Yule!

Merry Meet!!
So.. today is the official Yule (Yuletide, Winter Solstice, etc.)!!!!!!
My plans for today are to do a Goddess Ritual tonight (I'm excited!!)...

Here is a link to the site where I fount my ritual (yes, I'm using another person's ritual, I want more experience before I write my own.. maybe next year I'll write one!): http://www.wiccaspirit.net/v1is7/index_pg6.htm

I am going to admit, that I edited it just a tiny bit in order to suit me.. :o

I'm extremely excited about my ritual, I can't wait!! :)

I guess that's all for now... but first, here is a bit about Yule:

The word “solstice” is derived from two Latin words: “sol” (the sun) and “sistere” (to stand still), the Winter Solstice therefore means, “Sun stands still in Winter”. Yule marks the longest night and shortest day of the year, when the Sun ceases its decline in the sky, and for three days thereafter seems to stand still and lie dormant on the horizon, after this it once again begins its ascent into the northern sky's and the days grow longer.

Yule celebrates the rebirth of the Sun God, born of the Goddess after her return from the Underworld. Fires and candles are lit to welcome the return of the Sun Gods light while the Goddess rests after delivery and the hardships of her winter in labour. Yule or the Winter Solstice is known by various other names, including: Alban Arthan (Caledonii or Druid), Jul (Norse), Yuletide (Teutonic), Feill Fionnain (Pecti-Wita), Gwyl Canol Gaeof (Welsh), the Longest Night, Midwinter and of course Christmas from Christianity.

The Yule celebration was particularly important to our ancestors, occurring at a time when many (the poor, the old, the feeble) were not expected to live throughout the winter. It was a time when their very survival depended on preparations they had made during the previous nine months. Starvation was a constant threat for many throughout the winter, indeed January through April were known as “the famine months”). For many, the Midwinter festival was their last great feast before the deprivations of deep winter set in. Any cattle left not needed for future breeding would have been slaughtered to provide fresh meat, and any left-over produce from the last harvest fermented and made into wine and beer for drinking.

Traditionally for the festivities, streets, homes and churches would be decorated using natural resources, such like Mistletoe, Holly and Ivy. Their use brought colour and life into the home and acted as a means of contact with the spirits of nature at a time when such has been threatened by the declining light of the Sun. The Druids especially prized mistletoe that grew in the sacred Oak trees, and on the Eve of the Winter Solstice would harvest the plant with a Golden Sickle. The white berries of the Mistletoe represented the male aspects of the Sun God, and were used to invoke fertility and the awakening powers of the Sun.

Courtesy of: http://www.controverscial.com/Yule.htm

Hope you have a blessed Yule!! And may this solstice be as magickal as you are.. :)

Blessed be..

Amorel )O(