Asphodel Yule ritual 2001
Priest goes about to various people and passes out slips of paper and red
markers, asking them to write some wish and then roll it up and keep it with
them. All markers need to be collected afterwards.
All gather about the Yule wheel, which is unlit. Priest invokes the Winter
Goddess with this invocation:
Welcome to you, Old One.
Welcome to the snow and ice,
The bitter cloud of your breath,
The white layers of your long skirts,
The flakes that you shake like feathers from your pillow.
May your blessings hold us safe.
May your chill winds pass us by.
May the bright promise of each clear day
Remind us of your power.
Old one, cold one,
Though we fear your storms,
Yet we welcome you
Into our winter hearts
With your cleansing breath
To blow away the old year
And usher in the new.
Priestess lights the candles on the Yule wheel and says:
Welcome to our hearth and home and tribe.
This is the darkest day of the year, the longest night, when the Sun is
swallowed up and dies. In ancient times, the Sun was brought back to life
with fire and light on the Solstice.
Let us imagine, now, those dark and ancient times. Go back six thousand
years to a cold place. You are clad in clothing of rough wool and fur, and
you speak a language unlike ours, yet with some words that will someday be
passed on to us. Your people have lived in this cold place for so long that
you remember the glaciers melting, the Ice Age receding. It is part of your
creation myths.
Imagine that you are standing in a clearing in the woods, the scent of pine
all around you, just before dawn. It is freezing cold, and for days
uncounted you have huddled inside next to a fire, with the sky too dark to
work or even to see outside. Yet on this morning your eyes are fixed on a
single standing stone, or perhaps a pole driven into the earth, which will
prove the rebirth of the Sun which gives all life.
Imagine that you watch the Sun rise, seeing it come up in its appointed
place as it always does, and a hush of wonder falls over your tribe, crowded
around you. It is the promise of the new year, the promise that the days
will get longer, and eventually warmer, and the spring will come. You
rejoice. You cheer. You weep with joy. You beat on drums and shout. You call
this day Yeohwla, which means simply, the Winter Solstice.
Someday strangers will come, driving wagons, great numbers of them. They
will settle next to you, and intermarry with you, and teach of things like
wheels and horses, and you will give them the words "wife", and "child", and
teach them the mysteries of "Yeohwla", which their descendants - and yours -
will pass on as Yule. You will teach the mysteries of Hope and Rebirth, of
fire and light that resurrects the year. And they will stand in that cold
place and learn to praise the coming of the Sun, and so will their
children's children. And so do we.
Take flame now, flame from the wheel of the Sun, and carry it close to you,
for fire is precious. It means warmth and light and cooked food. Be careful
with it, neither letting it spread nor go out. Each of you light a candle
and hold it close.
(Each person lights a candle, starting with Bella and Tannin. When the last
person is lighting up, Tannin calls this litany out; as she says each line,
people call back, "Blessings and praise!" Then, after she finishes, people
go around in a circle and add things; each gets the same response.)
For the return of the Sun - blessings and praise!
For the gifts we give and receive - blessings and praise!
For all the gift-givers - blessings and praise!
For the Children of Wonder - blessings and praise!
For sunsets and starlight - blessings and praise!
For fabulous feast days - blessings and praise!
For those who cook them - blessings and praise!
For the great World Tree - blessings and praise!
For the light on the snowfields - blessings and praise!
For friendship and family - blessings and praise!
For robin and wren - blessings and praise!
For the spirits of the forest - blessings and praise!
When everyone who is going to add something has done it, Tannin gives a
signal out through the mudroom door, and the Wild Men come jingling in.
Wild Men: We bless this house! We bless this house with the spirit of all
green things which do not die, but show life throughout the winter! (They
bounce through the house, waving pine branches.) We have blessed your world,
now you come into our world and give us your blessing! Come out into the
darkness, and bring the light!
(Process out to the field, carrying the lit candles. Everyone ties their
wishes for the New Year onto the Yule log with string already attached to
it. The Wild Men call the quarters and elements. Then the Yule log is lit,
and incense is thrown onto it, while all chant:)
Wild Man Leader: We stand on a frozen field of ice, while before us burns a
great fire! Remember that, according to legend, the world was created from
fire and ice! The fire world of Muspellheim moved close to the ice world of
Niflheim, and the flames melted and warmed the ice, and Midgard was created
between them! And thus we live always between fire and ice! And this is the
moment when Fire and Ice meet yet again, and the new Sun, and the World, is
created anew!
Fire of the heart,
Fire of the mind,
Fire of the hearth,
Fire of the wine,
Fire of the Art,
Fire out of time.
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