Winter solstice 2022 marks an important celestial event in the northern hemisphere. As the shortest day and longest night of the year, it holds deep spiritual significance for many. For witches and practitioners of witchcraft, the winter solstice offers a time to embrace the energy of the season, connect with nature, and set intentions for the coming year. **The winter solstice**, also known as Yule, is a time when the earth is at its furthest point from the sun in the northern hemisphere. It is a time of turning inward, reflection, and rebirth. Witches often view this solstice as a powerful opportunity to tap into the energy of the earth and harness it for their magical practices.
Video Game / Witch's Wish
Witch's Wish is a Nintendo DS Adventure Game created by TryFirst and published by Natsume in 2010. You play as Vicky, a young girl who longs to be a witch but can't afford the upper-class schooling witches require. Luckily, she gets her chance when a mysterious girl with powerful abilities awakens Vicky's magic—and just in time, as a dark force threatens the town. It's up to Vicky to learn spells, help her neighbors, and save the town!
Not to be confused with 2009's A Witch's Tale, which also has a witch-in-training and Geometric Magic but has a darker tone.
Witches often view this solstice as a powerful opportunity to tap into the energy of the earth and harness it for their magical practices. During the winter solstice, **witches may perform rituals** to honor the changing seasons and the cycles of nature. These rituals often involve lighting candles, burning herbs, and making offerings to the earth and its spirits.
This game contains examples of:
- Abusive Precursors: The people of Tanya's village, as well as in the town of Alia, became overly-dependent on magic and began to use it for selfish reasons.
- Alliterative Title: Witch's Wish.
- All-Loving Hero: Vicky's main motivation to become a witch is so she can help people, including her grandmother.
- Anachronic Order: The game skips from Chapter 4 to 6, with Chapter 5 only unlocking after you beat the game.
- Big Eater: Pat spends a date with Cassie eating a bunch of hot dogs and four cakes.
- Brutal Honesty: The forest spirit's magic makes everyone brutally honest, including spilling their darkest thoughts .
- Collection Sidequest: Collecting fruit and badges will unlock pictures and music.
- Decon-Recon Switch: The game goes over the drawbacks of using magic quite a bit, including how using it makes people's lives easier to the point where people no longer wish to work, as well as general greed and selfishness seemingly arising from the convenience magic provides and the resulting classism, with several characters trying to get rid of magic entirely. However, thanks to Vicky's helpfulness the characters eventually realize that magic itself is not to blame, can be used for many good things and is instrumental in saving the town, and it's really humanity's selfishness and greed they need to moderate, not magic.
- Emotion Eater: The forest spirit feeds of off hatred and uses it to grow stronger .
- Everyone Is a Super: Once magic becomes more commonplace, everyone uses it for whatever they would want.
- Game-Breaking Bug: The level 3 Fire spell is glitched and doesn't read properly, making casting it almost impossible.
- Geometric Magic: Spells are cast using runes drawn on the touch screen.
- The Great Wall: The two parts of the town are separated by a giant wall.
- Hate Plague: After the wall is shattered, the unleashed magic and greed makes everyone argue and fight, helped along by a wicked forest spirit .
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: The Dark Spirit was formed out of humanity's selfishness and greed, and points out after its defeat that the problems won't simply vanish .
- An Ice Person: Fiona specializes in ice magic.
- I Just Want to Be Special: Sasha spends much of chapter 7 trying to discover her own talents so she can help her grandpa.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Grandma Agnes used magic to seal everyone's memories of magic and her building the wall, with a side effect being that she forgot too .
- Lazy Bum: One of the main conflicts in the story is how magic can make life easier to the point of not wanting to work at all, such as using a spell to clean house instead of doing it by hand.
- Left Hanging: Chapter 5, which is unlocked after beating the main story, shows that Vicky wants to cross the sea to see someone, but the player never learns who she wants to see or why.
- Lemony Narrator: The instruction manual mentions how some novice witches use their fingertips to cast magic, but points out that later spells require precise stylus movement so the stylus is better off used.
- The Magic Comes Back: Magic slowly returns to the town the more the story goes on.
- The Magic Goes Away: This happened in the backstory, with a majority of magic being sealed within the wall dividing the town.
- Made of Evil: The Dark Spirit was born from people's greed and unfulfilled desires .
- Made of Iron: You can cast highly destructive spells on townspeople and the worst that'll happen is they get knocked down for a bit.
- Mundane Utility: Most magic is used for mundane activities, like chores.
- Nonstandard Character Design: Most of the town inhabitants look much cartoonier compared to Vicky and other main characters, who are drawn in an anime style.
- The One Guy: Dan is the only male witch, up until everyone starts using magic .
- Raised by Grandparents: Vicky lives alone with her grandma, Agnes, and Sasha lives with her grandpa Lloyd.
- The Red Mage: While some witches specialize in one or two types of magic, Vicky can learn all of it except ice magic.
- The Sacred Darkness: Greed is generally seen as a purely negative force, but later in the game Fiona and Tanya realize that without greed no one would have desires and dreams, so a little bit of selfishness isn't always bad.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The wall held all of the townspeople's greed and unfulfilled dreams, eventually giving birth to the Dark Spirit .
- Slice of Life: Chapters 3 through 9 are about Vicky solving minor disputes in town and helping people with her magic.
- Tall Poppy Syndrome: One side effect of everyone being able to use magic is that magic is no longer valued or appreciated, turning from something mysterious and dream-fulfilling to something mundane that people argue over.
- Urban Segregation: Vicky's town is divided into a north, sunny rich side and a south, dreary poor side.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Tanya plans to erase all magic, feeling the world would be better off without it.
- Wham Episode: Chapter 10 reveals much of the game's backstory, has serious discussions on the ethics of using magic, and introduces a villain.
- White-and-Grey Morality: Aside from the spirits, no one in the game is truly evil, many of the conflicts stem from basic vices common to all humanity, and Vicky is able to help everyone in town.
Video Game / Witch's Wish
Witch's Wish is a Nintendo DS Adventure Game created by TryFirst and published by Natsume in 2010. You play as Vicky, a young girl who longs to be a witch but can't afford the upper-class schooling witches require. Luckily, she gets her chance when a mysterious girl with powerful abilities awakens Vicky's magic—and just in time, as a dark force threatens the town. It's up to Vicky to learn spells, help her neighbors, and save the town!
Not to be confused with 2009's A Witch's Tale, which also has a witch-in-training and Geometric Magic but has a darker tone.
Witches may also use this time to connect with their ancestors and seek guidance for the coming year. **Setting intentions for the future** is a key aspect of winter solstice practices for witches. This involves taking time to reflect on the past year, releasing what no longer serves them, and envisioning what they wish to manifest in the upcoming year. Many witches use symbolic tools, such as crystals or tarot cards, to help them focus their intentions and manifest their desires. The winter solstice also holds significance for witches because it **marks the return of the sun**. After the solstice, the days begin to grow longer, bringing with them the promise of renewal and growth. This aligns with the concept of the wheel of the year, a cyclical understanding of time and nature followed by many witches. In conclusion, the winter solstice 2022 is an important time for witches to connect with the energy of the season, honor the cycles of nature, and set intentions for the coming year. It is a time of reflection, rebirth, and renewal – a time for witches to embrace the magic of the winter solstice and the potential it holds for their spiritual practices..
Reviews for "Creating Winter Solstice altars and rituals as a witch in 2022"
1. Jane - 2/5 - I was really excited to read "Winter Solstice 2022 Witch" as I love witchcraft and the winter solstice. However, I was left disappointed. The story felt disjointed and rushed, with underdeveloped characters and a weak plot. The world-building was lacking and I was left with more questions than answers. Overall, it was a letdown and didn't meet my expectations.
2. Mark - 3/5 - I picked up "Winter Solstice 2022 Witch" hoping for a magical and atmospheric read, but unfortunately, it fell short. The writing style was bland and lacked depth, which made it hard to connect with the characters or get invested in the storyline. The pacing felt off, with slow moments followed by abrupt jumps in time. I also found the ending to be unsatisfying and rushed. While it had some interesting ideas, it failed to deliver a captivating and immersive reading experience.
3. Samantha - 2.5/5 - "Winter Solstice 2022 Witch" had an intriguing premise, but it failed to deliver a compelling story. The writing felt amateurish, with awkward dialogue and repetitive descriptions. The characters lacked depth and their actions often felt forced. I struggled to stay engaged and found myself skimming through pages. The only redeeming aspect was the unique magic system, but even that wasn't enough to salvage the overall disappointment of the book.