This is an edited post from January 7th, 2014. I’ve deepened my understanding of the Twelve Holy Nights. May you find value in this exploration of an age-old spiritual tradition.

Happy Solstice from our family to yours!

Lights of Intention

It’s winter for real, now. The light may be returning after Solstice, but for most of us the air is cold and it’s more comfortable indoors. Or maybe under the covers.

Solstice, December 21st, marks the moment in the northern hemisphere when the day is shortest, the longest night. The tightest contraction, if you will. There’s a span of time where things stop. The days aren’t immediately longer. There’s a resting. When early Christians chose the 25th of December as the birthday of the Christ, they did so for a reason. This is when we begin to experience movement again, just the inkling of expansion. The Sun appears again.

Those first 12 days of expansion beginning on the 25th are times when you can experience the coming energy of the year. What will come into your life? What intentions will you set? The 12 Holy Nights are a time when God or the Universe or the Holy Spirit or your Higher Power, whatever words resonate for you, can be heard in the quiet. Some traditions say the 12th day, January 6th, is when the Magi visited the baby Jesus. When Yeshuah was baptized. When the Sun became known to the conscious mind.

Some say the Earth Mother has been inhaling, pressure increasing – the contraction I wrote about above. She has completed her in-breath, and these 12 days are the resting point before she begins her long out-breath. In this stillness angels circle the earth and want nothing more than you tell you what they know. Are you ready to listen?

When meditating using a focus on the breath, it can be valuable to pay attention to that moment at the top or bottom of the breath. There’s a kind of gap there, a still moment. It’s a moment when people often get lost. We forget what we were intending toward. One of my teachers recommends pausing at the top of the breath with great intention and saying a silent prayer.

This is how authentic New Year’s Intentions can come – from your Highest Self speaking to you about your next steps in life. It’s not something you want to miss in the distractions that often come our way at this time. If you are celebrating a bit of time off work, or are traveling to visit friends and family, make sure you take moments to tune in. Make it a priority.

I plan to end each night with a prayer for insight into my coming year. I’ll record any dreams I remember during the night, or in the morning. I’ve read that each of the 12 days represents a month in the chronology of the year. So, the night of the 24th may bring insight into January of 2015. The 25th, into February. And, so on.

What if your New Year Intention setting were to come from a place of listening, rather than thinking you have to make something happen? What if you were receiving your year, your next steps in life?

What is life asking of you? Can you hear her? Do you make the space for listening?

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 21st, 2017 at 10:51 pm and is filed under Life on Life's Terms, Meditation, Seasonal Change, Spiritual Practice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.