The O, Antiphons

the Mysterium Tremendum

This last week before Christmas may provoke panic. You may still need to finish decorating, baking, shopping, wrapping, or card writing. You may be exhausted. 

Would it help if you had something ancient, otherworldly, and awe-inspiring to shift you from doing to being? 

Advent (yes, we're still in Advent) is all about waiting and stillness. I began this season at Celtic Advent, which you can read about here. 

Celtic Advent is older, earthier, and slightly wilder. It's tied to the seasons and working the land. 

Now that we're approaching the final Sunday of Advent, the winter solstice, and Christmas Eve, our focus has become more celestial. Archetypal and ancient imagery replaced farm work and the shift to winter chores that opened Celtic Advent.

It's time to turn our attention to ancient wisdom and the divine workings that govern this season. 

The O, Antiphons begin on Saturday, December 17th ( Update: Sunday, Dec. 17th, for 2023)and continue one each day until December 23rd. 

You may not know what these are, but if you know the traditional Christmas carol (actually an Advent carol), O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, then you know some of them. That hauntingly beautiful song of longing is based on the O, Antiphons. 

These short prayers are just the thing to move us from busyness, baking, and buying to a contemplation of the highest order. 

In monastic communities, the O Antiphons accompany the Magnificat during vespers from December 17-23. They serve to mark out these nights as unique. They do what all powerful oral traditions do. They tell a story of the ancestors, recall the struggles and tell of hope for a bright future. The O Antiphons are like the story of the once and future king.  

Paired with the Magnificat, Mary's song of social justice, the O Antiphons, move us into Christmas by stripping away the tinsel and exposing the radicalness of what transpires. 

An antiphon is a short text that is chanted or sung responsively. The O Antiphons likely date to sixth-century Italy, when Boethius refers to them in The Consolation of Philosophy.

Their power lies in the Latin words paired with the imperative come!

• December 17th: O Sapientia (O Wisdom)

• December 18th: O Adonai (O Lord)

• December 19th: O Radix Jesse (O Root of Jesse)

• December 20th: O Clavis David (O Key of David)

• December 21st: O Oriens (O Morning Star)

• December 22nd: O Rex Gentium (O King of the Nations)

• December 23rd: O Emmanuel (O With Us is God)

Each night tells part of a mystical story, and I encourage you to enter the text with that in mind. You can see from the list above the symbolic nature of things like wisdom, root, key, and morning star (which is Venus). 

There's much more in these texts than what may appear at first reading. The gold is found beneath the surface. 

Go beyond the familiar. Mine the depths of the esoteric and symbolic content hidden within these verses.

• Notice how they begin with Wisdom, sapientia in Latin and sophia in Greek. Wisdom is Sophia. She is the feminine principle, who existed long ages ago before the beginning of the beginning. (Discover more about her in the book of Proverbs, chapter 8).

The mystical story continues each night.

• Who or what is the burning bush?

• What does the root (radix, from which we get the word radical) signify?

• What kind of power does the key + scepter hold?

• Why is Venus, the morning star, important here?

• What is the desire we all feel?

• What is the true meaning of Emmanuel, God with us?

These last nights of deepening darkness as we move towards both the winter solstice and Christmas hold a profound mystery. It’s a hidden truth that goes far deeper than surface stories and explanations.

This time of darkness is an invitation to enter into the Mysterium Tremendum.

The root of question is quest. Like the great knight Parsifal, who seeks the Holy Grail, you too can take up the quest.

I wish you well on your journey. Let me know in the comments what you discover along the way.