Despite what our calendars tell us, now is a wonderful time to engage your new year energy.

I know we’re in March, and our “New Year” was supposed to be two months ago, but as I’m going to explain, this tradition is actually a relic of bureaucratic decisions made a long time ago. We’re running an old calendar that doesn’t align very well with the natural cycle of time.

When we re-align with a “natural” calendar, something based on deep time, our actions and energy can work in tandem with the phase the world is actually in.

This is particularly pertinent to the practice of goal setting and new year planning.

For over a decade now, I’ve relished the new year tradition. I love the downtime over Christmas, and then the invitation to mark the passing of the year.

I’ve developed my ritual over the years. It starts with a deep review of the year just passed, with particular attention placed on my wins, successes and appreciations (gratitude is important for me to counter the “never enough” voice).

And then my favourite part—a deep enquiry into my vision for the year ahead. What do I want to create? What is it that wants to come through this year?

In more recent years I’ve learned how to then take all this, and “call it in” spiritually.

What I realised this year, is that January 1^st is a really fucking weird time of year to do it.

Time cycles and ancient bureaucracy

There is a cycle of deep time. Something that is built upon natural and real events, rather than the more arbitrary models our human culture tends to run on.

This natural cycle is based upon the actual events that create our global year. It’s the time it takes for the Earth to fully orbit the Sun. This creates our seasons, our solstices and equinoxes. There is nothing arbitrary about this cycle.

We start our year on Jan 1^st, which does not align with this cycle. It’s close to the Winter Solstice, but not really. Why do we place it here? The Romans. Whose ancient tinkering is still coded into the way we think about time.

Originally, the Roman New Year began in March, which was their first month. The period between December (the final month) and the beginning of the year was left as undefined “winter” time. This is something many pagan cultures did.

In roughly 700 BC, the Roman calendar was upgraded from a 10-month to a 12-month system. January and February were added, and a 355-day year standardised.

This screwed up the order, and the numerically named months got out of sequence. September comes from ‘sept’—seven. But where does it fall in our calendar? That’s right, ninth. The same issue goes for October—December. Oops.

Gradually, more changes were brought in, including the moving of the New Year from March, back to January. This was a key move that is of course still preserved in our calendar.

Why did they do it? In short—ancient bureaucracy. It had administrative advantages, and allowed them to better prepare for that Spring’s planned military campaigns.

Which all results in some funky karmic energy still running through our New Year’s magic. As Dr. John Churchill says, we’re still running on empire time.

A natural quarterly cycle

As our world heads ever more frantically down the technological rabbit-hole, I feel many of us are called to a re-integration with the natural timing of things. To align with the deep code in our bodies with the cycles of change, expansion and contraction.

We’ve got most of the right practices, we’re just doing them at the wrong time.

Rather than follow an old calendar designed by an empire looking for military expansion, I believe we are being asked to remember and realign with the natural calendar that Earth provides.

This is a calendar that is based on deep time—the actual passage of our planet around her Sun. The solstices, and the equinoxes are natural delineations of time given by astronomical and astrological reality.

We adhered to this natural calendar for so long we don’t even know when it started. Though the solar alignment of many ancient structures gives us a clue as to how deep this knowledge went.

And according to the natural calendar, now is a wonderful time to activate your new year energy. As we approach the Spring Equinox (March 21), and new life is sprouting all around us, the natural world is literally inviting us to join the growth party.

From the perspective of natural time, this makes much more sense as the “start of the year”, and something that many cultures practiced for millennia.

Making it real

If you already have a plan for your year—you know what your goals and intentions are—then this is a great time to call it in, commit to it, and feed your soul juju into its bubbly excitement.

If you don’t have a plan and you’re unclear what you’re aiming at this year, then this is also a great time to do that work. You haven’t missed the boat. You’re just in time.

What is the essence of this practice?

• The purpose is to get clear about your goals and intentions. This is what sets your aim for the journey ahead.
• Source them from as deep a place as you can find. Take your time, let the truth come through you.
• Write them out in a short list—get specific with your language. Shorter is better, distilling down the essence into simple language.

Don’t ask AI to generate all this for you. What makes the process powerful is the struggle and learning as you translate what’s inside you into words. The result is infused with your own creative effort and is what sets the tone for the year ahead.

My favourite way to “sign off” on my yearly plan is to do so in ceremony.

After I stir up the magical field, I say out loud what my goals and intentions are. I call in the spirits of change, asking for help and guidance as I commit to the path for the year ahead. This is an embodied practice too—feeling the desire in my body as I speak, including the doubts and fears, declaring the commitment in my heart.

This brings it into the present moment—making it a real and embodied declaration.

There are many ways to do this kind of ceremonial commitment. The form is less important than the authenticity—making it your ritual, following your intuition. What makes it powerful is the pouring of your sincere intention into the vision.

New life is sprouting all around. What wants to be born through you and your work this year?

What will you create?

I will be taking the goals and planning I did on December 31^st, refining them into my plan for the next year, and invoking the spirit of Spring to help me create it.

Would you like to join in?