New year’s eve is another excuse for people to party, but it can also be a chance to reflect on what you’ve accomplished or are grateful for that happened during the Earth’s latest completed translation around the sun.
Even if one has accomplished absolutely nothing, or even if in fact one gained weight for self-inflicted reasons, demolished a gym and murdered someone, there is always the hope that next year is one full of bounty, accomplishments and, most important, chances for self-growth.
We could talk about the mechanics and brain reasons why most people don’t lose weight all year, flood gyms in January and then leave even though they stated they wished to lose weight and get fit while eating grapes and champagne, but that is not the point of this post- here it will be spoken about making space for new things to happen, cycles and unusual midwinter spirits.
Cycles
Like the Wheel of Fortune from Tarot implies, life is full of cycles of all sizes, and it’s not wrong to see them connected as cog work. It is not the Square of Fortune. It doesn’t stay put until you get bored and move it:
- Shite happens outside your control; externally. Therefore, you are moved internally too.
- You decide what you do about it. Part of the outcome is your execution of your decision, but the other part is out of your control and you must accept it is so, or you’ll ruin your liver in anger. There are nicer reasons to ruin your liver for, I hear.
I’m not preaching and pretending to be zen or an illuminated master like some, who like tell young-ish people who are crying in the darkest corner of the house to just “let go” and that they are “so attached and intense”, and “this is why you feel bad your birthday cake was thrown into the trash, along with all your other 2020 plans”.
In fact, I’m controlling and obsessive as hell, and this is how I know you might ruin yourself if you think you are God and get to spin the Wheel. I don’t think going into already known details will provide any useful information, but we can all agree there was an ending everyone was looking forward to:
The end of 2020
Therefore, New Years Eve was a pretty big deal, full of jokes and hope, or jokes and abyssal hopelessness, depending on how much of your sanity survived the year. Accepting something happened will make space for new possibilities, though. Having the mentality that welcomes change is probably going to be very useful on 2021, because we’re still in a nightmarish setting and we need to move the mind to be able to make it work in the least exhausting way possible. but how can one be open to change if one is still holding on to the past, and insisting there are no other ways to do things?
A cool way to close the cycle of what 2020 brought, let it go in gratitude and peace, and invite fortune into your life is a little psychological thing that some argue is magic. And some say your synapses blahblah, but the result is the same: a ritual.
Anything that mixes the realm of physical reality, community, imagination and that weird place of mystery we know so little about.
There are many mid-winter spirits (baby Jesus included) who are all about rebirth, compassion, gratitude, etc. you can look up! Most have such rituals you can do and adapt to accommodate your beliefs! The important part is the intent and the thought put into them.
This year, I discovered something that absolutely resonated with me for that: the Mari Lwyd, a Welsh midwinter horse spirit that appears at your door wearing a horse’s skull, challenges you to a rap battle and if you lose, takes your food and drink!
Legend says a pregnant mare was kicked out of the stable when Virgin Mary and Joseph arrived to deliver baby Jesus, and that the poor animal looked for shelter for days. So now she comes to your door on Christmas or New years eve and scares kids and adults alike, but is actually festive and merry in character at the same time.
No records of this or previous appearances of the mare are available, stuff was burned. But whoever came up with the legend was probably mourning the loss of paganism to christianity and kinda had to come up with some symbols they wouldn’t have been burnt at the stake for.
So imagine you’re in a flippin’ cold night, but someone is singing or banging at your door. You open it, and after the mini-hear attack of seeing a ghostly horse skull, she insults you and immerses you in a rhyme battle, which makes you shake dust off your brain to insult back, and you get to do one good deed for your community when you lose; even if you are the guy who demolished a gym and murdered someone I described earlier.
Most people let the Mari Lwyd win, because if she does enter your house and you give her a gift, food or alcohol, she will make a mini-party there, rid your house of bad vibes and bring in good luck. See this in a symbolic interpretation to get it; isn’t it beautiful?????
Originally, the people who walked from door to door with the Grey mare procession were poor people looking for spare food in exchange for entertainment, but now it’s more of a normal tradition and can be done withing one household alone. The main ideas are generosity, fun, curiosity and compassion.
Oddly enough, there is a similar wassailing tradition in Mexico about the Nativity where Mary and Joseph were looking for shelter. This was the substitute celebration for the Aztecs’ panquetzaliztli, where the God of war Huitzilopochtli was going to be reborn, also at Christmas/Winter solstice. Even though Mexico has never had a “real” winter where everything dies.
These mysteries about the sun being reborn are persistent and universal. The darkest night of Midwinter means that from then on, the sun starts to take over again.
A CYCLE.
So, like when the Death card shows up on a reading or when something that is like a death of a part of you happens, or even just some uncontrollable force like Covid-19 on March 2020 cancels your life, don’t be afraid. Don’t think grief will last forever. Let it pass, sit with it, respect and acknowledge your own process and emotions and know the sun will rise again. You, too, will be a different person at the time.
A better one if you reflect and learn from loss.
