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Exploring Myth, Divination and the Western Mysteries.

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Tuesday 24 December 2013

The Omen Days: The Twelve Days of Christmas

Christmas Eve has come and now I can truly rest. Every year we try to have the Twelve Days of Christmas as a complete holiday, though a copy editor came near to spoiling that this afternoon by giving me work ‘to be handed in on 6th January.’ I’m afraid I just turned it round very quickly, completely unwilling to extenuate a piece of rewriting through my precious quiet time. 

As we approach the next few quiet days from work, this is a good time to refresh how we can really prepare for the year ahead of us through the medium of the Twelve Days of Christmas, which in this household are well kept. 

In the medieval liturgical calendar, the festival of Christmas Day stood alone by itself as a supreme holy day, and so the counting of the twelve days began from 26 December which is the 1st day of Christmas until the 6th January which is Twelfth Night, or the 12th day of Christmas.  What has this got to do with anything?

Well, in Brittany and in Wales, the Twelve Days of Christmas, which mark the intercalary days of the year, are called ‘the Omen Days,’ and they have a special purpose. ‘Intercalary days’ are really the days left over from reckoning up the solar year and, in calendars throughout the world and at different times, they are special because they are considered to be ‘the days out of time.’  It is in this interval between the ordinary count of days that gods are born or conceived in many different mythologies, including the Irish one, where Oengus Og, Young Angus, is conceived, grown and born at Brúg na Boinne within this time, all in one day, by the magical workings of the Dagda.

Brúg na Boinne

Within these twelve days lies a wonderful secret that those dismissive of the Christian tradition might well miss, for each of the twelve days is assigned to a month of the coming year, with the first day of Christmas the 26th December as symbolic of January, the second day or 27th December representing February and so on, right through to 6th January which represents the December yet to come.  It was the custom of many to go out on each day of the Christmas festival to observe the signs in nature and divine from them the state of the year to come. The omens experienced on each of the Omen Days indicate the nature of each month in the coming year.

The divining of oracles from nature has a long tradition in Celtic lore.  The Scots Gaelic tradition of the frith or the augury from the signs of nature is well established. The listening to bird’s calling was a critical part of druidic lore, as was the movement and behaviour of other animals.  Some of these auguries have come down to us, like the little white book of meanings in a tarot pack: some people used them, but others did not.  The real skill is to read the signs in accordance with your understanding at the time, and as it relates to the question that provoked the augury in the first place.  I’ve been teaching this skill for over 25 years and not yet found anyone who couldn’t do it, as long as they first asked a well-framed question.

                                        Omen in the Sand, Bay of Scail, Orkney

In this case, you treat each day of Christmas as the opportunity for an augury for the month it represents in coming year.  This might be experienced during a daily walk, or perceived in the nature of the day itself and how it falls out. Personally, I like to make a frame for each Omen Day, by asking to be shown an augury from nature and allowing the next thing I experience, see or hear to be the sign I am expecting.  It helps to find the right place to do this on a walk, to close your eyes, to spin around on the spot and then be attentive.

Many of my students have been doing this for a while and last year I shared it with an online group of Lenormand Card readers, who are now using the Omen Days to divine for the year ahead, choosing one or more cards each day to discover the nature of the months of the year.  There is no right way to do this, only by the unique interaction you have between the world that is seen and the world that is unseen, but just as real.

That the Twelve Days of Christmas have kept their assured place at the heart of Celtic divination is one of those wonderful instances of double-decker belief that are scattered throughout folk tradition worldwide. The Russians have a good word for this kind of thing, naming it dvoverie  or ‘double-belonging,’ a word originally coined to cover those who had an earlier belief running alongside a later one.  Wherever a newer tradition has come into a country, the older one doesn’t just die or go away, but becomes fused with the newer one, so that the traditional continuity can be enjoyed by us all.

Whatever your beliefs, the Omen Days continue to offer the opportunity to understand the year ahead so, forget the ‘year’s round up of news’ and the ‘look-back specials’ on the tv this Christmas and look ahead to a year full of promise!

I wish you and yours joy, health, love and peace! 


The Green & Burning Tree from 
Celtic Book of the Dead by Caitlín Matthews, 
art by Danuta Meyer


Caitlín will be teaching Celtic methods of divination from nature on 15-16 February 2014 Celtic Visions: Seership, Omens and Divination from Nature  This non-residential course explores the realm of Celtic divination and vision that was once the preserve of the druidic seers of the Celtic world who used subtle perception to reveal nature's truth and the soul’s knowledge.  Caitlín has made a special study of the oracular and sacred traditions, finding simple, practical ways by which these methods can illuminate the present moment. Participants will learn how to read the omens of the natural world, using traditional seership methods, including 'the Three Illuminations' - ancient Irish modes of oracular divination by incantation, resonance and shamanic incubation - and 'the Augury of Brighid' which was employed by the ancestral freers of Gaelic Scotland.  There will be opportunities to give and receive oracles and auguries, by means of the dha shealladh or 'the two seeings' and by other traditional methods.
Participants need to bring a wooden staff or wand, OR a small smooth stone, a covering for their eyes, and a small personal object which should be one whose history is known to them and that they don't mind other people handling – it will return home with them. NOTE: we will be spending short periods outside regardless of weather.
Fee: £175, send £75 deposit payable to the Clophill Centre, or directly into the account of Richard Diss, sort code 09.01.28 a/c 40762541 Enquiries to Clophill Centre, Shefford Road, Clophill, Beds. MK45 4BT. richarddiss1950@tiscali.co.uk or 01525 862278

If you can’t come, then this course generated a book on Celtic seership called, Celtic Visions: Omens, Dreams and Spirits of the Otherworld is available from her at www.hallowquest.org.uk or from all the usual sources.

25 comments:

  1. Lovely post, Caitlin! I've admired your work for years and hope to meet you one day, dear sister from the East!

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  2. Thank you for posting this again. I never knew this but always had a feeling that they were days out of time when I was a child. Now I can reclaim this belief. Thank you Caitlin xxx

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  3. Thank you for posting this again. I never knew this but always had a feeling that they were days out of time when I was a child. Now I can reclaim this belief. Thank you Caitlin xxx

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  4. Cailin, I love this! I'm curious: which Irish texts discuss divination? Is this information to be found in the Brehon laws? Or is the source material for your teachings to be found in the late medieval texts, like the Yellow book of Lecan? I'd love to read the source material.

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  5. Caítlin, thank you! I have been doing this for the first time, asking both for the nature of the month and for an augury. I find it gets a little harder each day- maybe because the months to connect to are further in the future? Is that a common experience? Much love to you.

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  6. Leviticus 19:26
    “...You shall not interpret omens or tell fortunes."
    Leviticus 19:31
    “Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God."

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    Replies
    1. Me thinks you sinned by seeking this out

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    2. It is a sin to be here, yet here you are, not only partaking, but attempting to start a brawl. Go off and mind your business. You might want to start adhering to your own beliefs and leave others in peace. Christ did not preach war mongering.

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    3. Misery, spreading fear and distrust

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  7. I do not understand why Unknown would attempt the practice of taking omens during the twelve days of Christmas and then post the biblical condemnation of such practices? Are they worried about some retribution falling on them for practicing a method of interpreting omens? Or have they decided taking omens is bad and they are preaching against it now? What is the point? --- niniann

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  8. This is such a blessing - thank you! I am observing the Omen Days for the second year running. I appreciate this practice, its roots, and its 'messages'.

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  9. Interesting and amazing how your post is! It Is Useful and helpful for me That I like it very much, and I am looking forward to Hearing from your next..
    http://www.miraclepianist.com/12-days-of-christmas/

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  10. Hi, I find reading this article a joy. It is extremely helpful and interesting and very much looking forward to reading more of your work..
    miraclepianist

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  11. Lovely Post much appreciated thank you Cheryl carey

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  12. So interesting! Thank you. 🙂. I'm a newbie that is excited to try this.. Warm vibes to you..

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  13. Grateful to be seeing this for the first time this morning, 25 Dec 2020. It's been a year like no other. At times, I've felt my future being stolen from me by the virulence of Covid. Though my physical health is robust, I'm hard pressed to imagine a time to come as much different from this terrifying present. I anticipate taking Nature's hand in trust and excitement through the Omen Days via 'the silver apples of the moon, the golden apples of the sun.' Thank you, Caitlin, for offering this way this day.

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  14. Interesting article. Well yesterday, 26th, I spent doing a bit of planning, then went on to do some work on my own website. Then, at the end of the day, my webserver crashed just after I'd taken a backup of my website. Hmm. I wonder.

    Today is 27th. I've had a pretty chilled day, so far. Still in my PJs at 2:15pm. I've done a bit of Italian learning and scrolling through Facebook. And I've also tried to get some prices for my planned trip to Europe (March 2021) with no success, as nobody wants to let us Brits in at the moment, because our government is spouting on about some imaginary new strain of the imaginary COVID thing.

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    Replies
    1. Your numbers are off the scale. Please don’t come to Ireland either.

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  15. Thank you for these insights and this evocative post! I would like to quote some of it on my own blog, www.annesbirdpoems.blogspot.com. This part: "... in Brittany and in Wales, the Twelve Days of Christmas, which mark the intercalary days of the year, are called ‘the Omen Days,’ and they have a special purpose. ‘Intercalary days’ are really the days left over from reckoning up the solar year and, in calendars throughout the world and at different times, they are special because they are considered to be ‘the days out of time.’ It is in this interval between the ordinary count of days that gods are born or conceived in many different mythologies, including the Irish one, where Oengus Og, Young Angus, is conceived, grown and born at Brúg na Boinne within this time, all in one day, by the magical workings of the Dagda.


    Brúg na Boinne

    Within these twelve days lies a wonderful secret that those dismissive of the Christian tradition might well miss, for each of the twelve days is assigned to a month of the coming year, with the first day of Christmas the 26th December as symbolic of January, the second day or 27th December representing February and so on, right through to 6th January which represents the December yet to come. It was the custom of many to go out on each day of the Christmas festival to observe the signs in nature and divine from them the state of the year to come. The omens experienced on each of the Omen Days indicate the nature of each month in the coming year."

    Please let me know if this is ok. I will quote and credit you.

    Anne

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  16. Enjoying. Thank you. Still remember coming to you for journeying sessions and you exploding that imagination was what it is/was what it is all about. Your words still ring in my ears and rest in my heart and head. ..

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  17. Also John's, especially about Taliesin. You were/are one of my Ceridwens!

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  18. This post just came across my FB feed yesterday. Perhaps it was for the first time, but who knows :)
    I had the intention of trying it and almost forgot this morning until the fox turned up in the fog across the cow field. If our dogs didn't alert me to the visitor, I would have missed it completely.

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