holy nights tarot draw

Sunset on the eve of December 24th marks the beginning of the Holy Nights that end on the feast of the Epiphany on January 06. An ancient tradition for tapping into and harnessing the energies of the coming year. 

It is our opportunity to consciously imprint each card and month with our focus and intent. Tap into our inner wisdom and reflect on the guidance revealed in each message. 

classic tarot deck

Here is how it works: 

The Holy Nights are from sunset on December 24th until sunset January 6th. I recommend having a specific journal for this practice, a candle, and utilizing some sort of oracle cards.

cards drawn for December 24, 25, 26

When the sun sets on the 24th until sunset on the 25th we are imprinting the entire next year. It is recommended to draw a card (and write it down) and also to pay attention to anyone you happen to run into, your dreams, and any other themes that arise. 

It is also important to reflect on your previous year as a whole and perhaps choose to let go of some of what occurred. Write everything down in your journal.

cards drawn for December 27, 28, 29

Then on the 25th when the sun sets until the 26th at sunset we are imprinting January of the next year. Again, draw a card, pay attention to dreams, people whom you cross paths with, any themes that arise for you. 

Spend a little time reflecting on this past January and choose to let go. Write everything down in your journal.

Rudolf Steiner’s indications for the Holy Nights given to Herbert Hahn

And so on….until the completion of the cycle at sunset of January 6th - when we can imprint our entire 2025 with conscious awareness. 

It is a beautiful ritual to include in your end of year festivities. 

These twelve Holy Nights are established out of the hidden wise depths of the soul of mankind, as though they would say: ‘Realise the depths of the Christmas Festival but sink during the twelve Holy Nights into the holiest secrets of the cosmos, that is, in the realms of the universe out of which Christ descended to the Earth.’ 

6th century mosaic zodiac wheel in synagogue Beth Alpha
incorporating Greek-Byzantine elements, Israel

Only when mankind wills to be inspired through the thought of the holy childlike divine origin of man, to let himself be inspired by the wisdom that works through the twelve holy forces, through the twelve sacred houses of the universe. 

Symbolically presented in the twelve signs of the Zodiac, due in truth to spiritual wisdom - only then will mankind sink into true spiritual wisdom and learn to discern the course of time in the great cosmos and in the single human being. 

chart contains a sme ba (9 figures - elements in geomancy)
in the center with the Chinese pa-kua (8 trigrams)
surrounded by 12 animals of months & years,
below this, symbols of 7 days of the week

Only then will the mankind of the future, fructified through Spiritual Science, find to its own salvation the inspiration which can come from the Sun Hero, Moon Mother (Jesus Birth) Festival so that thoughts for the future may be permeated with fullest confidence and richest hopes.

~ Rudolf Steiner, Festivals of the Seasons, Lecture 8. Christmas: A Festival of Inspiration, 21 December 1911