January | Little Rituals
and omens of hope
Good morning! Happy (Gregorian) New Year to you! Whether you celebrate Christmas, the Solstice, or something else, I hope you are well, fulfilled, and looking forward to another circuit around the sun.
The 6th of January is Women’s Christmas in Ireland, and it feels appropriate to be writing to you on this particular day. Traditionally, the men take on all domestic and caring duties whilst the women take a day off and gather to party in the evening. Personally, I have dedicated this day to holding a vigil for fredom and peace in Palestine and the Ukraine. Feel free to join me, if you want. That does not mean I am free to focus solely on prayer; my husband will be out refereeing a youth rugby game this morning, so I will be at home with Carys. The movement of my body and the performace of neccessary tasks does not, however, prevent the concentration of the mind. I’ll do my best.
The 6th of January is also Epiphany in the Christian calendar, when the three wise men came to Jesus and offered their gifts, and is still celebrated as the main focus of Christmas in some countries. This year, in a symbolic act, Ukraine officially moved their Christmas clelebrations from Epiphany to December 25th in a deliberate disassociation from Russia, and to bring them into line with the rest of Europe.
Epiphany marks the end of the twelve days of Christmas, the day when we are supposed to take down our decorations. They are intercalary days, in that they fall between the lunar and solar reckinings of time. That indicates they are liminal days, neither one thing or the other yet belonging to both. As you know, it is in the liminal spaces that magic and the divine can happen.
Three years ago, Laura Murphy (@EveRose on Instagram) began observing these days as Omen Days, in which signs received on each day correspond with the months to come; observations on the 26th December, the first omen day, relate to the first month of the (new) year, and so on. I have come to respect Laura’s wisdom over the years, and was fascinated by her Omen Day journey. This year, the practice seems to have proliferated, with women everywhere sharing their omen day experiences on social media. In the past, I have always felt something of a disconnect during these last days of the old year. Now I feel they have a purpose. Today, on the last omen day, I received a word in a dream, a word which repeated endlessly throughout the dream, and also in my mind upon awakening. I look forward to discovering what significance this word has next December. Do you follow the omen days?
I am not a believer in New Year Resolutions. It seems they inevitably set us up for failure, and then make us feel terrible for the rest of the year. No one likes to feel inadequate, so why do we do this to ourselves over and over again? You know the saying that to repeat things endlessly and expect different results is a sign of madness? This.
But having goals, realistic goals, that are not tied to a particular point in time, is a good thing. If we didn’t have something to strive for, how would we ever achieve anything? Life, nature, seasons, and even time itself, are an ongoing cycle of endings and beginnings. New beginnings can be made at any time that feels right to you, not just in January. Let’s not put undue pressure on ourselves; there’s enough of that circulating around us already. It holds us back when we need to flow; water flows around its obstacles and moves on, or finds its way to remove them. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to be more like water.
Another feature of this time of year is the annual reviews of the previous year, such as ‘here’s what I achieved/ wrote about on my blog last year’, and the long lists of ‘best of’ posts, such as ‘the best books I read/ movies I watched/ etc last year’. I find it quite tedious, to be honest, and I won’t be subjecting you to any of that here on H A G. You’ve been with me every step of the year, opening and reading my newsletters, and sometimes sharing your thoughts and experiences, so you already know. There are over 3600 of you out there, believe it or not; that’s quite a community we have going, and I am humbled and grateful for you being here.
Gratitude is something I do want to write about. Some years ago, I had the most incredible year on a personal level when I worked through The Magic by Rhonda Byrne. Some terrible things happened too, don’t get me wrong, that’s all part of the ups and downs of life. But routinely practising gratitude on a daily basis as an active meaningful way of life changed me; it made me feel happier and helped me become a more positive person. I was able to let go when I needed to. I stopped punishing myself. And those deep down things I wanted to achieve but thought I never could… well, I did. It was wonderful to think that this was how life could feel all the time.
I thought then that gratitude had become entrenched, but I am by nature the archetypal old bag lady, whose luggage on occasion weighs me down and drags me from my path. Last year, my ‘luggage’ included menopause symptoms, the two wars, and the failure that was COP 28, all things beyond my control. You might even say the last three are not mine to carry, but I believe we all have some responsibility towards our fellow humans and the planet. Anyway, all this to say my gratitude practice faltered almost to a stop.
Observing the omen days distracted me from the extra baggage I was carrying, though, and made me see more clearly what I was, and wasn’t, doing. I know that Gratitude works, and that the universe responds. I need to make a conscious effort at revival, and to continue building a more grateful, meaningful life, and so I will be revisiting Rhonda’s work of wonder. Have you read it?
Part of that journey is to have and hold hope. I have never felt the benefit of ritual; it always seems more meaningful to others, and is lost on me, perhaps because when I think of ritual, I tend to think of the grand and seemingly empty gestures of church. But of late, I have found myself creating little rituals, personal rituals, and they have all gravitated around the concept of hope. For example, whenever I sit down in my writing room to write, I first touch the little clay Orkney Venus figure (made by @potted history on Instagram) that sits on my wall and ask for Imbas (poetic inspiration); every day, I light my candle for peace and freedom in Ukraine and Palestine. Those little rituals hold meaning for me, they make me feel good. And I have found little signs of hope everywhere, particularly with regard to climate change, when after the disaster of COP 28, the future of the planet seemed so bleak. What little rituals have you implemented that hold particular meaning for you?
As I have been writing, darkness has given way to light, and revealed a glorious blue sky for the second day in a row, a rarity here. The sun has just tipped the trees in my garden, the ground still in shadow and veiled in frost. Already, the birds are busy at the feeder; a magpie flies over to inspect the activity, then flies off as if to say ‘nothing worth my while here’. It’s another beautiful day, and that’s something to be grateful for. Love, peace, and a blessed year to you all.
Thank you Ali. Really gorgeous nourishing words . Happy Nollaig na MBán 🔻🙏🏻
I love all these photos!