On the 5th Day of Christmas (that’s today, December 29th!)…

“Five golden rings” may now be ringing through your head. And then you may ask, aren’t the 12 Days of Christmas before December 25th? And indeed, no they are not. December 25th starts the first day of Christmas and then each of the days after that until the night before Epiphany (Twelfth Night) make up the 12 days of Christmas. This is a period of time in which some Christians honor a different saint everyday leading up until Epiphany, or Three Kings Day.

The origins of the 12 days of Christmas can be traced back to pre-Christian days, of course. And this where I fell into the rabbit hole of all that is the goddess Frau Holle and her many manifestations throughout time and cultures. But this hasn’t just been a search for knowledge on my part. It’s been a search for meaning-making in what I call a “swampy” time – things are messy, there’s a lot of unknown weeds growing around us, and sometimes we can get a little stuck in the muck. (I haven’t even finished my Christmas shopping, thus my need to extend the holiday into these 12 days!)

But you know what else you find in a swamp?

Out of all that mess and muck one can find the growth of new, extraordinary life. This sets the stage for a kind of spiritual play that can lead us towards a refreshed hope, renewed love, a recentering of peace, and an abundance of joy! These are the “things” we collected in the time before the Winter Solstice and the return of the sun. Now we enter a time of intention, a time to put it all into action, building new ways out of the mysterious and beautiful swamp.

I’m engaging in spiritual play by learning more about the goddess that my way, way back ancestors might have revered during this time. I’m bringing her to life again for myself and my family, hoping to start some healthy new traditions. I’m tired of the last minute Christmas rush that I’m never ready for, especially this year. Two years of a pandemic has been rough on all of us! It’s time for new ways that open us up to joy.

What new things can you open yourself up to? How can you break out of harmful cultural norms and bring life-sustaining ways to this Earth and all her abundance of life?