The Brewery

02/26/2026

4 Days ’Til Yule 🌲 Setting the Wards

As Yule drew near, attention turned to protection.

This wasn’t about fear or superstition. It was about respect for the home, for the land, and for the threshold between what had been and what was coming next.

In many winter traditions, the days before Yule were used to quietly reinforce boundaries. Evergreens were placed at doors to symbolize endurance. Fire was kept burning as a steady presence. Iron, ash, or salt might be set at thresholds not with ceremony, but with intention.

The belief was simple: not everything from the old year was meant to cross into the new one.

Setting the wards was an act of discernment. It marked what was welcome and what was not, ensuring that only what belonged would move forward with the household as the light prepared to return.

In a modern sense, this day asks us to consider our own boundaries. Where do we need to protect our energy? What needs to be gently but firmly left outside the threshold as the cycle turns?

The home is more than walls.
The threshold is more than a doorway.

And protection, when done with intention, is an act of care.

Full Yule lore and reflections are on Patreon & Substack
(link in bio)

02/26/2026

Happy Halloween! 🖤

02/26/2026

Thistle & Thorn Thursday ~ Sweetgum Pods

Sweetgum pods are one of those things people curse when they step on them… but they’re protective by nature. Hard, spined and barbed in every direction.

In magical work, thorned or spiked items carry boundary energy.

Sweetgum can be used in a few different ways, depending on your intention:

• Protection and warding
• Strengthening boundaries
• Reversal or “return to sender” work
• Breaking up intrusive or heavy energy
• Placing near doors, windows, or property lines
• Adding to jars meant to contain or hold something in place

They pair especially well with iron, salt, black pepper, anything that reinforces perimeter.

Their hollow centers add another layer of symbolism: they repel but they can also hold. Some practitioners use them in containment work, placing petitions or small items inside to trap interference or bind disruptive energy.

Historically, spined botanicals like these were placed near doorways, kept on windowsills, added to jars, or paired with iron and salt to reinforce warding. Protection in folk magic was often practical. It used what fell from the trees. What grew nearby. What cost nothing.

The tools for witchcraft really don’t need to be expensive. They can be found in your own backyard.

— The Brewery Co

02/26/2026

02/25/2026

Starting the yearly Brewery herb garden ❤️

02/25/2026

Day 8: Preparing for Yule

5 Days Until Yule

Quick correction: I mislabeled the earlier days in this series. That one’s on me. From here on out, the countdown is aligned with the calendar. Today is correctly 5 days until Yule / the Winter Solstice.

In the days leading up to midwinter, the focus wasn’t celebration yet. It was about restraint and containment, about making sure nothing unfinished crossed the Solstice. Midwinter was treated as a checkpoint in the year, not a fresh start.

This is part of Countdown to Yule: The Darkening Days.

If you want the full historical context and the deeper explanation behind this day, the long-form version is available on Patreon and Substack (link in bio).

02/24/2026

Happy Yule & Winter Solstice! 🌞

Yule marks the winter solstice and the longest night of the year. From this point forward, the balance of light begins to shift, and the days slowly lengthen, even if the change is barely visible at first.

After nights of vigilance, protection, and remembrance, Yule opened a period set apart from ordinary time. The hearth fires kept through the vigil were not extinguished, but carefully strengthened to mark the turning of the cycle. Households gathered, food was shared, and the weight of the dark began to lift.

This was not understood as an instant rebirth. The return of the sun was gradual, unfolding day by day across the Twelve Days of Yule. Celebration existed alongside patience and continuity, rooted in trust rather than urgency or spectacle.

Yule marks Day One of the Twelve Days of Yule. It is the hinge of the season, when the cycle turns forward and what endured the darkness is carried into the light that slowly returns.

Full Yule lore and historical context are available on Patreon and Substack
(link in bio)

02/23/2026

3 Days ’Til Yule 🌲 The Reckoning of the Old Sun

As the solstice approaches, the old year does not fade quietly.

In many solar-based traditions, this moment marked the last day the old sun held influence over the cycle. Before release could come, there was reckoning, not as punishment, but as clarity.

This was the point when truths surfaced. Old patterns made one final appearance. What had been held together by habit, obligation, or fear could no longer remain hidden. The year spoke plainly before loosening its grip.

Reckoning was never meant to reveal guilt. It was meant to show what had reached its natural end.

What no longer belonged lost its hold.
What was real was allowed to remain.

In a modern sense, this day often arrives as realization rather than ritual. A truth becomes impossible to ignore. A situation shows itself clearly. Something reaches its limit and in doing so frees you.

This is not regression.
It is the final clearing before renewal.

Tomorrow, we turn toward the mothers, the lineages, and the deeper remembering that follows.

Full Yule lore and reflections are on Patreon & Substack
(link in bio)

02/22/2026

Saturnalia Day Three

By the middle of Saturnalia, daily life in Rome had visibly changed. Ordinary rhythms of work and governance were interrupted. Courts closed, markets shut their doors, and regular labor was set aside. The city slowed, operating under a different set of expectations for the duration of the festival.

Public and private feasting expanded during this period. Saturnalia was rooted in the agricultural cycle and took place after the harvest was complete, when grain and provisions had already been gathered and stored. Dining during the festival reflected this abundance. Meals were drawn from surplus rather than necessity, marking a pause in labor made possible by the completion of the agricultural year.

Other everyday restrictions were also relaxed. Dice gambling, typically discouraged or regulated, was openly permitted. Formal civic dress was abandoned as well. The toga, a symbol of public duty and social rank, was set aside in favor of informal clothing associated with leisure and dining, making the suspension of ordinary order visible throughout daily life.

Within many households, a temporary leader known as the Saturnalian princeps was selected by lot. His authority was symbolic and short-lived. He issued playful or absurd commands that highlighted the festival’s sanctioned suspension of hierarchy rather than its permanent collapse.

Saturnalia did not reject order altogether. It paused it. Day Three reveals how abundance, timing, and social permission allowed Roman society to step briefly outside its normal structure while remaining aware that the suspension was temporary.

A longer historical write-up on Saturnalia and its traditions is available free on Patreon and Substack.
Link in bio.

10/17/2025

For centuries, we’ve been told the story of good versus evil, angels versus demons, light versus dark.
But what if they were never enemies?
What if they were mirrors?

Introducing our newest spiritual study series: The Light & Shadow: Of Angels and Demons

This journey explores the divine balance between light and darkness through mythology, psychology, and esoteric study.
We’ll explore the angels of the Shem Ha-Mephorash and their Goetic counterparts, the Tree of Life and Qliphoth, and the archetypes that live within us all.

We begin with Lucifer and Lilith, the Light-Bearer and the First Woman.
Together, they embody awakening, independence, and the sacred meeting of freedom and devotion and are where most practitioners start their journey. Think of them as the intro before we dive into the traditional 72. Some weeks will also include Archangels alongside that weeks pairing.

✨ Learn how angels and demons aren’t about fear but about integration.
✨ Explore the balance of creation through ritual, reflection, and study.
✨ See how light and shadow coexist within you.

The full introduction is now live on Patreon, with my personal reflections to also be shared on Substack.

Read the full series → Visit Patreon from the link in bio
🕯️ Join the class for $7/month on Patreon to study along with me.