Autumn has always been my favorite time of year. As I grow in my practice, I’ve come to love winter almost as much. I enjoy the darkness, the forced isolation the weather brings. I look forward to having more free time and fewer responsibilities. I can get back into crafting and meditating — things I think I don’t usually have time for. Winter is not quite here yet, I know. It’s been 80 degrees outside in November, so it’s difficult to believe we are closer to winter than summer. Perhaps the warm fall weather has us craving the cold more.
In Wicca, winter is associated with death. Nature is hibernating, and it can look like the world around us has died. The trees are the barest of skeletons. The Crone has taken her seat at the cauldron, and it is time for some introspection.
Although I do appreciate the changes winter brings to both myself and my environment (the skies are never as clear as a crisp winter’s night), my fascination with winter has more to do with its association with stillness than anything.
We have passed Samhain, and Thanksgiving is here. Many of us view Samhain as the end of a cycle, and it has become known as the Celtic New Year, which makes this a great time to put things to rest in our lives. Because the weather makes staying home and indoors so appealing, this is when we spend more time alone. A time when there’s not much else to do but think.
I encourage you all to embrace the coming winter and spend some time with yourself. Be the Hermit from the Tarot; ruminate, re-evaluate, ask yourself the hard questions. How have you grown? Are there areas in your life you’ve been stagnant in? What is important to you? There is a chance that your answer may be different this time from the last time you considered these things. As we grow, our lives change, our priorities change, and we need to be aware of that so we can steer our life in the appropriate direction.
While you’re doing a sort of self-evaluation, you will likely find things you don’t like, or that you know are unhealthy for you. Bring the winter into your thinking. Get rid of those things, bury them. Winter is the season of the Crone, and although she is wise, she can be harsh and unwavering in her knowledge. These things aren’t always easy, but they are necessary. Pruning helps the plant to be healthy, and we don’t want dead leaves and branches weighing us down.
This time of year is great for introspection and soul-searching but don’t forget to look at your life through the lens of gratitude, too. Every November, we are reminded to be grateful. It is nice to have these reminders, but living or working from a place of gratitude all year long is a good goal to have. Being grateful for what you have can encourage the universe to send you more blessings because you appreciate what it’s given you already. Being grateful can change your outlook and how you handle the hiccups of day-to-day life. It’s like being an energy converter. Sure, you can could be mad that you had a flat tire one morning when you were trying to leave for work. Or you can be grateful that it went flat in the driveway and you didn’t have a blowout or wreck driving. Sometimes those things that go wrong in our day are protecting us from something worse, we just can’t see it.
As we look toward winter, don’t dread the cold and bleakness. This is a time that can be empowering if you harness winter’s energy. Get to know yourself again, and clean out your metaphorical closet. Actually, go ahead and clean out your bedroom closet, too. It’s a good time to donate unwanted clothing to local shelters or clothes closets that help the needy.
Emily Guenther is a co-owner of The Broom Closet metaphysical shop. She is a Memphis native, professional tarot reader, ordained Pagan clergy, and dog mom.
