I was in the car with my son, explaining that tomorrow the number on the calendar year will change.
“Is tomorrow Spring?” he asks.
“No —” I smile, obviously pleased.
“Then how is it new?”
I was delighted. Children are in touch with the ebb of nature; he articulated when the sprouting of new life will come to pass and I do everything I can to keep him in touch with that innate rhythm.
I also love the collective liminal space of this time, the pause and disorientation of linearity that suspends us and asks us of what we want to experience, to feel and to create this upcoming year?
What do you want to feel this year?
I’ve spent this year in the midst of contemplating the 13 Holy Nights as articulated by Rudolf Steiner, spending each evening looking backwards at the snippet of time. Let me pause to explain. Each night correlates with a span of astrological time. So the first night, as I have learned it, is Aries. You look back at your calendar and see what was transpiring for you in March 21 - April 19th, basing on a Western Chart orientation, and see themes. Each year I do this, I see more and more themes during the year’s rhythm. It helps, because I can harness certain phases and relax into others as I contemplate the year to come. Between Christmas Eve night to the Epiphany of January 6th, each night I look inward and onward to what seeds to plant and nourish for the year to come. Of course, I also have to meet the demands of the world. It’s a both and. Not an either or.
Another gift of looking over the last year has given me is an appreciation of what I have done and learned as opposed to only and ever looking for more and forward. I think this especially helps with stubborn areas in our lives where we may feel like it wasn't happening fast enough or as we wanted, but in reality we needed a larger context. Subtleties needed to unfurl and untangle before we could create anew.
If you are looking to make changes this upcoming year, January often offers a beautiful quiet for clearing and correlating to move on. Many lunar based traditions see the first New Moon after the Spring Solstice, which for the U.S. would be March 21st. Something to consider — or notice as the months peel along. I often start my live, online class for women, Sit in Your Center, in accordance with the halfway point between winter and spring equinox. It’s when we are itching to move onward, in February the soil ever so slightly begin to warm in preparation for Spring. It’s a time presided over by St. Brighid as well, whom I have a great affinity for. These considerations help us join nature’s tempo and create room for collaboration with the world around us.
I don’t see contradictions in tending to nature’s rhythms while also celebrating the modern cultural holidays. Rather, I see a constellation of connection with ancestry and modern times. Again, a both and. I had this theme of connectivity mirrored back to me as I read Dani Shapiro’s Signal Fires. A delightful read about lives and the golden threads that connect us. I talk about on the podcast :
This year, I am releasing the bounds on what is possible. Why settle for what has been? Make some space for magic and the possibility that the very thing you find delightful and easy is the magical medicine the world needs right now.
Better is not always more, it’s enough.
May your year delight you, hold your heart, and carry you closer to the brilliance you already are,
Kate
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