Yule is a celebration I enjoy. The Solstice itself is such a focus for pagans that I can’t get over how amazing it is to feel it.I’ve not really been very organised this time round, a lot of the presents I’ve made are staying put until I see people because I never really made plans to give them out. Also some of the postal ones are staying here until New Year because they’re heavy.
I’ve celebrated Yule three times this year I guess. I did my Wiccan bit on the 16th with other people which was a first for me. In fact I haven’t done anything really alone which is very unusual but I’m kind of liking that. Last night the Heathens celebrate Mother Night which is quite similar to the Wiccan interpretation of Samhain which fits with my notions of the doorways and paths opening at Samhain and closing at Yule. I don’t really keep the dates as hard and fast open and closed states more opening and closing, going through movements and changes. The year gives birth to itself on Mother Night according to Heathen tradition and I see it as moving through labour, part of the doors closing, a movement completed at different points in different years and felt I think by most of us though perhaps we are less likely in our own ways to interpret things in terms of gods and goddesses.
The beginning and the end of an arc are the power points, as doors open things flow through them with urgency, hence Samhain being such a rush and Yule as well. But this whole part of the year in terms of resonance is beginning to come down, the light is coming back, the physicality of the world reasserts itself and its time for me to stop being so introspective and start some self defence classes before I start teaching those little knife wielding kids in Heysham.
So, Yule, Mother Night and a quiet Yule with the Jellicle. I am looking forward to Imbolc it must be said.