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 wisdom and warm company on this path. May 2025 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 2025, 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 2025. 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 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 social timing traditions. 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 cycles where we actually live, and this is what I advocate for—living in alignment. This isn't about rejecting Northern Hemisphere traditions; it's about consciously choosing to align our practices with our local seasonal energies.
Living in the Southern Hemisphere means embracing our own magical timing.
Nature here moves to its own rhythm, and we can choose to move with it, rather than against it. By understanding and working with these natural cycles—whether they're lunar phases, the Great Wheel of the Year, or the nine-year numerological epicycle—we open ourselves to deeper alignment and more powerful creativity and manifestation.
This isn't about being different for difference's sake. It's about being true to where we are, and allowing ourselves to work in harmony with the actual energies surrounding us. We can give ourselves permission to take up more space, energetically, and not meekly conform to avoid rocking the boat or confusing some people.
Southern Hemisphere, Different Rhythms - When to set New Year Intentions in the Southern Hemisphere
Honestly, if you're living in the Northern Hemisphere (e.g. in Canada, Greece, or Japan) it makes perfect sense for you to be setting your goals, now. You're experiencing Yule—i.e. Winter Solstice's Sabbat on the Great Wheel of the Year. You're in the "New Moon" energy of the entire year. Setting your New Year's resolutions now is in perfect seasonal alignment for you.
But while the Northern Hemisphere is celebrating Yule, the Southern Hemisphere is honouring Litha (the Sabbat of the Summer Solstice). Litha is on the other side of the Great Wheel to Yule, and is equivalent to the "Full Moon phase" of the year's cycle. This means that those of us in the Southern Hemisphere are right in the middle of our annual cycle, not at its energetic beginning.
The natural time for that introspective, seed-planting work comes with winter's darkness and quiet. Just as we wouldn't set New Moon intentions during a Full Moon, it doesn't serve us to force our deep visioning work, now, during the height of summer's expansive energy.
(If you're reading this in the Southern Hemisphere, our "New Moon/New Year" energy—i.e. when we experience Yule—is celebrated around 21 June, each year. That's when we're best to set our New Year intentions, if you'd like to live a soul-aligned life with the energy of where you actually live.)
Reclaiming our True Cycles
This understanding isn't just about changing when we set our resolutions; it's about reclaiming our connection to natural cycles and rhythms. It's about recognising that renewal doesn't come from an arbitrary date on the calendar, but from aligning with the actual seasonal and astronomical cycles where we live.
So whilst we can certainly honour this calendar transition to 2025 and work with its numerological significance (more on your Personal Year Number coming soon!), 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 try to force at 1st January.
Your power lies in recognising these natural rhythms and working with them rather than against them, wherever you are on Earth.
Keep an eye on your inbox. I'll be sharing more about working with these sacred rhythms and cycles in the weeks ahead.
Any questions? Please reach out!
Deep blessings for 2025.
Peace
Juliette xo
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