Holy Nights 2023-2024: Twelve Labors of Hercules

“At the end of the year I always have these intense dreams”  I say to a dream acquaintance from the Dutch Dream Society VSD.
My heart is covered by a black cloud of helpless rage over the murder of a man in a hospital. I’m behind glass and can’t do anything.  

I woke up from that dream and by noon I had not yet shaken off the depression. “No,” she said, “I’ve never noticed anything like that before.”
A few days later I receive a newsletter from Aad van Ouwerkerk in which he tells me that he is going on a trip to experience the Holy Nights. My curiosity was aroused: what are the Holy Nights?

The Holy Nights are the 12 days and 13 nights from Christmas to January 6. When the day is darkest and you feel lost, it is the time to tune into your inner light and (re)discover your own path in dreams. In 567, the second council of Tours designated the period from December 25 to January 6 as a sacred period. This age-old idea has lost none of its energy. When the days are dark, it is time to turn inward. Use your dreams to examine who you are, and how you want manifest yourself in the next twelve months.

Since I discovered the Holy Nights, I started to play with the concept. Every year a mythological winter God or Goddess plays the lead. For example, because of yet another inspiring dream where I learned that I belonged to the court of Camelot, I started looking for the feminine side of the Arthurian myth. To be honest, I thought those knights were just a bunch of weirdos who were only after power, prestige, and beautiful women. And so far, there was nothing new and spiritual going on in that regard. Then I discovered the book “Ladies of the Lake” written by Caitlin and John Matthews. This way I could explore both the male and female sides of this story. So night one was for Mother Goddess Igraine, night two was for wife Guinevere, night three was for Morgan and so forth until in the last night King Arthur appeared and danced around the lake with all his ladies.

Every year I try to find another winter God or Goddess . For example, Odin, also known as Wotan, archetype of Santa Claus, has also been the theme of the Holy Nights, as was winter Goddess the Cailleach, Frau Holle and last year the Holy Nights were centre around the twelve Olympian Gods. This year yea re going to explore the twelve works of Hercules.

At night you listen to the incubation on your phone in bed. Let the music and the story transport you to the land of dreams. In the morning you write down your dreams on the group Facebook page. Ancient belief says that every night a dreams speaks of the month of the next year. The first night is January, the second February, and so on to the twelfth night which would represent December. Sometimes dreams are strangely similar to the reality experienced in that month.

What also often happens is that the dreamers influence each other. Common themes are sensed and dreamed about. This is always a wonderful process, which makes the preparation for the new year even more festive. 

Hercules who has to fulfill twelve tasks. Each task is a step in his psychological growth. We start Christmas Eve December 24, 2023.

Since time immemorial, the Western Hemisphere has celebrated the reappearance of light around the solstice of December 21st. Every day of the Holy Nights we focus on a specific goal. The first day and night we concentrate on the rebirth of light in the outside and in our inner world. For this I take the 12 tasks of Hercules, who is sometimes also called Heracles. I choose to use the  Roman name Hercules because in the Netherlands we have a soccer team called Heracles and I can’t help but associate that name with soccer.

Hercules was a typical male: a muscular hunk. A kind of Arnold Schwarzenegger avant la lettre. He got it from no stranger: his mother was a beautiful princess: Alcmene. When Zeus saw her he was immediately crazy about her. However, there was one small detail: she was married to Amphytron.

So, being Chief God, Zeus changed his appearance to that of… you guessed it: Amphytron. Zeus rushes to the marital bed and that very night Alcmene becomes pregnant. Because he is the son of the supreme god Zeus, Hercules is incredibly strong. Zeus had Hera by his side, but his union with her was only a formality in his eyes. Hera, on the other hand, became furious every time he cheated on her (and believe me, that was quite often). Ever since Hercules was born, Hera had been tormenting him. She sent him challenge after challenge.

His first name was Alkeides, but as he did more good deeds his name became Hercules. Yes, you’re right: he was named after his greatest enemy: Hera. That is immediately a wise lesson: hero Hercules grows and regains his identity through his greatest enemy. At one point, Hera causes Hercules to go mad and kill his wife Megara and their children. When he realized what he had done, he went to his half-brother Apollo, God of the sun, poetry, and medicine. Apollo lives in Delphi for several months of the year (for three winter months he vanishes to an untraceable place and Dionysus takes over). And through the famous oracle at Delphi, Apollo sends Hercules to King Eurysteus. This man will give him assignments and if he can fulfill them all, then he can join the Gods on Olympus. Well, you can understand how the prospect of immortality motivates Heracles. Now there was a reason that Eurysteus didn’t like Heracles that much. They were related; they had the same grandfather Perseus. Perseus was a great hero but… also a son of Zeus (!). And because Hercules would actually have been born a little earlier than Eurysteus, if Hera had not stopped the birth of Heracles, Eurysteus’ kingdom Tyrins would have been under the reign of Hercules. So if you are having family troubles remember, it can always be worse. Your grandfather can be your uncle if your father is Zeus.