When to set New Year Intentions in the Southern Hemisphere?

Happy New Year!

I’d like to honour all of the new friends and students I’ve met over the course of this fruitful year. Thank you for you.  🙏 Thank you for your joy, insights, and company on this path. May 2026 bring you peace, connection, radiant blessings, and an abundance of grace.

I look forward to journeying through the next twelve months with you! It's going to be a great big year for all of us.

The January Paradox: When Calendar meets Soul

As we step across the threshold into 2026, I want to gently bring your attention to a slight tension that you may be experiencing if you live in the Southern Hemisphere, like me. (I'm currently based in the Blue Mountains, Australia.)

On one hand, the calendar we follow has just switched over to 2026. This heralds the excitement of not only a brand new calendar year, but a new Personal Year Number, as well!

On the other hand, being a new year, January also brings a certain amount of pressure to set your goals for the coming twelve months. Yes?

How are you feeling about that?

You may be thinking: "Well, this is when we do it, right?? It's the New Year."

But are you feeling an internal resistance to setting goals, right now? Do you sense that something isn't quite right?

Your intuition is spot on.

Let's look at why I'm not setting goals this January (and maybe you shouldn't either) . . . and when to set New Year Intentions in the Southern Hemisphere.

Why January? Understanding our Inherited Timing

Even though we live in the Southern Hemisphere, you're probably receiving emails, reading blogposts, and seeing messages all over the socials, encouraging you to set your yearly goals; to "GO ALL IN for 2025!!!" Right?

We feel a social expectation to set our intentions in January (or to celebrate Halloween/Samhain in October etc) for two very understandable reasons:

• This is when everyone living in the Northern Hemisphere is doing it

• This is when our ancestors (who, for many of us, came from the Northern Hemisphere) did it

And while following this tradition connects us to our global community and ancestral heritage, it doesn't necessarily serve our local, lived experience.

Let's dive in . . .

Choosing Alignment Over Convention

Many of us have lost touch with the Earth's natural rhythms and our connection to them. We tend to view our seasonal celebrations simply as dates on a calendar rather than what they truly are — powerful moments aligned with astronomical and seasonal shifts.

Even those who recognise this misalignment often feel pressured to maintain these socially-driven timings. As one local shopkeeper shared with me, despite being deeply connected to seasonal rhythms herself, she still chooses to display Halloween decorations in October (our Beltane!) because "that's what people expect."

I understand her perspective, but I feel differently.

I believe we have an opportunity to gently reclaim our connection to the natural seasons and rhythms where we live, and this is what I advocate for — consciously living in alignment.

This isn't about being different for the sheer sake of it. And it isn't about rejecting Northern Hemisphere traditions. It's about being energetically true to where we are.

It's about deciding to align these traditions and our spiritual practices with our local seasons. 'Cause as we all know, while they've just experienced their Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, the Southern Hemisphere has just celebrated our Summer Solstice.

Living in the Southern Hemisphere means embracing our own magical timing and, thereby, opening ourselves to a deeper and more engaged conversation with Life.

Let's not unwittingly push against the energetic flow, nor meekly conform to unthinking societal norms, simply to avoid "rocking the boat" or confusing some people.

Southern Hemisphere, Different Rhythms - When to set New Year Intentions in the Southern Hemisphere

If you're reading this from the Northern Hemisphere (e.g. in Canada, Greece, or Japan), it makes perfect sense that you're setting your New Year goals, right now. You're experiencing Yule — i.e. Winter Solstice's Sabbat on the Great Wheel of the Year. This is the "New Moon" energy of the entire year for you.

And, as we know, we set our intentions at the New Moon.

But while the Northern Hemisphere is celebrating Yule, the Southern Hemisphere is honouring Litha, the Sabbat of the Summer Solstice. Litha is the "Full Moon" phase of the year. Those of us in the Southern Hemisphere are already half way through our annual cycle — not at its energetic beginning.

Just as we wouldn't set New Moon intentions at the Full Moon, it doesn't serve us to force our deep visioning work, now, at the height of the Sun's power and expansive energy.

We're in a different phase.

This is not when you plant seeds.

(If you're reading this from the Southern Hemisphere, our "New Moon/New Year" energy is celebrated around 21 June, each year, at our Winter Solstice. That's when we're best to set our New Year intentions.)

Reclaiming our True Cycles

Whilst we can certainly honour this calendar transition to 2026 and work with its numerological significance (i.e. the shift in our Personal Year Number), I invite you to consider holding your deeper visioning work for Yule. That's when the energy naturally supports the kind of introspection and intention-setting that many of us try to force at 1 January, each year.

Your power lies in recognising these natural rhythms and working with them rather than against them . . . wherever you happen to be on Earth.

I'll be sharing more about working with the energy of Litha, in the weeks ahead.

Any questions? Please reach out! I'd love to hear from you.

Radiant blessings for 2026.

Peace

Juliette xo