🎄Yuletide and bye (for now)👋🏼

plus wassailing and a ritual for Twelfthtide✨

Winter sunlight through birch trees

Dear you,

Welcome to the eighth and final free edition of Moontime Musings for 2025!

As the Wheel of the Year turns once again, this edition is open to everyone, with seven more in the archives for this year so far. Please consider sharing this edition with a friend. Thank you.

How are you doing in these final days before the longest night of the year? I hope you’re making space to sink back into your animal body and find pockets for rest and Wintering¹. My Wintering journey this year has been a bit of a flop! It turns out that juggling a new job, kitchen renovation and all of the busy-ness that arises in the run-up to Yuletide has been a recipe for non-Wintering! And as per, it’s my animal body telling me to slow down with lower back pain and poor sleep. I’m really looking forward to switching off as we reach the longest night, cosy-ing up in front of the fire with a good book and switching gear to one that’s much more manageable and akin with Winter.

I’ve also made the difficult decision to pause my offerings under the banner of Foxfire Learning, which includes this newsletter. I’ve been working full time for 2 charities over the last month and space for this creative and spiritual practice has taken a back seat. I hope that this won’t be the case forever and know that, as always, something new will emerge in 2026, but for now, I’m going into indefinite hibernation. For any of you wonderful readers who are paid subscribers - firstly, a HUGE thank you. Secondly, your subscription will be paused during this hiatus. I will be on social media from time to time, so feel free to keep in touch there.

Stone Circle by Andrew Vickers Art (Stoneface Creative)

With the Winter Solstice almost upon us and the new Wolf moon approaching, here’s what else is coming up for the month ahead:

• 20 December: New Wolf Moon in Capricorn 01:43 GMT

• 21 December: beginning of Yule

• 21 December: Winter Solstice at 15:03 GMT - start of astronomical Winter

• 22 December: Sun moves into Capricorn

• 23 December: Ursids Meteor Shower peaks

• 25 December: Christmas Day

• 1 January: New Year’s Day

• 3 January: Full Wolf Moon in Cancer 10:02 GMT

• 4 January: Quadrantids Meteor Shower peaks

• 5 January: Twelfth Night/Wassail

🍎Wassail!

I often find looking beyond 31 December a bit jarring when we’re moving through the liminal time betwixt and between the Winter Solstice and the end of the solar year. Yet I wanted to write to you about a tradition to look out for on the first or second weekend in January which often coincides with Twelfth Night. You may well have heard of the 12 days of Christmas, and perhaps even of Twelfth night - the time 12 days after Christmas (or Boxing Day depending on which custom you follow) when decorations are taken down.

Another tradition on this Twelfth and final day of Yule is the Wassail. Wassailing has seen a bit of a revival over the past decade as folk look to old rituals and traditions to rekindle a connection with nature and find respite from digital excess.

Wassail rituals vary from region to region, but here are some consistencies (according to the National Trust):

• A wassail usually starts with all the revellers gathering for a procession down to the orchard – possibly led by a wassail King or Queen.

• Once gathered around the oldest tree, pieces of toast are placed in its branches to entice robins, believed to the guardians of the orchard.

• Cider is poured around the roots of the tree, while pots and pans are clattered to ward off any evil spirits and wake the trees from their winter slumber.

• The crowd will also serenade the tree with chants and traditional songs, often followed by Morris dancing.

• No wassail would be complete without tasting the wassail drink, which is usually a local ale or cider blended with honey and spices.

Let me know if you attend a Wassail in early January - I’d love to hear your stories on Socials (@foxfirelearning).

This year’s delightfully tacky living Christmas tree!

🕯️A ritual for the 12 days of Christmas

This is a ritual I practiced for the first time last year and absolutely loved it. It’s known as 13 wishes ritual; Rauhnächte (meaning “smokey nights”) or Twelfthtide and can be practiced during the days between 21 December and 1 January or from midnight on Christmas Eve to 4 January (just before Twelfth Night). The 12 wishes are thought to represent each month of the year. Here’s how it works:

1. Get cosy, set up your space where you won’t be interrupted and light a candle.

2. Look back over the previous year and identify dreams that have come true.

3. Look ahead to the new year and reflect on your dreams and wishes for the year ahead.

4. Write them each on a small piece of paper (you may also want to copy them into your journal).

5. When you reach 13, pause.

6. Fold up each piece of paper containing one of your 13 wishes and place in a safe place e.g. a jar or purse

7. On the night of your choosing (21st or 24th December), pick one of your wishes at random. Don’t look at it. Using a lighter/candle, burn the piece of paper.

8. Repeat for 11 more nights.

9. After 12 nights you’ll be left with 1 wish. This is yours to take action on. The other 12 are now in the hands of the universe.

Let me know if you choose to practice this ritual, and perhaps share the one wish you’re taking charge of with a friend or family member.

Tealight and wishes being burnt for 13 wishes ritual

That’s all from me for this eighth and final free edition of 2025. Please consider sharing this newsletter with anyone who you think would like it. Your reciprocity is greatly appreciated 🙏

Thank you so much and Yuletide blessings. I look forward to reconnecting later in 2026.

Love,

Charly x

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