To help you get the most out of Sacred Seasons, this chapter contains some important information and a few things you may want to consider before moving on to Part II.
Sacred Seasons Journal
I would suggest getting a special journal for your sacred seasons journey. This way you can journal on the prompts given to you in the sacred pause at the beginning of each season and in the Wheel-of-the-Year celebrations. You can also journal on the new and full moons, your reflection moment, what you are observing and connecting to in Nature, and anything else that is calling your attention as you move through the season.
Journaling is one of the best ways to get to know yourself and your inner world. Putting what you are thinking and how you are feeling on paper helps you to recognize patterns, themes, and progress and, in turn, to process them. It’s a powerful tool for self-awareness, self-expression, and self-understanding.
Creating Rituals
We have many routines in life but very few rituals.
The main difference between a routine and a ritual is the attitude behind the action. While a routine is usually more mundane and done out of duty or the need to get something done, a ritual makes something sacred. It gives it a deeper meaning and offers a pause to truly connect with what you are doing.
Daily rituals have always been incredibly important to me—a time that I dedicate to myself, my growth, and my journey.
A ritual can be as simple as lighting a candle to welcome yourself into the day, placing your hands over your heart and checking in with yourself, repeating affirmations (see here), connecting to your intentions (see here), meditating (perhaps with a crystal, if you use them in your practice), and/or journaling.
In each chapter, I offer suggestions to help you create a daily ritual for yourself. Feel free to try these to begin with, but, over time, learn to trust in yourself and what you most need, as you flow through the seasons and cycles of the year. The most important thing is not necessarily what you do, but that you show up every day for yourself and do it. It’s in these moments of showing up every day that you will notice the biggest changes and transformations over time.
The Wheel-of-the-Year celebrations mark the turning point of the season, so I will give you rituals for each of these, too, to help you reflect on where you are, so that you can transition into a new season.
Sacred Seasons Altar
An altar is a sacred space that you use for your daily rituals. It can be as simple as a shelf or a small space in the corner of a room, and it’s where you go to perform your rituals and connect with yourself. My altar is an integral part of my daily practice, and I hope that it will be the same for you.
I will give you altar ideas in each season, so that you can connect more deeply to your daily rituals and the seasons’ energies. You may choose to change your altar at the start of each major sacred season (spring, summer, autumn, winter) or once a month, as the seasons flow.
You can decorate your altar with a colored cloth and add flowers, images, or things that you collect from Nature that signify the current season. You can also add anything that represents what you want to embody, manifest, and connect to during that season.
Before you “build” your altar, get clear on what you want to create and manifest in your life, so that it holds the energy of whatever you want to devote your attention to over the coming season.
There is always a candle on my altar that I light daily as a means of connection to myself and the day ahead. I also always have a crystal grid there that holds the energy of my intentions for the lunar cycle or season ahead. (Simply put, a crystal grid is when you arrange crystals with an intention for a desired result; for more on how to work with crystals and grids, check out my book Crystals for Self-Care.) You can also have just one crystal on your altar that you connect to daily.
If you are using intentions and affirmations (see here), you can write them out and place them on your altar, under your candle (or crystal, if you are using one). If you keep your intentions under your candle, imagine sending more energy to them each time you light your flame; if you keep them under a crystal, it will continue to amplify your intentions, drawing to you what you need, even when you are not there.
I will give you suggestions for candles, crystals, affirmations, and much more for each season, but again, please feel free to use your intuition and add other things that feel right or are meaningful to you.
Crystal Magic
For each season I will give you suggestions for crystals to work with that resonate with the energy of the season and/or zodiac sign in question. I have tried to use the more common and easily accessible ones and, occasionally, the same ones in different seasons, so you can get the most out of your collection.
You may choose to set your intentions for each season on these crystals and carry them around with you, keep them on your altar or as part of a seasonal crystal grid. You can also meditate with them every day to connect with their energy and your intention.
For an easy grid for your altar, take the crystal you are working with for that season, set your intention for the season on it and then surround it with four clear-quartz points. The grid will then hold and amplify the energy of your intentions for the season.
Intention Setting
Setting intentions is incredibly important as they give our lives direction, meaning, and something to aim for and grow toward. They become a guiding force that helps us to align our thoughts, actions, words, choices, and energy in the pursuit of what we want.
You may choose to set intentions at the start of each season, at each new moon, or even both. I very often set smaller intentions with each new moon and then, at the start of each season, I’ll set bigger ones that I want to work with over the full three months.
Writing down your intentions gives them extra weight, as does saying them out loud. Like spells, our words have such incredible power, so repeat your intentions aloud to yourself when you set them, and once a day as part of your ritual, if you can.
Affirmations
Affirmations are positive statements that you repeat to yourself over and over to reprogram your thoughts, helping you to overcome doubts and fears, and improve your self-belief. They can be a powerful tool for helping you to embody the energy of each season and use it to the full.
Affirmations need to be in the present tense, contain only positive words (so rather than saying, “I release doubt,” you’d say, “I trust in myself”) and be specific and clear.
I will give you examples of affirmations for each season, but feel free to get creative and use your own, especially if there is something you want to work on or manifest in that season.
Gathering with Others
You can do everything in this book alone and take so much from it that way, but I feel that now, more than ever, we need to come together in community. And so, just as our ancestors did, you may choose to gather with others and share these transitional points in Nature and our lives.
Celebrate the turning points of the Wheel of the Year with friends and family, teach your little ones to embrace a natural way of living, create a WhatsApp group with your friends to share your sacred pauses and what you are learning.
Being part of a community gives us a deeper sense of belonging and further reminds us that we are all connected and part of this beautiful world we live in.