Yule |
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The Solstice is a celebration of light and the rebirth of the Sun. The days increase in length as the sun grows in strength to peak at the time of the Summer Solstice. The young Sun is born on the Winter Solstice, and takes over from the old Sun who has worked hard to keep us warm in the early days of winter. A good, but cold, activity to do on Solstice morning is to get up for the dawn and welcome the rebirth of the sun. Imagine the days warming up and spring blooming as the Sun starts to rise in the sky. Perhaps you would like to make an offering to celebrate the Sun's rebirth. You may like to offer something to the earth to encourage it to thaw out, and feel the suns warmth. Others might like to participate in the traditional gift giving festivities that we associate with Yule. Another form of offering that can be done is a Yule log. This is a log that is burnt on the Solstice fire. Some people meditate on the past year and then place wishes for the coming year on it to be burnt. Some logs are decorated with ribbons or colors representing various things including each person present or the hopes and aspirations of those in attendance. Traditionally a small part of the Yule log is kept to start next year's fire. In the Northern Hemisphere the Winter Solstice occurs at approximately the same time Christmas does. Pagans there are surrounded by the traditional symbols of winter as a constant reminder of the season. Here we are surrounded by those symbols in the middle of summer, and at Yule we might feel 'odd' putting up a tree, and having decorations around. If this is the case, you might consider a wreath on your door, or wall as a little less 'conspicuous'. It should be wreath with evergreen foliage, and symbols marking the start of the solar year. These symbols might include cut out pictures of the sun, or baubles as a symbol of light. You can still have a great winter feast with family and friends, because after we have been cold for so long now, there's not many people who wouldn't be into celebrating spring being on its way. And goodness knows, you might even educate a few people, and have a great time doing it. Other activities at this time of year include consideration of the year ahead. You might like to look at what you have achieved over the past year, and what you still need to encourage to blossom in your life. As our energies start to increase, the seeds we have planted will begin to grow. Some people ring bells to welcome in the new Solar year, the bells are symbols to help the earth warm up. They are also a celebration of the rebirth of the sun. However you celebrate Yule, I wish you all the best for the season. Purpose: Winter Solstice celebrates the rebirth of the Sun God into infancy. All the major pantheons of deities have their version of the Sun God: The Greco-Roman Dionysus/Bacchus, the Egyptian Osiris, and the Norse Balder, just to name a few. Many myths exist to describe a kind and beloved being who dies and is subsequently reborn. The Christians adapted this day as the "official" birthday of Jesus Christ. This day also celebrates the return of the sun, as the days begin to grow longer. The Christian practice of putting up a Christmas Tree derives from the ancient Pagan tradition of bringing a Yule tree in the home in order to welcome the nature spirits into the festivities of the day. The burning of the Yule log derives from an ancient Germanic custom in honor of the god Thor, to whom Yule wood was considered sacred. The concept of Santa Claus is also distinctly Pagan. The image of this portly, joyous being derives from three main sources, each described below. As for the first source, Santa Claus is partly an updated version of the Pagan Holly King, a benign and possibly devalued god-form who rules the year from the Summer Solstice to the Winter Solstice. On this day, he engages his rival, the Oak King, who rules from just after Winter Solstice to the beginning of the Summer Solstice, in a symbolic "combat," ending with the Holly King's "death" (he will be reborn and retake rulership of the Wheel of the Year from the Oak King in the summer). The modern image of Santa Claus in many ways resembles the Holly King, since the latter's colors were green and red (today considered the official "Christmas colors," as well as colors being popular for the garb of many types of elves and nature spirits), reindeers were a sacred animal to him (note the mostly Germanic names of Santa's reindeer), and who was said to be accompanied by elves who worshipped nature alongside him. Elves are a staple of Pagan belief, but are absent in modern Christian theology, which further underscores the Pagan origins of the Santa Claus image. This, of course, is the origin of the idea that elves were the "helpers" of Santa Claus in his toy-making duties. The second source for the modern image of Santa Claus is the king of the Norse deities, Odin, who, according to Germanic tradition, walked the earth this night and granted "gifts" such as wisdom and prosperity to the virtuous; this is the original origin of the act of gift giving on Christmas. Though Odin was far from a joyous being, and his sometimes severe sense of justice was often beyond the ability of mortals to comprehend, he bore a superficial resemblance to the modern image of Santa Claus in that he was often depicted in the Germanic myths as resembling an elderly (albeit quite robust) man with a white beard, though unlike the modern image of Santa Class (often referred to today as "Sinter Klass" in some Northern nations), Odin wasn't corpulent, and was missing one eye (he sacrificed it to the Well of Mimir in exchange for the gift of omniscience), thus causing him to wear an eye patch. The third source of the modern version of Santa Claus (which cemented the gift giving legend in the eyes of modern Christians completely) are from historical records of a kindly 6th century bishop who made toys and distributed them to needy kids each year at a certain time of the year, which more or less established the popular idea that Christmas is primarily for kids. This bishop was thus canonized by the Catholic Church as Saint Nick. It should be noted that the imagery associated with the modern Santa Claus in the Dark Ages and Middle Ages often depicted a violent hairy man of the wild, also emblematic of various Pagan species of solitary fay (or "faerie"), before the modern, jolly image based on more benign imagery and archetypes took its place. The Coca-Cola Company actually designed the "new" Santa Claus around 1930. The evolution of these various images finally reached their apex by the 19th century, and it was then that modern, familiar image of Santa Claus was born. Hence, due to the fact that Santa Claus is in many ways a 'modernized' version of the classical Holly King, it can be said that he actually exists as a part of astral reality, and modern Witches pay homage to him in this manner, rather than contriving a whimsical story to children that Santa Claus is actually a seemingly immortal flesh and blood elderly man of material reality who literally physically travels to every home in the world on Christmas night, enters via the chimney, and leaves physical gifts behind for the children [which puts many parents in the position of explaining the popular company logos adorning the boxes of many of those gifts; this conundrum was actually dealt with in an animated Christmas commercial in the early 1980's, where Santa Claus was depicted as actually shopping in contemporary toy stores, such as K-Mart and Toys 'R' Us, for all of these gifts, rather than building them from scratch, as many of the popular stories describe his elves as doing! Both building or shopping for that number of toys every year would end up costing Santa many millions of dollars per year if he was truly a being of material reality, and astute children will often pick up on this discrepancy!]. Winter Solstice, Also called:
Yule, Jul, Saturnalia, Christmas, solar/secular New Year
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