I know a lot of people hate New Year’s Resolutions with a passion.  I happen to like them.  It is a time when a large number of people the world over choose to look to the future with hope and dreams for themselves.  It is a time when wills are steeled and effort is made to change the landscape of one’s life (and thus, change the landscape of the world itself).  For a brief period of time, regardless of religious persuasion, a sense of renewal and opportunity overtakes us and we are one with many others in a magick circle of intent.  That intent, almost uniformly, is self-betterment.  And this is something I can heartily say the world could do with a bit more of.

I’ve heard people tell me that resolutions are made to be broken.  I personally think that the trick to resolutions is in the word itself:  to RESOLVE.  Many New Year’s Resolutions begin with these words, usually ending with a goal that tackles an area where change is needed or a desire is closely held. 

We began our New Year with Mercury Retrograde.  Dear Mercury moving in reverse is the king of all things RE.  Re-read, re-edit, re-think, re-do, and yes, even re-solve.  When we resolve to do something, we participate in Einsteinian wisdom.  Doing the same thing over again and expecting different results is insanity.  And so, when we resolve to do something, we re-solve our problems.  We seek new solutions and new paths.  We try something that hasn’t been tried before and break the cycle of insanity that comes from being tied hand and foot to the spit of our vices. 

January is not really the easiest time to put our intentions underway in full force… the month of the Capricorn sun is for setting ambitions.  Like the tenacious mountain goat, we must force ourselves to put one foot in front of the other and tackle a mountain that seems far too big for us.  It’s not easy.  Expecting it to be is setting yourself up for failure.  It takes more force to get a rocket off the ground than it does to keep it going after liftoff.  If you can keep this in mind and link yourself into the energy of Capricorn, you can make it up the steep climb that begins any change of habit.

The point of resolutions is to outsmart your habits, to apply your will to the practice of inner alchemy, to commit again to spiritual transformation.  Yes, it’s easy to dismiss it as a silly tradition, something to be broken, and many a cynic has cut his teeth chewing on the bones of the whole resolution practice.  However, New Year’s Resolutions can be a special part of your modern magickal practice.

Maybe those naysaying New Year’s Resolutions are just annoyed at having to acknowledge that, yes, the whole world is capable of doing magick.  Sometimes better than the naysayers themselves.  *smile*