Yule: Time of Reflection and Fun

Yule is the night that lasts the longest of all nights. It is the point on the wheel of the year, the winter solstice, when there is a new birth after death, and day begins to win out overnight again. Yule isn’t just about winter and cold. It’s about the end. The world freezes, the trees stand naked, and the breath of nature is barely audible. Life seems to have disappeared, but it hasn’t. It has hidden deeper, gone into the roots, into the bowels of the earth, into the dark womb of the Great Goddess.

With Yule begins the year of forty days when you can rewrite your destiny and determine your path for at least the next year. Reality is formed for everyone individually and depends on the choice. Each person forms the laws of construction of his reality through choice. Therefore, all rituals of Yule are aimed at the final summing up, to focus on their true needs, to realize their desires, and to make a considered choice.

The old has completed its cycle, and the new is waiting to begin. But before taking a step into the future, Yule invites us to ask ourselves important questions: what to leave behind and what to take with us?
The first step of this holiday is clearing space, both internal and external, to make room for what is truly important. Yule is not just about new beginnings. It’s about being honest with yourself. It’s about seeing what has exhausted itself and rekindling the fire of what will warm the next year. You can use many different techniques to do this. For example, working with runes, plants, totem animals, minerals, or any other way. Among the minerals for this, the most suitable are morion and sherl. And then let go of what has manifested as dead and unnecessary, symbolically giving it to one of the elements – earth, water, fire, or air.
The second step is the lighting of the Yule fire. The flame symbolizes what will warm you and give you strength for the next year. Looking at the dancing tongues of fire, you can ask yourself questions: what do I want to keep or what do I want to come into my life? What truly nourishes me? What comes from my heart and soul and what comes from the expectations of others? Some of the stones that can help in this work are garnet and carnelian.

The third stage comes when all the previous works have been completed. This is offering gifts to the spirits of the house and decorating the house as a space for future realization. Gifts are given to yourself, your family, and loved ones. On Yule days one must wear something new, or try something that has never been tried before. In general, in one form or another let new things into their lives. Also very important these days is gifting the goddess as the Mistress of Darkness and the Mother of Light, expressing her gratitude for what has passed, and asking her to bless deeds and plans in the new year to give them a place and an opportunity to realize. Traditional gifts to the Goddess are grain, any sweets, pastries, fruits, dried fruits, sweet wine, flowers, plants, incense, aromatic oils and waters, jewelry, and semi-precious stones. Gifting the Goddess is an act of balance. Gratitude for the past gives the power to let go. Asking for blessings for the future gives the power to begin.

Then, when this very personal ritual is completed, we should not forget that Yule is not only a time of reflection but also of unbridled fun. On these days you can do things that on other days people usually do not allow themselves to do. Let go of conventions, let yourself go, and enjoy the present moment. These days, it’s as if the world permits a person to be free, noisy, fun, and even daring. Feasting, merriment, jokes, dancing and songs, masquerades and reincarnations. It is a time when nature quiets down and man kindles fires and hearts to remind himself that life goes on despite the darkness. Yule is a time of freedom because the future is not yet determined. It will be determined a little later, so when if not now allow yourself to do what you did not dare to do before, to be energized and to enter the new year with ease and strength and all year long to be happy, to be joyful, and to be yourself.