Have a cool Yule
Entry posted by 5co77ie
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Ring out those solstice Bells – tonight is the long night.
So it’s time for a merry Christmas, Saturnalia, Yule, the Long Night, Solstice etc
The solstice is the time of the death of the old sun and the birth of the dark-half of the year. It was called "Alban Arthuan by the ancient Druids. It is the end of month of the Elder Tree and the start of the month of the Birch. The three days before Yule is a magical time. This is the time of the Serpent Days or transformation...The Elder and Birch stand at the entrance to Annwn or Celtic underworld where all life was formed. Like several other myths they guard the entrance to the underworld. This is the time the Sun God journey's thru the underworld to learn the secrets of death and life. And bring out those souls to be reincarnated."
My mother’s family name is Birch and when we lived on the other side of the globe, we’d travel back from glorious sunshine to cold winters in High Wycombe where we’d always go to the Golden Ball church and have a traditional Christmas at my uncle’s house.
Usually K and I go out into the nearby woodland and collect armfuls of holly and mistletoe to cover the ceiling as well as collect pine cones which we paint silver – this year however we’re going for a more traditional Xmas too and there will be no dressing up in green or black and fighting with staves down at Double Locks this year.
The girls of the house instead are making mince pie parcels – in filo bundles and making Stollen cake.
To the ancients, it appeared as if the Sun and Moon stopped in their flight across the sky—this is the longest night of the year and was a time of both anticipation and rejoicing at the Sun's rebirth out of the Goddess.
The Sun's representation as the male divinity, or celestial ruler, predates Christianity. As with other rituals and celebrations, the Church felt that by assimilating this holiday into the Christian beliefs, it would help convert those who still followed the Olde Way.
Funnily enough the BBC site marks this day with this news story:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6196225.stm
'Virgin births' for giant lizards - There have been two reported cases of Komodo dragon "virgin births"
Ahh now for friends of Finn this could prove interesting if you believe the world is run by lizards 
Symbolism of the Winter Solstice
The Winter Solstice marks a crucial part of the natural cycle. In a real sense, the sun begins anew its journey toward longer days, times of new growth and renewal of the world once again. In a spiritual sense, it is a reminder that in order for a new path to begin, the old one must end and that spring will come again.
Well yeah and me I’m more and more disillusioned with my current job so I guess it’s time for me to find another one, somehow and of course next month sees a resolution of my diagnosis for neurological damage. Winters also a time of depression and elevated expectations are often accompanied by deeper disappointments. Even amidst the packaging, loneliness and alienation are harder to hide during the holiday season. So it’s often hard to remain optimistic – and children certainly help as does doing less hardcore drugs in the summer – however it always baffles me why my grandfather jumped to his death at this time – when he was wealthy and with a young family.
The winter solstice is the longest night of the year and is said to be when the Goddess gives birth to the God. From here on in the year, the days will become longer as the god grows into his full strength.
It’s also when our Christmas tree gives birth to presents. Often trees are decorated with bright ornaments, a tradition going back to ancient Germanic peoples, who held the oak and the fir tree as sacred. The Christmas tree with decorations, an angel at its top, which Celtic lore purports to represent a goddess, the various representations of Father Christmas, the Holly King, the Yule Log and evergreens. Our tree is covered in decoration that span five generations and every year of the twenty K and I have been together – plus some made by a growing Z each year.
Fire and candles are important to many pagan holidays, but especially so for the winter solstice, as the God of most modern pagan traditions is associated with the sun. Well we’ve gone all modern now and fire and candles are in the main replaced with lights and the house is full of them this year – having bought loads cheap last January. But I’m not keen on lighting the outside of the house – I prefer it to be a visual treat once you set foot indoors rather than a beacon for all to see.The winter solstice is a time of feasting and celebration. So we have loads of local produce arriving from ownonline tomorrow. The mulled cider and wine are ready to go too. Plus of course we journey to the beer festival tonight for local Xmas ales –a possible report coming tomorrow.
Burning the Yule Log
The term Yule stems from the Anglo-Saxon "yula" or "wheel" of the year. In ancient pagan ritual, the Yule Log was lit on the eve of Winter Solstice and burned for twelve hours. Later, the Log was replaced by the Yule Tree, but instead of being burned, it was adorned with burning candles. And here it’s replaced with a 12 hour candle.
Relationship to Christmas
Both Christmas and the Winter Solstice celebrate the birth of gods. The selection of December 25th as a Christian holiday was first recorded in scholarly texts dating to 325 A.D., although the actual practice was first decreed in 274 A.D. by the Emperor Aurelian. Since the non-Christians viewed this time as the rebirth of the sun, it made sense for the Church to also mark this period as the celebration of the nativity of Christ. Curiously, the selection of the day appears arbitrary although mankind had long known how to calculate the solstices. One can only guess that, rather than shift the celebration each year, a regularly scheduled event was preferable—the old Roman desire for order never quite left the new faith.
Additionally, many of the pagan traditions have been adopted to celebrate Christmas. Burning a Yule log, hanging mistletoe, lighting Advent candles and decorating trees are all now part of modern Christmas celebrations.
Definition of Solstice
Solstice derives from an ancient Latin word meaning "stop," or "to stand still." According to Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, it refers to one of two points when the sun is furthest from the celestial equator.
K and Z are going to Glastonbury today for Solstice celebrations at the Chalice Well I hope they have a fantastic time – that there is no trouble this time around after the Christian embarrassed themselves at Beltaine - and I’m quite envious of their visit, next year I will have finished work by Solstice and will be attending too. 
Arthurian Legend
In the late 1100's, a French poet by the name of Chretien de Troyes set a story to paper. Part legend, parts fairy-tale and romance, it chronicles the quest for a mystical wonder object, much like the Philosophers Stone, that can heal a king and his kingdom that has been laid to waste. The story was called Perceval, the Story of the Grail.
Chretien adapted his poem from a document given to him by his patron Philip, Count of Flanders – and the story goes the document came originally from Wales or Cornwall where Perceval was but one of Arthur’s knights of the roundtable. Chretien passed away before finishing his text and numerous adaptations of the story were written in the years following, including Parzival by Wolfram Von Eschenbach. Chretian himself stated the Grail legend was the "best of tales," told at court. The poem is a Christianised narrative with influences that include Celtic and Welsh mythology, Eastern symbolism and ritual as well as archaic vegetative cult practices.
Much like a Celtic sojourn into the Otherworld, the Grail legend tells of adventure, peril and opportunity missed. It has the quality of a dream about it. Characters and oddities come to the fore and recede. Quizzical apparitions appear to beg recognition and are disclaimed. At the heart of it is the challenge to Perceval, a knight of "conspicuous excellence," to ask a particular question when he meets the Grail king.
Perceval is sun-consciousness, the bright masculine spirit that quests. He witnesses the painful situation before him and asks what ails the Grail king (who is frozen immobile and cold and married as Celt Kings always are to a land – in this case lifeless and barren - winter). The flame of his compassion (the grail) heals the wound and renders the king (Father Time) whole.
The maimed king is once again vital and springs up healed and the landscape is green once again. The king's spirit is revived and reunion with the landscape is possible. Perceval's empathetic question to discover what ails the king - returns vigour to the wintry wasteland, sun consciousness brings rebirth - at the same moment that the winter solstice renews the promise of the coming spring.
It is destiny that the old king, the aged solar year steps aside. The young sun hero Perceval steps up to take his place as the guardian of the Grail. But in some pure Celtic versions of the Grail legend, there is one task remaining for Perceval.
Perceval has a half-brother, Feirefiz, who is strangely coloured black and white. Before Perceval (in green) may take up the kingship of the waxing year he must fight the heathen Feirefiz. Feirefiz's colouring of black and white marks this as a dual of the dark half of the year with the light half.
And indeed Perceval, the ascending Oak King, victors over Feirefiz, the Holly King, ruler of the dark waning year. But Perceval does not subjugate his brother, he establishes a relationship with him. Thus, opposites are held in a fruitful relationship, their energies fuelling the turning of the year's wheel. The old ying and yang duality are unified in one cycle.
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