Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Inclusion, Rest, and Omens: A New Year



The last several days have been a whirlwind of academic writing at my house and then a day of recovery. Since my last blog I have probably spent 30-40 hours of writing, crazy hurried crunch-time writing. Some of it was good and some was painfully wrenched forth and word-smithed into something coherent.

Yesterday, the last year of one of several calendars for which I follow was the last day of the year. The Gregorian Calendar in my personal practice is the calendar of the mundane, of day to day living, of paying the bills and going to work, and of the point at which all comes into manifestation. After-all, all of spirituality comes together into day-to-day living and becomes part of the routine, the mundane, the earthly plane. It only makes sense to me that the last day of a year in such a calendar is a day of rest. So it was.

For the first time in their lives the kids were successful in staying up to witness the threshold between the years. It was a moment in which I was thrown back to my own childhood, to when I was told I was FINALLY big enough to make the great attempt at staying up all the way until midnight. Until then midnight was only some fabled time that happened at night while I was sleeping, full of magick, as evidenced by all the plot points in cartoons involving midnight. It was like a mini-Rite of Passage in which the wee-ones got to celebrate being big. For them it was a celebration of inclusion into the ritual lives of society. They truly could care less about what year it is. The night mattered because they got to be a part of it.

Today I will make collard-greens, to bring green folding money, and hopping John, for luck, as is a tradition in my family, and much of the South; and otherwise celebrate the mundane New Year by doing everyday things, maybe clean a bit of house, read out of a book, or wherever it is that I am led. All I can really say is that I will do so mindfully and with my spiritual and magickal arte engrained into the routine.

This morning I asked our Lady and our Lord to provide an omen for the coming year, not just for me but for all. From the Crane Bag I pulled the following Ogham:


1 Onn (Gorse)- This few indicates the past, which would have been last year. 2012 was a year, for better or worse, dealing with our relationships to others.


2 Ailm (Fir)- This few is the now. It is a moment looking out towards the horizon in awe and wonder with a bit of enthusiasm.


3 Nion “Reversed” (Ash)- This is few a reminder not to be swept up in trying to control all that is external to our being. An attempt to play master to others, events, and anything not of the Self takes the Crown from our heads and they become the ruler over us.

 


May your New Year be blessed!

Boidh se!

-Spanish Moss

“Lost in a thicket bare-foot upon a thorned path.”

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