Tracking the Tides

ways of letting the magic unfold

A time between times in the Alder Carr - 6 January 2024.

Hello, and welcome to a new year of Bracken & Wrack ‘between the moons’!

I hope that 2024 will be a year of growth and creativity for us all. I’m so grateful that you are here with me, sharing the journey, as I type this in a room still filled with pine needles and tiny lights. Yes, I know I’m a day or two late. That means that I’m breaking the commonly-held taboo on taking the Christmas decorations down after Twelfth Night, but fortunately for me I can argue my case for waiting until Old Twelfth Night should I choose, as we shall soon see ;)

We often speak of ‘liminal’ points in the year, and of course the moment between 31 December and 1 January is the one that, for many people, is the most obvious and resonant. For those of us who follow the seasonal festivals, though,  there are many others. Indeed, you could say that every day is a threshold between the myriad spokes within the turning Wheel.

If you’ve been reading Bracken & Wrack for any length of time, you will know how obsessed I am with taking account of the Old (Julian) as well as the New (Gregorian) calendar. If we want to have any chance of understanding the old tales, proverbs, folklore, festivals and the Saints’ Day traditions of our lands, a key practice is to pay attention to how the season feels 13 days beyond today’s calendar dates. In this way we start to reclaim the Lost Days of 1752 and gain a deeper understanding of the ways of our ancestors. And, of course, a deeper knowledge of we who follow in their footsteps.

Down at the Otter Stream. 6 January 2024

But at this time of year the special days cluster like jewels, and it’s hard to separate the tangle into Old and New. The answer seems to be to celebrate them all, and that will take us almost all the way through January towards Imbolc/Candlemas and the promise of longer, warmer days.