YULE

Yule, otherwise known as the Winter Solstice, is the shortest day of the year and one of the Quarter Days, hence a Lesser Sabbat. At this time the sun has reached its farthest point south of the equator and is beginning its apparent journey northward again. This day marks the halfway point of the Tide of Recession (Samhain-Imbolg), which informs us of death. Power recedes into the unmanifest, and power given to the Gods works best to achieve a spiritual result. Its word is God-hood.

Yule (from Saxon hwael, "wheel") is celebrated in Wicca as the birth of the Sun God as Divine Child, whose mother is in Her aspect of Life-in-Death, the "leprous white Lady". It also marks the time when the Oak King and the Holly King fight, the Holly King being defeated (though in some traditions He is not killed, being evergreen, but merely deposed). This motif survives in the mummers play "St. George and the Turkish Knight", and in stories of Robin Red-breast killing the Gold Crest Wren.

Many European peoples--from the ancient Greeks to modern Western Europeans--considered the wren to be a kingly bird, as witnessed by the titles "the king", "the little king", "the Lady of Heaven's Hen", among others. The wren was held in such high regard that there were many penalties associated with harming a wren or disturbing its nest, such as broken bones, being struck by lightning, dreadful misfortune, cows giving bloody milk, etc. Despite these beliefs, however, the custom of annually killing the wren prevailed widely in Brittany, France, Ireland, and England.

On the Isle of Man the killing of the wren took place late Christmas Eve. On this evening all of the servants were given a holiday. They stayed up until midnight when the church bells rang in Christmas Day. After prayers they went out to hunt a wren. When one was caught it was fastened to the end of a pole, its wings outstretched. The crowd then processed door to door while chanting a tune, collecting money for the "king's" funeral. They then proceeded to the churchyard for the funeral, and buried the wren with due respect and solemnity. That over, the crowd met outside the church walls to do various circle dances until dawn. One rationale, at least for the door-to-door part, was that the worshipful animal was killed and presented to each house so that each family could partake of the energy emanating from the dead (or dying) god.

Sympathetic magic was done to keep the sun from disappearing forever and to give the newborn sun strength. Bonfires built at Yule for this purpose were probably the forerunners of the Yule log. The log was normally of oak and in some places had to be large enough to burn until Twelfth Night. This was amended to burning the Yule log for only a short time each night (since not everyone had a room-sized fireplace!). The Yule fire had to be kindled with remnants of last year's log. The rest of last year's log was then ground up and sprinkled over the fields during the Twelve Nights to ensure fertility in the spring. In Westphalia the log was saved and tied up in the last sheaf at harvest for the same reason, combining the Yule log with the corn dolly custom. Yule log remnants were also said to protect the household from lightning strikes.

Of course the most famous of Yuletide symbols has got to be Santa Claus. (Hey, wait a minute! What's a guy designed for a series of Coca-Cola ads in the 1930's got to do with Yule????????)(I'm glad you asked...)The elf in the red suit was not originally as jolly as he is today. If one traces the variations back through time one sees that the original "Santa Claus"(or Knecht Ruprecht, Sunder Klaas, Hans Trapp, Klawes, Klas Buer, Ashenklas, Zwarte Piet, to name a few) originally dressed in furs, had horns, an erect penis (or phallic symbol carried such as a switch or rod), and would scare the children as often as give them gifts. One can see right away the similarities between these figures and the Herne/Pan series of deities and Nature Spirits (or of their shamans). As time went on the aspects of this character were split into the "good" St. Nicholas and his "dark" (i.e. evil) helper Black Pete, who still carried the switch and terrorized children but without the more obvious pagan characteristics. (Black Pete was later mistakenly depicted as a mischievous negro boy).

Another symbol rooted in ancient custom was the lighting of candles on the Yule (or Christmas) Tree. Tony van Renterghem puts forth the theory that the Christmas tree is a remnant of an old racial memory of the first tree struck by lightning which gave the gift of fire. One can see so many examples of this motif, from the Burning Bush and the Pillar of Fire in the Bible, to the Lightning Path down the Qabbalistic Tree of Life, to the Oak Tree and its various associated Lightning deities, just to mention a few. There were even places, such as Denekamp in the Netherlands, which burned their maypole as part of the festivities. Yule logs, bonfires and needfires also belong in this category.

At this, the darkest time of the year, the birth of the waxing light gives us hope, for the wheel has turned once again.

Blessed Be !