Hail the Return of the Sun God!

 

Some beautiful music for Yule above.

Ah Yule.

I try to blog at least on each Sabbat although my instinct tells me that I am supposed to do much more. Promise to try in the coming year.

ITS SO DARK!!!

I hear that every day now. OH its so dark! I am depressed, sleepy, I am gaining weight, I feel confused.

Its supposed to feel that way!

We are not meant to always stay in the light, always in the warmth. We need a dark time and truly this darkness has been coming on for months. It begins on Midsummer Day June 21st and goes on until Dec 21 when the sun returns or it looks like it does.

What is a Solstice?

Solstice comes from the Latin word solstitium, meaning ‘the Sun stands still’. This is because on this day, the Sun reaches its southern-most position as seen from the Earth. The Sun seems to stand still at the Tropic of Capricorn and then reverses its direction. It’s also common to call it the day the Sun turns around!

So what happens after?

The sun sets later and later.

And so people since the beginning of time have celebrated this day!

We have made it through the darkest time of the year, the pinnacle of the dark night of the year, the shortest day.

People still celebrate by waiting until the sun rises above the horizon and drum it in! Feasts occur on this day and night and all the day after all over the world and yes here in NYC in my home as well.

I have been lucky finding wonderful places to watch the sun come up.  I have been on a roof watching the full moon set in the West as the Sun rose above my head in the East after a night of feasting and board games!

I once spent a magnificent night watching movies, singing, reading and napping between coffee and snacks with a magnificent Priestess. We trudged out just before Sunrise to Prospect Park and found the most Eastern place we could.  Snow up to our knees we sang and watched as the sun rose over the horizon, trees and lit the day.  Joggers watched us dance in the snow and we rejoiced for over an hour, never feeling the cold as mothers dragging tired children to daycare glared at us.  I will never forget the beautiful orange of the rising sun reflected upon the snow.

I have had many other and varied Yules in my life as well as so many Christmases.  I celebrate both holidays but Yule is more important to me.  I make sure I only put lights up after the sun has risen and I never stop thinking about how all the red  in Christmas decorations represents the Goddess and all the green the God reborn.  The silver tinsel the Goddesses color and the gold balls and lights everywhere the Sun God.  I love the way everyone decorates still not knowing that in actuality Christmas is as Pagan a holiday as Halloween!

You can change all Christmas traditions into Yule traditions.  Give gifts to celebrate success and harvest and growth into a new year! Put up the beautiful evergreen and decorate it with gold and silver!  The pagan versions of all regular Christmas carols are available on line and of course light a YULE LOG if you have a fireplace.

Try to stay up.  Stay up all night.  Find out when the sun rises in your area on Dec 21st and wait up. Sing it up, watch it rise.  Remember our ancestors believed that if they did not sing and chant it would not rise!  Maybe that is still the case eh?

May you have a blessed Yule and holiday season no matter how you celebrate the return of the sun/son!

Love and Light to you.

Take a look at the videos below for more information on Sun Gods!