Mother Night and the Return of the Light

There is irony in the fifth O Antiphon

Latin:

O Oriens,

splendor lucis aeternae, et sol justitiae:

veni, et illumina sedentes in tenebris, et umbra mortis.

English:

O Morning Star,

splendour of light eternal and sun of righteousness:

Come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.

As Nox, Nyx and Nuit, Night is a primordial grandmother goddess. On the longest night of the year while she covers everything, the Light is reborn and promise restored.

Or if there is not irony, then there is anticipation. Every O Antiphon is sung in the evening, and this one is always sung on the evening of the longest night of the year. Oriens is the Morning Light, the Morning Star, Lucifer, the Radiant Dawn, the Rising Sun, but all of these things are sung as the longest night of the year approaches. The mystery celebrated is that the Holy Child will not be born until the darkest night is passing or has passed altogether. For most the Holy Child on the back of the Roebuck is Jesus, born three nights after the Solstice, but even if the birth is celebrated tonight, still, it is celebrated on the other side of midnight, after most of the night has passed.

In the day we remembered The Veiled One, he who is called Saturn and Odin and Tinia. As we went to the island and cut the thorns and berries and brought them back, we remembered the one who makes tyrannical kings impotent and clears the way for new life. Tonight we rest under the brooding shadow of Mother Night and wait for the brilliant Light to be reborn. This darkness is not the shadow of death. This is the original holy darkness. In the morning the Bright One, Llew, the Christ, will come and sanctify the day, but for now, Mother Nyx has come to sanctify the night.

We need that holy night, and we wait for the blessing of the day. We do not know who the holy child is, not really? We do not understand the mystery, and for the most part, are too superficial, too frightened to delve in. And yet, here he comes anyway, the One we long for and fear.