Our Christian friends are often quite surprised at how enthusiastically we Pagans celebrate the 'Christmas' season. Even though we prefer to use the word 'Yule,' and our celebrations may peak a few days before the 25th, we nonetheless follow many of the traditional customs of the season: decorated trees, caroling, presents, Yule logs, and mistletoe. None of this will come as a surprise to anyone who knows the true history of the holiday, of course.
In fact, if truth be known, the holiday of Christmas has always been more Pagan than Christian, with its associations of Nordic divination, Celtic fertility rites and Roman Mithraism. That is why both Martin Luther and John Calvin abhorred it, why the Puritans refused to acknowledge it, much less celebrate it (to them, no day of the year could be more holy than the Sabbath), and why it was even made illegal in Boston! The holiday was already too closely associated with the birth of older Pagan gods and heroes. And many of them (like Oedipus, Theseus, Hercules, Perseus, Jason, Dionysus, Apollo, Mithra, Horus and even Arthur) possessed a narrative of birth, death and resurrection that was uncomfortably close to that of Jesus. And to make matters worse, many of them predated the Christian Savior. Ultimately, of course, the holiday is rooted deeply in the cycle of the year. It is the Winter Solstice that is being celebrated, seed-time of the year, the longest night and shortest day. It is the birthday of the new Sun King, the Son of God -- by whatever name you choose to call him. On this darkest of nights, the Goddess becomes the Great Mother and once again gives birth. And it makes perfect poetic sense that on the longest night of the winter, 'the dark night of our souls', there springs the new spark of hope, the Sacred Fire, the Light of the World, the Coel Coeth. That is why Pagans have as much right to claim this holiday as Christians. Perhaps even more so, as the Christians were rather late in laying claim to it, and tried more than once to reject it. There had been a tradition in the West that Mary bore the child Jesus on the twenty-fifth day, but no one could seem to decide on the month. Finally, in 320 C.E., the Catholic Fathers in Rome decided to make it December, to co-opt the Mithraic celebration of the Romans and the Yule celebrations of the Celts and Saxons.
There was never much pretense that the date they finally chose was historically accurate. Shepherds just don't 'tend their flocks by night' in the high pastures in the dead of winter! But if one wishes to use the New Testament as historical evidence, this reference may point to sometime in the spring as the time of Jesus's birth. This is because the lambing season occurs in the spring and that is the only time when shepherds are likely to 'watch their flocks by night' -- to make sure the lambing goes well. Knowing this, the Eastern half of the Church continued to reject December 25, preferring a 'movable date' fixed by their astrologers according to the moon. Thus, despite its shaky start (for over three centuries, no-one knew when Jesus was supposed to have been born!), December 25 finally began to catch on. By 529, it was a civic holiday, and all work or public business (except that of cooks, bakers or any that contributed to the delight of the holiday) was prohibited by the Emperor Justinian. In 563, the Council of Braga forbade fasting on Christmas Day, and four years later the Council of Tours proclaimed the twelve days from December 25 to Epiphany as a sacred, festive season. This last point is perhaps the hardest to impress upon the modern reader, who is lucky to get a single day off work. Christmas, in the Middle Ages, was not a single day, but rather a period of twelve days, from December 25 to January 6. The Twelve Days of Christmas, in fact. It is indeed lamentable that the modern world has abandoned this approach, along with the popular Twelfth Night celebrations.
Of course, the Christian version of the holiday spread to many countries no faster than Christianity itself, which means that 'Christmas' wasn't celebrated in Ireland until the late fifth century; in England, Switzerland and Austria until the seventh; in Germany until the eighth; and in the Slavic lands until the ninth and tenth. Not that these countries lacked their own mid-winter celebrations of Yuletide. Long before the world had heard of Jesus, Pagans had been observing the season by bringing in the Yule log, wishing on it, and lighting it from the remains of last year's log. Riddles were posed and answered, magic and rituals were practiced, wild boars were sacrificed and consumed along with large quantities of liquor, corn dollies were carried from house to house while caroling, fertility rites were practiced (girls standing under a sprig of mistletoe were subject to a bit more than a kiss), and divinations were cast for the coming Spring. Many of these Pagan customs, in an appropriately watered-down form, have entered the mainstream of Christian celebration, though most celebrants do not realize (or do not mention it, if they do) their origins.
For modern Witches, Yule (from the Anglo-Saxon 'Yula', meaning 'wheel' of the year) is usually celebrated on the actual Winter Solstice, which may vary by a few days, though it often occurs on or around December 21st. It is a Lesser Sabbat or Lower Holiday in the modern Pagan calendar, one of the four quarter-days of the year, but a significant one. This year (1988) it occurs on December 21st at 9:28 am CST.
Pagan customs are still enthusiastically followed. Once, the Yule log had been the center of the celebration.
It was lighted on the eve of the solstice (it should light on the first try) and must be kept burning for twelve hours, for good luck. It should be made of ash. Later, the Yule log was replaced by the Yule tree but, instead of burning it, burning candles were placed on it. In Christianity, Protestants might claim that Martin Luther invented the custom, and Catholics might grant St. Boniface the honor, but the tradition can demonstrably be traced back through the Roman Saturnalia all the way to ancient Egypt. Needless to say, such a tree should be cut down rather than purchased and should be disposed of by burning, the proper way to dispatch any sacred object.
Along with the evergreen, the holly and the ivy and the mistletoe were important plants of the season, all symbolizing fertility and everlasting life. Mistletoe was especially venerated by the Celtic Druids, who cut it with a golden sickle on the sixth night of the moon, and believed it to be an aphrodisiac. (Magically -- not medicinally! It's highly toxic!) But aphrodisiacs must have been the smallest part of the Yuletide menu in ancient times, as contemporary reports indicate that the tables fairly creaked under the strain of every type of good food. And drink! The most popular of which was the 'wassail cup' deriving its name from the Anglo-Saxon term 'waes hael' (be whole or hale). Medieval Christmas folklore seems endless: that animals will all kneel down as the Holy Night arrives, that bees hum the '100th psalm' on Christmas Eve, that a windy Christmas will bring good luck, that a person born on Christmas Day can see the Little People, that a cricket on the hearth brings good luck, that if one opens all the doors of the house at midnight all the evil spirits will depart, that you will have one lucky month for each Christmas pudding you sample, that the tree must be taken down by Twelfth Night, or bad luck is sure to follow, that 'if Christmas on a Sunday be, a windy winter we shall see', that 'hours of sun on Christmas Day, so many frosts in the month of May', that one can use the Twelve Days of Christmas to predict the weather for each of the twelve months of the coming year, and so on.
Remembering that most Christmas customs are ultimately based upon older Pagan customs, it only remains for modern Pagans to reclaim their lost traditions. In doing so, we can share many common customs with our Christian friends, albeit with a slightly different interpretation. And thus we all share in the beauty of this most magical of seasons when the Mother Goddess once again gives birth to the baby Sun God and sets the wheel in motion again. To conclude with a long-overdue paraphrase: 'Goddess bless us, every one!'
The runic alphabets are called “futharks” after the first six runes (Fehu, Uruz, Thurisaz, Ansuz, Raidho, Kaunan), in much the same way that the word “alphabet” comes from the names of the first two Semitic letters (Aleph, Beth). There are three principal futharks: the 24-character Elder Futhark, the first fully-formed runic alphabet, whose development had begun by the first century CE and had been completed before the year 400; the 16-character Younger Futhark, which began to diverge from the Elder Futhark around the beginning of the Viking Age (c. 750 CE) and eventually replaced that older alphabet in Scandinavia; and the 33-character Anglo-Saxon Futhorc, which gradually altered and added to the Elder Futhark in England. On some inscriptions, the twenty-four runes of the Elder Futhark were divided into three ættir (Old Norse, “families”) of eight runes each, but the significance of this division is unfortunately unknown.
Runes were traditionally carved onto stone, wood, bone, metal, or some similarly hard surface rather than drawn with ink and pen on parchment. This explains their sharp, angular form, which was well-suited to the medium.
It is said that the runes came from no source as mundane as an Old Italic alphabet. The runes were never “invented,” but are instead eternal, pre-existent forces that Odin himself discovered by undergoing a tremendous ordeal. This tale has come down to us in the Old Norse poem Hávamál (“The Sayings of the High One”):
I know that I hung
On the wind-blasted tree
All of nights nine,
Pierced by my spear
And given to Odin,
Myself sacrificed to myself
On that pole
Of which none know
Where its roots run.
No aid I received,
Not even a sip from the horn.
Peering down,
I took up the runes –
Screaming I grasped them –
Then I fell back from there.
The tree from which Odin hangs himself is surely none other than Yggdrasil, the world-tree at the center of the Germanic cosmos whose branches and roots hold the Nine Worlds. Directly below the world-tree is the Well of Urd, a source of incredible wisdom. The runes themselves seem to have their native dwelling-place in its waters. This is also suggested by another Old Norse poem, the Völuspá (“Insight of the Seeress”):
There stands an ash called Yggdrasil,
A mighty tree showered in white hail.
From there come the dews that fall in the valleys.
It stands evergreen above Urd’s Well.
From there come maidens, very wise,
Three from the lake that stands beneath the pole.
One is called Urd, another Verdandi,
Skuld the third; they carve into the tree
The lives and fates of children.
These “three maidens” are the Norns, and their carvings surely consist of runes. We, therefore, have a clear association between the Well of Urd, the runes, and magic – in this case, the ability of the Norns to carve the fates of all beings.
Presumably, then, after Odin discovered the runes by ritually sacrificing himself to himself and fasting for nine days while staring into the waters of the Well of Urd, it was he who imparted the runes to the first human runemasters. His paradigmatic sacrifice was likely symbolically imitated in initiation ceremonies during which the candidate learned the lore of the runes, but, unfortunately, no concrete evidence of such a practice has survived into our times.
What’s The Difference And How To Choose
Aside from being beautiful works of art in and of themselves, Oracle and Tarot cards can be powerful divination tools. But, if you’re not familiar with these tools, deciding which deck to choose may have you stumped before you even start.
The Basics
Let’s talk about the basics of Tarot and Oracle cards to help you find the best way to connect with the greater knowledge of the universe when life’s big moments pop up!
Tarot Cards
-78 cards
-Organized into different suits
-Measure outcomes and influence
-Can be lengthy and detailed
-Offers insight into situations
-Only images on the card, takes some studying
A tarot deck is a classic set of 78 cards that fall under the category of major or minor arcana. From there, the cards are divided into four suits (Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles). Tarot cards are studied and interpreted by expert readers, primarily to speak to a person's life story.
Oracle Cards
-Any number of card per deck
-Designed around a theme or deity
-Use your intuition to guide you rather than the structure of the deck
-Meant to give advice
-Quick and more open to individual interpretation
-Easy for beginners. Includes thoughtful phrases
Oracle cards, on the other hand, are more free-wheeling from the set structure of tarot. An oracle deck can essentially be whatever the creator of the deck wants it to be — they pick how many cards are in it, what sorts of imagery it'll use, and what purpose it's supposed to serve. There are many different types of oracle decks that come in all shapes, sizes, and functions. The basic set up is that they have images and words, along with a book that explains ways in which a reader should interpret them.
How to Choose
Trust your intuition. You might lean towards either method on a given day, or you might use one method over another for a certain question you have.
Try them out. Which deck feels right? Is Tarot too grave, or are Oracle cards not enough for you? If you are seriously in the sticks with some relationship drama, the Tarot deck might offer the ins and outs you are searching for. If you’re less phased by this relationship woe, then a simple “You’re free to do what you choose,” might be all you need from an Oracle deck.
Structure. Do you need it or do you run from it? When I’m in a place where my internal compass is all out of whack, I know I need to use my Tarot deck as my guide. If my gut has been pretty spot on, I’ll use my Oracle cards as my quick spot checking guide.
What are you trying to achieve? Look up your goal, and then collect the herbs you need.
ATTRACTING MEN: Jasmine, Juniper (dried berries worn as a charm),Lavender, Lemon Verbena, Lovage, Orris Root, Patchouli
ATTRACTING WOMEN: Henbane, Holly, Juniper (dried berries worn as a charm), Lemon Verbena, Lovage, Orris Root, Patchouli
BANISHING: Hyssop, Lilac, St John’s Wort
CLEANSING: Cinnamon, Clove, Lovage (powdered root), Pine, Thyme (in baths), Vervain (of sacred spaces)
COURAGE: Basil, Garlic, Mullein, Nettle, St John’s Wort, Thyme, Wormwood, Yarrow
EXORCISM: Angelica, Basil, Birch, Frankincense, Juniper, Garlic, St John’s Wort
FERTILITY: Acorns, Geranium, Hawthorn, Mandrake, Orange (dried and powdered peel), Pine, Poppy, Sage, Sunflower (seeds)
FRIENDSHIP: Lemon, Rose, Passion Flower
GOOD FORTUNE: Ash (leaves), Heather, Nutmeg, Rose, Vetivert
HAPPINESS: Anise, Catnip, Lily of the Valley, Marjoram, Saffron
HARMONY: Hyacinth, Heliotrope, Lilac, Meadowsweet
HEALING: Aloe, Ash, Camomile, Cinnamon, Comfrey, Eucalyptus, Fennel, Garlic, Hops, Marjoram, Mint, Nettle, Pine, Rosemary, Saffron, Sage, Sandalwood, Thyme, Yarrow
HEX-BREAKING: Chilli Pepper, Galangal, Vertivert
LOVE: Apple, Balm of Gilead, Basil, Caraway, Catnip, Coriander, Cowslip,Dill, Gardenia, Ginger, Ginseng, Honeysuckle, Jasmine, Lavender, Linden,Marigold, Marjoram, Meadowsweet, Mistletoe, Myrtle, Rose, Rosemary,Valerian, Vervain, Violet (mixed with Lavender), Yarrow
LUCK: Apple, Ash (leaves), Hazel, Holly (for newly-weds), Ivy (for newly-weds), Mint, Rose, Rowan, Vervain, Violet (flowers)
LUST: Cinnamon, Lemongrass, Nettle, Rosemary, Violet
MEDITATION: Camomile, Elecampane, Frankincense, Vervain
MENTAL POWERS: Caraway, Lily of the Valley, Rosemary, Vanilla, Walnut
MONEY: Camomile, Cinnamon, Clove, Comfrey, Fennel, Ginger, Mint, Poppy Vervain
PEACE: Aloe, Camomile, Gardenia, Lavender, Myrtle, Violet
POWER: Carnation, Cinnamon, Ginger, Rosemary, Rowan
PROSPERITY: Acorn, Almond, Ash, Basil, Benzoin, Honeysuckle
Note: There are so many herbs suitable for the next three categories and the choice is such a personal one that we have included only a few suggestions. Your own further research will very much enhance your magical workings.
PROTECTION: Aloe, Angelica (Root), Anise, Balm of Gilead, Basil, Bay Laurel, Black Pepper, Caraway, Camomile, Dill (for children), Dragon’s Blood, Fennel, Garlic, Hawthorn, Holly, Hyssop, Lavender, Mandrake, Meadowsweet, Mistletoe, Mugwort, Nettle, Periwinkle, Rose, Rosemary, Rowan, Sage, St John’s Wort, Sandalwood, Vervain, Witch Hazel, Wormwood
PSYCHIC POWERS: Ash (leaves), Bay Laurel, Bay leaves, Cinnamon, Cowslip, Elecampane, Eyebright, Hyssop, Lavender, Marigold, Mugwort,Nutmeg, Rose, Thyme, Wormwood, Yarrow
PURIFICATION: Anise, Betony, Cinquefoil, Dragon’s Blood, Frankincense, Hyssop, Lavender, Lemon, Oak Leaves, Pine, Rosemary, Rue, Sandalwood, Thyme, Valerian, Vervain
SUCCESS: Cinnamon, Ginger, Lemon Balm, Rowan
SLEEP: Catnip, Hops, Lavender, Thyme, Valerian, Vervain
SPIRITUALITY: Cinnamon, Clover, Frankincense, Myrrh, Sandalwood
WISDOM: Peach (fruit), Sage, Sunflower
