PaganSquare
PaganSquare is a community blog space where Pagans can discuss topics relevant to the life and spiritual practice of all Pagans.
I have had more elegant Yules than this, when there were more decorations up: more evergreen swag, a larger altar covered in small candles and mistletoe, a Yule log burning in a hearth. There have been years when I marked the Solstice with Yule feasts, parties, festivals, days and nights full of reveling, gluttony and socializing.
Across town, across my networks of family and friends, tonight, this whole week really, is full of these things. There are vigils around sacred fires, out on the prairie, at the edge of forests. There are hearths alight with sacred flames, and altars set up in warm homes and under chilly starlight. Tables loaded with venison, or pork, roasted root veggies mashed in butter. I think about my beloveds, far and wide, and send them love, as they vigil the night through, or call upon the Old God in his passing, or libate the Divine Mother. So many magickal, magickal things happening.
...When I was studying in Jerusalem, my room wasn't much bigger than the bed itself. There simply wasn't space for an altar, but I felt lost without one.
Fortunately, at one of the museums I found a postcard of a Phoenician goddess figurine. I tucked it into the corner of the mirror on the wall, and voilà: instant altar. One 3 by 5 inch postcard was all it took.
Later I found a copy of the same pregnant goddess in an antiquities shop down by the King David Hotel. (Mass-produced and hence affordable to the ancients, they remain so today, even for those of us on student budgets.) How many people come to Jerusalem to buy idols? the shopkeeper joked as he wrapped her up.
She sits now underneath the Yule tree, pensive, her hand on her great belly. Soon.
Me: How are you?
Ms. K: Oh, you know. Just had a good uglycry after finding my last photo of my grandmother. Good times. How are you?
...
I always look forward to Yule as a celebration of both metaphoric and literal “light” returning to my world. In Downeast Maine, it has been dark by 4PM for a while now. And when I say dark, I mean in-the-country-dark. As a recent import said, “I’ve never seen dark like this! It’s like someone put a sack over my head!” As far as I know, no one has. So the lengthening of the days really means something here.
...Much magick is born in the moment of necessity. This month, my immediate need was to find something interesting to entertain and enlighten my monthly community tarot group.
I don’t always like to take credit for my great ideas, because often they don’t feel like my own. Often, they feel like a gift from the Universe.
...