If you don\u2019t know what I\u2019m talking about, here\u2019s a piece from the BBC<\/a>, one from USA Today<\/a>, and a very good one from Glamour<\/a>. In short, it\u2019s part nostalgia, part fascination with 10-year increments, part realization that 2016 was a major turning point in Anglo-American history (the Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump), and part the fact that a lot of people writing about these things were teenagers in 2016 and are now well into adulthood and of course their lives have changed a lot.<\/p>\n Still, I\u2019m 60-something and the 2016-2026 significance rings true to me.<\/p>\n Lots of good things happened for me in 2016. I signed the contract for The Path of Paganism<\/em><\/a> \u2013 it would be published in 2017. I made my second visit to Ireland and my first visit to Scotland, which included seeing the Gundestrup Cauldron<\/a> in Edinburgh. I presented at four major Pagan gatherings, including Pantheacon<\/a>. There was a lot of good stuff going on in my local Pagan community, both in public and in private. I performed the Headless Rite \u2013 the impact was significant<\/a>.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t all good. I injured my back \u2013 it would take four years to heal. Some of the private local work I and others started didn\u2019t end the way we hoped. The polytheist movement \u2013 which just a couple years earlier had seemed so promising \u2013 disintegrated into infighting, more over personalities and politics than over theology and practice.<\/p>\n And it didn\u2019t take till the end of the year \u2013 or until November 8 \u2013 to realize that the era of major upheaval some of us had been predicting was already with us<\/a>. In October I wrote a post titled Samhain \u2013 Burning the Old Year<\/a> where I said \u201cit is the turning of the year that interests me most this Samhain, because this year can\u2019t end soon enough.\u201d<\/p>\n So when I see people saying \u201c2026 is the new 2016\u201d my first reaction is \u201cthat\u2019s not really a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n A year is a scientific phenomenon caused by the revolution of the Earth around the Sun, but the numbering of years and especially their start and end dates are arbitrary human creations. While it\u2019s meaningful to mark the end of one year and the beginning of the next, few things actually start and end with the changing of the calendar.<\/p>\n Those of us who warned about Tower Time<\/a> \u2013 whether by that name or by a more generic \u201call this stuff\u201d \u2013 started talking about it around 2010. I was called a fear monger more than once. Byron Ballard \u2013 who coined the term \u201cTower Time\u201d \u2013 expressed sympathy with Cassandra on many occasions.<\/p>\n We weren\u2019t making it up. Part of it was listening to our Gods (especially the Morrigan) and ancestors. Part was paying attention to events in this world and between the worlds.<\/p>\n The midterm election of 2014 was huge. Mitch McConnell and the Republicans took over the Senate, blocked everything Barack Obama tried to do, and began the process of remaking the federal judiciary to their liking. The 2022 Dobbs<\/em> decision eliminating abortion rights \u2013 something the far right had been working on for decades \u2013 flowed directly from the 2014 election.<\/p>\n That election \u2013 and the disastrous election two years later \u2013 flowed from the inability of Obama and the Democratic Congress to substantially improve people\u2019s lives in the previous six years. That in turn flowed from the Great Recession and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan during the Bush administration.<\/p>\n Author Ernest Hemingway had one of his characters explain how he went bankrupt: \u201cgradually, then suddenly.\u201d The same can be said for many of the losses we\u2019re experiencing now.<\/p>\n In the political sphere, 2026 might be not a repeat of 2016 but the inverse of 2014 \u2013 a midterm election that renders Trump ineffective for his final two years. Gerrymandering of the House and the staggered cycle of the Senate make it unlikely we\u2019ll see a blue wave, but Trump is alienating everyone except his base (which remains formidable) so maybe we will.<\/p>\n And given his health, he could be gone at any time. Not that J.D. Vance would be substantially better, but at least Vance isn\u2019t a raving egomaniac.<\/p>\n But I\u2019ll repeat what I\u2019ve said many times since 2016: Trump is the symptom, not the cause. Until we address the structural issues that give people an excuse to vote for white Christian nationalists, and until we change the culture to where people no longer want to buy what they\u2019re selling, this problem will keep coming up over and over again \u2013 as it\u2019s coming up in other countries around the world.<\/p>\n When I look at the Top 10 Posts of 2016<\/a>, I see some real spiritual depth: the Otherworld, deeper practice, the nature of the Gods, and more. When I look at the rest of list after the top 10 (yes, I still have the data) I see a lot more polytheist theology and practice. This was the last big year of the polytheist movement as a popular phenomenon, so I wouldn\u2019t expect to see a repeat of these exact topics in 2026. But as the old saying goes, history doesn\u2019t repeat itself but it often rhymes.<\/p>\n What does spiritual rhyming look like in 2026?<\/p>\n Certainly one major theme is witchcraft. Bad times inspire people to look for ways to improve their situations \u2013 or just to protect themselves \u2013 and witchcraft is one way to do that. There\u2019s plenty of \u201cwitch content\u201d on social media ranging from cosplaying fictional witches to traditional witchcraft to Gardnerian Wicca to the kind of mythological witchcraft and practical magic I practice (what do I mean by \u201cmythological witchcraft and practical magic\u201d? That phrase just popped into my head \u2013 I\u2019m going to have to unpack it in a future post).<\/p>\n Part of it is still devotion. The people who were into polytheism in 2016 because it was the cool new thing are gone, but those of us who have experienced the Gods and have formed relationships with them remain. We\u2019re still saying prayers, making offerings, and listening for their voices. The Morrigan, Odin, Hekate, and Isis are still very active in our world, and Brighid continues to quietly call people to practice hospitality in these inhospitable times. So do others. Those who will listen can hear.<\/p>\n Divination is important. As with witchcraft, people have historically turned to divination to help them in difficult times. Divination can\u2019t tell us what to do, but it can show us what\u2019s coming so we can be prepared for it. My Tarot reading for this year<\/a> was quite positive. I don\u2019t see how that\u2019s going to be, but this is January and lots of things can happen between now and the end of December. Making wise decisions (the Queen of Swords) is always important \u2013 this year even more so.<\/p>\n In 2016 I was making plans to step aside as Coordinating Officer of Denton CUUPS. I had a plan for what I was going to do next, but it didn\u2019t work out the way I expected. The pandemic had a lot to do with that, but so did other factors. In 2026 I\u2019m making plans to retire from my paying job and move out of Texas. I\u2019m not sure if that will happen in 2027, 2028, or when \u2013 I\u2019ll make that decision later this year. I have a general plan for what comes next spiritually, but that\u2019s likely going to be something I have to build as I go.<\/p>\n In 2016 I took an amazing trip to a place I had always wanted to visit. In 2026, I have a trip booked to a place I\u2019ve wanted to visit even more. If you know, please continue to keep silence. If you don\u2019t know, check Facebook and Instagram in late March, or here when I get back in early April.<\/p>\n In 2016 blog traffic took a big jump up and would continue growing through 2020. In 2026 blog traffic is a fraction of what it was then. My goal this year is to experiment with my public Paganism and see what would be best long-term.<\/p>\n In my personal review of 2016, I wrote that despite all the troubles \u201csomething about this year feels right, like I did what I was supposed to do.\u201d 2017 was a very good year for me, even though there was a lot of political and social stress, in large part because I did what I was supposed to do in 2016. I built a foundation for future success.<\/p>\n I\u2019m confident that if I do what I\u2019m supposed to do in 2026 (by my own standards, not by anyone else\u2019s), my 2027 will be even better.<\/p>\n![\"photo](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2020\/05\/Ring-of-Brodgar-2016-06.jpg\")
<\/a>2016: some good, some bad<\/h2>\n
![\"photo](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2026\/01\/Samhain-2016-30.jpg\")
<\/a>The end result of years of action \u2013 and inaction<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2026\/01\/GCG-2016-22.jpg\")
<\/a>A temporary reprieve or long-term change?<\/h2>\n
2016 to 2026 \u2013 spiritual rhyming<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2026\/01\/04-300-Tara.jpg\")
<\/a>Repeating Pagan themes in 2026<\/h2>\n
My own 2016 \u2013 2026 similarities<\/h2>\n
![\"photo](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2019\/08\/JFB-July-2016-782x411.jpg\")
<\/a>