In just a few short days it will be time for Yule, the Winter Solstice. This year Yule will fall on December 21/22 bringing us the shortest day and the longest night of the year. All around the Northern Hemisphere Pagans, Witches, and magical babes will be lighting candles and singing carols to call back the Sun from the depths of darkness.
While things might still feel cold, dark, and bleak in the days following the solstice, the fact is that second by second, day by day, the sun will grow in the strength. The days will get longer and before you know it the sun isn’t going down at 4:45 pm anymore.
Yes, much of this is a myth, and it’s anecdotal. The sun isn’t actually “weak” or “growing in strength”. We know that the change in daylight hours is because of the tilting of the earth’s axis. However, this was a complete unknown to our ancestors. To them, the fading hours of daylight meant the sun was dying. By using firelight and song they would send prayers for the sun’s strength and healing, hoping that this sympathetic magic would bring the sun back to them.
And sure enough, every year, it did! But again, that was the earth moving on its axis.
Even though we know this is going to happen with or without our help, we still choose to light candles and fires, put up twinkling lights, decorate evergreen trees {a symbol of everlasting life to our ancestors}, and participate in feasts and gift giving. All of these things were part of our Pagan ancestor’s traditions for Yule, which have become part of our modern winter celebrations like Christmas.
Yes, Christmas is basically an appropriated Pagan holiday. Forget the “war on Christmas”. When are we going to talk about the “war on solstice”? OK, I’m kidding, sort of.
Jesus wasn’t born in December, and there was no snow and no evergreen trees in the desert where Jesus did live in his lifetime. The Church embraced the European tradition of Yule and made it their own in an attempt to make the conversion of Pagans easier. If they saw traditions like their own in the Church, they may be more inclined to join freely. But we all know the stories of the terrible PR problem the Church had during that time.
Besides the traditions we already practice at during the winter season, we can work a little magic with a red candle and the Sun card from any tarot deck to help bring more of the sun’s energy back into our lives in a naturally darker, lower energy time of year.
Yule Tarot Magic with the Sun Card
Pick out the Sun card from your favorite tarot deck. If you don’t have a deck, do a search for the Sun card in Google Images or Pinterest and find an image that appeals to you and print it out.
Place your card in the center of your altar along with a red candle to represent fire and the sun.
Take a few moments to look at your card. Visualize yourself in the scene in the card. Feel the rays of the sun shining down on you, warming your skin. Breathe deep and smell the scent of warm grass and dirt on a summer day after the rains have come and gone and the sun out once again. Feel the power of the sun and the life it creates and supports.
Bring yourself back to this cold and dreary winter season and know that you will once again feel that sun on your skin again. Now is the night of the rebirth of the Sun, represented divinely as the Son of the Goddess. During this longest night of the year, the Goddess is in labor, and we sing her through the process of birthing the sun, the Child of Light, once again.
Light you candle and chant the following:
Return O Sun
Return O Lord.
Bring back the light
And life restored!
Find a rhythm to the chant that you light and chant as long as you wish. Fall into the rhythm and let it carry you. When you feel full of energy and ready to burst, throw your hands up in the air, visualizing big bright rays of sunlight shining up into the sky from the palms of your hands and shout:
SO MOTE IT BE!
Let your candle burn down through the night of Yule to help guide the Sun and the God back through the cold and dark earth.
Music for Yule
Here is one of my favorite Pagan Yuletide songs by Gypsy Ravish off her album Enchantress.
If you enjoy that, have a listen to my latest Pagan Yule playlist on 8tracks:
