Facts about Yule

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  • The Winter Solstice
  • Occurs when the Sun moves into zero degrees Capricorn
  • The shortest day and longest night of the year
  • Usually the 20th or 21st of December
  • Fire Festival
  • Also known as Midwinter, Sun Return, Alban Arthan, Pagan New Year, Saturnalia, Finn's Day, Yuletide, Festival of Sol, Great Day of the Cauldron, and Festival of Growth
  • Yule is the time to�
    • Celebrate the rebirth of the God
    • Honor the Triple Goddess
    • Celebrate the return of the Sun and the Waxing Year
    • Celebrate the triumph of the Oak King over the Holly King
    • Bid farewell to the Waning half of the Year
    • Welcome the Waxing half of the Year
  • Bayberry candles are burned during this time of the year to ensure wealth and happiness throughout the following year.
  • Traditional Incense: bayberry, cinnamon, pine, cedar, rosemary, juniper
  • Traditional candle colors: red, green, white, gold, silver
  • Traditional gemstones: cat's eye, ruby, bloodstone, garnet
  • Traditional foods: gingerbread, fruitcake, nuts, sugar cookies, turkey, stuffing
  • Traditional herbs: cinnamon, bayberry, nutmeg, pine, sage, holly, mistletoe, rosemary, pine cones
  • Traditional animals: stags, squirrels, wrens, robins
  • Suggested decorations: Holly, mistletoe, ivy, cedar, bay, juniper, rosemary, pine, apples, oranges, cinnamon sticks, evergreen boughs or trees, luminarias, evergreen trees, Yule logs, eight-spoked wheels, wreaths, spinning wheels
  • Attunement teas: cinnamon, mullein, willow bark, yarrow
  • Ritual oils: rosemary, myrrh, nutmeg, saffron, cedar, pine, wintergreen, ginger
  • Mythical creatures: phoenix, trolls, mermecolion
  • Key actions: meditation and introspection
  • Suggested activites: decorating the Yule tree, storytelling, gifts given in memory of the deceased
  • Taboos: extinguishing fires, traveling
  • Goddesses of Yule:
    • Akewa (Argentinean)
    • Albina (Tuscan)
    • All Spinning Goddesses
    • Amaterasu (Japanese)
    • Angerona (Roman)
    • Anna Perenna (Roman)
    • Arinna (Anatolian)
    • Befana (Italian)
    • Brigitte (Voodun)
    • Changing Woman (Native American)
    • Coatlique (South American)
    • Fortuna (Roman)
    • Frey (Norse)
    • Gaia (Greek)
    • Grianne (Irish)
    • Hannah (Sumerian)
    • Heket (Egyptian)
    • Igaehindvo (Native American)
    • Isis (Egyptian)
    • Kefa (Egyptian)
    • Lilith (Semitic)
    • Lucina (Italian)
    • Ma'at (Egyptian)
    • Metzli (Aztec)
    • Nox (Roman)
    • NuKua (Chinese)
    • Pandora (Greek)
    • Pax (Roman)
    • Perchta or Bertha (German)
    • Persephone or Kore (Greek)
    • Rhiannon (Welsh)
    • Shekinah (Semitic)
    • Spinning Woman (Native American)
    • Sun Woman (Australian)
    • Sunne (Scandinavian)
    • Thea (Greek)
    • Tiamat (Babylonian)
    • Tonantzin (Mexican)
    • Unelanuhi (Native American)
    • Yachimato-Hime (Japanese)
    • Zvezda (Slavic)

  • Gods of Yule:
    • Aker (Egyptian)
    • All Reborn Sun Gods,
    • Apollo (Greco-Roman)
    • Attis (Phoenician)
    • Balder (Norse)
    • Braggi (Norse)
    • Cronos (Greek)
    • Father Sun (Native American)
    • Helios (Greek)
    • Hyperion (Greek)
    • Janus (Roman)
    • Lugh (Irish)
    • Maui (Polynesian)
    • Mithras (Persian)
    • Mitra (Aryan)
    • Ngau (Maori)
    • Nurelli (Aboriginal)
    • Oak/Holly King (Anglo-Celtic)
    • Odin (Norse)
    • Ra (Egyptian)
    • Saturn (Roman)
    • Sol (Roman)
    • Ukko (Finnish-Yogoritic)
    • Yachimata-Hiko (Japanese)

  • Suggested song: "Ye Children All of Mother Earth" (Tune: "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear")
    Ye children all of Mother Earth
    Join hands and circle around
    To celebrate the Solstice night
    When our lost Lord is found.
    Rejoice, the year has begun again
    The Sun blesses skies up above
    So share the season together now
    In everlasting Love!
  • Yule Incense:
    • 2 parts Frankincense
    • 2 parts Pine needles (or resin)
    • 1 part Cedar
    • 1 part Juniper berries

My sources include, but are not confined to, the following works:
  • Bereyl, Paul. The Master Book of Herbalism.
  • Cunningham, Scott. The Complete Book of Incense, Oils, and Brews.
  • ------------------. Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner.
  • Dunwich, Gerina. Wicca Craft.
  • Galenorn, Yasmine. Dancing with the Sun.
  • K., Amber. Covencraft: Witchcraft for Three or More.
  • McCoy, Edain. The Sabbats.
  • Starhawk. The Spiral Dance.
  • Stein, Diane. Casting the Circle: A Women�s Book of Ritual.
Go to Mareth's Yule Ritual

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