 Hello people, I'm Ginny Metherill and I am a fourth generation witch of the highest order, may I say. Today's video is the return of my ever popular Almanac series where we look at the daily witchcraft that you can do throughout the month of December and the reasons why. So this is my witchcraft in December. Now before we get into the video I want to do just a little bit of housekeeping because I've had a couple of issues with my channel. I'm obviously so important that people now like impersonating me, and this is very exciting But a bit rubbish for you subscribers. So this channel claims to be me. They aren't. My contact details are always in my description. You can contact me through email Ginny Metherill at gmail.com through Instagram or through Patreon.com forward slash Ginny Metherill. The person who has been impersonating me has been leaving comments in reply especially to my wand giveaway video saying you've won. You haven't won. Sorry about that because I haven't done the draw yet. I'm going to do a live stream for the draw next week which you can all watch and I'll post the details about that very shortly. Anyway, on to the video. As always with these videos what I like to do is to give you a general overview of the month of December and the pertaining witchcraft trends that it has and then we'll get into the nitty-gritty day detail of what witchcraft you can do on what day. Don't with that in mind. Let's start. Now there's quite a lot going on. What with you all? Christmas, New Year, etc. But I'm going to do separate videos for these particular events only because there's too much to cram into this one and I always like to do a nice sabbath video for you all anyway. December itself is a month of the darkest days of winter. The world has come full circle and now we're really experiencing the depths of darkness. However, this is a time especially in pagan British mythology as well as native American mythology as a time to venerate and honour the elders in native American tradition. Each of the original totem clans is represented by a grandmother medicine bundle. And this has its own lodge or teepee and this was guarded by the warriors of the clan and the only person who was allowed or people who were allowed to enter this lodge would be the wise elder woman who was the keeper of the clan's traditions. The grandmother medicine bundle contained the most important teachings and medicines of each clan. The British pagan tradition had it as the old woman of winter and we would venerate her throughout this time because she now comes into her own before she is reborn in the spring. Many cultures and traditions have winter as a time where there is a battle between light and dark and this is seen in neo-pagan practices of the celebration of yule and this is represented by the Holy King and the Oak King having a fight and the Oak King winning. This idea of light conquering the darkness is represented throughout many different cultures for example Hanukkah. Christian tradition of lighting the candles of Advent. It is all about the light conquering the darkness. So there is a huge tradition about light and darkness and this is overseen in December. The way you can celebrate this is simply with candles. I love a candle as we all know. And so I would just recommend that you have lots of candles lit at every opportunity. Safety first though, please don't burn down your house or anybody else's. So light your candles and celebrate this December darkness. December is also the time when the moon is at its strongest throughout the year because the way the earth is tilted away from the sun and towards the moon during the darker months, the moon appears brighter and whiter and shinier and more lustrous in the sky. It is a great time for the moon. And what do you do when the moon is in its finest? Well, you make moon water and if you haven't seen my moon water video, I'll put it up here for you. Do you have a look at it? Should you be walking upon the seashore? The other great thing to look out for is sea hearts. These are considered incredibly lucky. The Irish pagans hoarded them and they used to decorate the children and their cows with them. The sea hearts are simply the beans of tropical trees, which have been blown by the tropical storms into the sea and carried by the currents to now our shores. So should you find them, do pick one up. They are at their most prolific at the moment and decorate your house with them. So that is my general overview for the month of December. And now let's look at the nitty gritty day to day witchcraft that you might do in December and why. The first date we're going to come across is not the first December, although that is the official meteorological start of winter. Should you be interested? But the 8th of December, which is the night of the full moon. Tradition states that on the last full moon of the year, you should go out and party. And this full moon is in Gemini, the social, sexy, flirty loving sign. This is the perfect night for your office Christmas party. Should you be going out on the 8th of December? You will have a pretty fabulous time. And otherwise, just go out on the 8th of December. It is particularly auspicious, this moon, because the moon is occluding Mars, meaning that Mars is passing behind the moon on the eighth. And it won't be visible from Earth and for about an hour. This occlusion means that Mars energy is not affecting our planet. Mars, which is the warrior planet and the planet of strife and toil, is not bringing that particular energy to us. Brilliant. It means that your parties are going to be fun. I would recommend that that is when you hold your office Christmas do or any party. Actually, why not? Just any party. I don't know what day of the week it is. I think it's a so Wednesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. Is it a Wednesday night? I think it might be a Wednesday night. Good night as any to go out. The thirteenth to the fourteenth of December is when the Geminids meet your shower, reaches its peak. And what do you do when you see a shooting star? Of course, you make a wish. Wish magic is always about yourself. You have to be so selfish about it. You know, you cannot wish that your granny will get better from covid. You have to wish I am going to get a million pounds or whatever it is. So should you see a shooting star, make sure you wish for yourself and yourself alone. The twenty first of December is Yule. Yule is, of course, the celebration of the winter solstice. And the solstice happens at precisely nine forty eight p.m. This is your time to light a bonfire. Now, I'm not going to give a big deal about Yule in this video because, of course, my Yule video will be coming out next week. I'm also telling you all about it. However, I did want to talk just very quickly about wassailing the ancient art of beating this evil spirit from your orchard and caressing the trees with your cider or port or wine or whatever alcoholic beverages your choice in order to promote a good crop the next year. This is the start of the wassailing season. And there is an old proverb in the UK, which I don't agree with, obviously, because it's dreadful, which says the woman, the dog and the walnut tree, the more you beat them, the better they be. Now, of course, a woman and a dog should never be beaten, in my opinion. However, studies have shown, interestingly, that if you slap a walnut tree with a few branches, the vibrational impact on it helps it to produce more walnuts. So there was always sometimes a grain of truth in these old proverbs. They ignore the women and the dog. If you beat me, I think I'd just beat them back. It wouldn't be pretty. The 23rd of December is, of course, the night of the new moon. And tonight, a new moon is in Capricorn, which is my moon. See, my Capricorn goats, which I often wear around my neck. Very beautiful, isn't it? A scientist believes that the time of the new moon is a time to focus on your plans and dreams for the period ahead. And each new moon brings its own particular energy to it. This new moon being in Capricorn means that your plan should be focused on your careers and goals for improvement in the month ahead. I can tell you without a shadow of doubt, my career goal is going to be Ginny Metherall reaching the world. But I think I've sort of already done that. I'd like to reach more of the world as soon as possible. So that's my career goal. And if you could help me by telling everyone how wonderful I am, I'd be really grateful. So thank you. 24th of December is the day when the animals at midnight are granted the power of human speech, and this is in thanks for them guarding the Christ child in his stable when he was born. However, only the pure of heart can hear them. And it is unlucky to go and spy on them and try to hear them. So you can only listen to your animals talking. If, say, the cats lying on your bed, don't purposely go out and watch them, because then you will incur bad luck. Of course, 25th is Christmas. There is quite a lot of pagan traditions around Christmas, obviously, because it was imposed as Christmas by the Christians upon the pagan communities of the time. So I'm not going to deal with Christmas at this particular moment. I will be doing a video for that later on this month. However, I did want to just give you one little tidbit for Christmas. Christmas Day is a day typically of weather definition. If your Christmas Day is bright and clear, your Easter is going to be freezing. And if your Christmas Day is rainy and snowy and horrid, you're going to have an easy winter. I think this year's winter might be fairly hard, because the new moon, as we've just discussed, falls on the 23rd. And there is an old proverb saying the nearer the new moon falls to Christmas, the harder the winter will be. Oh, well, the 26th of December is, of course, a boxing day or since Stevens Day. But if you live in certain rural areas of the UK, you'll know it as a ren hunting day. The ren is a charming bird known as the king of the birds, the druids birds, and also incredibly lucky. There is a tradition that states you should never kill a ren because it will bring you great misfortune. However, you can kill a ren on the 26th. The ren's feathers were considered very lucky. Sailors would gather them because if they were in possession of a ren's feather, they could not be shipwrecked. My husband, when I was telling him about this, turned around and said, they should just get better boats. And I was like, boats can still be shipwrecked. And even if they're really good, you know, the sea's bigger than a boat. What you need is a ren feather. The druids had a veneration for the ren. There is some evidence, but it's very scant, showing that they use them in some form of rituals, which might be seen as vestiges in the ritual they carry out in Essex, where they go a ren hunting. So they would go round with this poor dead ren on a stick and beat upon the doors, asking people for money. And if they were given money, then they were given in exchange a ren feather, which was considered very lucky. Now, I don't know whether this has anything to do with the druids, but it does seem a bit pagan. Why is it on a stick? So, 26th, should you see a ren? I recommend that you just salute them. The 28th of December is the commemoration by the Christian faith of the massacre of the innocence by King Herod. If you know the story, when the Christ child was born, King Herod sent his soldiers out to slaughter all male children under the age of two, as he had heard from the three wise men. The Christ child was born and was going to be the king of kings. Yes, there's no real evidence for this slaughter. I don't think it happened, but the 28th has long been known as a terrible day of misfortune. Do not go out, do not make a bet, do not make any plans, do not do anything. It is a day when misfortune can come to you and is the unluckiest day of the year. And finally, of course, we come to the 31st New Year's Eve. This has always been a fire festival in the UK, and many villages within the UK still celebrate it as a proper fire festival. Allendale has geysers or people dressed up carrying flaming barrels of tar, which they parade through the streets to throw on a bonfire in the town square. This is very similar to the Ottery St Mary ritual of burning tar barrels. And it's thought to be a purification ritual as you carry the flaming tar barrels through the streets, it purifies the air with the smoke and the fire. Likewise, the flambeau procession where the villagers march around the village with flaming torches go to all four points of the compass and then back to the main square of the village where they throw the torches onto the bonfire. Again, that sounds very much like a purification ritual to me. And in fact, they do say that it is to drive out the evil spirits. Allendale's ritual ends with the ringing of the church bells. And this has always been said that the church bells were wrong to show that Christianity is supplanting paganism. But actually, I think that's just wrong. I think they just rang the church bells in their very pagan way. And the church was like, oh, well, how do we overcome this ghastly paganism? Well, I know we'll put a Christian slant on it and that'll work. That's fine. And so should you wish to join in this, it's very simple. All you need to do is like some fires and parade them around your home. December, it is a charming month, isn't it? A bit stressful to start with. But once you've got everything organised, it gets better, doesn't it? And let's all hope that you have a great December. There is lots of wonderful magic to be had. Let me know in the comments below what you think. And don't forget, my Coven meeting is coming up for December. Do go to patreon.com forward slash Ginny Metherall to join. There's other meetings on there. I particularly like the witchcraft course at the moment. I've got several members of my witchcraft course coming to an end. So there is spaces available. Otherwise, I hope you enjoyed this video. Don't forget to like and subscribe because it really helps my channel. And I will see you in a few days.