A Might-do List for Yule
Yule, known as the Winter Solstice, Mōdraniht (or Mother’s Night), Alban Arthur, marks the longest night of the year. The Solstices are probably some of the oldest holy days celebrated by our species and monuments from around the ancient world were built to align with the sun on these sacred days. It’s a time to gather together in the warmth of each other’s good company and remember that we are interdependent with all life and death on earth. Continuing a project started at Lughnasadh, here’s a list of nine things that you might-do (or not) for Yule and the deepest dark of the year.
Extend the season for less pressure and more cheer. The winter holidays in many parts of the world are times for family reunions, harkening back to our ancestral impulse to gather together with kith and kin to make it through the season. It can be a lot of pressure to try and host everyone on one single day - so don’t. In my household, our Yule season comes to life slowly, really beginning to grow bright starting on the first of three Thursdays from Christmas (aka Knocking Night). For me an extended season of celebration helps me feel that I’ll time for company and time for cozying up under the blankets, the moon hound at my feet, a good book in my hands, and a cup of tea chortling beside me.
Tell stories aloud. Whether reading from your favorite book or making up a story from scratch, the long nights are ripe for the harvesting of stories. We are wired for storytelling and listening to a story is a unique sort of magick that can’t be replicated by solo reading or watching movies. Bonus points for telling a story only by candlelight.
image via @galina88
Make your own decorations. You don’t have to make all of your decorations, but there is something very sweet (and very Pagan) when it comes to creating your own decorations from items from nature. Homemade decorations made from earth-centered materials help bring us closer to the world rather than separate us from it. Whether making pomanders, cutting out citrus stars to string about a tree, creating recycled paper chains, or bringing in evergreen boughs to decorate a room, festooning our house can take on the same spirit as dressing an altar.
Celebrate what you already have. From decorations that you’ve bringing out for years to using the same holiday recipe that’s been handed down through generations, practice gratefulness for what you already have in your life - and ones that are specific for the season. Of course, you can expand your gratefulness to all areas of your life, but it can be really helpful to get grateful about the particularities of your life that make the winter joyful - it can act as a buffer against the “must-have!” pressures of the culture at large.
If you buy new, buy small. I recently wrote about the profoundly positive impact shopping small can have on small business owners like myself. If you are going to purchase new items this year, support your locally owned businesses. Second choice would be to support your global network of small business creators. I can’t tell you how many times I am filled with gratefulness (and relief) when an order comes in at the right time and I am able to pay a bill, buy groceries, and continue to run my business. I try and support little and local more often than big and corporate and it pleases me greatly knowing that so many folks are participating in this powerful spell of interdependence and resilience.
image by @anniespratt
Make sun-shaped foods. As the sun wanes until its weakest point at the Winter Solstice, practicing a bit of sympathetic magick can not only help remind the big gaseous star in the sky that we like it very much, thank you, but also bring cheer to those of us waiting again for warmer days. Cakes and bread can all be shaped into little suns and shared at the festival tables and golden colored drinks can warm us up from the inside out.
Create your own candles. I like to make candles during the Yule season to use for the rest of the year, blessing them at the fire festival of Imbolc. Candlemaking can be a time to meditate on the ways that each of us are a candle in the dark - when we gather together our illumination and warmth grows - and how we care for and tend to the needs of our brightness and the brightness of others throughout the year.
Honor the Wild Hunt. Depending on your cultural orientation, there are many myths surrounding the Wild Hunt and ways of understanding Their work and purpose. One of the important functions of the Wild Hunt for me is that They are the wild-hearted crew which never forgets the names of the forgotten dead and those who have died too soon. In my personal cosmology They are the protectors and seekers of the Queer and Trans dead, bringing them home to peace on billowing clouds of stardust and cackles. They come to land on earth on Yule, after a season of sweeping over the land finding all the lost souls that They love so fiercely, bringing the Beloved and Forgotten Dead to the feasting table for the twelve long nights of Yule, moving on again at the end of December. Set a place at the table for Them, place candles in the windows, and wish swift passage to a place of rest and joy for those departed. In the long passages of dark it is good to remember that there exists a great many Someones who’ll never forget who we are.
image via @frostroomhead
Sing Together. It doesn’t have to be fancy, you don’t have to worry about being in tune, and it requires nothing but your presence and few simple songs, but singing with others is so good for us. Singing is an endorphin-releasing practice and when we sing together we are practicing feeling good with one another. It isn’t a coincidence that so many of our movements for change have been held together with song (here’s a really dramatic and inspiring example) and so many moments of passage in our lives are marked by song (i.e. singing at birthday parties). Songs are a great way to pass on knowledge (modern Pagans do it all the time with our vast collection of ritual chants) and to be sweet and silly with others. There are so many songs for the Yule season that there is surely one that you can find joy singing with others as you sip a hot beverage and light candles for the glittering Hunt.
I’ve written a lot about winter and staying well - from building your winter apothecary to healing and magickal practices of the season. I’ve made a tarot spread for the season and shared a tea or two as well.
You can also check out the rest of my might-do lists for the sabbats and beyond.
However your Yule season unfolds I hope that it brings you closer to the source of love in your life in the many ways that it manifests. That your merry and bright is enduring and ephemeral, sustaining and also open to the magick of a passing flash.
