New Year Ritual
I love to create rituals and sacred space to align with the cycles of our seasons. Although the new year holiday is based on a human-made calendar, I still feel that it is a good opportunity to take some time to reflect, complete, and create.
Here are some rituals that you can use to honor New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day from an intentional space:
Structure for your ritual:
Create Sacred Space
Write / Journal
Meditate / Visualize
Complete the ritual
I like to do a completion ritual on New Year’s Eve, and a creation ritual on New Year’s Day.
New Year’s Eve Completion Ritual:
CREATE SACRED SPACE:
You can incorporate any of the below elements for tonight’s ritual. Grab a white cloth or candle. Surround yourself with your favorite crystals or specifically the ones I list below. Make sure you have water with you. Mineral water is best, but anything will do. Face the west. Play some soothing music.
Color: White for cleansing
Crystal: Black tourmaline and selenite
Element: Water
Direction: West
Music Suggestion: Costero by Slow Meadow
WRITING:
Acknowledge your accomplishments:
What did you accomplish?
What are you the most proud of?
How have you grown?
What is incomplete or unresolved in the following areas?
How you participated in life and showed up.
Doing what you said you were going to do this year.
Results that you accomplished or didn’t accomplish
What are you upset about from this year?
What are you disappointed with?
What are your resentments?
What are your regrets?
What were your failures?
Create Completion
What actions do you need to take to create completion in these areas?
Are there any conversations that you need to have with anyone?
What do you need to give up or let go of?
What can you take responsibility for?
What can you forgive yourself or others for?
What do you need to acknowledge or address that has been hiding or has not gotten seen?
MEDITATION:
5-10 minute cleansing meditation. Sit in a comfortable position. Slow your breath down. Breathe in for 5 seconds, hold for 5 seconds, breathe out for 5 seconds, hold for 5 seconds. Repeat this. As you breathe in, imagine that you are calling all of your energy from the year back to yourself in this present moment. As you hold your breath, imagine you are gathering everything that is negative or doesn’t serve you up the center of your body through your throat. As you breathe out, expel all of that energy - anything negative, anything that is old and stagnant, anything that doesn’t serve you and you’re releasing. As you hold your breath after the exhale, imagine you are flooding your body with white, cleansing light. Repeat this over and over until you feel cleansed.
COMPLETE THE RITUAL:
Say to yourself out loud:
“I acknowledge what happened and didn’t happen in 2023. What happened, happened. What didn’t happen, didn’t happen. I release everything that I am holding on to that will not serve me in the coming year. It is all perfect.”
Take a shower or a epsom salt bath if you can. If not, pour some water on the top of your head with the intention that everything that you need to release from your body will be cleansed by the water.
New Year’s Day Creation Ritual:
SACRED SPACE:
Use the following elements, however you want to express them.
Color: Green for prosperity and fertility
Crystal: Aventurine & clear quartz
Element: Earth (you can grab some dirt, leaves, flowers, etc)
Direction: North
Music: Using headphones, listen to this. (Binaural beats for creativity.) If you don’t have headphones, listen to something else that is inspiring to you. Binaural beats require headphones.
MEDITATION:
5 -10 minute grounding meditation. Sit comfortably and look in front of you, choose a spot to look at across the room. Bring all of your awareness to that one spot. Close your eyes, but keep your awareness where your eyes are. Pull in all of your energy from anywhere else - call it in. Bring it all to that spot behind your eyes as you breathe in and out slowly. Now allow your awareness to move slowly down the center of your body to your throat, your heart, your solar plexus, your pelvis, your tail bone. Imagine your awareness is either a blue light or roots coming out of your tailbone. Allow it to expand to the whole width of your body. Send it down into the earth, moving towards the center of the Earth. Allow yourself to feel the energy of the Earth pulsing into your body through your grounding cord. Sit in this space for 5 minutes.
WRITING:
Take some time to create your year with the following prompts. You can use writing, pictures/mood boards, painting, drawing or whatever works for you to create.
What is my touch tree for the year? Do I want to create an intention? A commitment? A way of being? My favorite touch tree for New Year’s is selecting a word of the year. In 2023, my word of the year was “Faith.” Anything that happened throughout my year, I saw through the lens of “This is building my faith.” (See this article for more information on touch trees).
Once you have your touch tree for the year….
MAKE A WISHLIST: Set a timer for five minutes. Imagine that whatever you write on this piece of paper will come true within a year. Think of it as a wishlist describing your ideal life. Ask yourself, “IF I COULD BE ANYTHING, DO ANYTHING, OR HAVE ANYTHING, WHAT WOULD IT BE?”
You can look from the lens of 1 year only, or you can create mini-milestones like 9 months, 6 months, 3 months.
Write every single thing that comes to mind and be as specific as possible. Lastly, do not feel the need to be realistic or justify your dreams. Just write. READY. SET. GO.
Time’s up! Now set the timer for 1 minute. Go back to each of the four sections and circle one goal that would have the MOST positive impact on your life. READY. SET. GO. These are the four goals that you are going to prioritize.
Create a plan for each of these goals:
ADD SPECIFICS Assign due dates for each of these tasks. Be specific and be sure to indicate how much, how many, or by when.
CREATE A TIMELINE Number all the tasks in the order in which they must be completed.
MAKE A DATE Write all these tasks in the corresponding due dates in your calendar. Throughout the year, use these as checkpoints to keep you on track.
WORK AT IT! For this goal, strive to do at least one productive thing at the beginning of your day to get you closer to your goal. Consistency is key. If you skip a day, be sure to make up for it the next day.
(Adapted from: Passion Planner)
COMPLETE THE RITUAL:
Tear a small piece of what you have written or created and bury it in the earth. You are planting the seeds for your year.
Now that you have your touch tree and goals for the year, create a vision board or visual display for yourself so that you have it in front of you. Hang it up in your room, have it on your phone background, SHARE it with your friends and family. Once you have your visual reminder, take a moment to infuse it with the energy of your touch tree. Close your eyes, embody what your touch tree feels like - imagine you are vibrating at the frequency of that possibility, and send it into your vivid display. Touch it, hold your hands over it. Get that vibration on the paper or on the screen!
I hope you enjoy your ritual. I’d love to hear how it goes! Email me if you’d like to share.
