My daughter picked up this lovely little book with re-fillable pages from a fellow vendor at Polyface Farms market a few years back and gifted it to me on my birthday. I’ve used it as an omen journal, and just cut fresh papers to replenish as it has come to a close again. In case you are wondering what an omen journal is, it’s a place to jot down omens as part of a 12 Days of Omens practice that I first came across in the writings of master cartomancer, Camelia Elias, about five years ago and have since tailored for myself.
In its simplest form, the way I practice this ritual, each day beginning on December 20th, you make a practice of listening for and seeing what lands with you at midnight and/or noon and make a note of it (in say, an omen journal). It’s interesting to discover what happens at the same time of day for twelve days when you are actively involved in omen finding! These pages then simmer over the last days of the year.
The following year, on the first day, take out your omen journal and read the first one; it lays down a thread for the month warped on a day the year before. Upon this, the month’s threads are wefted, then repeated every month until at the end of the year a weaving comes through.
While we weave our lives yearly with or without making note of omens, I enjoy participating with my life journey this way. Discovering relationships between the last twelve days of the previous year spiraling into the next based on what I’m choosing to make note of from what is offered and beheld sharpens my awareness of how we are collaborating with Creation at every moment. Sometimes I’ll pull a tarot card from my Crowley deck on the first day of the month and combine that with the omen as a directive or focal point that may help with clarity, but you don’t have to have cards to try this . . . a pair of eyes, a pen, and a few pieces of paper (unless you have a super-retentive memory) are a starting point from where to begin this practice, discover how you’ve set your compass, then go from there.
I’m looking forward to inking the fresh pages held by the morel etched cover of this wee book once again. Try it for yourself and see what it sparks or share it with a friend and do it together. Being curious, I have to ask . . . do you have an end of year practice? I’d love to learn from you if you’d like to share.
The Coddiwomplers Cauldron 
Interesting practice! Thanks for sharing — it’s intriguing.
Starting in my teens I used to always write a special summary of the year on New Year’s Eve along with my hopes and wishes for the new year. It was always fun to read what I wrote the previous year at the same time. Somehow I let this practice drop once I hit middle age. You’ve inspired me to perhaps take it up again. 💗
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It’s fun going through journals past . . .I’m often surprised by what keeps circling back and forth between their pages, foring a pattern of sorts . . . do you still have yours?
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Yes, I do still have them! 😀 They go back to 7th grade, starting after I read The Diary of Anne Frank, which inspired me. Now in my 70’s I’m not sure what to do with them…. Will probably leave a note in my will to burn them after I’m gone. ☺ Or maybe I should start posting sections of them on WP. For instance, the 60’s were pretty interesting. 🙂
But seriously, I found keeping a journal was enriching, and re-reading them is educational. Interesting how our perspectives change over the years. And in some ways we don’t change at all — in essence.
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Sounds like you have a memoir in the making all ready in draft stages! Agree with you on the education that comes through from re-reading, though there’s so much that shifts and changes, there’s an essence or core that slips through time as a constant companion . . sort of a reminder of who we ‘are’ . ..when I feel lost, I read my journals and remember 😊💙
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Oh yes, you nailed it! 🙂 It sounds like you also have a memoir ready to go. Journaling is an invaluable practice for sure. I’m thankful to my mom who encouraged me to keep writing back in the day.
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Watching my daughter write on a daily basis recently made me realize that while I enjoy writing, which in a sense makes me a writer . . . I am not a Writer nor do I want to be a Writer, a combination of craft/skill, discipline, talent, imagination, and for the lucky the ‘gift’ that infuses the work with a bit of that something something . . . it was at once surprising and also very freeing. I will likely always write, I do so love the act of putting words together whether as poems or a story or in my journal . . .here and there when the mood or whim comes upon me or flows through me . . . watching my daughter write I realized Writer’s don’t write only when the mood is right or the hour is upon them, they Write and keep writing, it’s a calling that they must respond to . . . so while I may have content for a memoir, a ghost would have to do the work of writing it . . .. or I’d have to hear the clarion call to Come Ye and Write! . . . . I could expound in written words on the topic for a long time where writing becomes a conversation (likely full of tangents) but I shall desist 🤣 . . . cheers to encouraging mothers! On another note, have you read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society?
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No, I hadn’t heard of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, but just looked it up on Amazon to see what it was. Looks interesting!
I did enjoy what you wrote about writing. No doubt there is a huge difference between the occasional writer and the one who must write at all costs. 🙂 I’ve had the passion to write (besides journals — stories, poetry, articles, essays) since I could first hold a pencil. My first husband didn’t like it that I kept a journal (he was jealous of my past) and he thought I should burn them all. I would have left him first. Without writing I’d wither away.
I think you do have a talent for writing, though. You might not feel a passionate calling, but when you do write it’s with skill and insight. That in itself is a gift. (I wish I had your talent for all the other creative things you do. You live artfully! 😍 )
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Wow, that’s a pretty intense response to your journalling and burning them wouldn’t burn away your past either, not if you didn’t want that part of your life ‘burned’ away anyway. Your passion for writing reminds me of my eldest, she learned to write on the walls of our home as soon as she could wield a pencil/pen/crayon crawling along, long before she even knew what it was she was writing; what you say about withering away without writing makes so much sense . . . thank you for your kind words 🥰 Netflix made a movie to the book, which is quite good but . .. the book is much much better, and appealed to me as it involves correspondence. We recently watched Shogun, and it was a terrific immersion into Japanese . .. had no subtitles! I’m looking online for the book now, there’s always details in a book that sometimes get left out of film.
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Sorry I’m so slow to respond to this! Wow, actually thought I already did. I wanted to say that it sounds like your daughter has what it takes to be a real writer someday. It’ll be interesting, no doubt, to see where that passion takes her.
That book does sound good, by the way. I’m so far behind on reading these days but will add it to my wish list.
Wishing you a joyful Winter’s Solstice, Mariam. 💛🌞🦋
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Winter Solstice cheer to you too Betty 🌟🌟💛
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