THE NEW YEAR’S ROLL – 2024

Cycles and seasons measured in years.  I have been pondering this whole “New Year” thing the last couple of days. It has made me look at the concept of counting or tracking our cycles in years.  I am not going to write a dissertation on the calendar – you have the internet for that – but I am going to skim the surface.

As I was thinking about how we have come to a collective place with the calendar and the counting of years – there is a global acceptance of a 12 year – 365 day cycle we use - and Dec 31 is the last of those days. Then it is a new year! 

The current Gregorian calendar system we use dates back to 3100 BCE where we began counting our years using the 12 month – 365 day system. Then there’s the Mayan calendar which dates back to 3114 BC also used a 365 day cycle but it had a much larger system of cycles it used to measure time. Their calendar was based on ritual cycle of 260 named days and a year of 365 days. Taken together they form a longer cycle of 18,980 days or 52 years of 365 days called a “Calendar Round”.  As you continue to look at the cyclic aspect of the Mayan calendar we all know that the one in use ended on December 21st, 2012.  And a new cycle of consisting of 5,128 years began.  They measured in a much larger scale of cycles than we do with our Gregorian system. It gave a much larger scope and picture as it included the cosmos and tracking those cycles of the stars as well. 

Then there is the lunar calendar and tracking time based on the lunar cycles. One of my favorite places to visit in Peru is Killarumiyoq (kia-rumi-yolk) - which is the temple of the moon. This site has in it a large stone which has the lunar cycle calendar carved into it.  The Andean cosmology has used a 13 month – 28 day- calendar system for thousands of years prior to adopting the globally accepted Gregorian calendar.  Many Pre-Columbian civilizations from the Americas used the 13-month lunar calendar as the measure of cycles.

If we took a big dive into the measurement of cycles throughout the ages, we would see that civilizations, ancient and current, have some system of keeping track of the cycles and seasons as one day gives into night – then back to day again. Many of the old or ancient civilizations tracked time based on the cycles of the earth, what the sun and moon and stars were doing. What the oceans and rivers were doing based on the lunar cycles, and position of the sun. Some counted the years and gave them numbers, and some counted patterns and epochs, and some were based on the agricultural and earth-based aspects of tracking time.

We love cycles, patterns, seasons as a collective.  We like to measure and name them, and then create rituals around them. This is what I have really been tripping on lately.  It is the ritual and collective thought around “the new year”.  So now it has come to be the end of a year based on this kind of measurement and the beginning of the next collection of days to be counted as a year. Many cultures across the world these days celebrate with a big party, music, libations, all manner of God knows What depending on our ages, and finally collapsing into bed sometime after 12 midnight between the old year and the new year.

We like to make all kinds of resolutions, promises, contracts with our selves of how we are going to better our lives, improve our relations, business, family, personal etc. We make vows regarding our health, exercise, dry January (no alcohol for a month to clean out after a month of boozing it up during our festive Holiday month of December). There is a declaration that on Jan 1 – all these new things are going to happen.  And this is great in theory – and it begs the question for me of why is January 1 the day to start making all these changes?  Now I know that a lot of us don’t necessarily do this to the extreme of what I just outlined above, but even if we scale it back – let' be honest here – haven't we all thought to ourselves, “come January 1st  I am going to start implementing..........fill in the blank.” I certainly have – I have a whole thought process around doing a Hormone reset through food and elimination of those things known to mess with hormones.  And there is no better time to start than beginning of January right???

The ending of one cycle or phase and the beginning of a new one is naturally a wonderful time to also bring this “new" energy into our own lives and beings – so don’t get me wrong – it can be a nice tradition, ritual to want to hit the reset button on some things in our lives – it gives us a structure in which to operate and measure, to track and count what we are or aren’t doing. And with all this I want to pose the slightly different way of looking at all these New Year’s resolutions and invite in the listening to the call of the soul.

What is it your soul is calling for – instead of making resolutions based on the thinking realm, the analytical realm, the “what can I better or what can I gain realm”. What if we listened to the heart and the soul and came into a new engagement with ourselves from that level. Listen to what we are actually craving at this soul level.  It could surprise you. You may feel called to make a resolution of going to bed earlier as opposed to waking up at 5 AM to go to the gym and then making a green smoothie or juice a pile of leafy greens cause it’s good for the liver.  Again, nothing wrong with drinking fresh green juice in the morning – it is actually like drinking pure light, but where is the resolution coming from?  Do you even like green leafy vegetables juiced? Is this what you love to drink in the morning? If so – juice on my friend – and if not, then what does light you up? What can be a ritual you incorporate that makes your soul say “Hell yes can we do more of this please?!”

Maybe the focus wants to be on qualities instead of actions and things. Bringing in and cultivating more peace, open hearted space to allow a greater exchange of love – receiving and giving, harmony, flow and grace with self and others.  I found myself setting intentions for qualities I would like to experience this year. If I focus on the qualities I want to cultivate, then the actions and habits, the rituals will follow. The ones that lend themselves to attracting and having a lived experience of the qualities I wish to have in my life.

As we move into 2024 the overarching energy forecast for this year by some astrologers I listen to, is one where there is a lot of creation available, where we get to courageously dream in what is possible, what we desire. There is an undertone of individuation, freedom, living to the beat of our own drum. AND there is still an energy of turbulence and chaos as we are still shifting out of and witnessing the breakdown of the old systems that no longer serve and move into a new way of being within society, cultures, politics, countries, financial systems, all of it.  So, as we ride these currents of change into this new cycle of time called 2024, let us recognize that yes there will be bumps and challenges, and we also have the energy of thriving, creation, inspired solutions from high vibratory sources that have not been adopted yet. Let us perhaps set our new year’s intentions from a place of listening to our soul’s call. What qualities do you want to live into for our next cycle? In the Shamanic path we know that what we see we activate, and we must become the frequency we want to see. So open up your visionary pathways, staying connected to the vision of the heart and let’s dream into a beautiful vision and version of what we know is possible – the highest expression of goodness for all of humanity and pachamama – mother earth, the mama cochas – the sacred waters, the Apus – Holy Mountain spirits, the trees, plants and animals.

Happy 2024 Everybody – Let's make it a good one!