Merry Meet and Bright Blessings at Yule
Many have asked about the celebrations and traditions of Yule / Winter Solstice and I will try to answer as generically as possible. I follow a Celtic Path, with a focus on the Goddess, but not exclusively. There will be others that follow different paths – and their celebrations and histories will have variations.
Yule begins on the shortest day and the longest night of the year. This year Solstice begins at 1:35pm est on December 21, 2005. Celebrations in many homes will begin at sunset on Yule.
Yule – Winter Solstice
Typically beginning on December 20 or 21st, Yule spans twelve days ending Yule Night on December 31st. Using the Julian calendar it would occur on December 25th. Yule is the first of the solar festivals and the first Sabbat of the new year. This is also one, if not the holiest of the 8 Sabbats, depending on your Path.
The most accepted of the Celtic tales of Yule begins when the Holly King battles the Oak King in a fight to the death. The Holly King can be associated with many aspects of God. The year that has passed, or Father Time, death, or if you look at the king through nature, he can be associated with the old stallion who must fight for his position as the head of the heard. In the battle, the Holly King loses to the Oak King. Who represents the new year, the young stallion claiming his position over the heard. He is also called the Divine Child. The newborn aspect of God.
As a Pagan celebrant, it is a time for each of us to put to rest the old lessons, battles and issues that need to be released. It is a time to let go of those things that hold you back and move on into the new year with a fresh view and perspective.
For many Pagans that follow the Goddess traditions, it is also a time to honor the Triple Goddess. Celebrating the birth and purity of the Maiden, the life and nurturing of the Mother, and the wise knowledge of the old Crone.
For many traditions or paths this is also a time of celebrating the gifts brought to you by family and friends. These are not the traditional Christmas gifts of material goods. These are the gifts of spiritual growth and understanding, of communication and sharing. As the Oak King is born, the essence of that spirit is also born within ourselves, and honoring that birth is also part of the festival on Yule Night. This is perhaps where the exchange of gifts at Christmas originated from. So decorating the Yule tree and placing presents under it to be opened on Yule, is actually a very pagan event.
Sabbat Symbols
But here’s something you may not know; Yule has a lot more in common with Christmas than most people think. Many of the symbols and underlying meaning of both holidays are very similar, if not actually the same.
What many people associate as Christmas colors, were actually Pagan long before the birth of Christ. Red, White and Green bows, candles, and various other decorations can be placed around your home and alter. Honor the Holly King with holly wreaths, and the Oak King with decorations of a young Stag.
The Yule Tree should be cut at the beginning of the Sabbat and decorated with all the traditional colors and symbols. The tradition of a Christmas tree has its origins in the Pagan Yule celebration. Families would bring a live tree into the home so the wood spirits would have a place to keep warm during the cold winter months. Bells were hung in the limbs so you could tell when a spirit was present. Food and treats were hung on the branches for the spirits to eat and a five-pointed star, the pentagram, symbol of the five elements, was placed atop the tree.
Yule is celebrated by fire and the use of a Yule log. The practice of lighting the Yule Log has a special meaning of the return of the sun and making sure that light is in the home through the darkest night of the year.
If you choose to burn one, select a proper log of oak or pine (never Elder). Carve upon it a figure of the Sun (a rayed disc) or the Horned God (a horned circle). Set it alight in the fireplace at dusk, on Yule. This is a graphic representation of the rebirth of the God within the sacred fire of the Mother Goddess. As the log burns, visualize the Sun shining within it and think of the coming warmer days.
Traditionally, a portion of the Yule Log is saved to be used in lighting next year’s log. This piece is kept throughout the year to protect the home.Many traditions, currently called “eclectic”, mix in Christmas and Solstice. In our house, we keep a part of the prior year Christmas Tree as the Yule Log for the following year. We also have a very large pillar candle – that we scent with some of the holiday traditional herbs / essential oils. This candle is placed in a shallow, decorative pan of water and lit with a traditional solstice ritual. The candle is then placed in safe window or the center of the dining room table and is left to burn all night.
If you want to include the Triple Goddess in your decorations, select three special candles with small candle wreaths. Chooe a white candle with a wreath of spring flowers to represent the spring when all things emerge and grow for the Maiden. Choose a red candle with a wreath of roses or carnations, to represent the mid-life of summer and the Mother. Choose a dark green candle with a wreath of holy and pine, to represent the old Crone and winter season.
We hang Holly with it’s bright red berries and spiked dark green foliage. It is one of the revered plants of Solstice. In Celtic traditions Holly was looked upon as a luck bringer. Holly is also from a very protective tree which, if planted outside the house was believed to avert lightning, fire, and evil spirits.
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A Yule Ritual
The simplest ritual that I have found is the Continuity of Light. This traditionally involved banking of fires with remnants of the prior Yule Log and then re-igniting the light and warmth with this year’s Yule Log.
Our adaptation for suburban dwelling:
We will have a ritual of candle lighting and the lighting of the Yule Log.. The portion of last year’s pillar candle will be lit, and the flame from that candle will be used to light the ritual candles for this year. The ritual candle flames will be used to light the Yule Log.
The purpose of this ritual is the continuity of light from the darkest night into the renewal of the sun and the birth of the sun God.
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Whatever the choice of your holiday – I wish you bright blessings this during this beautiful holiday season. My heartfelt love to each of you and to this community of friends from around the world.
May you each find peace and joy in whatever path you walk.
May your beliefs be with you as strength and joy.
May you feel love and give love.
So mote it be!
I will try to answer any questions you may have and would invite other traditions and paths to share their celebrations as well.
I don’t have any questions but I just wanted to thank you for doing these diaries, SallyCat. I always learn something, and I love that.
Blessed be.
Learning is a lifelong gift – I’m glad I can share.
Blessings of the season to you IndyLib.
For this very interesting and informative diary. Every year I think I learn something new about the Pagan conspiracy to take over the world.
In the modern version, the stag is the reindeer, and the Divine Child is the infant Prophet Jesus.
And Mary becomes sort of a Goddess Trinity, the maid, the mother, and the old woman in one.
Most historians agree that it is most likely that Jesus was born in the spring, since that is when the Romans usually conducted census. It is always funny to see the depictions of the little family of blondes in the snowy stable. (Snow and blondes are very rare in Palestine 😉 )
And then there’s Mithra. But that would be hijacking…
I have discovered recently that as much as I am a Celtic Pagan I am also what can be called an Eclectic – incorporating Shamanism and Buddhism and other beliefs.
There are many aspects of different traditions that we take for granted – such as the English Boxing Day of dating back to the Roman Saturnalia. Adding another dimension would not be hijacking.
Please share…
I think most people, when you get down to it, are Eclectic. I’m Christian, but I’m fascinated by paganism, and happen to think that Christianity could afford to loosen up a little and acknowledge the pagan roots of many of its traditions. Doesn’t the Bible explicitly say that there are other Gods out there? (Heck, doesn’t it even allow for worshipping of them, provided that you remember that God and his son are #1?) And I don’t think anything that you’ve described even comes close to the “graven images” category.
Many of us have altars where we light candles and do rituals. These altars have our choices of statuary or other items that are visual cues for us.
Interestingly I find it no different than an image of Jesus in the chapel where I grew up Mormon, or Jesus on a cross in the Catholic church across the street, or the Virgin Mary in the convent next to where I work.
My path believes that all Gods are one God and all Goddesses one Goddess. This creates a peace for me that the supreme being in all religions and beliefs are basically the same.
Have a Merry Christmas Egarwaen and a Blessed New Year.
~ ~ ~
Oh but those graven images…interesting diary thought for spring!
The funny thing is that I believe the same thing. It may put me at odds with conventional Christianity, but seems to make more sense than a God that demands that everyone adhere to a single book of often contradictory rules or face eternal damnation.
Merry Yule and Blessed New year to you too!
And I can’t wait to see your diary!
I consider myself to be a Christian, but if I find something that makes sense in Buddhism, or Islam, or Paganism, or anywhere else, I’m not afraid to bring it into my life. I find there’s a great deal that makes sense in Taoism, for instance, although to the extent that I understand it at all, I seem to find myself working against Tao far too often. Those are the times when I tend to get into trouble — when I rush a job for the sake of a deadline or get into a needless hurry, for instance.
Sally, thank you for the diary and Yuletide blessings on you and your house!
Agreed. The Tao has a lot that seems to make sense, though I don’t know how well I understand it.
I’m not sure how well I understand it either. I wish I knew more Chinese than I do; I’d like to go dive into some of the texts, primarily of course the Tao Te Ching. (Basically I know about enough to recognize numbers and point to the character for pork on the menu at the Mandarin Gate restaurant.)
I’ve also read the book The Tao Of Pooh, which, while it has its shortcomings (just like most other books that seek to make a complicated philosophy accessible), it is quite entertaining.
Omir,
A book you might want to look for is Tao Te Ching: The Definitive Edition by Jonathan Star (2001). For each of the 81 verses/chapters, he gives the Chinese symbols and next to each of them, all of the possible English translations for that symbol, so you can decide for yourself what the best translation / real meaning is.
(The link is to Amazon; Powell’s seems to be out at the moment. There are also several copies available on Ebay)
There’s a website for The Art Of War, where every character is hyperlinked to a frame that gives the character in context with some of the ways it combines with other characters. Unfortunately it takes a long time to read a page that way. I think a book version would be much friendlier for this sort of thing.
There could be a site like this for Tao Te Ching; I don’t remember if I’ve ever looked or not. Thanks for the pointer!
not to “understand” it.
I read it in sort of a zen way, just letting the words evoke feeling rather than thoughts. It always seemed to me that thinking too deeply about Eastern spirituality got in the way of what that spirituality was all about.
So my recommendation would be to not worry if you don’t “understand” it; just sit, read, and let it do its thing.
For that White Christmas – we’ll find a way to get you to the mountains of Northern CA…
Merry Christmas to you and your wonderful family…blessings of this season that you find in your church and faith.
I was raised Taoist, a loose American version, but Taoist nonetheless. Having been interviewed for a comparative religions course, I know I can give the two hour version of what it’s all about, but I find that all of that is pretty much an elaboration on the basic two word version, “Live Beauty” with beauty encompassing the moral, the aesthetic, and the emotional. No matter what you’re doing try to do it beautifully, to give it your full attention and be happy and healthy and well while you do it. Oh, and as Booman has said, don’t be a dick.
I think the reason that Taoists and some of those raised in a Western tradition have some trouble understanding each other is that we grew up with a different set of questions. The root question of Western philosophy, at least IMHO, is “Why are we here?”
To a Taoist, or at least to a Taoist of my tradition that’s a meaningless question. It’s going to have a different answer for each person, and there is no way to determine if any of them are correct. The question I was raised to think of as central is “What should I do today?” or “How can I make today a thing of beauty?” it assumes that we’re here, and that we have a responsibility to the moment, that why can take care of itself.
And now, I’m going to stop rambling and get back to making today’s official task beautiful.
And it’s kind of sad that many philosophers appear to have given up and concluded “we aren’t”.
had to incorporate all kinds of “pagan” traditions into nascent Christianity to woo pagans away from their worship of the seasons, nature and LIFE. Also, as the Church became socially more omnipotent, those stubborn pagans forced themselves to incorporate their traditions into Christianity so that they could preserve their traditions under the guise of being seen as Christians by their neighbors.
Eventually the Church got much more control over the kingdoms of Europe, and began successive persecutions and slaughters such as the Albigensian Heresy and the infamous Inquisition. This pushed tremendous bodies of knowledge underground, and was labeled dark, occult, or witchcraft. But the traditions never really died. The occult knowledge of Europe was preserved by traditions such as Tarot, the Golden Dawn Society, and masters like Robert Fludd. Books like The Emerald Tablet were lost, but some of the knowledge, known as alchemy, was preserved.
The whole idea behind alchemy is NOT about the transmutation of lead to gold, that’s a gross materialistic interpretation of this fine art of understanding the processes of life in it’s cyclic structures. Back then, before electricity and abundant energy, the rhythms and cycles of the seasons were much more important (and poignant to survival) than now, Following and respecting the seasons was crucial for survival, and nothing was left to chance like today’s chaotic society greased by the power of money and energy.
Thus, the Solstices and Equinoxes had tremendous meaning and importance to people that they don’t have now. Quaint viewing of these traditions now are a bit insulting to the memory of those times, being most of human history . . . ah hem . . .
And of course, this respect for time, the seasons and planetary motions was true across the entire globe until the interlinking of our world by trade, business, electronics, satellites, telephone, etc. in the 20th Century. How quickly we forget our very recent pasts . . .
Shame.
Other people have already done such a good job that I will let them tell you about Mithra!
There are so many variations and yet such similarities between the eastern spiritual beliefs and the western ‘neo-pagan’ beliefs.
We can do more when the Spring Equinox occurs…Eostra – Goddess of Spring is one of my favorites.
Blessed Be Ductape Fatwa – may the spiritual guides from all sources be with you.
Thanks for this synopsis. It is fascinating that so many cultures recognized the seasons in very similar ways. The Sun God, or the Son of God, are aften represented. It is one of the reasons that I can understand Jung so well. I think he was right on about archetypes. I see the Gods and Goddesses as archetypes. In other words, they represent aspects of human nature or basic natural principals in the universe. We connect with them because we can perceive them within ourselves. So, no belief is the right belief for all, only the right belief on an individual basis.
Amen, my sister, Sally.
Beautiful and informative diary. I celebrate it all! One journey, many paths, all perfect.
Wondeful Holidays to you
Shirl
Please tell us about Mithra.
many historians also say there is no evidence for a historical Jesus the Christ, see:
The God Who Wasn’t There
or
The Christ Conspiracy (a book that opened my eyes quite a bit and now has a follow up in Suns of God)
The similarities between Jesus, Krishna, Orisis, Mithra, Tammuz, etc. lead one to consider the possibility that they are actually all the same story.
As a Christian, I don’t doubt in the least that Jesus’ story was elaborated on by subsequent people, hangers-on, and organizations. (Paul, in particular, I distrust very strongly) However, I do (of course) believe that the most important things actually happened.
Of course, I also happen to think that it’s possible for both to be true. In a properly quantum universe, why not?
Quantum. Fun word that!
except one thing… they all pre-date Jesus. it seems to me the story is older than time, or at least our recordings of time, and that Jesus is just the most recent iteration.
they could indeed all be “true” in some sense of the word, but try telling that to most “Christians” (I mean that, obviously, in the sense of those who profess to follow Christ’s path but are more concerned with casting stones than with spreading peace).
That doesn’t seem to be an except to me. It seems like an “and”, or possibly a “because”.
Of course, most Christians really don’t know what Christ said. They’re more concerned with following their simple little “get into Heaven” recipies. Never mind that Christ believed in following the spirit of the law, not the letter. (Which sort of trashes fundamentalism right from the get-go, doesn’t it?)
Around the first century AD. Like situation comedies, there was a formula, virgin birth, message of wisdom and peace, reviled, rejected and killed by authorities, reincarnated or resurrected in some way.
So how did the Jesus story emerge as the dominant one?
(((( Drumroll ))))
He had a Jewish PR team!
Thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all week.
Hey! That tomato wasn’t even ripe! No fair!
These great persons of our history all bring a similar message to humanity, to grow up and grow out of the old ways and learn to love and share. That the messages are similar doesn’t mean that these characters were either mistakenly mythologized as the same being, nor that they didn’t exist as real live human beings within their time frame. Maybe our 20th Century didn’t have enlightened masters in our public midst because it just wasn’t our century for one of them to gain public notoriety as Jesus or Krishna or the Buddha did in their times.
There are always enlightened being amongst us, we may not recognized them, or give them any credit or justification because we are swept up in the materialism and glamours of out insane, superficial and glitzy age.
In the 20th century I would add the names of Ghandi and Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King Jr. as spiritual leaders that changed the world by their presence.
Thank you for sharing tonight Isis…may you be blessed with the joys and love of the season – all year long.
I’m not sure why you would take the trouble to invent such a personage as Rabbi Yeshua bin Yusuf when it would be so much easier to use someone of that name who actually lived as a hook to build your story around, if you were going to do that sort of thing.
I also have little doubt that, whatever else he may have said or done, Rabbi Yeshua (or Joshua, or in its Greek form, Jesus) drew a great deal upon the teachings of Hillel. You remember Hillel, of course.
No?
Well, he lived in the first century BCE (I don’t have exact dates) and so his memory would be fresh in the minds of first-century Judaeans such as Rabbi Yusuf. He is well known for the saying, “If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?” Let me also point you toward the most famous story about Hillel:
At another time the heathens wanted to make fun of the Torah, and of the rabbis. They asked one another:
“Are all rabbis as kind as, Hillel? Are all Jewish teachers as good as Hillel? Are all rabbis as patient as Hillel?”
So one of them said:
“I shall go and find out.” He came to Shammai, also a famous rabbi, and cried:
“Your Torah, your wonderful Torah–I can learn it while I stand on one foot. Rabbi Shammai, you teach it to me while I stand on one foot.” You see, he was just making fun of the Torah.
Now what do you suppose Shammai did? Do you think he had patience with a man who was making fun of the Torah? Who ever heard of learning the whole Torah while standing on one foot? The rabbis had spent all their lives in studying the Torah and even then they were not sure that they knew all of it.
Rabbi Shammai took a stick and shouted angrily:
“Get out of here, you scoffer I Do you think I have time to waste on people who mock our holy Torah?” The heathen ran away. He thought he would go to Hillel and see what Hillel would do.
All out of breath, he came to Hillel’s home. Hillel thought the man had come for something very important. So Hillel said:
“What is the matter, my good man?” And the heathen answered:
“Teach me the Torah while I stand on one foot.”
Of course Hillel, too, saw that the heathen was scoffing, but calmly and patiently he said:
“You want to learn a great deal quickly, don’t you? Very well, I shall teach you the Torah while you stand on one foot. This is our Holy Torah: ‘What is hateful to you, do not do unto others.'”
The heathen forgot that he had come only to jeer.
“Does it mean that the heathens and the Jews and all of us are brothers? Does it mean that we must be kind to one another like brothers?” asked the heathen, wonderingly.
“That’s it, my son. That’s the meaning of the whole Torah. All the rest is only an explanation of that. Go, go, my son. Go and study it,” said Hillel kindly.
“When may I come for another lesson?” asked the heathen humbly.
Hillel really got it. It seems like a simple concept, monotheism. It is simple for the animists, in my opinion, the purest theology.
But somehow along the way people got confused by the concept of One.
So now you have some Christian sects in acute theological crisis because they thought they were monotheists but just can’t get around the notion that Abraham, Isa (Jesus) and Mohammed were all talking about the same God.
It’s not the same, they will tell you. Muslims worship Allah.
It would be cruel to make them miserable by asking, then do Mexicans also worship a different God, called Dios?
It also really only gets confusing if you insist on monotheism. The Jews didn’t, historically. Neither, to my knowledge, did God…
Then so is everybody else.
😀
It also really only gets confusing if you insist on monotheism. The Jews didn’t, historically. Neither, to my knowledge, did God…
ahem:
Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD: and thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be upon thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be for frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thy house, and upon thy gates.
* Or, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. Or, the LORD is our God, the LORD is one. Or, the LORD is our God, the LORD alone.
http://www.bible-researcher.com/shema.html
Still not seeing the monotheism. Nothing in there says “there aren’t any other gods”, nor even “you really shouldn’t worship other gods”. What it does say is that God, the one who made everything and doesn’t really get a name, is #1, and you’d better remember that or there will be some smiting and no mistake. (Yes, I know. All your heart, soul, and might. Still doesn’t mean that you can’t worship other gods, you just can’t love them.)
Also, historically, the Jews were very definitely not monotheistic. I suggest you do some research. Back in Abraham’s day, and for a very long time after, God’s “companions” weren’t angels but, rather, other gods that he just happened to be taking a turn about the cosmos with. And even well after that, God had a female counterpart, perhaps even a consort. Some of her traditions, if memory serves, are still observed to this day. Though of course, no-one admits that they’re about her.
Religion is a good deal more complicated than most people think. It tends to change and evolve over time to suit the needs of the moment. This is a good thing.
First and greatest of all mitzvot (commandments):
“I am the LORD your God”
Second of all the mitzvot:
“Thou shalt have no other gods before Me”
This God never says that there are no other gods. We well know this nowadays: money, power, name your god. But Hebrews, of all the peoples on the earth at that time, are commanded to forsake all other gods, for the One True God. Yes, the Hebrews flirted often with other gods, particularly Baal. But Jews are defined by their relationship with this one God. To say that they are not, is to say that they are not Jews. This covenant, this contract with Yahweh, is what defines them as His people.
Well, yes, that’s the other problem. I don’t doubt that the man actually existed, and was the son of God, and did many miraculous things. I also don’t doubt that those who were left to talk about him elaborated on the story a little when they came across something they felt fit, and was true, even if the actual man didn’t really do it. Or that others seized upon the man’s life and attempted to twist it to suit their own ends.
As for all those others who existed before him… Maybe they did exist, and maybe they didn’t. Maybe they were all the same person, who just showed up to different people at different times with different faces.
I like the Hillel story, though.
I’m especially impressed with having an annual ‘letting go’ time and am adding it to my own end of year practice.
There is a ceremony on the 26th of December where they all line up at the Returns and Exchanges counter of retail stores and perform the “letting go” ritual. 😉
I don’t, I’m such a sap, I keep it. I don’t even recycle presents by handing them on to other people. After a few years I donate it to St Vincent’s. I’m not being virtuous, I just cannot stand crowds. Today almost flipped me out, trying to find some slippers.
God, where is the fucking brandy?
Letting go is easier said than done…but each year I pick at least a small item to let go of…some years big things.
This year I’ll send some energies to you for facing the stores…since we may be facing the same ones!
Blessed Be NCJ!
SallyCat,
your comment here struck me as a good place to say thank you for this diary and for sharing your customs.
I’m very drawn to ancient Celtic life as I’m the descendent of a beautiful and strong Celtic Grandmother.
Letting go is a necesarry part of life, though difficult to do sometimes.
It’s as necesarry as letting go of the setting sun because the promise is that a new sun will rise again, each day.
Peace to you and your family.
This is one of the first links I ever saw on the web, and Disinfo likes to link to it each season…
E-Sheep’s Saturnalia
Although I think I am in the running for least spiritual person at BooTrib and many other fine locations, I admire people of great spirituality and enjoy gaining an understanding of the journey they take to reach it. And you are a fine guide and an excellent teacher.
You walk with nature and share the beauty of nature and earth. You share that beauty with us in the joy in your stories and photos. Your spirituality glows each time you are the blue dot….
Bright blessings AndiF for your continued touch to the earth and her gifts.
That’s so kind of you to say and while I think your great generosity and thoughtfulness might be making you overstate things a bit, I’ll very much take your words to heart.
That was a wonderful summation SallyCat!!
I will add another pagan (or neo-pagan) symbolism of the Solstice. As y’all probably know, there are two Solstices, the Summer and the Winter. In some traditions, the Summer Solstice represents the Goddess coming into power, while the Winter Solstice represents the God’s turn. Since the Moon is feminine and the Summer Solstice is the beginning of the lengthening of the nights, the Goddess is the stronger of the two. Then, at the Winter Solstice, she must give way to the God as it is at this time that the days get longer.
I don’t think that it is any coincidence that the Winter Solstice welcomes the birth of the Sun God and Christmas welcomes the birth of the Son God. :>)
In my circle of friends, we usually have a bonfire in a friend’s backyard where we burn pine boughs tied with wishes for the new year, or aspects or situations which we wish to overcome. Theoretically, we are supposed to stay up all night and then at the first light of dawn, we welcome the sun with loud drums, screams, whoops, and hollars and much rejoicing. I believe the Morris Dancers also gather on one of the local hills at dawn to dance in welcome of the new year. This is usually not feasible for me as I have a young person and often have to work the next day.
In classical astrology, the Summer Solstice, 1 degree of Cancer, is called the Gates of Heaven; the Winter Solstice, 1 degree of Capricorn, is called the Gates of Hell.
Our fascination with ipods and the lives of movie and pop stars seems to have distracted us from our roots. 🙂
Bonfires and dancing sounds like a wonderful way to celebrate the continuation of light from the old to the new year. Being a little older I tend to dance in front of the fireplace during Winter Solstice!
The Birth of the Sun God and the birth of the Son of God is no coincidence. Emporer Constantine was the marketing genius of his time (4th century C.E.). His conversion to Christianity was not really approved by the traditionalists of the Roman empire.
Co-opting most of the Sabbats and making them Christian was his way of sliding Christianity in the back door. This makes some people uncomfortable so I tend not to go there except among those that are accepting of alternative beliefs.
Blessed Be at Yule Kamakhya – and the coming year.
And a very Blessed Yule to you, too, SallyCat.
Bright Blessings for a joyous new year.
I must say that I secretly giggle to myself when I hear about this “war on Christmas” given that these same Christians are unknowingly performing ancient pagan rituals themselves. :>)
Constantine…I always forget his name. A stone bust of him was recently found deep in an old Roman tunnel from the time of his rule. They are not sure if it was placed there on purpose, possibly as a form of sympathetic magic.
This is bookmarked for when I can really sit quietly and read it all in… There’s too much noise in my head at the moment, but I’m definitely coming back. 🙂
You took the words out of my mouth. Too many distractions now to digest this but I will definitely come back later. Thanks, SallyCat.
Thank you for being here….
Peace and joy of the season be with you always.
May joy surround you this year and bring you all the love that you give.
Ask questions anytime my sister of the heart.
Blessed Be
Many, many thanks for your wonderful diary, Sallycat. May the joyous blessings you’ve offered be returned to you.
Having spent a good amount of time close to the Pagan community of the North Carolina mountains, I’m aware of certain aspects of the Yule celebration, but not to the extent that you so kindly share here.
Personally, I feel a greater affinity with the Winter Solstice as a cause for celebration than I do for any other, if only because of its definitive relationship to the natural world I feel so much a part of & depend on for my sense of being.
What you’ve shared only adds to that wealth of feeling. Thank you!
Best wishes for a joyful Yule to everyone at the frog pond!
Solstice arrives at 1:35 PM Eastern Standard Time. For instance, it will arrive at 12:35 PM Central Time, or 2:35 PM Atlantic Time, etc.
The point of that time moves with the rotation of the earth, so actual exact LOCAL time will differ from location to location. For instance, the actual Solstice in say Western Pennsylvania will happen about 12:50 PM EST.
Just some tidbits.
i am an atheist (totally an atheist, sorry pagans) but i can still rejoice with all of you, be ye christian, pagan, or whatever….
……blessed be!
Thanks for sharing — I like the connection of seeing where cultural traditions come from, it’s all part of sharing the joy of the season. Have a Blessed Yule!