The Omen Days
The days betwixt the calenders
Fàilte!
It is delightful to be sitting at the word altar aka my beloved desk, in the days between, the days I observe as the omen days. My children are away for the day and I have some much needed undestracted space to do as I please - swoon.
As I write this it is the 29th of December 2025, and I have been observing the omen days for a few days now.
If you are unsure of what the omen days are we will get to the practice of it, but first, let me tell you a wee story.
There was once a time when the year was not counted cleanly by solar calenders, and there was an understanding that at certain times of the year, these days can not be clearly dated as they were based on observations, were experienced as time out of time. This time out of time was seen as auspicious, a time where signs and symbols became clearer, dreams heightened, and divination potent with prophecy. These days that came to pass around the 25th of December until the 6th of January (some observe 12 days post solstice) were known by the folk as the omen days.
Now there are some records dating back to the 13th-15th century with the mention of 12 nights and using weather divination as omens to predict the months ahead, but the thing with folk magic is that it’s highly likely to pre-date records. Is this an ancient practice? I wouldn’t say so but it is an old celtic and germanic folk practice that was, as much of our folk practices have been- braided together with other traditions and religions as time has come to pass. Specifically we know in this day and age of the 12 days of Christmas, the 12 days before December 25th.
So for me, the omen days are a remembering of animist connection. Of observation over doctrine. Of a time where we were in deep relationship with the natural world, the elementals, the folk in our local communities and what it means to be part of the tapestry of the land as the seasons change and time itself naturally passes as we exist on this planet as beings - not commodities.
Time between time - Liminality
One thing about me is that I share from a lived perspective lense that comes from integration of the ways I have been book taught, teacher taught and taught from places in the dreamscape, in journeys, from the otherworld, the underworld and the crossroads. So thats my disclaimer for all that I share from here on out.
I like to observe the omen days as the 12 days after December 25th. These are the days that everyone feels in thier bones are what I would call, liminal days. You talk to any person at the grocery store on the 29th December and they will agree that they know not what day it is, how old they are or how many days its been since christmas. (I literally has this very chat today as I bumped into a pal) And what is also so interesting to me about these days is the way it disorients folks. It isn't because you are not at work or because your eating christmas dinner leftovers for lunch or even because its dark, cold or any other weather observation you wish to insert here. I live in the southern hemisphere and it's a toasty bright 34 degree celsius day with 13 hours of daylight- all that to say, what we all observe outside of what we have been taught is that this is a liminal time. Many folks would agree that this feeling doesn’t disappear on January 1st, but extends out to at least the end of the first week of what we call under the gregorian calender, a new year.
What is also so endearing to me about the omen days are that there are multiple calender observations crossing paths at this time, there are cultures where new year is not observed until February, March, and this has been unfolding since Samhain-another intensely liminal time where for some the new year began in the month of November. And it reveals something that is more widley being accepted as truth, which is that the final months of the gregorian calender are less solid markers in time, but more so one big threshold spiraling us out of one cycle and into another. And even this has no clear line of definition as we are always moving through cyclical endings and beginnings.
How I observe the Omen Days
Hare bones as January’s Omen
My praxis is simple, but it is part of an extended ceremonial practice that I lean into as we near the threshold of year crossing year. The main body of the practice really begins for me in November which is when I begin to feel the energy of the new cycle make itself known. It hasn't always been thiis way for me, however as I get older I find my energy body becoming more attuned to the subtle field as it begins to change.
This practice is where Bone Stories originated and where the reflective wisdom of hindsight starts to weave together the influences of the time that has passed in the cycle before. It's when the emerging word energy for the next cycle begins to drop in and I really begin to slowly get to know the energy of the incomming year and what it may be inviting me into.
I begin observing omens the day after christmas through stepping out of my house and before I start to walk I call in my guides and ancestors. I ask them to guide me, to show me the way, to see what I need to see to divine the energy of the specific month. The 26th is January, 27th February, 28th March and so on until I reach December.
I do not wear headphones or listen to music or podcasts. I listen to the wind, the trees, the birds, the layers and textures of sounds as they deepen the more I pay attention. Because not all omens will be physical. Some will drop into your channel, and that can’t happen if you are not present and open to receive it. Now, this practice alone sounds very ableist, for example what if one can not simply step out? I am certain that one can divine simply by looking out of a window, or even closing your eyes and feeling into the symbolic energy that seeks you, especially when we are in such permeable energetic times as we are in the omen days.
As mentioned before, the Omen days are really part of a larger threshold practice, and that includes the annual ritualistic purchase of a new journal. This year My emerging word energy is FECUND, and I wanted a journal that felt like it would hold and expand me in that energy. The leather scent and texture with the almost red earthy brown colour to me, felt fecund. Red brown earth reminds me so much of embers and dirt. This fecund energy has been revealing itself to me through my omens thus far, further rooting and centering me in the wider ceremonials.
So you will be receiving this as the Omen days have already “begun" however if it pikes your intrigue and you wish to weave it into to your year end rituals, I say there’s not a single reason that you can't begin now. Or tomorrow, or even in a few days time. Because if we have noticed anything through this, it is that time is defined by the observer.
Deepest gratitude for your continued support to my devotion inside The Void. It is never taken for granted. As a thank you, I have set up a special discount code for Cailleach's Cauldron Cave 1:1 sessions.
Use the code OMEN30 to receive 30% off and come sit in virtual ceremony with me during January or February. Code valid until January 6th 2026.
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