Sunwait is the emerging NeoPagan phenomenon of acknowledging the approach of the winter solstice, instead of the Christian habit of honoring the month or so leading up to Christmas. It’s probably (as one of my teachers said), a ritual in search of a theology, but it also seems to arise from a genuine need to help kids (and adults!) count down to big events. (There’s other day-counting procedures in religious communities around the world, too, such as the Counting of the Omer in Judaism, which is the verbal counting of the 49 days between the festivals of Pesach’s second day (Nisan 16) and Shavuot — with Shavuot occurring on the fiftieth day.)
In any case, counting poems and counting songs are usually great fun for children (and adults), and maybe both of these can become part of the material used at this time of year.
Sunwait Count
Ten peerless lordlings, leaping before the throne;
Eleven are the pipers, calling spirits home.
Twelve are the drummers, making magic real;
Nine are the ladies, dancing how they feel.
Eight milking maidens, gathering up the cream;
Seven swans all swimming, circling in the stream.
Listen to the twittering wrens, singing four-fold tunes;
Two are the turtle-doves, who write the dust like runes.
Now see the partridge, wings fanned out and free,
All shall find the fruit at last — the pear upon the tree.
This began as something silly and turned into something more serious.
Kids may find the ordering here to be confusing; it’s not a simple countdown song. It may be helpful to point out that 10+11+12 = 33, corresponding to the 33 days of Sunwait, 33 days before the Solstice, in three groups of 11 days (or three new beginnings, per the next piece). The actual revelers (lordlings, pipers, drummers, ladies) have a total value of forty-two (42), which the sci-fi humorist Douglas Adams pointed out is Life, The Universe and Everything. The value of all the mortals (lordlings, pipers, drummers, ladies, maidens) is fifty (50) matched against the fourteen (14) of the animal world, and the one (1) of the plant world: This is a season intended for human celebration, and yet it’s also a season in which some people must still do work (maidens gathering up the cream), and we owe them both their dignity and their pay. It’s also season in which we can do some things for animals and some things for plants which benefit them — but we must give those animals both space and time, and we must not overwhelm them.
As for missing numbers, the lack of six (6), five (5), and three (3)… in Qabalah, these are the number for the Sun (six, which is ‘weak’ or ‘missing’ in the time of Sunwait), the number for Mars (five, representing conflict and contention), and the number for Saturn (three, representing limitation, death, endings, obstacles, and difficulty). Overall, the poem is inviting us to have a season of Sunwait that lacks the Sun’s warmth, but also avoids the conflict and tedium of both Mars and Saturn.
So the poem hints at new beginnings in the first three lines, and then begins the process of counting down to Solstice, promising a season in which the noise and joy that the human world makes, is simultaneously echoed by the noise and joy of the animal world, and the promise that the green life of the plant world will eventually return and bring forth food as it does at other times of the year.
Sunwait Teaching Song
C: Come and I will sing you
R: What will you sing me?
C: I will sing you twelve of them.
R: What shall be the twelve of them?
C/R: Twelve for the signs of the sacred year;
Eleven for the start of something new;
Ten for the measure of time and space;
Nine for the ancient Muses;
Eight for the eight great Feast-Days;
Seven for the seven stars in the sky;
Six for the six parts of the mind;
Five for the form of mortals;
Four for the modes of matter;
Three for the three great trials;
Two for the Solstice maids in green:
All: One is One and One alone — and ever shall remain so!
As might be expected, this was originally a Christmas or Advent song from the English Renaissance or early Enlightenment period. With a little bit of adjustment, it can be used to teach a variety of ‘secrets’ that might be useful in NeoPagan households. Like The Twelve Days of Christmas, its twelve verses are sung in rising order, e.g., “a partridge in a pear tree” the first time around, and then “two turtle-doves and a partridge in a pear tree” the second time, then “three French hens, two turtle-doves and a partridge in a pear tree” on the third time, and so on until all twelve days are concluded.
Here, the C: stands for a caller, while R: stands for responders. In the body of the verse, the Caller introduces the new line at the start of each verse, and the responders call back the sections of the verse already introduced. So on the eighth verse, the caller sings “eight for the eight great Feast-Days” and the whole company, caller and responders, continue with “Seven for the seven stars in the sky, six for the six parts of the mind,” and so on. All join in celebrating the unity of the Cosmos, and its unending, eternal nature.
Each line of the song offers an opportunity to talk to children (and adults!) about some aspect of NeoPagan culture and community —
One – the Cosmos appears to be the largest and most unified ‘thing’ that there is: we are all merely parts of it, and there is no part of the whole which does not partake of the whole. We’re made of the same stuff as stars.
Two – The Summer and the Winter Solstice are celebrated with greenery — the green of deciduous leaves in the summer, and evergreen boughs in the winter. We’re wholly dependent for our existence on the interrelationship between sunlight and plant life.
Three – the three great trials are Life, Death, and Rebirth. We’re born into this world, we’re guaranteed to die, and (through the mysteries of recycled matter and energy), likely to be reborn again though in what shape and material and beings, it’s hard to say. In some communities, these three great trials are reflected in the lesser trials of first-second-third degree initiations.
Four — The modes of matter seem to correspond to earth/solids, water/liquids, air/gasses, and fire/plasma. Ancient sources call these “elements” but we should understand them as the four principal parts of the Cosmos as a whole.
Five – “Mortals”, meaning people or humans, in general have two arms, two legs, and a head. What skin color they have, or what culture they belong to, or what religion they practice, has little to do with whether they’re people. We try to get along with people, and we don’t harm them unless they try to harm us.
Six – In classical and medieval European sources, the mind is said to be composed of Intellect (the ability to reason), Memory (the ability to recall facts and experiences), Sense (the ability to examine and study the world of here and now), Motion (the ability to imagine itself moving through space and time, and to experience desires), Life (the ability to animate the body in alignment with its Motion), and Essence (to be aware of itself and of other minds around it).
Seven – The Seven Stars in the sky is a reference to either the seven visible classical planets (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn), or the modern seven mainline planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune), and their astrological associations. Each of the classical planets is also associated with a liberal art, a vice, and a virtue.
Eight – The eight common feast days of many NeoPagan traditions are the two solstices (Yule and Litha), the two equinoxes (Ostara and Mabon), and the four cross-quarter days (Imbolc, Beltane, Lammas and Samhain).
Nine – The nine Muses of Ancient Greece are Clio (history), Erato (literature), Euterpe (music), Thalia (comedy), Polymnia (sacred poetry and theology), Melpomene (tragedy), Terpsichore (dance and movement), Urania (astronomy, geometry, and mathematics), and Calliope (rhetoric, logic, and epic). Their inclusion is a reminder that quality education is well-rounded and desired.
Ten – The Categories of Aristotle are a mental process for studying or examining any thing or system: 1) position (location in space and time); 2) action (what it does); 3) affection (what acts upon it); 4) Space (what volume of length, width, depth it occupies; 5) Time (what volume of time it occupies, measured in seconds or centuries); 6) Substance (what is it made of); 7) Quality (how well is it made or assembled); 8) Quantity (how many are there); 9) Relation (what is it attached to or how does it interact with other parts of the whole); and 10) State (what is it doing right now).
Eleven – eleven, in English and in other languages, was often understood as ten, and then the start of the second ten. It thus represents the start of a new cycle after the completion of the old.
Twelve – The twelve signs of the zodiac, namely Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces.
