THE SABBAT OF YULE/WINTER SOLSTICE (December 20 or 21)

© Copyright 2005-2009 Karen Charboneau-Harrison, All Rights Reserved.

Many Christmas customs and much of our Christmas music of any antiquity originated in the Western European Pagan celebrations of Yule. Customs attached to the Yuletide constellation of Saints' Days: Stephen, Basil, Nicholas, Lucia, Barbara, Sylvester and the Epiphany derive almost entirely from Yule. There is a richness of customs concerning food, fires, plants, animals, wild birds, stars, mummers, music, magic, clothing, angels, social roles, gifts, lights, auguries and so on, endlessly. Imagine the figure of baby Dionysos, newborn of Demeter or Persephone (depending on which myths you read), lying swaddled on a bed of straw in a harvest basket on the threshing floor, his head surrounded by a gold nimbus (halo) looking exactly like the Christ-child in the crèche and evoking the same feelings of love and mystery as does the image of the Baby Jesus born in the stables.

The Winter Solstice is the fire-festival of Yule with its Yule-log saved from the previous year's fire to kindle the flames for the new years's celebrations. To the ancient Egyptians it marked the birth of Osiris. To the ancient Persians it celebrated the birth of Mithras, the all-seeing Sun, god of friendship. The Romans knew it as Saturnalia with its feasting and exchanging of roles of masters and slaves. Whatever the name and outward appearance of its festivities, however, Yule's esoteric meaning stayed the same - it noted the shortest day of the year with emphasis on the fact that from this time until the Summer Solstice, the solar forces, both material and spiritual, would be gaining in strength.

The word Yule can be traced to the ancient Celtic word 'hioul' which means wheel. It is the celebration of the return or rebirth of the Sun god, the Lord of Life, the Child of Promise. The rites are solemn yet filled with joy for they solve the paradox of Death and Rebirth. This festival represents the redemption of the world from death and darkness and is a celebration of hope and joy amidst the barrenness of Winter.

Reverence for trees is a part of the Western European Pagan heritage. The decorating of a tree with lights and the burning of the Yule log have their birth in this reverence. At one time in our ancient history it was felt that the sacrifice of a great tree to insure than life would go on was necessary. The burning of the great Yule log would bring good luck and the returning of life force. The fire was lit from a piece of the previous year's Yule log that had been tended all year and saved for this purpose.

This is the time of the Winter Solstice when the sun reaches the southernmost point in its journey across the sky and appears to remain motionless before beginning to re-ascend northward bringing with it light and the promise of springtime, life and warmth. This is the time for the death of the old god of the year, followed by the Goddess giving birth to the new Sun God. Yule is the time to end the period of darkness that has prevailed during Winter and has brought us into the gloom of barren trees and shortened days. It is the time to cast aside those inner doubts which have bound us and to welcome the growing light which shows us the ways of new beginnings.

This is the time of hope born anew.

Make some wonderful smelling incense to burn during the holidays this year! Here's a traditional Yule Incense recipe that we're sure you'll enjoy making and burning:

Mix together 2 tablespoons dried Pine Needles 1 tablespoon Red Sandalwood Chips 1 tablespoon Cedar chips; add 20 drops Frankincense oil 10 drops Myrrh oil 5 drops Cinnamon oil 5 drops Allspice oil 5 drops Pine essential oil, stir together and finish off by mixing in 2 tablespoons Frankincense Resin. Let your incense mixture 'cure' for a day or two before you burn.

© Copyright 2005-2009 Karen Charboneau-Harrison, All Rights Reserved.

THE SPIRITS AND GHOSTS OF YULE

© Copyright 2002 Montague Whitsel, All Rights Reserved.

Synopsis: The Winter Solstice has long been associated with ghosts and sprits in Pagan as well as Christian Traditions. “Christmas” has its ghosts, as does the Yule; when there are spirits behind every door and in every closet as well as dancing in the flames of candles and hearth-fires. What are these spirits and who are these ghosts, and why are mortals haunted in the tides of Winter’s Solstice? In this article we will explore these questions, becoming acquainted with some of the more traditional Yuletide ghosts in Celtic traditions as well as reclaiming one of the more well-known spirit entities in our secular western “December Holiday” celebrations.

We are all familiar with ‘Christmas’ ghost stories – from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol to Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare before Christmas.” I have often been asked, though, why there should be ghosts and hauntings at this time of the year when many people want to be focused on family, the return home (either actual or in their imaginations) and deeper quests for personal and spiritual renewal. “Isn’t Samhain (31 October) the night of haunting?”

One answer – at least from the perspective of Celtic mysticism & mythology – is simple, and has to do with the nature of the Winter Solstice (21 December). This festival – called Alban Arthuan in Druidic traditions – has long been thought of as a time of death & rebirth when Nature’s innate powers and our own souls are renewed. This event – which marks the moment in the spiral of earthen time when the Old Sun dies (at dusk on the 21st of December) and when the Sun of the New Year is born (at dawn on the 22nd of December) – frames the longest night of the year. The birth of New Sun is thought to revivify the aura of the Earth in mystical ways, giving a new ‘lease on life’ to spirits and souls of the dead.

As such, Yule is probably the second most haunted time of the Celtic year, Samhain being the first. The haunting begins in early December, as if in anticipation of the rebirth of the Sun’s powers. Spirits become more animated in the days leading up to Alban Arthuan (from the 6th to the 20th of December). As practitioners of earth-based spiritualities light fires in their hearths and decorate their huts of dwelling for the advent of New Sun, spirits and the deer come near, communing with us as we prepare ourselves for the death of Old Sun. These spirit-visitants gather with us near fires in the hearth and around the Yule Tree. They haunt us in the glow of the Yule’s festivities.
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