A Blessed Yule to All!

Today is the Winter Solstice - the shortest day of the year.  In ancient times, the solstice marked the beginning of Yule, which was the time when light overcame the darkness and the world began to warm again, reminding people that spring - and the new life that comes with it - would soon return.

As noted in Our Troth:

Of all the high feasts of our forebears, Yule is by far the highest, the holiest, and the most fraught with might. During the thirteen nights of Yule, all the worlds meet in the Middle-Garth: the god/esses and the dead walk freely, trolls and alfs come into the homes of humans, and those folk who are closest to the Otherworld may leave their human selves altogether to become the riders of the Wild Hunt or oskorei (Ásgarð-Ride), werewolves, or the embodiments of various of the wights that wander the earth at Yule-tide. But Yule is also the time of the greatest feasting and joy, because it is at Yule that the whole clan, living and dead, gathers as one, sure in the knowledge that even as the Sun rises every year from her greatest darkness, so there will ever be rebirth for us as well. It is not by chance that Yule has preserved the most Heathen customs of any feast: the promise of the Yule log and the ever-green tree also stood as the promise that our folk-ways should live through the long dark winter and rise bright again.

[The full article can be found at http://www.thetroth.org/resources/ourtroth/index.html]

Of course, this time of year is not sacred to Norse Pagans alone.  It is sacred to people of many faiths, and even among the secular, it is a time of celebration and general good will.  My wish this year at this holy time is that each of you find the greatest blessings you seek, regardless of what path it is you walk.  May the returning light of the coming spring increase the warmth, joy and hope in your life.

In Frith (a fruitful peace),

Kriselda