stand up for democracy and social justice.
I will be looking for opportunities to lend my voice to the push back. I will protect my practice and my clients while finding ways to push back on any more losses of our freedoms. I do hope you will join me. Remember, we are the ones we have been waiting for, no one is coming to rescue us.
I am ready for the new year and to allow myself to be surprised by unexpected joy. I am leaving room for good things to occur while I wade through the anticipated bullshit and aggravation.
But leaving room for joy isn’t really enough, is it? No, I will be looking for it. I will narrow my focus when I need to so I can notice things like birds and flowers and the perfect parking space on a rainy day. Cheers to a new year, may we all make the most of it.
