Alexander John Shai – Sanctify Your Holiday Season 2022

Hear the ancient Celtic Christmas Story told anew to help you live a more vital, inspired life in the midst of dark days.

Interweaving anthropology, Jungian psychology, mythology, and spirituality, Alexander John will share the long-lost picture of how the Celts completely reshaped Christianity.

One of the most cherished pieces of that reshaping is the 13 Days of Christmas. Thirteen was the number of the Celtic Winter Solstice Festival in honor of the Great Mother and the mysteries of birth, including that of the sun.

This module, you’ll explore the festival’s two core values: generosity and generativity… and how the Celt’s Winter Solstice Festival evolved into the 13 Days of Christmas.

During the opening session, you’ll:

• Learn about the Celt’s 13-Day Winter Solstice Festival — and how it’s the source of the 13 Days of Christmas
• Discover how the Celts reshaped Christianity’s moon-based calendar into a solar calendar
• Explore the number 13 with its connection to motherhood and birth
• Perceive the flow of nature’s seasons as a map of transformation
• Develop simple rituals to greet November and December
• Be guided through a meditation to find your sacred soil — and walk from Autumn to the opening of Winter

This module, you’ll explore Celtic practices for November and December — and how those practices created Christianity’s Season of Advent.

The Celts — and the Christians who first met the Celtic world — hallowed darkness as the womb (mother) of new beginnings. In those days, both traditions honored the cosmic holy interplay of dark and light.

And both perceived the time of November/December (Northern Hemisphere) as the holy dark… a womb time where darkness serves as a birth chamber for fresh radiance.

As a result, early Celtic Christianity crafted Advent as a time of preparation for our inner womb… where we participated with the Earth as a Dark Madonna — a place from which fresh radiance will be born.

For Christians, Mary is the Dark Madonna, and The Christos is that fresh radiance.

In this module, you’ll:

• Gain a deeper understanding of the cosmic interplay of dark and light
• Explore the dark as the womb (mother place) of new beginnings
• Discover how the Celts and Christians hallowed winter, nighttime — and the dark season
• Develop simple rituals to decorate the dark
• Be guided through a meditation to animate the holy dark without and within

Lighting a Great Tree is one of the world’s most endearing rituals of wonder and awe. You’ll explore the ritual’s origins and its significance for the ancient Celts…

… and discover how the tree’s importance in the Celtic world reshaped Christianity’s use and imagery, including the cross.

You’ll also explore why the tree became a central symbol in the Celtic dark season… and why early Celtic Christians incorporated it into their practice.

As you learn about the Great Tree, you’ll come to appreciate its symbolism as an invitation to unite seemingly opposite and contrary meanings…

… and connect with the Aramaic understanding of one ever-present, on-going eternal breath — known as the Messiah or the Christos (The Christ).

In this module, you’ll:

• Appreciate the Great Tree as a joining of the Sacred Feminine and Masculine — the harmony of unity and wholeness that we all aspire to
• Understand the role and experience of The Oak as The Celtic Great Tree
• Explore simple rituals to use when bringing a tree into your home and life

The Winter Solstice is essential to the Feast of Christmas.

What did the early Christians discover in the Celtic world about the Solstice? Why did the Solstice and Christmas become separated by three days centuries later?

You’ll explore these questions and more, including how this separation has led to a horrendous misunderstanding with tragic consequences for Christian spiritual practice.

For Christians, this rejoining of Solstice and Christmas will help us appreciate Jesus as an inclusive universal reality.

You’ll also learn practices for the Winter Solstice through the first day of Christmas — including sunset on December 24, in the night, at dawn, and finally… in the daylight of Christmas morning.

In this module, you’ll:

• Learn the meaning of the word solstice and its significance to the separation of Christmas by 3 days
• Understand the inherent connection between Solstice and Christmas
• Observe the stillness from the night of Solstice to the night of Christmas
• Appreciate the practice of 3 nights/3 days between the Winter Solstice and the Feast of Christmas
• Discover practices and rituals to use between Solstice Night and Christmas Night — adding deeper meaning and connection to your holiday season
• Be guided through a profound embodied experience of Christmas morning

The Celtic Festival was about the practice of generosity and generativity — each day of the festival highlighted another aspect of these practices.

You’ll explore the 2nd through 6th day of Christmas — the Celts’ celebration and the Christian translation of the day into its own story and practice.

For instance, the 2nd day of the Celtic Festival is in honor of the Sacred Masculine. It was a day when men and boys were to sacrifice a wren. The Christian Festival kept to the story of the Sacred Masculine and made this the feast of Stephen, the first Christian martyr.

You’ll discover how the Celtic and Christian days are in honor of the same principle but different stories… and come to appreciate the deeper meaning of these practices for men and boys.

Celtic and Christian stories also honor generosity and generativity on the 3rd through 6th days of the festival… you’ll explore them as well.

In this module, you’ll:

• Learn why the 2nd day honors the Sacred Masculine — and the rituals that were practiced
• Discover how the Christian Festival kept to the story of the Sacred Masculine — and made this the feast of Stephen, the first Christian martyr
• Understand how each feast and ritual honors generosity and generativity — and shares an aspect of life and the mystery of birth
• Discover simple spiritual practices that will instill hope and help you recreate the original Celtic Festival

There was a time when mistletoe was considered an herb with healing and protective properties.

As a result, it was only to be harvested by a spiritual elder (a shaman or druid priest) who would then provide each home with a branch. The members of the household would take the branch to each room, asking that its mystical properties cleanse the house from any ill spirit found there. Finally, the mistletoe was hung over the front door as a talisman to protect the house and block any dark spirit from entering.

The Christian story of this day involves blessing each room of your home with sacred baptismal water. This sacred water — blessed by a priest — offers a home a spiritual cleansing, as well as a protective prayer for all over the coming year.

You’ll continue your walk through the 13 Days exploring the stories and aspects of birth celebrated on the 7th through 11th days of the festival.

The 7th day of the festival corresponds to today’s 31st of December — the last day of the civil year. While we think of mistletoe as something to be hung before Christmas Day, for the Celts, it was hung on this the 7th day of the festival.

In this module, you’ll:

• Explore the sacred symbolism and mystical properties of mistletoe
• Learn rituals for blessing each room of your house — and cleansing your home of evil spirits
• Hang mistletoe over your front door as a talisman to protect the house and block any dark spirit from entering

The final day of the Celtic and Christian Festival is now January 6th — the 13th Day.

For the Celts, this day celebrated the growing radiance that was first noticed just past the Solstice. Now what was almost imperceptible to the naked eye has become easily seen, felt, and robust.

In this final class, you’ll learn how the Christian lore of this day has become muddled over the centuries… as Chrisitans have used three gospel stories to speak of radiance becoming manifest.

One of those three stories is the arrival of the Magi. Unfortunately, that story has overtaken the meaning of the feast and is now seen as a literal historical event on this date.

The other two Christian passages for this feast (known as the Epiphany) are Jesus coming up from the waters of a mikvah bath (jewish baptism) and the wedding feast at Cana.

You’ll explore all three passages, with a focus on the mystical marriage at Cana and its full impact on the 13th and final day of the festival. Alexander John will also share how the 13th Day is “omega and alpha.”

This day closes the Festival of Christmas and simultaneously opens the Festival of Mardi Gras or Carnival that extends from the 6th of January until the opening of Lent.

In this module, you’ll:

• Explore the true origins of the story of the Magi and the mystical marriage at Cana — and how these stories evolved in Christianity
• Discover simple spiritual practices to close the festival
• Learn why Alexander John calls the 13th Day of the Solstice/Christmas Festival “omega and alpha”
• Look ahead to the opening of Celtic Spring — and discover simple practices for the Feasts of Brigid & Candlemas on February 2nd