Curses, Wards & Blessings — The Week of Sealing (Third Week of December)
- Sorcha Lunaris
- Dec 15, 2025
- 4 min read
“Before the light returns, the wise secure what must endure.”
The third week of December occupies a peculiar and powerful place in the old Irish seasonal rhythm. It is not yet the Solstice, but it stands directly before it, carrying the weight of what has been done and what has not yet turned. In this narrow stretch of days, the land feels taut, as though something ancient is holding its breath. The nights are long, the days pale and brief, and the world seems to wait for the light to pause and change direction.
In Irish Craft understanding, this waiting was not idle. It was recognised as a moment of consequence. Winter had settled fully into the bones of the land, and the energy of the year had withdrawn inward. What was spoken now, what was set in motion now, was believed to sink deeply into the season ahead. Because of this, the third week of December was never treated lightly. It was not a time for dramatic magic or emotional release. It was a time for restraint, precision, and ethical clarity.
Witches working in the old ways understood that power behaves differently in deep winter. It does not dissipate quickly. It lingers. It binds. And so, this week became known not for casting outward, but for sealing inward — a period devoted to ensuring that what crossed into the darkest days did so with care, responsibility, and balance.
Winter Ethics and the Discipline of Restraint
Irish Craft ethics have always emphasised responsibility over display. Power was not exercised simply because it was available; it was governed by timing, necessity, and consequence. The third week of December expressed this ethic with particular clarity.
To curse during this time was considered dangerous unless the act was one of binding justice rather than emotional reaction. Words or workings shaped by anger, wounded pride, or haste were believed to attach themselves not only to their target, but to the witch who released them, travelling forward into the returning light. Older folk cautioned that anything loosed in this week could “walk beside you through the turning.”
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