Today's Oracle 24th March 2020

Nightfall (Thresholds and Beginnings)

Dusk is the beginning of each new day. In the stillness of night, we cross the threshold of beginning anew. We discover ourselves in the dark, as if carved from the night. Inspiration begins at dusk and expands while protected by the night.

Invoking Interiority and Inner Growth.

The Celts favour the night, for darkness renders guidance and mystery. Otherworldly beings quicken, just a little out of sight. Imagine a way of life in which guidance is carved from the stories told and retold in the night and images are born in the long silence of winter. Descending in a hush at twilight, nightfall is the threshold of beginnings. Things newly born are fashioned in the night. Like a womb shielding the land and its people from intrusion, the passage of night gives safe passage to the new.

The early Celts counted time by nights, not by days. The old calendars were oriented more to the cycles of the moon than to the sun. The mysteries of darkness were a protection and a comfort.

At nightfall, after the evening meal, family and neighbours gathered around a single hearth to converse, gossip, and tell tales. Strangers and beggars passing through with news were especially welcome. Stories told in good company in the night had a magic of their own. On special nights, when the mix of song and story was especially inviting, the Otherworld of faeries and ancestors and all manner of nature spirits were present, too, quickening and sometimes humming their own tunes and adding their own stories to the mix.

Night is the time of beginnings, nightfall its threshold. As darkness falls, the veils between the human world and the Otherworld grow thin. Protected as if by a shade, otherworldly dreams, inspirations, whisperings, and reveries are born. Daylight seems too bright for the imagination of the spirit world. Storytelling, inspiration, and creativity require a dimmer light, a gentler light. Things newly born are fashioned in the night. Playing light upon shadow, a flickering oil lamp or fire in the hearth is light enough to spark imagination and the whisperings of the Otherworld. Sometimes even prophesy is born.

In the poem "The Ballad of Father Gilligan," the great William Butler Yeats relays the story of a weary old priest from County Kerry who falls asleep as he prays. As the priest sleeps and another man dies, Yeats describes how the stars:

"They slowly into millions grew
And leaves shook in the wind
And god covered the world with shade
And whispered to mankind."

IF YOU ARE DRAWN TO THIS ORACLE, you long to renew your spiritual journey. The time and circumstances are now aligned with moving more deeply into your interior life. You are invited to slow down, quiet down, and deepen your prayer and meditation. By gradually quieting your outer life and the chattering of your mind, you can perceive the inward whisperings of the spirit world. In the Celtic imagination, darkness is a blessing and silence pregnant with possibility. Whether accompanied by others or richly alone to enjoy your nighttime reveries, night is the time for beginnings, insight, and spiritual replenishment. Whether alone or with others, quietude will bring solace and inner joy.

As a womb protects an embryo, the darkness of silence and daily quietude protect and nurture the spiritual life. Like young children, newly born spiritual awareness and insights must be sheltered from harsh probings and questions from the outer world, including your own.