Yule - Midwinter - The Winter Solstice

Yule, Midwinter, the Winter Solstice

The Wheel continues to turn, and we move into Winter. The great pause. A time to reset, to continue the journey within, healing, learning, discovering our souls path.

Yule begins at the Winter Solstice, which falls around the 21^st December. At Samhain, we honour our ancestors, we welcome the return of the dark and begin our journey within. At Yule, the Winter Solstice, we land at the depth of the darkness with the longest night, the darkness has reached its peak, the Sun stops its descent and for a few days rises in the same place, a magical liminal time, a time to embrace the primal mysteries of darkness and light, death and rebirth. Everything is suspended, waiting, the cusp and then we begin to notice, little by little, the light returning, getting stronger and longer and we know that we can begin our ascent into the light once more.

Taking our cues from Nature

The trees are intelligent beings that we can learn many things from if we reconnected with their energies. At the beginning of Autumn they begin to prepare their inward journey, by letting their leaves drop. ..letting the things go that no longer serve them, which is a vital part of our own inner work, as we prepare for the darker months. That is not the end of it though, those leaves land on the ground and serve as nourishment for the roots, feeding the tree over Winter, giving it the strength to grow stronger come the Spring, and this is how learning the art of letting things go through self-exploration can help us – those things that we no longer need and shed, will allow us to grow and flourish once we identify them and release them.

This is the time to do our inner work – to meditate, sit in the dark with our inner most self, to expose those dark parts of ourselves that we have hidden away, yet need the most healing.

There are many correspondences and similarities across cultures about Yule, like all the solstices and equinoxes, they were major events in the lives of the people, who were much more connected to the land and the seasons and cycles than we are now, and so they were celebrated all over the Earth.

I have written about the Holly and the Oak Kings, and the traditions of the evergreens as well as the importance of creating that warm and cosy feeling, of bringing in the light at this time of year, in a previous blog, which you can read here: Yule Traditions.

The Cailleach (pronounced Kai-lee-ach), the Old Woman of Winter

There are so many different traditions, deities, folklore and tales associated with the season of Yuletide. This year I am honouring The Cailleach, she is one of our most ancient creator goddesses. Known as the old woman of winter, the Veiled One, and the Queen of Winter, and many other names (often that’s how you can tell that a deity is ancient, they have many names).

She lives up in the high mountains of Scotland (or Ireland) and created the landscape by dropping boulders and rocks from her apron, and forming valleys with her footprints.

Cailleach by Jane Brideson

The Cailleach appears primarily as a veiled old woman, sometimes with only one eye (notice the similarity to Odin, the God of Norse mythology here!). Her skin was deathly pale or blue, while her teeth were red and her clothes adorned with skulls. She could leap across mountains and ride storms.

The Veiled One was a creator deity that shaped much of the known landscape; whether she did so intentionally remains unclear. Her tools of creation and destruction included her hammer, with which she was able to control storms and thunder. In some legends, she also controlled a well that would occasionally overflow and flood the land.

The Cailleach was both ageless and immortal; as winter gave way to spring, she would take a drought that returned her to youth. In Manx legend, she spent half the year as a young woman and the other half as a old crone – she was only known as the Cailleach during the latter half. In Ireland, she had seven periods of youth, after which she remained old permanently.

The seasonal division between summer and winter – where the Cailleach ruled winter and Brigid ruled summer – highlighted the association of the two goddesses. On Samhain, or October 31st, the Celtic year ends and winter begins, marking the return of the Cailleach. In Scotland and the Isle of Man, the Cailleach transforms into Brigid during Beltane, the fertility festival held on May 1st.

The Cailleach was also a goddess of grain, a key resource in surviving winter. The last sheath of grain harvested was dedicated to her, and used to begin the next planting season. Connections to life, death and rebirth.

Like many Irish goddesses, the Cailleach was linked to sovereignty and rulership. Before anyone could rule the land, they had to first win her approval.

The Cailleach was neither fully good nor fully evil; her intentions varied from tale to tale. Through her association with storms and thunder, she was a natural and wild destructive force. Despite this, she also cared deeply for animals both wild and domestic during the dark winter months. Protector of the deer and reindeer, companion of wolves and bears, she has no love of man, particularly hunters, smashing and wrecking their traps and luring them out to get lost in the snow when she sees them hunting her beloved animals.

Calm Energy by Janie Olsen

The Cailleach had a few family ties, the most well-known of which was the Bodach, a Scottish trickster spirit with whom she had many children.

According to an old Irish poem, she was a maiden seven times, (another reference to the number 7 – a magical number) allowing her to have many children by many husbands, as well as countless foster-children. By the time her final period of youth had ended, she had outlived her husbands and children alike, and was said to be the maternal ancestor of every Irish man and tribe, but she was a sovereign being, she answered to no man. To me She calls us to reconnect with our wild woman side to honour that which is shunned and looked down upon. Although she is depicted as a fearsome hag, that is by the men who fear her, she can also be seen as a beautiful woman.

Cailleach by Naomi Cornock

As a Goddess of transformation and death, She oversees the culling of the old, and lets die all that is no longer needed, hence her reign beginning at Samhain, when the animals would be culled to save the grain over winter and feed the tribe.

With the passing of the winter months, the Cailleach finds and guards the seeds for the coming re-birth of Spring. She stands at the cusp of life and death, intimately connected to the witches of old, the wise women who presided as midwives over birthing and who prepared the dead for burial, which connects to my soul midwife side!

As the “Veiled One” the Cailleach guides us through our inner realities and dreams. She teaches us to let go of (allow to die) all that no longer serves our higher purpose and guides us through the many deaths and rebirths of our life’s transitions. She is the final phase of the Triple Goddess who rules the wheel of reincarnation. She teaches us to embrace the transformative power of darkness and leads us into the light of re-birth.

Triple Goddess by Wendy Andrew

When we journey with the Cailleach in her time of winter she is asking us to go within to join Her in her cave, the dark womb of the Earth, to honour our deepest desires, our deepest innermost selves and ask ourselves what do we want to create? What of those darkest parts of ourselves, the parts we shun, we feel are ugly, can we name them, and love them? What do we need to let go, what needs to die so we can create fertile ground for ourselves? The Cailleach can help us to let go of those things and dream our rebirth into being.

I would love for you to Join me in our online circle for our last ritual of the calendar year, Sunday 19th December, at 8pm, where we journey deep within the womb of the earth to meet with her, and in so doing, embrace that aspect of ourselves. The link to the event is here; Yule Online Ritual & Meditation Event – Journey With the Cailleach.

This is a great article on The Cailleach and her correspondences if you would like to learn more about her; Sacred Wicca, The Cailleach.

Links to the Otherworlds

As we move from Samhain through to Yule, much of the symbolism is about death and dying, the mystical energies linked to the Otherworlds and the trees and plants that are tied in to this time of year. I have been diving deeply into this dark half of the year, and the darker side of my work, by deepening my knowledge with the Otherworlds, the Etheric realms – travelling between the worlds and learning how to help guide those poor lost souls who have not been able to transition, by attending the second part of the Shamanic Psychopomp course that I began this time last year.

A psychopomp is someone who helps to guide the souls of the dead across the threshold. There are many reasons a soul may not transcend, a sudden death may cause someone to not realise they are dead, or unfinished business may keep someone here. We are all familiar with tales of ghosts, hauntings, the energy in places not feeling right – but this is just these poor souls who are hanging here in limbo, not able to move on, so sad. Now I have the tools, and another layer to the subtle energies we work with at end of life, to help these people move on to place where they are meant to be.

Another link to my work with this liminal side are the podcasts I guested on hosted by my friend Bex of Silver Birch Healing, where we spoke about Samhain, and then followed up with a chat about that tree of life, death and rebirth, one of our most ancient and revered trees, the Yew, you can listen to them here: Podcast with Silver Birch Healing about the magical Yew tree.

This time of year calls me to not only turn within and work on my inner self, but to continue the work of honouring and connecting with my Ancestors, those loved ones that have gone before, and those before them. When we make a commitment to this deeper work, we are often working on what we call “karmic stuff”… clearing up the energies of our lineages. This can be done by meditation, counselling, hypnotherapy, and many different types of energy work. When we do this we are honouring our ancestors, healing the past and clearing the way for those who are yet to come.

Now I know this may seem all a bit dark and creepy… but far from it! The work we do at end of life teaches us to value life even more! And our podcasts are always filled with laughter. We hope to bring knowledge about these things in a light hearted way, whilst also always being respectful – this is a serious subject, but we are spiritual beings here on earth, here to experience the joy that surrounds us and goes with a body.

As pagans, we know that nothing ever really dies, and we learn that the full circle includes rebirth. At Yule we have a perfect opportunity to let things go that are no longer helping us, a kind of death, and begin to plan and nurture the seeds of what we are hoping to manifest for the next cycle, because, although Yule is the shortest day, the longest night, we pause, we also know that after this day, the light begins to grow each day – the sun gains strength, the light will return, along with new life! And so Yule is a time of hope and joy!

Yule Folklore

We don’t need to spend money or buy into the commercialism that has infiltrated Yule / Christmas. I love this holiday, and once we are into the first couple of weeks of November, I am well and truly in the spirit!

The darker evenings mean we can light the hearth fires, and if you don’t have a real fire, then candles are great – I have loads! Lots of fairy lights to bring in light and sparkle, and evergreens to symbolise new life.

I thought it would be fun and interesting to share some of the myths and folklore around Yule. As I said earlier, there are so many, but here are some interesting takes on why we think reindeer can fly, why Santa wears red, and why we have lots of toadstool (the fly agaric) images at this time of year… particularly as they are primarily in fruit much earlier in the year!

This is taken from an article by MacKenzie Bouchard:

“Several Siberian tribes have taken on another quite unusual strategy to prepare Fly Agaric in the past: as reindeer farms and Amanita muscaria are both very common in Siberia, the mushroom is a tasty treat to the reindeer, that also enjoy a type of high after eating the mushroom (Marley 2010). The urine from those reindeer were collected by tribes, and then consumed for a less potent hallucination experience with vivid dreams (Marley 2010). Hallucinations and vivid dreams are believed to be the reason why the Nordic tribes in Siberia believed reindeer could fly at Christmastime (Marley 2010, Main 2013).

Most think that consumerism and marketing were the reasoning for Santa Claus bearing the bright red and white uniform, however, he had been wearing those colours long before Coca-Cola began using him in their marketing in the 1930s (Belk 1987). Even Santa Claus, who is thought to be derived from a Siberian Shaman or Danish Nisse, has ties to Fly Agaric. His coloured robes replicate the colours of Amanita muscaria and in folklore, he is from countries that commonly consume the mushroom (Main 2013). Santa Claus, an almost god-like figure himself, has also been depicted as a representative of fertility and luck; he has historically been depicted as an androgynous figure that helped unmarried women pay for suitors (Belk 1987). His association with reindeer, and links to giving out the dried Amanita muscaria mushrooms or presents wrapped in red and white as gifts, are compelling evidence for underlying Pagan celebrations of a mushroom hiding in plain sight during a Christian holiday.”

The article is quite long, and so you can read the full thing here: The Fly Agaric on Modern Yuletide Celebrations

Yule Altar

At Yule we bring the light in, to ward off the dark cold days and long nights. In our modern world we have the luxury of twinkly fairy lights and scented candles, but our ancestors would have had the hearth fire, which would have been the focal point for the tribe, village or family to gather around.

As modern pagans, our altars are very important in our celebrations, and provide the focal point for our rituals and intentions. Altars are deeply personal, reflecting our individual tastes and personalities. It can be as simple as a single candle, or as elaborate as your imagination and space allow. You may have more than one, or just a small box that acts as a travelling altar.

I am lucky enough to have a few altar spaces around my house, and one in the cabin, which I will film myself setting up for the Yule online ritual and meditation and post it on my YouTube channel.

I always have a small real tree which I buy from a local family that grow them sustainably themselves, and then I make my Yule log from each years previous tree.

I place three candles in it, one to represent each of us in the house, that are in deep drilled holes, and so into the holes we place pieces of paper with our wishes on them. From the 21st of December, the first night of Yule, I light them each day for the 12 days, until they are completely burnt down, and on the 12th day I put the whole Yule log in the fire! So it’s a bit like a cross between the traditional yule log and and advent candle. This has become a tradition in our house now. That’s another thing I like about this time of year, it gives us an opportunity to not only reconnect with all of our family traditions… but as we change and grow, move away from families, lose elders, gain new family members, we can also create new traditions – this is the joy of following the pagan wheel, always knowing that we can shed the old and rebirth new ways of being.

Thank you

As the wheel turns, this time of year provides time for reflection. That is the blessing of the pause, we can look back on the year, the highs and the lows, the people we may have lost, the new ones that have come into our lives – there is always space for finding gratitude, and I am deeply grateful, for every aspect of my life.

I would like to take this moment to thank everyone who has crossed my path this year, all my clients and students, the people who follow me on the social media platforms, subscribe to my newsletters and read my blogs, my friends and family – thank you all for being a part of my journey, I am grateful for your support, it really does mean so much to me and I value every interaction. These last couple of years have been hard, scary, devisive and confusing for all of us, but if we stick together we can keep shining our lights in the darkness, together we are stronger, and our lights are brighter, shining out as a beacon for the others in our tribe, so we can find our way through the darkness as one!