Day 4/12

Today marks the fourth day of the 12 Days of Dreaming. This is a day held across cultures with reverence, warmth, and remembrance.

In Norse and Heathen traditions, this day is associated with the Deer Mother, a symbol of quiet guidance and sustenance through the deepest part of winter. She represents what nourishes us when resources feel scarce… the instinct, generosity, and the unseen pathways that keep us moving forward even in darkness.

This day also carries echoes of the Wild Hunt, led by Odin, when ancestral spirits are said to move close to the living world. Rather than fear, this presence offers continuity: a reminder that we are not separate from those who came before us. Their wisdom, resilience, and unfinished stories move through us still.

In Icelandic tradition, this day was marked not by solitude, but by feasting and toasting. Communities gathered to share food, drink, and stories. They honored peace, prosperity, and the gods. Odin appears here not as the relentless wanderer, but as a figure of wisdom and generosity, reminding us that gratitude and connection are sacred acts. To toast was to bless the bond between people, season, and fate.

For modern Pagans, Day Four turns the heart toward gratitude and the virtue of love. This isn’t just romantic love alone, but the love that shows up as compassion, forgiveness, and understanding. It is an invitation to soften without collapsing, to open without self-abandonment, and to recognize connection as nourishment.

This love is sustenance.

Looking ahead to April, we enter a different energy entirely.

In Iceland, April once marked the return of movement. Ships were prepared. Ice loosened its grip. Journeys resumed, some for trade, some for exploration, some for risk. It was the season when intention met action and the unknown was no longer something to endure, but something to meet.

The tarot card drawn for April is the Ace of Disks.

If March was about momentum, riding the wave, trusting the path, April arrives with a seed.

Aces always signal beginnings, but the Ace of Disks is not abstract or theoretical. It speaks to beginnings that want to take form. This is creation entering the material world: projects, finances, skills, structures, foundations.

This card carries the promise of something real being born. It isn’t something that happens all at once, but through commitment and care.

When I look at the arc from January through April, the story becomes clear:

January aligns the will. February clears the heart. March teaches balance in motion. And April offers fertile ground.

The Ace of Disks is often associated with the words:

To know.
To will.
To dare.
To keep silence.

This is not flashy magic. It is deliberate. Grounded. Patient.

In the Tabula Mundi deck, the seed is not buried in soil. It rests upon a lotus floating on the Nile, waters associated with Sebek, the crocodile god which is both devourer and creator. Life and destruction braided together. What consumes also shapes. What threatens also protects.

Nothing is guaranteed safe, but everything is alive.

And here, I am reminded of something simple and true:

A seed does not question what it is.

An acorn does not wonder if it deserves to become an oak. It does not rush. It does not compare. It carries the codes of its becoming and waits for the conditions that allow it to emerge.

Perhaps this is the invitation of April.

To trust what has already been placed within me. To act when the moment arrives. To nourish what wants to grow without forcing it, and without doubt.

Gratitude for what sustains. Love for what connects. And faith in the quiet intelligence of the seed that has been planted within.

Affirmation:
“I know what I carry. I act when the moment is right, and I let the rest unfold.”

Always,
Your Trusted Friend ✨