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Saint Lucy

Today is Saint Lucy's Day, a feast little kept in America, even among Catholics. Historically, it was celebrated throughout much of the Old World. Let's talk about Saint Lucy, and some of the traditional customs of her feast day, and then discuss how we might engage with her in our magical practice.

The Life of Saint Lucy

Saint Lucy lived in Syracuse during the time of the Emperor Diocletian's persecution of the Christians. A Christian herself, she dedicated her virginity to the Church. Unfortunately, when she was young her father died, and her mother decided to find a husband for her; she therefore had her betrothed to a wealth young man from a pagan family. Before we condemn her mother, it's worth remembering those times, "property" was still a kind of religious institution, held by males in a particular family line; it consisted of tending a family sacred fire, and making offerings to the spirits of the family's ancestors. Lacking a male head of household, women were more or less out of luck.

Now, it happened that Lucy's mother had a bleeding condition, which had troubled her for quite some time. Either Lucy's mother or Lucy herself--stories vary-- made a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Agatha; in either case, St. Agatha visited Lucy in a dream and told her that her mother's faith would heal her. Lucy's mother was promptly healed, and agreed to give away all of her considerable wealth, even as Jesus enjoins his followers in the Gospels.

Word of this reached Lucy's fiancée, who was less than pleased, as the wealth that Lucy's mother gave away had necessarily to include Lucy's dowry. He ratted the girl out to Paschasius, the governor of Syracuse, who had her arrested.

While imprisoned, Lucy foretold the death of Paschasius and the end of Diocletian's persecutions. Enraged, the governor had her eyes torn out, and sentenced her to be defiled in a brothel. When her guards attempted to take her to the brothel, however, they found they were unable to move her. Resolving to burn her instead, they heaped wood about her, but it refused to light. Finally, one of the guards thrust his sword through her throat, and it seems that did the trick. One very often finds these two or three part deaths in the lives of the saints, and I suspect a close examination of them in meditation would be very fruitful. At her funeral, it was discovered that her eyes had been miraculously restored; of course, her prophecies later came true, as Paschasius met his end, and so did the purges of Diocletian. 

Traditional Celebrations

Over the long centuries of Christendom many different customs sprang up around Saint Lucy's Day. In Sweden it was called "Little Yule" and marked the beginning of the Christmas festival. There it was the custom for a girl to dress in a white robe with a red sash, wear a crown in which 9 lit candles were placed, and wake everyone up early with coffee and a special song. The family then had a fine breakfast together in a room lit with candles, and even the household animals were given special treats. 

In Sicily St. Lucy's Day is celebrated with torchlit processions and bonfires. We can see that one of the main themes of her celebration is the presence of light. Lucy's name is a cognate of the Latin lux, meaning light, and it's been speculated that this is the reason for the focus on light during her festival. I would suggest, rather, that two things never resemble one another by "coincidence," but only because they participate in a common energy. Our forebears, wiser than we, knew this, and so knew that God would not have given Lucy a name to remind us of Light for no reason.

Other St. Lucy's Day customs relate to divination in particular. In Denmark, girls traditionally made use of St. Lucy's Day to discover the names of their future husbands. In Austria, it was a time to cense the house to ward off witchcraft. Miles also describes a very interesting St. Lucy's Day tradition from the same region:In America, immigrant communities from Sweden, Sicily and elsewhere have preserved versions of the St. Lucy's Day custom in certain parts of the country, particularly the Midwest. Unlike the Christmas Tree, however, these traditions haven't spread beyond those communities into the country as a whole, and now they are in danger of dying out altogether as the patchwork of European cultures that marked the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries continues to fade into the crumbling postindustrial gray of the 21st. The question before us is whether we can revive the older traditions, or, what would in my view be much better, re-work them into something suitable for our own time. And, I would add, for my countrymen (who compose the majority of this blog's readership), rework them into something uniquely American, rather than European. 

Suggestions for Practice on Saint Lucy's Day

We can see from the foregoing that there are two major themes associated with St. Lucy's Day. These are the celebration of light in the darkness of Winter, which is, of course, the major theme of the Christmas season as a whole and the practice of divination. Of course, these are not at all unrelated. Rather than vain or anxious fortune-telling, the true purpose of divination is to open our inner eye to the Hidden Light of the spiritual world, in which Time does not run the way it does here.

In meditation, today, we can contemplate the life of Saint Lucy, asking for the courage to face death as she did, and the wisdom to know hidden things, as she did. 

We can also use this day as an opportunity for divination. Sitting at our altars, with a candle lit, we might imagine that a new light begins to enter the world today, bringing with it the first hint of the year to come. Taking a moment to be aware of the light, we might then make our divinations, asking what we might need to know about the year ahead of us. 

Now, many of you already read tarot cards or geomancy, or practice horary astrology, and these methods will do just fine. For those of you who don't have a regular practice of divination, you might consider taking down a Bible, asking for a particular verse to guide you in the year to come, and opening it at random. 

Now, it needs to be said that divination can be, and often is, misused; this is one of the reasons that many spiritual traditions warn against it. Its proper use is best described in the book of Acts, Chapter 1, Verses 23-26. In this scene, the apostles are trying to figure out who should replace Judas, the traitor: