Midwinter Rituals: A reflective Yule calendar

Hello, December! Can you believe it?! The holidays are here and we are entering the depths of the midwinter season. For us in the northern hemisphere that means that it’s still getting darker every single day. At least for a few more weeks. And, then, just as we reach the depths of the darkness, just as it all feels the most dreary, dark, depressing, frightening, and hopeless, everything changes. On the winter solstice the sun returns and we begin our march back towards the light.

People have been celebrating this mysterious, magical, hope-giving, life-fulfilling season for thousands of years. There are more ancient traditions + rituals than I could ever hope to know. But, my soul is drawn to them. We all are drawn to all kinds of rituals to mark the sacredness of a special time or event.

So, to celebrate the midwinter season this year, I knew that I wanted to put together a ritual to use throughout this month. A ritual to recognize the mysterious, ever-changing, ever-returning pattern of life-death-life. To mark the wild sacredness of this month.

December is sacred for many people of all faiths, religions, and spiritual expressions. Whether we are celebrating Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Jul, the solstice, or any other pagan or religious tradition, we are celebrating the return of light. We are all recognizing the darkness of nature, the darkness in our world, and the shadows of our own hearts. And, we are also remembering the return of the light of the world + the hope that we find in the rising of the sun.

Throughout November I’ve been racking my soul, trying to listen to my intuition to discover how I might slow down + celebrate this midwinter season in a whole new way. One that encompasses all of the rituals + traditions that touch my soul. I also knew that I wanted to share all of this with you. I wanted to create. So I made tons + tons + tons of notes… in my phone, in my notebook, on post-its, on my computer, in my calendar. I pulled oracle cards + lit candles. And yet nothing clear came to me. Instead, I just felt overwhelmed. I had way too much I wanted to share. How could I make it simple?

And, suddenly, after looking at all of my key words that I’d scribbled everywhere + sitting in the candlelight one morning before work this week, I knew. It bubbled out of me.


Won’t you join me, lovelies? All you need to do is pop in over here every other day to read my post. I’d love to have you along on the journey. And I hope that it might become a little midwinter ritual for you. Light a candle. Get a cup of coffee. Grab your computer. Read my latest post. And write your own reflections.

This is the season to feel the dark. To really feel the heaviness of it all. To accept it. And to journey down into the deepest of the deep. And once we are there, right there in the middle of it all, the light will come to us. And then we will begin our journey outward + upward… to embody all of the mystery + magic + wild + sacred parts of our soul in the midst of our everyday lives.

Happy Midwinter, wild souls. xoxo. liz.

 


Why do I use the word Yule? Simply put, it embodies my way of connecting with the holidays this year. Yule is the pagan word for the winter solstice, the longest night of the energy. It is also another spelling of the Swedish word jul, which means Christmas.

 

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