The Eve of the Epiphany
Entering the Womb of Light
As the sun descends on the eve of Epiphany, we arrive at a sacred threshold.
This night we experience a powerful culmination.
The Twelve Holy Days of Christmas complete their arc.
The mysteries of Christmas, the turning of the year, and the quiet unfolding of January converge into a single moment of revelation.
In many ancient spiritual traditions, the true New Year does not begin on January 1st. It begins on January 6th, the Feast of Epiphany. Only after the light has been carried, gestated, and protected through the hidden days does revelation fully arrive. Epiphany is the moment when what has been forming in silence becomes visible. In Spain, we celebrate the Epiphany with the arrival of the 3 Kings that bring gifts to the children and we also exchange gifts on the Eve of the Epiphany, so Christmas lasts a bit longer where I live!
The word epiphany means manifestation, appearing, unveiling. It is the moment when truth reveals itself, not through force, but through readiness.
What Epiphany Truly Means
Epiphany is often remembered through the story of the Magi following a star, offering gifts to a child newly revealed, Yeshua. Yet mystically, Epiphany is not only a historical event. It is a living inner experience.
Throughout the Twelve Holy Days of Christmas, we are held within the Cosmic Womb—a liminal space between darkness and light, between what has ended and what has not yet taken form. These days mirror gestation. They invite stillness, containment, and trust.
Epiphany marks the moment when the inner star becomes visible.
When the Christ Light within us takes form.
When we recognize what has been quietly born through our waiting.
This revelation is intimate and subtle, often it is recognized only by the heart.
Epiphany is deeply intertwined with the number 6 and with the ancient Marian devotional prayer known as the Angelus Prayer, traditionally recited three times a day:
at dawn (6 a.m.), noon (12 p.m.), and sunset (6 p.m.). On January 6th, 2025, I started this prayer practice and have kept it every single day, reciting the Angelus 3 times a day, and I will continue for another year. This prayer has taken me into the depths of the Marian Mystery and Her Revelation through us.
The number six is the number of harmony, beauty, and embodiment. It is associated with Mother Mary, with the heart that unites heaven and earth, spirit and matter.
Vav, the sixth letter of the Aramaic – Hebrew alphabet, holds the gematria of number 6. It is the letter of connection, its shape being a single vertical line linking Heaven and Earth.
In the mystery of the Incarnation, the Divine does not remain above. The Divine descends so as to inhabit matter, to dwell within us.
Vav is the letter of this descent.
It represents the axis through which Spirit enters form, the breath that moves from the unseen into the body.
The Angelus is a prayer of incarnation:
“And the Word was made flesh,
and dwelt among us.”
Each recitation marks a moment when the invisible enters the visible. When eternity touches time. When Divine Presence chooses nearness.
On the eve of Epiphany, as the sun sets, the final Angelus of the Twelve Holy Days becomes a threshold prayer. It seals the gestation. It completes the cycle of descent and prepares the soul for revelation.
In Marian iconography, Mary is often crowned with twelve stars—an image drawn from the Book of Revelation, ancient cosmology, and earlier zodiacal wisdom. These stars represent the twelve archetypal frequencies of creation, the pathways through which consciousness unfolds.
During the Twelve Holy Days, we are symbolically bathed in these twelve frequencies. We are re-patterned, re-aligned, gently recalibrated. Each day activates a different facet of the soul’s journey—love, wisdom, courage, surrender, devotion, and union.
Epiphany marks the completion of this blessing.
We emerge from the Womb of the Mother not as who we once were, but as who we are becoming.
The Christ Light is what we ultimately uncover and re-awaken. Something that has always been present, waiting for the right conditions to be revealed.
Epiphany reminds us that resurrection does not happen after the darkness, it happens within it. The dark night is not a punishment or an interruption of the path. It is the womb of transformation.
When we remain present instead of fleeing the unknown, something luminous begins to form. The soul learns how to see in the dark. The heart learns how to trust without guarantees.
From that depth, new life quietly rises.
As January 6th dawns, the New Year truly begins, not as a demand to become someone else, but as an invitation to live from what has already been revealed.
Epiphany teaches us that revelation does not arrive through striving, control, or urgency. It arrives through devotion, presence, and willingness.
Tonight, as the light fades and the stars emerge, we stand at a sacred crossing. What has been carried in secret now seeks expression in the world.
May we honor what has been born within us.
May we trust the light we now carry.
And may this Epiphany be a luminous beginning for all of us.
Blessings to all of you an this blessed Feast Day of the Epiphany. I have shared below my favourite version of the Angelus.
Ahava,
Ana Otero
