Plan Like a Witch Ritual Workshop
Plan Like a Witch ritual workshop. Learn to see magick everywhere and make time for your practice with ease so you can live the witchy life you were born for.
You’ll get instant access to the downloadable Naturally Modern Witch Planner, the video tutorial, and the prerecorded overview and blessing ritual.
The Full Cold Moon & Witchy ways to Celebrate
The Wolf Moon arrives in the depths of winter, a season that for much of the Northern world has long meant snow-covered ground and frozen land. In agricultural and seasonally attuned communities, this time of year was marked by retreating indoors, staying close to the hearth and warmth while harsh winds and distant animal calls filled the night. Even in warmer climates, the days have yet to grow significantly longer, giving way for more creatures of the night to roam.
Historically, this point in the winter cycle often coincided with dwindling stores. Food harvested in autumn would have been carefully rationed, and survival depended on preserved goods, root vegetables, and, in some regions, hunting wild game. The association of wolves with hunger, appetite, and scarcity appears in European symbolism as early as the fifteenth century, reflecting both literal and metaphorical hunger.
Click here for the Naturally Modern Witches’ Almanac for January. And here for your free January Witchy calendar.
Scroll to the bottom to grab your downloadable witchy calendar
Step Into The Circle & Embrace Your Inner Magick
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This is your coven where we weave the Naturally Modern Witch Method into everyday life, turning your days into a living Book of Shadows with seasonal spells and rituals that flow with the moon and the seasons.
Witchy Lifestyle Collections (pictured) are included with the Discovery Circle tier.
The Full Wolf Moon & Other Names
The Wolf Moon is commonly thought to take its name from howling wolves, a reference that may trace back to the Anglo-Saxon lunar calendar. It has also been known as the Moon After Yule, Old Moon, Ice Moon, Snow Moon, Bone Moon, and Hunger Moon. Across cultures, these names point to the same seasonal reality: the land offered little, and nourishment required ingenuity and restraint.
The Night Sky in January
January carries a sky pattern that repeats itself with quiet precision in the Northern Hemisphere, one that ancient people learned to read long before modern calendars insisted the year had already begun. Each year in the first days of January, the Quadrantids meteor shower cuts through the dark with sudden, bright streaks of light. It is one of the strongest meteor showers of the year, brief and sharp, arriving like a clearing fire at the edge of winter. Around the same time, Earth reaches perihelion, the point in its orbit when it is closest to the Sun. Though the land is cold and the nights are long, the planet is nearer to warmth than at any other time of year, a quiet reminder that power and life often gather beneath the surface before they are visible.
As January deepens, the Wolf Moon rises, carrying a name rooted in survival rather than sentiment. This full moon has long been associated with hunger, endurance, and instinct, when wolves were heard calling in the cold and communities were forced to rely on their stores, their skills, and one another. The winter sky supports this symbolism each year as well, with Orion and the great animal constellations standing high and bright, dominating the long nights. These stars return every winter as they always have, marking January as a threshold rather than a beginning. It is a month that teaches us to strip life back to its essentials, to listen for what is true, and to remember that even in the coldest season, the light is already on its way back.
The Full Wolf Moon: Why Modern Witches Celebrate
For witches and spiritual seekers, the Full Wolf Moon marks a time of instinctual truth and raw self-honesty. This is a moon of hunger and discernment, when what is unnecessary is stripped away and what remains is essential for survival and growth. In earth-centered and folk-based practices, the Wolf Moon reflects the wild self beneath conditioning, revealing where strength has been forged through endurance and where false comforts can no longer sustain us.
Many witches work with this moon for release and renewal, focusing on shedding old skins and preparing for a fresh beginning later in the year. It is a powerful time for water magick, cleansing rituals, and divination that seeks clarity rather than comfort. Journaling, intuitive listening, and simple rites of release align naturally with the Wolf Moon’s call to trust instinct, honor resilience, and begin again from a place that is honest and whole.
Witchy Ways to Celebrate the Full Wolf Moon
- Make a vision or intention board.
- Set goals for the next 12 months.
- Do a Year Ahead Tarot Spread and pull 12 cards, one for each month.
- Awaken your inner Wild Woman/Person
- Connect with the energy of the snow or snow spirits.
- Collect snow and allow it to melt into snow water. Use in workings for new beginnings, fresh starts, purity, and cleansing.
- Feed the birds. Check with your local Audubon Society for guidelines.
- Work with Witch Hazel as it blossoms bright yellow flowers in winter.
- Go on a walk in the woods. Notice the beauty of a winter wonderland. See if you can find any early signs of spring.
- Take a scenic drive to a river or stream. Observe if it is frozen over or how the ice naturally develops.
- Write down a bad habit on paper and freeze it to rid yourself of something unwanted. Either outside or in the freezer.
- Dig a hole in the snow, add candle wick, and pour melted candle wax inside to make snow candles.
- Howl at the Full Moon.
A Wolf Moon Ritual for Connecting to your Instincts
- Step outside if you can, or stand near a window.
- Plant your feet firmly on the ground and straighten your spine.
- Take three slow breaths, in through the nose and out through the mouth. With each exhale, imagine the sharp clarity of winter air moving through you.
- Place one hand over your chest and one over your belly. Feel your breath deepen. Picture the wolf standing still in the cold, alert and unburdened.
- Say, aloud or silently:
“I release what I have outgrown.
I drop what dulls my instincts.
I keep only what makes me strong.”
- Take one final breath and imagine turning away from what you have released.
- Step forward, even if only one small step, and carry on with a lighter heart and greater certainty about your path.
Blessed be!
About the Author
Dedicated to helping you develop a practice that flows with everyday life, I’m a modern witch living by the seasons and the moon. Read more about me here
I have always considered Orion, when directly overhead at midnight, to be the sign that summer is coming. A celebration fire, standing in the Wolf Moon light, plan for what is to come and what may come.
I love that perspective. Orion as a seasonal marker is such an old, steady way of tracking time. A fire, moonlight, and intention-setting feels exactly right for this moment.