Year of the Witch: Connecting with Nature's Seasons through Intuitive Magick by Temperance Alden
A book review
I first read Year of the Witch: Connecting with Nature’s Seasons Through Intuitive Magick, written by Temperance Alden, in 2021. Since then, I have found myself revisiting this book each year, sometime around January or February. Alden is a South Floridian author, teacher, and folk witch. She brings over twenty years of practice to the table, coupled with an insatiable appreciation for family traditions and holiday celebrations.
The Wheel of the Year
Alden reveals in her book that most modern Western witchcraft is based on the teachings of Aleister Crowley and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dan. The Hermetic Order was an occult society, founded by a small group of English Freemasons. The Order’s ideologies and practices heavily relied upon Judeo-Christian mysticism and Kabbalah, among other traditions. The systems utilized within The Order would later build the foundation of modern Wicca. Alden explains how Gerald Gardner, considered an early founder of the Wicca religion, “used the skeleton of the Golden Dawn to create the methods for group work that we see throughout witchcraft today.” Gardner is credited with reviving the eight festivals now celebrated in the Wheel of the Year.
The wheel includes four Celtic fire festivals (Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane, and Lughnasagh) and four solstice and equinox days. The solstice and equinox days were later renamed by Aidan Kelly in the 1970s and have since been popularized through the decades (Yule, Ostara, Litha, and Mabon).
Alden’s book offers a deep dive into each of these holidays, exposing their Celtic and Germanic roots. Readers will learn some of the history, lore, and practices attributed to each of these holidays. This book is a roadmap for practitioners of every path, aiding the reader in building a Wheel of the Year that is customized to fit the landscape and bioregion of the practicing witch. The book is divided into eighteen chapters, with several sub-sections per chapter, and three appendixes.
Chapter 1: Intuitive Witchcraft
Chapter 2: Cycles, Seasons, Death, and Rebirth
Chapter 3: Elemental Magick
Chapter 4: Shepherding the Land
Chapter 5: At the Gates of Witchcraft
Chapter 6: The Spiritual Garden
Chapter 7: Local Elements and Spirits
Chapter 8: The Origin of the Wheel of the Year
Chapter 9: Samhain
Chapter 10: Yule
Chapter 11: Imbolc
Chapter 12: Ostara
Chapter 13: Beltane
Chapter 14: Litha
Chapter 15: Lughnasadh
Chapter 16: Mabon
Chapter 17: The NonTraditional Year
Chapter 18: Creating Your Own Wheel
Appendix A: List of Pagan Holidays
Appendix B: Cascarilla Powder
Appendix C: Florida Water
Building a new wheel
One of my favorite parts of this book is Chapter 18: Creating Your Own Wheel. In this chapter, Alden reveals that one need not celebrate the eight festivals at the same time as everyone else- if at all. For some, the holidays do not match the climate of the local landscape. This new wheel is flexible, and the reader has the freedom to select which traditions will be observed in their practice.
Marshall WSL explains in an interview with Temperance Alden how, for him, pool parties and summer barbeques are part of his personal wheel. He lives in Texas, where the weather is warm and his Winter holiday observance likely looks very different from those living in the northern hemisphere.
In my personal practice, I’ve found ways of celebrating these holidays by spending time outdoors. Depending on the time of the year, I may go on a day hike, visit a botanical garden, or see a winter holiday light display. I also enjoy going to festivals and preparing meals in my slow cooker (i.e. a modern-day cauldron). Your Wheel does not need to be set in stone, you can modify it with each passing year. For example, I try to eat more seasonally as often as I can as a way of observing the change in seasons. We already participate in a local CSA program, and so I plan to visit a few local orchards in the coming year. We live very close to several orchards and berry patches, and I have also become more interested in foraging for wild edibles.
Grab your journal and a pen, and start jotting down seasonal activities that you already participate in. Are there any additional activities you want to do? Are there anything you do or can do that can become part of your tradition? Alden has a neat crafting idea described towards the end of her book, as a way of helping you to build your Wheel.
Further reading:
Alden recommends reading Sacred ring: pagan origins of British folk festivals & customs by Michael Howard. There is a copy of this book available for free on the Internet Archive, you can read it here.
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Author’s note: I am not affiliated with the author or publication discussed above; this review is authentic and only represents my opinions- not those of the author mentioned.
~ Tabitha, author of The Book Rook