I don’t remember growing up with any specific Christmas customs. There was the year dad drove mom and the three of us kids, all under the age of 9, from the farm to an AA Christmas party in town. This was long before car seats and seat belts. Mom held the cake on the floor between her feet and my toddler brother on her lap. After dad was ticketed for drunk driving when he rammed into the stopped car in front of us, flinging my older sister and me into the back of the front seat, mom wasn’t up for partying. Dad turned around and drove home. He died the next year in a farming accident, and traditions went south after that, with mom stopping after work at our small town’s only drug store on Christmas Eve to pick through what no one else wanted. One year it was a manicure kit. The next day, when friends asked that dreaded question, “What did you get for Christmas?” I listed its contents individually, beginning with: “Three bottles of nail polish…” and quickly redirected the conversation to, “And what did you get?”

I wanted to do better for my own children—true, the bar was pretty low.

My parenting books said family customs were important. I bought a book on traditions and sought easy Christmas ones, other than the tree. The authors suggested Lighting Advent candles. As a family we were living in Peshawar, Pakistan, working with Afghan refugee repatriation the first year I did the Advent candles and before Internet existed. My book pictured a DIY Advent wreath shaped out of wire, encircling four apples with four candles. The instructions said to partially core the apples to hold the candles. Wire, apples, and candles were easily obtained in Peshawar. I can do this. 

Two days into the first week and the apples began rotting, each candle following its own tilt trajectory, candle number one now a looming fire hazard and dripping wax. Not to be beaten by rotting apples, I melted wax into each hollowed apple to hold the candle. The rot only grew in size, with greater slopes. I poured in more wax. Yes, I could have replaced the apples, but we’re talking moral philosophy here: I’m rotting apples to share the Christ story with my sons while refugees beg for food on the streets.

And I always struggled with the whole Santa/Jesus thing. We lie about Santa, but yet let’s sing about God’s birthday and celebrate that because that is real. And I discovered years later that the latter also is an untruth. Theologians agree that no one knows what year or date Jesus was actually born. Pope Julius 1 in the 4^th Century officially designated December 25 as Jesus’ birthday in order to Christianize the Pagan festivities already occurring around the Winter Solstice, OR the god Saturnalia, OR Mithra’s birthday the Iranian god of Light, OR the unconquered sun god of the Romans Sol Invictus, OR Egypt’s god Ra—take your pick. Because of these roots in paganism, the Puritans outlawed all things Christmas in Boston in 1659. 

Ignoring Julius’ papal injunction, today’s conservative Christians claim the season as their own. Steeped in conspicuous consumption, they angrily protest against a supposed war on Christmas because Starbucks changed its holiday cups to solid red. They’d do better to celebrate the Christ as a symbol of light.

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don’t go back to sleep. Persian poet Rumi

Over the years I’ve kept my “Bah! Humbug!” message mostly to myself. After all, I reasoned, many people find so much joy in this season (and many do not)—there must be something to it. My two adult sons and their families have great fun with all of it—the food, the ugly sweaters, the decorations. My father-in-law grew up with the extreme deprivations of the Great Depression of the 1930s, so my husband wasn’t too much help in the tradition department, but he now creates his own magic for the family with paper airplane throwing contests and races with windup toy cars, wearing funky holiday clothes. And I do sit mesmerized by Christmas tree lights on a darkened evening—as long as they aren’t musical nor manically blinking. 

A couple of months ago a Christmas mug at a thrift shop caught my eye. It’s the ubiquitous red, but the handle is an elf dressed in green, peering over the edge into the inside of the cup. I carry the Irish gene for pointy ears, so I’m partial to elfishness. This gene supposedly skips a generation, and my granddaughter shares this family trait.  

Spotting that mug, I felt the joy that propelled Carol Kane’s character as the Ghost of Christmas Present in Bill Murray’s “Scrooged.” She flits around—“A Christmas party! I’m so glad I wore my pretty dress!”—her fairy wings smacking Murray, who plays the part of a contemporary Scrooge. Deciding not to overthink my intuitive reaction to this mug and being mindful of my body’s energetic response, I bought it. 

This year I determined to put to rest my conflicted Christmas judgements. I wanted to look at those, to see if I could find a way through them and a way forward that would bring a measure of peace. I sat mindfully in my darkened office one early morning during sunrise, another liminal space, the wood stove warming the room. I sat contemplatively with those symbols that evoked something within me, that stirred an energetic/emotional response. Kermit’s magic. Carol Kane’s effervescence. My elf mug holding my morning coffee. I thought about the significance that this time of year holds for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere as evidenced through our holidays: Hanukah, with its eight candles; Kwanzaa with its seven principles, Christmas, Zoroastrianism, the New Year. Long before the birth of Christ, our northern ancestors brought evergreen branches into their homes for spiritual protection. 

And I thought about the winter solstice, with its shortest day and longest night and the promise of the light to return.  And back to liminality: that space between dark and night, the threshold between one cycle of time and another, one year and another. Maybe a wormhole does exist there, maybe there is a thin space there, a portal between universes, a crack, between the spiritual and physical worlds at this longest night and shortest day. I felt myself drawn to that fissure.

Maybe there is a crackling and sparkly energy in that liminal space, that crack in the world.

All through our history, humanity has evoked magic to explain the unexplainable. As science has revealed more and more of our natural world to us, magic no longer explains an eclipse of the sun or moon, or a comet streaking across the sky, or two planets coming close to each other looking like a bright star. 

Maybe there is a crackling and sparkly energy in that liminal space, that crack in the world. Maybe that’s what Kermit felt. Maybe magic is still the best word to describe that fissure, that convergence of light and dark, until humanity evolves enough to experience that energy. Maybe we do feel it but reject anything that doesn’t resonate with our physical senses. We respond to it in the only way we can: by physicality. We shape traditions and belief systems to capture this energy. We feel the need to go inward, to hibernate, to cook thick soups served with warm, crusty bread; of hot apple cider steeped with cinnamon, cloves, and anise; of hot chocolate with whipped cream sprinkled with peppermint flakes—or whatever food brings with it that sense of comfort.

We also simultaneously move outward, to create moments of love and caring, not only for family and friends but also for strangers, and thus we move into the light. 

Belief partners with science and math

Later I watched Netflix’s 2020 holiday movie, “Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey.” Its Victorian protagonist, played by Forest Whitaker, along with his daughter and granddaughter are inventors. Mathematics and science equations float across the screen. But the script writer throws in some implications of quantum mechanics: belief partners with those equations—and these inventors create an observer-influenced reality. “The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend,” wrote Canadian novelist Robertson Davis.  

Summarizing, many holidays coalesce around the Winter Solstice, that time of year marking the pivot point of the longest night and shortest day. Maybe the mystics among the spiritual sensed some crackling in the air; they didn’t have the distractions of us moderns with social media and television before that. We get caught up in the frenzy of the season and our own traditions—religious or otherwise—doing what we believe will create that magic and then are disappointed when it fails. Maybe what we need to do instead, without abandoning our traditions, is to sit mindfully with what already exists around the Winter Solstice, remembering that humanity’s trappings around this fissure are secondary ways to capture this magic. Maybe we don’t need to do much of anything, but stay present to this place of liminality and experience what is already there.

Sometimes grief hits me and I wonder what it would have been like to have had a more “normal” childhood. I felt it watching “Jingle Jangle,” and then a wise woman tells our protagonist: “But the magic isn’t just in what you lost. It’s in what you still have.” 

So true. And I have so much to be grateful for—and that’s where I turn my focus.

About the Author: Rev. Mary Coday Edwards is a Spiritual Growth Facilitator and People House Minister. A life-long student of spirituality, Mary spent almost 20 years living, working, and sojourning abroad in Asia, Southeast Asia, East Africa, and Latin America before finding her spiritual connection at People House and completing its Ministerial Program. Past studies include postgraduate studies from the University of South Africa in Theological Ethics/Ecological Justice, focusing on the spiritual and physical interconnectedness of all things. With her MA in Environmental Studies from Boston University, abroad she worked and wrote on environmental sustainability issues at both global and local levels, in addition to working in refugee repatriation.

I would wager the vast majority of people these days probably don’t consider much of a spiritual element in the way that they care for their dwelling space, save, perhaps, for a yoga or meditation corner. The closest iteration of ritual for some people is likely in the way they decorate, or even the regularity with which they clean their homes. 

As a person who is drawn to the art of subtle energies (intuition, psychic experiences, empathic feelings, etc.), I was very intrigued to come across The House Witch by Arin Murphy-Hiscock just days before our move. In all my studies of magic, alternative healing, and the like, the most I’ve ever come across about “hearthcraft,” if you will, can be generally summed up by the following statement:

“It’s important to take care of the energy in your space.”

There often isn’t much more to it, so in the past I’ve done a few things here and there, but mostly ignored the energy in my home because, save for a neglected altar and a periodic smoke cleansing, I didn’t know what else to do. 

It is not a new concept to make the home a sacred space, but it is, I believe, in this period of collective upheaval and uncertainty, a better time than most to start trying. Cultivating helpful, loving energy in your home can be as simple or as formal (I’m looking at you, Capricorn!) as you’d like to make it. One of the most beneficial aspects of cultivating magic, chi, or energy in your home is that this spruced-up vibration then flows into other areas of your life. If this seems like a foreign concept, consider this:

Many of the principles of home and hearth magic share their ethos with Buddhist and mindfulness-based practices. 

In a nutshell, cultivating the energy in your home can be done by focusing in the following key areas, which have been paraphrased and expanded from The House Witch:

1. Learning to be present. This can be especially helpful in moments when we feel tired or rushed, such as trying to get dressed to get out the door, or sluggishly putting together a meal at the end of a long day. Focusing on the task at hand rather than what has happened in the past or the future helps to calm the mind and as such, the environment around you.
2. Creating intention. Even the smallest task, such as seasoning food or washing dishes, becomes an elevated experience when the intention is made to do it just so. This is not about micromanaging, but about creating awareness around why you are doing something, rather than just zoning out or seeing it as something to get through. With intention we harness the energy to nurture ourselves and our space.
3. Clearly direct your energy. Somewhat of an extension of creating intention, directing your energy means using your focus to pinpoint where you want your energy to go and what you want the outcome to be. When we are less mindful, especially when we are tired or rushed, we lose a lot of valuable energy simply because we are not creating clear intention and direction with our tasks. 
4. Hocus, focus. Pick one thing at a time to focus on. Life starts to feel overwhelming when our minds run rampant, trying to decipher and problem-solve everything at once. Meditation can certainly help with this, as can creating awareness around moments of feeling overwhelmed and scatterbrained. Even if you’re worried about tomorrow’s project, give yourself the gift of taking a mental break from that while you stir your soup, or place the blanket back on the couch. 

Humans also have a tendency to focus their attention on what they perceive as their personal space within a home, such as a bedroom or office. Collective spaces, like the kitchen and living room, are then left at the mercy of whatever energies collect by the colliding of multiple lives that occur there. Paying attention to shared spaces is just as important, if not more so, than monitoring the energy of private parts of the home. 

If you’re feeling ready to take a more active role in guiding the energy of your home, here are a few simple ways to get started:

a. Place a bowl of water or salt in a room to absorb unwanted energy. This can also be done in the four corners of the house to create a grid, but should be discarded and refreshed frequently. The same can be done using crystals and cleansing them on a regular basis. Smoky quartz and black tourmaline are good for this.

b. Clean with intention. Sweep towards the doors that lead outside, mentally picturing any unhelpful energy getting swept away along with it. Dispose of any debris in trash cans outside the home; don’t let it sit inside once it’s been intentionally collected. If you like you can follow this up with an herbal floor wash. Simply make a tea of your favorite loose herbs and dilute a bit with water, using the energy of your hands or focused intention that the herbs fill the water and your home with blessings and protection. 

c. Smoke is a common choice for cleansing a space these days, and can be very effective, but seeing as how white sage and palo santo are now at risk plants due to overharvesting, and are sacred to certain cultures, it’s great to look into other options. Juniper and mugwort are both quite prolific and cleansing in their own rite. Chimes or singing bowls can also be used to cleanse a space using sound vibration. For more folk-inspired techniques, hanging a rope of garlic or placing a cut onion in the center of the room are also said to dispel unhelpful energies. 

I tend to prefer philosophies that value the depth of intention over how closely one follows specific instructions. To that end, if there are ideas that come to you naturally about how you’d like to cultivate your space, I think that is just as valid as any instructions found in a book.

If you find yourself feeling frayed, lacking energy, or simply feeling the weight of the world these days, you are certainly not alone.

Taking time to care for both yourself and your home can provide a much-needed refuge, a place for you to rest and restore as you follow your path in this world. 

Blessed be. 

If you’re interested in more ways to take care of your home, including recipes and more complex rituals, please do read “The House Witch” by Arin Murphy-Hiscock. It does not fall under the category of “Wicca” but is simply based on the author’s personal practice, which takes inspiration from many different areas. 

As the cycle of the New Year begins, I always find it fascinating and very beneficial to look at the energies that will surround and engage us throughout the year.  This year there are powerful forces mixing together creating a potent potion of movement in a vortex of energy that can be harnessed through focused intention and guidance to uplift and transform your experience of life.  Forget the doom and gloom, these energies are ushering in the seeds of change. The creative potential at this time is astronomical. As you ground yourself in the vision you want to create, new perspectives and possibilities open up as if by magic.  Your worldview and life may radically change as the world you have known alters.

Chinese Philosophical System of Cycles

Today we are going to look through the lens of two systems.  One of these is the Chinese system of ancient knowledge, which has followed the rhythms and cycles of planetary and universal energies for centuries.  They formalized this knowledge into philosophical principles of alchemy, medicine, and astrology. Earthly elements and characteristics of animals are the symbology to describe some of these forces.  January 25, 2020 begins the celebration of Chinese New Year and this year rings in the energy of the Yang White Metal Rat formally arriving on February 4^th. 

Yang energy is masculine.  It is strong, active, giving, fast, emptying and focused.  Metal imbues resourceful righteousness, refinement, integrity, and provides structure and control.  It gives you the confidence to lead your own life and the motivation to “step up to the plate.” The white rat is considered a protector and bringer of prosperity through self-knowledge, discipline, resilience, endurance and the ability to cope with difficulties.  Incredible survivors, rats are intelligent, quick witted, adaptable and clever. They are problem solvers. Just think about a rat going through a maze. Their determination is unrelenting and they rarely give up in the face of resistance. One of the attributes that allows this relentless pursuit is patience.  They are not dissuaded by failure or mistakes. The goal is always in focus and their attention is on creative and inventive solutions. 

Did you know that rats are very sociable?  People with pet rats know this. They are nurturers, extremely protective of their family and emotionally sensitive.  Abundance and prosperity is implicit in rat energy. Nurturing qualities are necessary when one is as abundantly fertile as a rat.  A mother rat is capable of having up to 200 babies a year. Rats have been known to enjoy the limelight and become jealous of other rats.  Most of the time, they enjoy life using ultrasonic chirps to laugh and purring when content. When you observe rats in community, they share and help others.  Lab rats will figure ways out of their cage and then release their friends. Their body and mind is highly adapted for survival with their extraordinary immunity to disease, tremendous balance and the mental acumen and resourcefulness to discern what is essential and what is not.

All of these characteristics offer the necessary power to create the life you want and need.  As you will see, they perfectly coincide and blend with the western astrology lens of cosmic planetary forces that are beaming onto planet earth as she grows and matures.

Cosmic Planetary Forces

Astrologically there are some big hitter planets overseeing and enthusiastically activating change.  Saturn moved into Capricorn for about a three year period from December 19, 2017 until March 21, 2020.  It will briefly enter Aquarius before retrograding back into Capricorn from July 1, 2020 until December 17, 2020.  Capricorn is hardworking and has the ambition, fortitude and discipline to climb the tallest peak in the same way the rat perseveres.  Pluto has been in Capricorn since November of 2008 and will stay there until May of 2023. The work of these two planetary energies in tenacious Capricorn is to dredge up the shadow aspects and take a hard look at what is not essential or does not support an individual’s growth or humanity’s evolution of consciousness.  Pluto reveals your relationship to power. Where do you give it away and when do you stand in your own power? Saturn discloses your limiting beliefs and asks you to be strong in standing for your truth and the discipline to follow your creative impulse. What is left after facing and purging your fears is the fundamental ground to germinate and birth your new reality.

These two planets came together at 22 degrees in a conjunction in Capricorn on January 12, 2020 initiating a new cycle and a shift towards new forms, relationships, systems, and structures that support your individual life and humankind.  We crossed a threshold and a portal of opportunity opened as Jupiter, the planet of expansion, joined the party along with Saturn, Pluto, Ceres, Mercury, and the Sun forming a stellium of concentrated impact. The last three bring in Ceres nurturing fertility necessary for growth, the skills of clear and rapid communication of Mercury, and the continuous stream of life force activating and catalyzing growth from our Sun.  Can you feel the gift in the promise of new life emerging in the aftermath of so much clearing?

Catalyzing a Bright Future

All of this remarkable confluence of energy is fostering the emergence of renewal.  This time is ripe for evolving and creating. Use your imagination. Ignite your dreams.  The soil of ingenuity birthing life giving vitality is extremely fertile. Rat energy is intensely active and activates prosperity.  How can you employ these resources to your advantage? 

“You Must be Imaginative and Strong-Hearted.

You Must Try things that May not Work,

and You Must Not let Anyone define Your Limits

because of Where You Come from.

Your only Limit is Your Soul.”

~ Gusteau from “Ratatouille” the movie

• It is important to Follow your Heart and Patiently Listen to your Inner Guidance.
• When difficult Transitions and Loss occur, Touch inside of yourself with Compassion. Allow yourself to feel whatever emotions arise.  Learning how to Nurture and Care for Yourself is crucial for Creating and Sustaining Life.
• What is Essential for your life?  What is Non-essential?  
• What is the difference between Needs and Wants?
• Where do you Limit yourself or give your Power away?
• Be Courageous in Relationships and Communicate Your Needs and Desires in a Loving way.  Share your thoughts, joy, hurts, and desires; it brings intimacy and companionship. 
• Use your Imagination and Guidance and Plant your Intentions into the Energetic stream. 
• Be Clear about your Intentions.  Are they Life Giving and Sustaining for All?  These powerful energies do not discriminate or judge, they only Create.  Be Mindful of Others, the Earth and all of Creation.
• It is a Time of Creating Great Prosperity and Abundance when you Focus on Your Life, Your Intentions and what You Desire to Create.  It is easy to get wrapped up in world events, which distract you from your creative process.  This is a time of rapid change and with it there is much destruction, loss, and chaos as the deep dark shadow elements of humankind continue to be expunged.  There are those that will use this energy to advance themselves over others. Be Diligent and plant your seeds to create the world you want to live in.
• Be Proactive about your what you want to create. 
• Determination, Perseverance, and Resilience in the face of Difficulty is Required.  Do not become discouraged by mistakes, problems or failures. 
• When you contact Outer or Inner Resistance, Take a Step back, Re-Group and Center yourself.  Do not push the energy.  Pushing the energy makes it grow stronger.  Re-focus and just like a rat, use your imaginative inventiveness, instincts and inner guidance to discover ways to move forward around the obstacles.   
• Believe in your Power, have Confidence in Your Ability to Create the Life you Desire through Discipline, Self-Control and Self-Respect.  Release self-doubt and limitations.
• Stay in Balance through Self Awareness, Patience and checking your Ego.
• Be Grateful and Appreciate all of the Goodness in Your Life.
• Make time to engage with Loved Ones.  Happiness is found in giving to others and cherishing relationships.

Feel the fresh energy of renewal and new beginnings that is upon us.  We have been walking through stormy times yet all of it has been leading us to the realization that a different way of being in the world is imperative.  Humanity is in the process of a very arduous labor. It is up to each one of us here at this time to care. It is with great care that we nourish and birth a world that is loving and kind and creates abundance for all.

I wish you an Incredibly Fabulous Birth.

___

Dorothy Wallis is a former intern at People House in private practice with an M.A. in Marriage and Family Therapy.  She is a Psychotherapist, Certified Relational Life Therapist, Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist, and an International Spiritual Teacher at the forefront of the consciousness movement for over thirty years grounded in practices of meditation, family systems, relationships, and emotional growth.  Her work reflects efficacious modalities of alternative approaches to healing for individuals and couples based upon the latest research in science, human energy fields, psychology, and spirituality. 

As a leader in the field of emotional consciousness and the connection to mind, body and spirit, her compassionate approach safely teaches you how to connect to your body, intuition and knowing to clear emotional wounds and trauma at the core.  The powerful Heartfulness protocol empowers your ability to join with your body’s innate capacity to heal through holistic Somatic, Sensory and Emotional awareness. www.TheDorWay.com and www.Heartfulnesspath.com