time out of time

I like to take the twelve days of Christmas, from December 25th to January 6th as a reflective time to review one month every day, in my personal journals, blogs and other diaries and log files. I even sometimes scan over my saved emails from the period. It takes me back into reflection over the year, which is much needed, as an attempt to rediscover what successes and accomplishments I managed to make.

I’ve always been curious about the Twelve Days of Christmas which end on January 6th with Twelfth Night. Supposedly each of the twelve days predicts what the weather will be like for the corresponding month of the year (that is, the first day foreshadows the weather in January, etc.). In Wales, they were considered ‘omen’ days. In Scotland, no court had power during the twelve days. The Irish believed that anyone who died during these days escaped purgatory and went straight to Heaven.

According to Germanic tradition, the goddess Holle, dressed all in white, rides the wind in a wagon on the Twelve Days of Christmas. During this time, no wheels can turn: no spinning, no milling, no wagons (sleighs were used instead).

According to Waverly Fitzgerald of School of the Seasons website, "Helen Farias suggests that the 12 days were originally 13 nights, celebrated from the dark moon nearest the solstice through the next full moon (Jan 1, New Year's Day). It seems clear that this is a magical period, a time out of time, whatever dates you choose. It is a special time, existing outside of the usual rules, when work is forbidden and all routines should be turned upside down."

I love this idea of a 'time out of time' taken to reassess where you are in your personal journey. It is a wonderful time to consult the Wise Ancient Ones, or if you don't go for that sort of thing, to talk to your elders, your parents, your clan matriarchs and patriarchs. Get some outside perspective. Get some wisdom. I don't have parents with that kind of insight, so I seek it from higher and deeper sources. I go to my Ancestors and my Guides.

I've spent the past six months reading in the library about psychic ability, dream interpretation, divination, empathy, bardic ability, Celtic Revivalism, Druidism, Wicca, mythology and comparative religion. Most of all I recommitted to the practice of Astrology. I feel like Astrology is a big river that we go down and how you choose to navigate it, or paddle with or against it, is up to you. But you can either work with the flow of All-That-Is, or you can be oblivious to it and find yourself dashed on the rocks constantly as a result. After handling my Saturn return poorly, I found myself crawling back into my river raft, soggy and spent, and recommitting to my intuition and impulses. This year was my commitment to a higher calling, a higher purpose than fame and fortune.

There is a great legacy that I want to be a part of and it has been here since the beginning, and once we walked with it for milennia. I want to be part of that legacy and I want to sign on with others who are walking with it already. Better to be late to the party than not go at all. And during these twelve days of Christmas it is easier to reach the Wise Ones and find the pulse of life than at other times of the year.

This year in particular I want to pay attention to details, and take the incremental steps, going both inward and outward, as I move into the New Year of the second decade of the twenty first century.