It seems strange to be sitting here on Winter Solstice writing about the 12 days of Christmas but with the week that’s in, it if I don’t share this now it will get forgotten.
I have just stumbled across a way of divining the coming year using the days from 26th December to 6th January and rather than try and explain it in depth, am instead going to share Caitlin Matthews blog post on this.
According to Caitlin, historically these days were considered to be ‘days out of time’ and were used to observe the state of nature and from this divine the state of the year to come. Liminal times and places are often used in divination as it can be easier to access what is on a day to day basis beyond our sight so the use of ‘days out of time’ to do this makes sense.
It is well worth reading Caitlin’s blog as well as doing a Google search as there is loads of information online but basically using each of the 12 days to represent or symbolise a month of the year, you set an intention to find an omen. By observing the signs or omens during the day or at the time you have set you then use them for insight into the month the day represents. So 26th December would symbolise January, 27th December, February and so on.
I love signs and omens walks, where after asking a question I go walking and then the first three things that catch my attention are my signs or omens and will give me my answer or insight. Of course my job having received them is to make sense of them, to interpret them, to make them into a story as it were. This is the approach I am going to take with the 12 days. I am going to ask my question, go, or gaze outside depending on the weather, see what catches my attention and then make sense of it. I will record whatever I receive each day as there is no way I will remember it all. Once I have done this for all 12 days I should be able to see the story for my coming year as a whole, as well as one month at a time.
Others suggest using this method to draw Oracle or Tarot cards for the year but I always love working with the natural world for answers and insight so this is the way I will go.
Solitary Path 
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