Discussions

With Yule Right around the Corner, what ways does everyone celebrate?

I will occasionally put together a Yule log and I celebrate Christmas with my family as well since me and my husband are the only witches in the family. We always put up a tree, but for multiple reasons we use a fake one. We decorate it with ornaments from travels and lights and my grandmother loves to put her little angel on the top to (as she says) "Watch over the presents".

The main thing I really like to do though, is actually divided into 2 things. I love to do a ritual for healing for people who are close to me at this time who need it, and I love to buy little toys, like teddy bears for needy children (Toys for Tots of my grandmothers church).

This year a little girl and her mother's story of hardship touched me so much so, that I found a cute panda bear for her made of recycled material and added a little card with it. I will also be sending her family positive energy this year in hopes the next will improve for them.

So you all know what I'm doing, in what ways do you all celebrate the season?

I celebrate the way most people do at Yule, as in the putting up the christmas tree with decorations that my kids and me decorate not all the time but sometimes we bake christmas shapes that we will decorate and hang on the tree aswell and get all the family together for a christmas dinner, I haven't of yet got a ritual of any kind of magical vaule yet but as the years go on I may well change that, and we just try to be open loving and kind to the people that need it.


Love and Light

I also prefer to celebrate Yule with the traditional Christian way, because it is in our family. We put up a tree also fake for other reasons(usually inside but we have one planted outside as well to decorate), but we exchange gifts (there usually aren't any because my family doesn't really believe in the commercial abuse lol) on the Christmas evening and not the next morning and we have a holiday dinner. My mother and I do a ritual at midnight and after it she goes to bed and I go out to a friend's party and have a little fun =)
I suppose we all have our own ways...interesting how the same holiday can differ in families =D

I've always celebrated Yule in the traditional Christmas way. However, this year I'm hoping me and my older sister can get together and do a Yule ritual in addition to our usual Christmas celebrations.

My husband's Asatru so we have the full tweleve days of Yule to play with. We start with Mothersnight on the 20th, on which we go and collect greenery for the household and I start baking mince pies and a chocolate Yule Log. In the evening we light a gazillion candles in the kitchen and have a small rite then leave some food and milk out for Frau Holda.

On the solstice we honour the god and goddess that we jointly worship in a morning ritual, getting up while it's still dark and drumming the sun up. After the rite we then have a nice breakfast and exchange gifts and then go for a walk. In the evening we have a feast.

On twelfth night we light a fire outside (weather permitting) and burn the dried out greenery in it.

Question for anyone who cares to answer it.

AT the winter solstice there is a great emphasis on the birth of the sun. Despite being the time of greatest darkness, many published rituals concentrate solely on the birth of The Mabon (divine child of light). Does anyone do anything in ritual to honour the spirits of winter, coldness and darkness as well?

I will occasionally Incorporate the Crone in my yule workings, since it is her time. Winter is also one of my favorite seasons, so occasionally I'll do some work to allow for better chances of snow to fall on the ground. That's about as far as I usually go.

I myself am a child of nature...and to me just as to nature, winter is a time of hibernation...well, nature never sleeps, but in winter, nature is not as active as for the rest of the year...neither am I. I tend to sleep a lot more (Just yesterday i slept for 20 hours LOL) and do less activities. It is a time for me to do some soul searching, put my mind to ease and let my old worries go. I am reborn as a renewed soul in the spring...that's when my element comes into it's full blossoming...I can start gardening again (My favourite activity and part of my magickal path) as I like to call it "Growing souls". My energy and motivation are at their highest point at that time that is why I Celebrate my own Holiday...I don't have a specific date for it, I celebrate it when I feel like nature has awakened again...
So another question that I would like to ask is:

What is the deepest connection that you share? If it's not too personal, I would love to hear it!

The deepest connection I would say I share is with the ocean its where I find it most peaceful its also a place I visualize a lot in meditations I also find it kind of ironic that I can't swim which I do hope to remedy one day.

I was actually just reading about Sedna there aswell, and I'm going write a post in a minute about her.
Hopefully everyone will find it helpful in one way or another :)


Love and Light

"I will occasionally Incorporate the Crone in my yule workings, since it is her time."

Do you have some kind of transformation from Crone to Mother in your rites? In some Trad Craft (traditions that celebrate the Winter Solstice that is as many don't bother), the sun is seen as a spirit waiting to be born at Imbolc, rather than being born at Yule, and the focus is upon the darker gods, such as Frau Holda and Grimmr. My other half and I have two main deities who change with the seasonal cycle and are very Winter Grove Goddess and Holly King at this time of year.


"What is the deepest connection that you share?"

To hearth and home. I have a connection to Hestia (despite her being a Greek goddess and not local at all) and it comes through in a need to feed people and be hospitable. I can't have children physically so I mother my friends and family.

Yes vixiana i do have a transformation from crone to maiden in my rites, but that usually doesn't take place until Imbolg for me. I try to work with the three aspects of the goddess as well as the god, whenever possible in my rites. I like a decent balance between both, I find it can help maintain a balance within the individual who follows this particular method, as they gain a deeper understanding of themselves as they go along. Just my observation/opinion