Once the long night of the solstice has commenced, it’s appropriate to quietly reflect on the year past and to anticipate the year ahead, not just for a moment, but for the full 12 days of Christmas, which begin with the birth of inner light on Christmas Eve, at midnight.
In this kind of practice, the 12 Days of Christmas are likened to the 12 months of the year and the 12 constellations of the zodiac through which the Sun, Moon, and planets move in their annual course. Looking back with memory through the year this way is like sprinkling germinating forces into one’s biography. The shining seeds that are left over from experiences we’ve had light up with our attention, potentially giving new meaning to all that has happened.
On Christmas Eve, the waning crescent Moon will move past the star Spica, the star of abundance in Virgo. Virgo is often depicted as the pregnant Virgin, she who gives birth in the first holy night of Christmas. She has long been associated with the harvest, which is a beautiful support for contemplating experience that ripened in the last 12 months.
This is the stuff of imagination and is best supported by fairy tale. I recommend Eros and Fable from the German mystic poet Novalis:
The long night had just commenced.
The aged Hero struck his shield so that it sounded far and wide through the empty city streets. Three times he did the same, signalling: at which the lofty stained glass windows of the palace began to brighten from within, and the figures on them moved.
Their movements quickened as the fiery light grew in strength and spread…
