 Hello people! I'm Ginny Metherill and I am a fourth generation witch. Today is the return of my ever popular Almanac series looking at what a witchcraft you can do on witch days throughout January in 2023. This is my witchcraft in January. If you haven't seen these videos as always I'm going to give you a general overview of the type of witchcraft that you might be looking at for the month of January. Then we'll get into the nitty gritty detail of the days and what witchcraft works best and when. So, with that said, let's start with the general overview. January is very much a month of finishing off what was begun at Yule. Yule, as I'm sure you remember from my Yule video, which was only a couple of weeks ago, lasts for 12 days as does Christmas because it sort of, you know, imposed itself on the top of Yule. And so this first part of January is very much a finishing off of the celebrations that are going on about the midwinter solstice. The name January comes from the Latin and we don't know whether January is actually named for the god Janus, the Roman god Janus, the one with two faces, one looking forward, one looking back, or it's named for Janus, the Latin word, for a door, as in a door into the new year. We don't know. It's most likely going to be the god Janus but we don't really know, do we now? We haven't got a clue. Maybe it's all just intertwined and bound up with each other. However the important thing here is that January is a month of change. We come from the old and into the new, hence why we have the new year. Although we appear to be in the deaths of midwinter, because January is really very much the deaths of midwinter, it is the start of the animal mating season. For example the moon is called the wolf moon at this time because the howling of the wolves, who aren't just howling for scarcity of food or something, they're howling to get themselves a bit of a rumpy puppy. They're looking for their girlfriends and protecting their territory. The fox, which is a close relation to the wolf, you will also hear howling away. It's got a really unearthly sort of river. During the daytime we can hear the robin calling out the beautiful robin's red breast. They've always been associated with witchcraft. Robins are reaching their peak singing at this moment in time and also their breasts particularly bright. That's because they're trying to attract a mate and finding their territories or guarding their territories. It was said by the Christians that the robin's red breast came because when Christ was hanging from the cross the robin landed and sung to the Christ as he was nailed to the cross. Whilst this was happening some blood splashed upon his breast and stained it red and he carries this as a proud mark forevermore. However it is believed by the pagan traditions that robins were spiritually connected with the dead and they could pass messages to and fro. So should you see a robin in the garden at this time of year feel free to speak words to your loved ones that have passed over in the knowledge that the robin will take those words to them. I do like that tale. It's rather sweet and charming. The first few weeks of January pale the end of the yule season and the start of the agricultural year. So January is very much a new beginning you know we finish off the old and we start with the new. So that was the general overview for my witchcraft in January. Right that said let's get down into the nitty gritty and of course the best possible day we can start on is the first. This is obviously one of the biggest witches charms day of the year. Wherever you go throughout the British Isles you will find that people will be carrying charms across your threshold on the first of January and these charms vary. My mother who was a very good witch always insisted that it's midnight the first person to cross our threshold had to be a tall dark handsome man. Well they're all good so far in my opinion and he would be carrying a lump of coal to bring you the warmth in your life a bag of salt to bring you the necessities of your life and some sugar for the sweet things. This man was normally a member of the family who was pushed out of the house just before midnight because they had to be out of the house as at midnight finished he then banged on the door and we let him in. I quite like my mother's one I think that's quite a good one isn't it but throughout the varying parts of the world people have different customs of bringing witches charms into your house to ensure good luck for the year. In Wales the children would carry apples skewered with sticks and evergreens and these would be given to their neighbours in exchange for a couple of pennies. These new year's apples were always placed at the window to bring good luck into their house for the new year. The northern parts of the UK had it that at midnight you should open the back door of the house to let the old year out and then open the front door of the house to let the new year in and when you opened the front door to bring the new year in you'd be banging your saucepans in order to put off anything negative and just or welcome in the good luck for the new year. On this day it is very important and it is a very old tradition not to give people a light from your fire now this could be something as simple as lighting someone's cigarette for them on new year's day because this takes the light away from your own half so do not give away candles at new year or allow people to take a light from your home. In Nottinghamshire it was thought that if you took stuff out of your house on new year's day anything before you bought something into your house on new year's day then this would cause a bad luck and they had this rhyme saying take out take in bad luck is sure to begin take in take out good luck will come about so make sure that you only bring something into your house on new year's day before you take anything out now this is a rather difficult thing to do if you're having a new year's eve party because your new year's eve guests will likely leave your house on new year's early morning or just after midnight or the next day maybe so you must ensure that someone brings your present into the house what I would suggest is the tall dark handsome man choose one of your guests a shoves some cold salt and sugar in his house before midnight throw him outside as midnight strikes get him to come back in that is my suggestion the 6th of January is the night amongst other things of the full moon now the full moon rises in cancer and it is the culmination and termination or fulfillment of the great event that was started on the great and new moon of the winter solstice on the 23rd of December cancer is a homely sign and so this full moon is going to be all about romance family fertilization with the capricorn aspect of astrology in the sky at the moment mixed with this cancer energy helps us bring a sense of duty and responsibility to our home and family the first full moon of the year is therefore a homely family orientated one the first full moon of the year has a lot of superstitions going with it if you see the full moon with a slightly reddish tint on it then it's not going to be a great weather for the year ahead but if it is high in the sky which it might well be then you are going to have a really great harvest it is said that if you wish upon the first full moon of the year your wish will come true by the end of this year and wish magic as we all know is always incredibly selfish if you feel like wishing for a million pounds this is the moon to do it on the 6th of january is the last day of christmas which used to be the last day of yule but kind of calendar fluctuations avayas already said have changed these dates around circuit the last day of yule was always a celebration with a huge feast and was almost bigger than the yule celebration at the beginning itself there were plays there were performances there were all sorts of excitements that happened and this is still seen in the procession at bankside in london with the holly king it's obviously taken from some antique pagan holly king mythology that we had you know it's slightly been lost in the mists of time i mean neo pagans have it that the holly king was defeated at yule but in this case he is still being transported around on the last day of yule so maybe this is his last day of reigning who knows it is also considered the end of the wassailing season on the 6th of january and so this is the last time that you get to go to your orchard pour cider everywhere beat your trees sing songs make merry and a lot of noise in the orchard to awaken the spirits of the trees so that they can produce a great crop for the coming year the 9th of january is plough monday which marked the start of the recommencement of the agricultural year it was also the start when people were returning to work after the christmas festivities plough monday is a little bit witchy in its aspect because the ploughmen liked to have their ploughs blessed and would take candles and do rituals for blessing their ploughs in order to give them obviously a good harvest in the coming year anyway but much more excitingly on tuesday the 10th of january there is the straw man festival i have absolutely no idea where this comes from what they're doing or why and so but i'd like to show it to you because it's bloody hilarious these men are led by a lead dressed in straw depending on which town you live in the rituals differ but they're all about this straw man if you know a bit more about the pagan traditions behind this i would love to hear your thoughts it must be some sort of fertility festival or awakening of the new year spirit but who knows the 13th of january is known as the coldest day of the year i don't know if 13th of january is actually going to be the coldest day of the year but it seems quite likely the 19th of january is when mercury finally finishes being retrograde what this means for all of us is our tempers are going to improve our plans are going to come together technology is going to work let's hope so because i can't live without it and generally everything is just going to run a bit smoother mercury has that edge of putting things at odds with each other and so stopping its retro gauge journey is brilliant for the whole human race the 21st of january is the new moon and this new moon is in aquarius traditionally the new moon is a time to make plans and focus for your dreams and hopes for the coming month each new moon is affected by the energy it's the star sign that it's in and being in the water sign aquarius brings a trail blazing quality to your dreams and hopes so if you wish to run wild with your plans for the next month now is this time to put those plans in motion and just let your imagination and creativity flow because this aquarium new moon will help those plans and dreams come true this new moon is also a moon of divination so you should stand in the light of the new moon and take some seeds nine of them preferably and these seeds should be some form of seed that might be useful traditionally i think they used hemp seeds take your nine seeds and throw them over your left shoulder and this will conjure the wraith of your future lover if you want to see him that is then you have to plant the seeds and tend to the crop if you wish for that future lover to be yours and the last date of course is the 31st of january this is one of my favorite dates of the year because this is the ap heli ar festival it's in lyric in the shetland's aisles and this is a viking pagan fire festival and it's one of the biggest in europe people of the aisles spend the whole year planning this and they like thousands of torches and process and end up burning a viking long ship on the and i also don't know why it is there and what this fire festival is one presumes it must be part of lighting the new year because that is after all january january is all about bringing in the new and sweeping out the old and for that i hope you have a very happy new year if you like this video please do give me a thumbs up and do subscribe it's a new year come and join my coven meeting online it is a thrilling ride go to patreon.com forward slash a jenny meddral and you'll see the details there otherwise i hope you have really happy a new year if you haven't already and i will see you in a couple of days