What are the 13 Holy Nights?
Creativity & Contemplation
Have you ever heard that the nights after Christmas are contemplations of the year ahead? 13 of them to be exact.
Were you ever on that email chain that went around years ago where you prepare for angels to visit your house? Then you send them to another home. The email detailed a practice of welcoming the angels, setting intentions and then preparing their way to the next household.
It was fun. I don’t think I thought much more than that.
But when you start reading the mystics over antiquity, you might pause and wonder.
I happened onto the 13 nights, or they happened on to me about 4 years ago. I already was appreciating and reading Rudolph Steiner, as long-time subscribers here know, and an IG creator names Hanna Williams shared something on the practices of the 13 Nights. I gave it a whirl, and was astonished.
What is it?
It is practice starting on December 24th, being the first Holy Night and culminates on the Epiphany January 6th. Each night you contemplate one of the planetary energies, that correlates to the time span of the calendar year. You dream and draw about it, gaining clarities of your personal insights and growth —within the 13 Nights, you have a contemplation for the year ahead — in this case, 2025.
It is a lovely and profound practice, and I am going to share it here. To be clear, I am not a trained Waldorf teacher, so I will cite all my sources, but I am open to answer questions and help you start your journey.
Why do it?
So often in my life, I’ve felt like the week between Christmas and the turn of the year, was like time out of time. Then I found an invitation to harness within an invitation of contemplation for the year, to tap into that time out of time experience. What I have gained, is a building of my internal world and budding recognition of patterns for the year: a process to notice when the energy ebbs and flows for myself. It’s not that the practices indicate this, it’s that I can see my own handwriting and questioning of the same questions and their evolutions year to year. It’s been golden for me.
I have often thought and rethought this writing space and what it is serving. I keep coming back to the power of the word to inspire and reveal. To hear one’s own clarity. This is what Sit & Write is for.
To that end, I invite you to consider becoming a subscriber. I suspect this year will invite many of us to create with authentic words and be the light in times of transformation. When we know our why, and trust our purpose, the path appears. For you and for me.
I will share here in a bit more on the contemplations of the 13 Holy Nights.
✍️ What you will need: For now, grab yourself:
A new journal, one that you can draw or paint in (do not opt out because of that, lean in friend).
Something to draw with: I used these beeswax crayons — we do not have to be fancy to be artists, we just need to be curious and open.
More soon,
Kate
