By Carolyn Elliott
As the snow flies, our ancient and more recent W.I.S.E. ancestors—and perhaps we too—will be celebrating Yule, the word likely derived from the Germanic and northern Scandinavian countries’ word “jul” (pronounced as hugh-el). According to the folklorist Adolf Spamer in his book Christmas in Old and New Times (1937), the word implied “hurrah!” That’s something most people would probably wish to say when the days slowly get longer and warmer at that point.
Our Celtic W.I.S.E. ancestors likely felt that connecting with Mother Nature and Her natural forces helped to bring harmony and balance to their and our physical existence (http://www. paganspath.com/magik/sabbats.htm), especially at this cold and seemingly barren time of year.
The pagan “12 Days of Christmas” or Yule begins on “Mother’s Night” and ends 12 days later on “Yule Night,” typ- ically starting on the 20 or 21 of December (winter solstice), to December 31 or January 1 (https://www.patheos. com/blogs/lightyourpath/2023/12/kicking- off-the-yuletide-season-with-mothers- night/) “Mother’s Night” (“Mōdraniht” in Old English, pronounced moh-drah-nite) honors our female ancestors even from long ago. In Norse paganism, this night is sacred to Frigg (the wife of Thor), Freya (goddess of love and fertility), and Disir (female deities associated with Fate) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dís). Our ancestors hoped that Mother Earth’s and humanity’s fertility would return.
Yule is also a time when the waxing sun overcomes the waning sun. The Oak King, who represents the rebirth of the god, overcomes the Holly King, who represents the death aspect of the god. You will remember in Charles Dickens’s novel, A Christmas Carol, the spirit of Christmas present, the Holly King, dies at the stroke of midnight and then, of course, comes back to life at the summer solstice (June 20 and 21) when the oak king dies. Dickens included this aspect because it represented the cycle of life from people’s perspectives (http://www. paganspath.com/magik/yule-history.htm) at that time.
As for the Yule evergreen tree that is cut down and brought indoors, our ancestors believed they brought inside the symbol of life and rebirth, which the color green represents. The color red was used to represent fire. Consequently, they brought inside garlands of holly, Mother Earth’s red and green bush, as well as greens to form a wreath. The wreath represented the cyclical nature of life and the inclusion and respect of all beings. In addition, the Yule log represents fire, which returns all things back to Mother Earth as in “ashes to ashes,” thus symbolizing the soul’s rebirth, as they believed. Does this all sound familiar?
They also believed in the making and baking of sweets to represent the sweet joys of the past year and the sweetness of the year to come. In addition, the reindeer stag represented the horned god, the Pagan god of fertility, death, and rebirth, as well as the final chapter of the year (http://www. paganspath.com/magik/sabbats.htm).
Later on, as the Romans invaded the W.I.S.E lands, the Romans brought their practice of celebrating the birth of their god Mithras who was born on December 25 in a humble stable. Persian astrologers also traveled to the birthplace and brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Pagan Christmas: The Plants, Spirits, and Rituals at the Origins of Yuletide by Christian Ratsch and Claudia Muller-Ebeling; translated from German by Katja Lueders and Raphael Lorenzo, 2003). Does that all sound familiar?
No matter how you celebrate this dark time of year, may you do so with hope and the realization of the cyclical nature of life, as our W.I.S.E. ancestors believed.
Blessed Yule!
Featured image by GrumpyBeere@Pixabay.com
