Yule as a Renewal Ceremony
This essay was written with an eye towards helping some of my non-heathen friends and family understand what this crazy holiday is about...sorta. It's rough and rambling. I haven't written anything in a long time.
The time of the winter celebration is coming. The solstice, the longest night of the year, is almost upon us.
On that night, all fires and lights in the village will be extinguished. In the ensuing darkness, the dead will come back to visit and celebrate for a time. There will be prayers and feasting. Children will receive gifts from visiting spirits. Later, a new fire will be kindled in the center of the village and shared among all the households. The new sun and the return of life to earth will be marked and celebrated.
The scenes I describe could be part of a Yule celebration in some hidden Scandinavian hamlet, but they are not - they are aspects of the winter solstice celebration of the Hopi Indians of Arizona. The center of the village is the Kiva. The visiting spirits giving gifts are Kachinas - the spirit people. The dead walk into town from the burial ground - the road to which is left open while all others are magically closed with sprinklings of holy cornmeal.
The fact that these ritual elements echo our own European customs should not be surprising. Solstice celebrations bear a marked similarity around the world. They constitute what are commonly referred to as 'world renewal ceremonies'. Other cultures conduct their most important renewals at other times of the year, but for we Heathens, Yule is the most holy.
The purpose of a renewal rituals, on a concrete magical-thinking level, is to keep the cosmos and human endeavors in sync - to commemorate and revitalize a relationship of harmony. Saying that Yule is about helping a weak sun god to reassert his/her power and come back to save us from cold and death is a gross over-simplification; one that has traditionally been used by monotheists to point up the simple ignorance of our forbears. Of course, there is some truth to it. Yet as with most spiritual matters, this simple story is but a mask before deeper issues and truths.
The renewal of Yule has to do with our relationships, our emotional connections and underpinnings. In short, our health as individuals and communities. In modern Heathenry there are many customs with many variations, but there are a few common themes which strike a familiar chord even with non-Heathens. Metaphors abound.
THE NEED FIRE: We mentioned how the Hopi extinguish all the fires and lights in the village and kindle a new fire. The European equivalent is the practice of lighting the "need fire", which may be performed at Yule or other holy days such as Winter Nights. The fire is lit from a natural source such as sunlight, flint and steel, friction, etc. The symbolism is pretty obvious. The Need Fire symbolizes the returning sun, life itself and the “divine spark” of creation. Fire is the root of all life and civilization. We all need fire and fire, metaphorically, is a part of us all. The traditions of the yule log, holiday lights, etc. are all related to this most primal expression. It is also social glue. Besides food, fire may well have been the first gift exchanged between families. The gift of life from the sun is the original gift, and every gift given and received since is its echo.
One of our household rituals involves my wife going around to each room and lighting candles, invoking Freyja and Frigg to bring "brightness and warmth." On this very personal level, she is enacting the return of the sun to our lives and hearth. The entire rest of the evening, the house will be lit only by these candles and the hearth (with the possible exception of the kitchen if there are major projects in the works).
GHOSTS: Winter is Death, plain and simple. Germanic tradition holds that now is the time of the Wild Hunt or Furious Host - the chaotic tumult of spirits, both deities and the newly dead, through the night sky. As the sun has weakened, the world is experiencing a sort of death. The "veil between the worlds" as some folk say, is at its thinnest. That is to say, death is very near to us all - just beyond the fire light. The Hunt is a recognition of this natural cycle and symbolizes a purging and cleansing of the world. Out with the old, in with the new.
Fear of the Hunt, of ghosts, is part and parcel with feelings of awe and recognition of the sublime. Because inevitable Death may be feared and also embraced, we have Yuletide ghosts and ghost stories; something of which Mr. Dickens, an inheritor of English memories of the Wild Hunt, was well aware. Yule is the ultimate time of transition, so what could be more logical than to have spirits of past, present and future acting upon the life of an individual who has shut himself off from spiritual awareness?
Welcoming the Wild Hunt (even if staying out of its way) and inviting in the ancestors reminds us of the immediacy and illusory nature of death, as well as its concrete reality. This is our connection to the past, and ultimately, to the unchanging aspects of who we are; blood, bone and spirit.
CELEBRATION AND KINSHIP: It is not only the honored dead who are thought to join us during the Yuletide, but spirits of all stripe. All are welcome if they come with good intent. At my house on Mother's Night (the first night of the Yuletide and usually considered the night before Yule itself), my good lady wife annually performs the ritual of walking around the house three times with a candle reciting "Come those who wish to come. Stay those who wish to stay. Fare those who wish to fare. Harmless to me and mine.” Our daughter loves accompanying her, despite the cold and dark. Inviting in spirits reminds us of our kinship with all life. That, as the Lakota say, “All of Nature are my relatives.”
This, by the way, is also one of the origins of the Yule tree/Christmas tree; originally an evergreen near the home bedecked with offerings of food for the spirits of land (yet another root gifting tradition). Fruit trees were also often decorated with offerings or lit with small fires to warm them and magically encourage them to bear fruit in the coming year.
While kinship with Nature is essential, kinship with other humans might be a bit more fun. Hence the twelve nights of feasting and celebration with friends and family. If you are going to shout out to the darkness that you will not yield, it is always best to do so in a chorus. This is why we sing and toast with good cheer. Wassailing has its roots in this awareness. Alcohol, as the ritual drug of choice of our ancestors, was a social lubricant as well as a bringer of inspiration. And inspiration is life. We share mead and cider because we wish to share life, vitality and good health. “We wish you good health” is the basic translation of the Old English “Wassail!”
AN ELEVATED TIME: As we mentioned, during Yule, we are engaged in ritual that renews ourselves by reminding us of our interconnectedness. Ideally, we could be continually renewed if we were to live 24/7 in harmony with the natural world and with full awareness. Yet the rigors of life can make such awareness difficult to say the least (just ask any Zen monk). This is why renewal ritual periods such as Yule exist. The twelve nights, corresponding to the twelve months of the year, are sacred and holy - intentionally set apart form the rest of the mundane year to allow us to experience an elevated state of mind. Yule is at once a time to rest, just as the fields and forests are resting under the snow. It is also a time to raise ones consciousness to a more spiritual frame of mind, at least for a time; to drop out of the rigmarole and focus on what matters - family, joy, communion with the divine in all things. This is why our ancestors held the tradition that no work was to be done during the Yuletide. The spinning wheels were stopped, the business of material production and repair set aside. The fire of joy in our hearts was to be allowed free reign. Now then, this translated into a lot of eating and drinking, but a little Dionysian excess is a good thing - especially when it acts as a safety valve for the pressures of discipline the rest of the year.
There is a huge amount of material to discuss regarding Yule. Suffice to say that many of the essential elements of the holiday are still alive and well, even in our highly secularized and materialistic American version. One only needs to consider the roots to grasp a deeper mystery and renew ones self. We are all Sunna, rising again full of potential and hope.
Hail Sunna!
Hail the Yule!
Wassail to the Folk!
The time of the winter celebration is coming. The solstice, the longest night of the year, is almost upon us.
On that night, all fires and lights in the village will be extinguished. In the ensuing darkness, the dead will come back to visit and celebrate for a time. There will be prayers and feasting. Children will receive gifts from visiting spirits. Later, a new fire will be kindled in the center of the village and shared among all the households. The new sun and the return of life to earth will be marked and celebrated.
The scenes I describe could be part of a Yule celebration in some hidden Scandinavian hamlet, but they are not - they are aspects of the winter solstice celebration of the Hopi Indians of Arizona. The center of the village is the Kiva. The visiting spirits giving gifts are Kachinas - the spirit people. The dead walk into town from the burial ground - the road to which is left open while all others are magically closed with sprinklings of holy cornmeal.
The fact that these ritual elements echo our own European customs should not be surprising. Solstice celebrations bear a marked similarity around the world. They constitute what are commonly referred to as 'world renewal ceremonies'. Other cultures conduct their most important renewals at other times of the year, but for we Heathens, Yule is the most holy.
The purpose of a renewal rituals, on a concrete magical-thinking level, is to keep the cosmos and human endeavors in sync - to commemorate and revitalize a relationship of harmony. Saying that Yule is about helping a weak sun god to reassert his/her power and come back to save us from cold and death is a gross over-simplification; one that has traditionally been used by monotheists to point up the simple ignorance of our forbears. Of course, there is some truth to it. Yet as with most spiritual matters, this simple story is but a mask before deeper issues and truths.
The renewal of Yule has to do with our relationships, our emotional connections and underpinnings. In short, our health as individuals and communities. In modern Heathenry there are many customs with many variations, but there are a few common themes which strike a familiar chord even with non-Heathens. Metaphors abound.
THE NEED FIRE: We mentioned how the Hopi extinguish all the fires and lights in the village and kindle a new fire. The European equivalent is the practice of lighting the "need fire", which may be performed at Yule or other holy days such as Winter Nights. The fire is lit from a natural source such as sunlight, flint and steel, friction, etc. The symbolism is pretty obvious. The Need Fire symbolizes the returning sun, life itself and the “divine spark” of creation. Fire is the root of all life and civilization. We all need fire and fire, metaphorically, is a part of us all. The traditions of the yule log, holiday lights, etc. are all related to this most primal expression. It is also social glue. Besides food, fire may well have been the first gift exchanged between families. The gift of life from the sun is the original gift, and every gift given and received since is its echo.
One of our household rituals involves my wife going around to each room and lighting candles, invoking Freyja and Frigg to bring "brightness and warmth." On this very personal level, she is enacting the return of the sun to our lives and hearth. The entire rest of the evening, the house will be lit only by these candles and the hearth (with the possible exception of the kitchen if there are major projects in the works).
GHOSTS: Winter is Death, plain and simple. Germanic tradition holds that now is the time of the Wild Hunt or Furious Host - the chaotic tumult of spirits, both deities and the newly dead, through the night sky. As the sun has weakened, the world is experiencing a sort of death. The "veil between the worlds" as some folk say, is at its thinnest. That is to say, death is very near to us all - just beyond the fire light. The Hunt is a recognition of this natural cycle and symbolizes a purging and cleansing of the world. Out with the old, in with the new.
Fear of the Hunt, of ghosts, is part and parcel with feelings of awe and recognition of the sublime. Because inevitable Death may be feared and also embraced, we have Yuletide ghosts and ghost stories; something of which Mr. Dickens, an inheritor of English memories of the Wild Hunt, was well aware. Yule is the ultimate time of transition, so what could be more logical than to have spirits of past, present and future acting upon the life of an individual who has shut himself off from spiritual awareness?
Welcoming the Wild Hunt (even if staying out of its way) and inviting in the ancestors reminds us of the immediacy and illusory nature of death, as well as its concrete reality. This is our connection to the past, and ultimately, to the unchanging aspects of who we are; blood, bone and spirit.
CELEBRATION AND KINSHIP: It is not only the honored dead who are thought to join us during the Yuletide, but spirits of all stripe. All are welcome if they come with good intent. At my house on Mother's Night (the first night of the Yuletide and usually considered the night before Yule itself), my good lady wife annually performs the ritual of walking around the house three times with a candle reciting "Come those who wish to come. Stay those who wish to stay. Fare those who wish to fare. Harmless to me and mine.” Our daughter loves accompanying her, despite the cold and dark. Inviting in spirits reminds us of our kinship with all life. That, as the Lakota say, “All of Nature are my relatives.”
This, by the way, is also one of the origins of the Yule tree/Christmas tree; originally an evergreen near the home bedecked with offerings of food for the spirits of land (yet another root gifting tradition). Fruit trees were also often decorated with offerings or lit with small fires to warm them and magically encourage them to bear fruit in the coming year.
While kinship with Nature is essential, kinship with other humans might be a bit more fun. Hence the twelve nights of feasting and celebration with friends and family. If you are going to shout out to the darkness that you will not yield, it is always best to do so in a chorus. This is why we sing and toast with good cheer. Wassailing has its roots in this awareness. Alcohol, as the ritual drug of choice of our ancestors, was a social lubricant as well as a bringer of inspiration. And inspiration is life. We share mead and cider because we wish to share life, vitality and good health. “We wish you good health” is the basic translation of the Old English “Wassail!”
AN ELEVATED TIME: As we mentioned, during Yule, we are engaged in ritual that renews ourselves by reminding us of our interconnectedness. Ideally, we could be continually renewed if we were to live 24/7 in harmony with the natural world and with full awareness. Yet the rigors of life can make such awareness difficult to say the least (just ask any Zen monk). This is why renewal ritual periods such as Yule exist. The twelve nights, corresponding to the twelve months of the year, are sacred and holy - intentionally set apart form the rest of the mundane year to allow us to experience an elevated state of mind. Yule is at once a time to rest, just as the fields and forests are resting under the snow. It is also a time to raise ones consciousness to a more spiritual frame of mind, at least for a time; to drop out of the rigmarole and focus on what matters - family, joy, communion with the divine in all things. This is why our ancestors held the tradition that no work was to be done during the Yuletide. The spinning wheels were stopped, the business of material production and repair set aside. The fire of joy in our hearts was to be allowed free reign. Now then, this translated into a lot of eating and drinking, but a little Dionysian excess is a good thing - especially when it acts as a safety valve for the pressures of discipline the rest of the year.
There is a huge amount of material to discuss regarding Yule. Suffice to say that many of the essential elements of the holiday are still alive and well, even in our highly secularized and materialistic American version. One only needs to consider the roots to grasp a deeper mystery and renew ones self. We are all Sunna, rising again full of potential and hope.
Hail Sunna!
Hail the Yule!
Wassail to the Folk!