Day 12 - New Year's Eve, Hogmanay

[Joan Marie]

Here we are, at the end of our 12-day Journey.

Day 12. New Year's Eve, Hogmanay - Dec 31st
This card shows us how to release the old and let in the new. This relates to both our external lives and our inner being.

I just looked up Hogmanay, in case you don't know, it's the Scottish word for the last day of the year.
One interesting thing is they gove special attention to the "first foot."

In Scottish, Northern English, and Manx folklore, the first-foot (Scottish Gaelic: ciad-chuairt, Manx: quaaltagh/qualtagh) is the first person to enter the home of a household on New Year's Day and is seen as a bringer of good fortune for the coming year.

I wish you all good luck with your "first foot". Covid certainly adds an interesting element in narrowing the possibilities and therefore the odds of who that will be.

[Joan Marie]

The Empress

I look and look and what I see is that she has a really firm grip on that shield. She's looking forward, away from it, but not letting go.

The interest in the new has to outweigh the attachment to the old.
This "out with old, in with the new" stuff is not as easy as it sounds.

It has to be done thoughtfully and with strong intention, not just wishful thinking.
We're talking about breaking an attachment (to whatever; an idea, a thought process, a habit, etc) and not just replacing it, but actually creating a new attachment.

This takes time and the understanding that it takes time.
It's going to take a lot of practice and dedication at first until it takes hold.

A smoker doesn't become a non-smoker over night, even if they aren't smoking.
A meat-eater isn't a vegetarian the day they stop eating meat.
Buying an instrument doesn't make you a musician.
Sitting down at your computer for a few days writing doesn't make you a writer.

It takes time, but with diligence the "new" takes hold.

But there is also the question of how to release the old. I think it's important to acknowledge the important role that the "old" whatever it is, has played in your life. Honour it. Thank it for its service. It was part of you, or was a part your identity. Make a proper farewell.

I've said before that promises and commitments are really magic spells. Not following through is going to feel really weird, like physically because when you do that you break the spell. And you feel that. Thinking of it that way helps me. I hate the feeling of a broken spell.

[Rachelcat]

Page of Wands
To release the old and let in the new, I need to not be afraid of being a beginner. If I’m going to start something new, I need to start at the step 1 and go on in order. And expend some energy on it. Nothing I want to do is just going to happen by itself. An investment of energy is needed, and will be repaid accordingly.

And having something new to go on to makes releasing the old easier.

Thank you so much, Joan Marie, for leading us this yule. I wish you and everyone a very happy new year! We deserve it!

[chiscotheque]

Day 12. New Year's Eve, Hogmanay - Dec 31st
This card shows us how to release the old and let in the new. This relates to both our external lives and our inner being.

Card: 3 of HEAT

With unusually cold temperatures around here lately, I could use a little heat. The cold image on this card is taken from Dylan's 2nd studio album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. Unlike his first album, this one contained songs written mostly by Dylan, many of which became standards. That said, most of those songs were based on traditional folk tunes, so there is a movement outward, toward the new, which is, at the same time, based on the tried and true. Echoing this, the card's upright song, The Times they Are a'Changin', indicates the wheel of life in motion while the reversed song, You Ain't Goin' Nowhere, suggests the more things change, the more they stay the same.

What I take away from this, given today's theme of release, is the imperative to take myself out of the picture - my past, my own image of myself, who I continue to believe myself to be even when that me is long gone. We are built of what came before, but we also change every moment, and to conflate who we were with who we are and who we are going to be is an analog of the Buddhist concept of samsara. What's needed is detachment, in order to turn and face what comes our way rather than staring obsessively at the road that got us here.

These readings, together with things that have transpired over the past 12 days, have really made me think about the past and the future, and their connection to who I was and who I've become. Thinking of the latter, I haven't always liked what I've seen. I hope to be strong and open enough to move forward with what I'm learning this way - through the wind and cold as it were - to become more of the person I want to be. A person who, if looked carefully enough, was there all along.



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