An Esoteric Advent: Saint Thomas's Day

Saint Thomas's Day

Today is the Feast of Saint Thomas. This is another day little celebrated in America, but one with many fascinating traditional customs, worthy of a revival. 

Saint Thomas himself was, as you know, one of Jesus's apostles. After the Resurrection, Thomas made his way to India, where a community of Saint Thomas Christians exists to this day. He remains the patron saint of Indian and Syrian Christians to this day. Of course the Gospel attributed to him is very old, and may in fact pre-date the Canonical Gospels.

His Feast Day was one of many days during this time of year especially devoted to children. Given that, it seems appropriate to quote one of my favorite passages from the Gospel of Thomas:

 

Jesus saw infants being suckled. He said to his disciples, "These infants being suckled are like those who enter the kingdom."

They said to him, "Shall we then, as children, enter the kingdom?"

Jesus said to them, "When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same, so that the male not be male nor the female female; and when you fashion eyes in the place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, and a likeness in place of a likeness; then will you enter the kingdom.

 

Traditional Celebrations

In Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Clement Miles opens the section on Saint Thomas's Day by simply saying: "Many and various are the customs and beliefs associated with the feast of St. Thomas." In Denmark, it was the last day of school for the year; the children would bring their masters an offering of candles, and he would provide them with a feast. More interestingly, in some areas the children were made masters of their own schools for a day; testaments to their scholarship were written out, and they were given titles like "Pope" or Emperor." In some areas, the children would lock their schoolmaster out of the building, or even tie him to his chair; he had to buy back his freedom with punch and cakes. In other regions, the schoolmaster provided his charges with hens, and let them chop their heads off.

During the age of Christendom (the "Middle Ages"), there were many such festivals, known collectively as "feasts of misrule." What they all had in common was that ordinary social customs were suspended, or upended; lords served their serfs and parents their children. These sorts of customs are, or were, found in many parts of the world. At Rome, this is how the god Saturn was celebrated at his great feast of Saturnalia, which fell during what is now the Christmas season. These customs have a re-balancing effect on society, allowing grievances to come out and tensions to relax.

St. Thomas's Day was also a good time for magic of various kinds. In some regions, divination was practiced of the same sort as on St. Lucy's Day, with girls performing various rituals to learn the names of their future husbands. In others, St. Thomas himself turned up in the churchyards, riding a flaming chariot. Then all the dead men whose name had been Thomas in life rose from their graves, and accompanied the saint to the cross, which now glowed red with power. At home, the people listened for the sound of the chariot. When it was heard, they would pray to the saint for health and protection.

St Thomas's Day was a "smoke night" in Austria-- one of the nights in which the house was blessed with incense. Elsewhere, it was also a good night to bless the animals, especially the cows. In certain parts of Germany the cows and their barn were blessed with holy water and consecrated salt by the father of the household. "St Thomas preserve thee from all sickness," he prays as he sprinkles each cow with salt. In other areas, the cows are fed with a blend of consecrated bayberries, bread, and salt, in order to avert evil and illness.

Suggestions for Practice

The customs traditionally associated with this feast day are many, and quite different from one another. Some of them are probably unavailable to us in modern America-- our villages won't be crowning a boy bishop, nor will most of our children have a chance either to behead a hen or to lock out their schoolmasters. But with some creativity, we can catch the spirit of Thomas's Feast Day celebrations of old-- and add some new ideas of our own.

So here are a few possibilities:

1. The Feast of Misrule. This requires a bit of preparation-- or, at least, mental preparation. But if you have children, this might be a good day to grant them-- well, if not the entire day, then a part of it in which they can run the house. (Because I'm a masochist, I just told my ten year old son about this, and suggested that, in the spirit of St. Thomas's Day, he and his baby sister could be in charge of the house tomorrow evening. My only stipulation was that he listen to me discuss the saint at dinner and share in a prayer. He was delighted by the prospect.)

2. Divination. Like Saint Lucy's Day, this is a good traditional day for divination practices.

3. Meditation. Today, consider taking some aspect from the traditions of Saint Thomas as a theme for meditation. If you are an orthodox practitioner, the appearance of Jesus to Thomas depicted in the icon at the top of this page would be appropriate. If you're willing to dip into Gnostic ideas, consider the passage from the Gospel of Thomas I quoted above.

4. Blessing the House and the Animals. Most of us don't have cattle or barns, but we can still bless our homes and what animals we do have on this day. Holy water for blessing can be found at most Catholic or Orthodox churches. The stuff you find at Catholic churches these days is rather weak, as the ritual used to bless it was deliberately hobbled during the "reforms" of the last century. Weak doesn't mean useless, though; I just find its energy rather thin and pale. If you don't have it, you can take an ordinary cup of water (rainwater is best, but your tap will do), make the sign of the cross over it, and say a prayer like "May this water be blessed and become an agent of divine grace in the service of Thy mysteries, to drive away evil spirits and dispel sickness, so that every-thing in the homes and other buildings of the faithful that is sprinkled with this water may be rid of all uncleanness and freed from every harm. Through Christ our Lord. Amen."

A Ritual for the Censing of a House

You will want to use good quality incense for this. Any combination of frankincense, myrrh, sandalwood, or benzoin, will do nicely. Palo santo sticks are also good-- you can use them by themselves, but I also like to melt a couple of grains of frankincense resin onto one. If you are using stick incense, good choices are Korean jing kwan or any of the daily incenses offered by Shoyeido.

Set up your prayer space as usual, and put an extra bit of incense-- a stick or loose resin-- in the center of your altar or working table.

1. Standing, make the sign of the cross.

You can enhance the sign of the cross by visualizing a fiery column of light descending from an infinite distance above your head. Draw the light to your brow with the words "In the name of the Father." Lower your hand to your solar plexus, and visualizing the light descending into the heart of the Earth, with the words "And of the Son." Extend the light outward into infinite space to your left and right as you touch your shoulders and say "And of the Holy Spirit." Bring your hands together at your heart and chant the word "AMEN," in such a way that you can feel a vibration in your chest. As you so so, visualize a sphere of golden light surrounding your heart. Now, all the sphere to expand until you and your prayer space are surrounded with a sphere of golden divine light.

 

2. With hands together at your chest, lower to your knees, bow your head, and pray the Our Father, 3 Hail Marys, and Glory Be. Know that the Hail Marys also invoke the theological virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity. 

3. Perform the asperges with holy water and the censing with incense, using the prayers previously given. In a pinch, you can use ordinary water into which a little bit of salt has been added. Before using it, make the sign of the cross over it and ask God for his blessing.

4. Standing, with hands in the orans posture, pray the prayer of the Holy Spirit:

 

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful and enkindle in them the fire of Thy love.

 

Send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be created, and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.

 

Let us pray.

 

O God, Who didst instruct the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit, grant us in the same Spirit to be truly wise, and ever to rejoice in His consolation, through Christ, our Lord. AMEN.

5. As you chant the word AMEN, visualize a great torrent of white light pouring down from the heavens, above you. Slowly lower your hands over the extra piece of incense, and imagine the white light of the Spirit pouring forth from your hands. Continue until the incense is filed with pure white light.

6. Trace the sign of the cross over the incense, and say a prayer, such as: "Creature of incense, I bless thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Receive the blessing of God, and become an agent of grace, that whatsoever is blessed by thee shall be purified of all spiritual darkness and opened to the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Through Christ our Lord, AMEN."

7. Light the incense stick or place loose grains on the charcoal in your incense burner. Raise it up high and say, “We offer thee incense, O Christ our God, for an odor of spiritual fragrance. Receive it upon your heavenly altar and send down upon us, in return, the gift of your Holy Spirit.”

8. Now you can use it cense your home. I usually do this by drawing a small cross in the corners of every room and another very large one in the center, the last one accompanied by the words "Let this room be blessed in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, through Christ our Lord, AMEN." I also draw large crosses in front of the door, with words like "Let this door be blessed and let all who walk through it be blessed, and let no spiritual darkness or machination of the Enemy enter into this home. Through Christ our Lord, AMEN." At the end I'll stand in a place which represents the center of the house-- this is usually the kitchen-- and draw another large cross, and ask for divine blessing over the whole home and all its inhabitants.

9. Close in the usual way, returning to your prayer space and saying a suitable prayer, such as the Fatima Prayer or the Prayer of Saint Francis.

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