The 6th Day of Christmas
In Celtic lore, this day was about the mystery and energy of the wild boar.
All symbols are ambi-valent, meaning they are made up of seeming opposites. So too the Boar for the Celts. It is an animal admired for its protective ferocity along with the sow’s generosity to her young. Ferocity and generosity were the qualities of “birth” honored on this day by the Celts in their Winter Solstice Festival.
Today, listen to the Boar’s Head Carol — here are three variations. (Recall the belief that in eating an animal, you ingest that animal’s qualities.)
In the Christian cycle, 6th Day is variously the Feast of the Holy Family and a day that harkens back to the 6th Day of Creation. In the Book of Genesis, Yah’weh creates us “female” and “male” and creates Us in God’s own image. In my teaching about this day of creation, I restate female and male beyond “just” biology.
In depth perspective, each of us is created as a unique blend of two energies: yen and yang. Today, we need to move beyond gender stereotype. Yang does not equate to masculine, nor yen to feminine. Today, consider how your life is best sustained by a flow between yang energy (assertive, thrusting) and yen energy (nurturing, receptive).
This melding of energies is captured well in the six- pointed Star of David, that is composed of two interlocking triangles. One triangle pointing up (yang energy) and one pointing down (yen energy).
On 6th Day, we honor the separate energies of yang and of yen and then move to the place where the two energies join in a mutual, ongoing dance — creating a third entity.
6th Day — we celebrate the yang and yen of the Boar, and the yang and yen that makes up a “family” and the yang and yen that makes us each of us.
Blessed Holy 6th Day of Christmas to All the Energies that make up Creation — that make up each of us — and make up all of us! We are truly a holy family.
