The Wheel of the Year Tarot reading is my personal favorite New Year's ritual. It’s bigger for me than even Solstice or Yule in general...this is the moment I invest in.

I tend to do mine on December 31st. However, this year I was healing from a cold and did it days later. 

At the best of times I’ll meditate, then bathe prior to setting up the table I’ll pull the reading on. 

I try to always set myself up in front of our lit tree, and by candle light…it’s whimsical and cozy…plus makes for a great pic. Lol. 

I facilitate a smoke clearing first, with a simple stick incense. 

This year I used a sweetgrass (to sweeten the path for the benevolent ancestors) and palo santo (to smooth the edges of the energetics) and of course for basic cleansing and clearing of any and all negative energetics that may have been attached to the space and place, knowingly or unknowingly. 

I cast an energetic salt circle (some years I’ve...