The Meaning of Yule / The Winter Solstice
You’re in the right place if you want to…
learn about the wheel of the year and how the Sabbats come into play
understand the history of Yule and it’s importance in other cultures
discover some fun and serious ways to celebrate the Sabbat
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To start off this blog post, I like to look at a Tarot Card for the week and we can look for moments that relate to this card in our daily lives.
For this post, I chose the World card, which is a Major Arcana card. While the numbered minor arcana—or the pips—are about day to day events, and the court cards are the cast of characters, the major arcana are the keynote or lesson of the story in your reading. The theme of the World card is what’s next.
If we follow the Fool’s journey through the major arcana, it’s the archetype of the hero’s journey. So The World is the last thing the Fool will encounter on this quest. This is the point where the hero is at the end, and the end is coming home so in a way, it’s the beginning again.
The key is that the hero has transformed in some way along their journey. So while, their home may appear to have remained the same, and the people there may view the hero in the same way they always have, the hero knows they have changed.
So, the World card is about recognizing that change, and it’s also about the responsibility to share this new insight with the other people around you. When you go to school, you learn something, train for a profession, get a certification, you likely begin a profession or practice in which you will use that training. If you do, it is your responsibility to use your training to help others in some way. Whether that is to go on to teach others about it, or to do a service for them that they can’t do because they haven’t received the same training.
You can hear Erica’s and Maggie’s stories related to the World by listening to the episode.
Wheel of the Year
Before we get into Yule, we’ll give you some background about the Wheel of the Year. This is a way to recognize the important turning points in nature’s annual journey through the seasons. I love the wheel of the year, because it reminds me to reconnect with the natural world and the fluctuating energy of the sun.
Much of this cyclical calendar is based on the agricultural timing of planting crops in spring, watching them grow in summer, harvesting in the fall, and resting and preparing in the winter. Many of us modern people who are not farmers, don’t necessarily need to be preoccupied with the agricultural calendar. However, there is something to be said for aligning with these themes throughout the year.
Solar Holidays
There are four solar holidays. This just means they are related to the position of the sun and the dates of these holidays differ slightly from year to year. The solar festivals are the Spring Equinox (Ostara), Summer Solstice (Litha), Fall Equinox (Mabon) and Winter Solstice (Yule).
Fire Festivals
The other four sabbats are known as fire festivals. They are Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain.
We’ll be focusing on Yule today because this date is approaching in the Northern Hemisphere. For any southern hemisphere readers, this would be Litha.
But before we talk about the practices, let’s talk about some mythology, history, and traditions surrounding Yule.
Yule Stories
Winter Solstice is an ancient holiday that has been celebrated by many cultures throughout the world for thousands of years. The modern witch celebrates winter solstice with a variety of ways including ritual magick, divination, feasting on traditional foods like ham or roast goose, gifting friends and family with homemade goodies, decorating their home with holly boughs and pine branches to celebrate nature's beauty after winter's sleep has ended.
The ancient Celts recognized the winter solstice as the end of the year and the start of the next. Many modern witches call their winter solstice celebration Yule, which is a word that comes from the Old Norse word "jol", meaning "wheel". This was in reference to the wheel of the year, which marks the cycle of the seasons.
Saturnalia, celebrated on December 17th, is another winter solstice celebration. It is a Roman festival that honored the god Saturn. The festival started with sacrifices to Saturn, which were followed by the lighting of candles to symbolize hope for better things to come in the next year. Many Romans also used this time period to exchange gifts.
The most famous celebration surrounding the winter solstice is probably Christmas, but many of the traditions predate Christianity. Christmas commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ. Instead of the return of the sun S-U-N, it is the return of the son S-O-N: the son of God. While there are many different aspects to Christmas, it typically includes gift-giving, caroling, and spending time with family and friends.
Many people celebrate the winter solstice in different ways so whatever you call it, this is a time to give thanks for all that we have been given over the past year and to look forward to the coming year. There is a strong focus on family and friends during Yule and it is a reminder of the importance of togetherness during this time. This is when we can come together to celebrate the return of the light and the promise of a new year.
So how can you honor this time of the year?
Ways to Celebrate
This sabbat is also known as the winter solstice, which is the shortest day of the year. It marks a transition between the days getting shorter, and the days beginning to grow longer.
Now, modern calendars tell us that the winter solstice is the beginning of winter, but in a time when most humans grew their own food, the winter solstice was actually the middle of winter, which is why one of its names is actually midwinter. Samhain would have been considered the first day of winter and the season would last through Imbolc at the beginning of February.
This is an important thing to mention. Many of the traditions our ancestors followed were based on their environment, circumstances and beliefs. Therefore, the traditions you follow should also be based on your environment, circumstances, and beliefs.
Since living in Florida, I’ve developed new traditions for the changing seasons based on the subtropical ecosystem of my area. In a place where the seasons are rain or dry and plants are constantly blooming and growing, the wheel of the year requires some adaptation to my area.
This is something I really love about witchcraft. There is a freedom to do things your own way. Some of the things that may be traditional for this time of year might not make sense for where you live, the resources like time, money, and energy you have available to you, or what you believe in.
We’ll be presenting some traditional practices and activities, which actually do align with the natural changes in Colorado where my sister, and co-host of the Talk Witchcraft podcast, lives. As we talk about Yule activities, we invite you to reflect on whether they are authentic to how you practice witchcraft and what you notice about the seasonal changes in your area.
Related: 10 Ways to Celebrate Yule
Now we’ll tell you about how to celebrate this season of Yule.
The Symbols and Traditions of Yule
COLORS
The colors of Yule are red and green to represent life during wintertime. The color red symbolizes the light that is returning during winter darkness and the vitality of the returning sun. And green represents life and abundance. Most trees are bare in the winter in temperate areas of the world. But the evergreen remains green hence the name.
Other Yule colors include Gold and White. Gold represents the gifts we give and the solar energy. White is a fresh clean slate to begin the next year on. It also represent silence and quiet of winter. Use any of these colors to decorate your home, your altar and for the tools and materials you use in rituals and spellwork.
EVERGREEN DECOR
Because of this, bringing evergreen plants indoors as decor and adding lights and baubles to them is common in many traditions around this time of the year.
The holly tree which is both red and green, was believed to protect against evil spirits flying in this night.
Mistletoe is hung as a symbol and an invitation for all to come together with no quarrels or disagreements because this is a time of peace and goodwill.
YULE LOG
Yule is a time for family and friends, and is often celebrated with a yule log, which is burned in the fire. The yule log was originally a tradition to burn the logs in order to bring good luck and prosperity for the coming year.
The log would be chosen carefully, as it needed to be from an oak tree that had been struck by lightning. This is because oak is sacred to Thor, the Norse God of Thunder and Lightning.
Oak is also significant and Celtic traditions because they have a story of the never ending struggling between the Oak King, who rules from Yule to Litha, and the Holly King, who rules from Litha to Yule.
Today, many witches still choose to burn a yule log as a way to honor the ancient traditions of this sabbat. In my childhood, my dad—who admires the Greenman, or the Oak King greatly—would host a tradition where we would burn pieces of a log each night leading up to the Winter Solstice and then we’d burn the whole thing.
Another fun tradition is to bake a cake and decorate it to resemble an oak log and serve during the celebration. I have many memories of baking and decorating a Swiss Roll cake with my grandmother.
FEASTS
As we mentioned before, Yule is also called Midwinter, which has been celebrated since Neolithic times with feasts that included both animals and humans. The Norse tradition honored Odin by sacrificing one each of every animal in their herds. This was thought to ensure good health for the herd throughout the coming year.
In some parts of the world, it is still customary to have a large feast in the middle of winter in order to celebrate the harvest that has been gathered and the returning sun.
For additional discussion surrounding Yule activities including, gift giving, wassailing, and the new year, please listen to the full episode of the Talk Witchcraft podcast.
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