The Reason for the Season

The frost was whispering this evening,

a silver hush shimmering like glitter,

strewn along the grass,

glinting as if to say,

We remember the rites they try to bury.

.

My breath curls into white sigils,

incantations for the moon,

the kind the foremothers spoke freely

before anyone claimed the season as their own.

Yet this old tongue stirs in me still,

my lungs exhaling pale ghosts,

muttering a language the world pretends to forget.

.

Every evergreen I pass,

they stand like stolen relics dressed up,

always for someone else’s story.

They cut them down,

crown them in lights,

and call it holy…

as if those branches didn’t once cradle offerings,

didn’t carry hope by fire and pine,

long before winter was named.

.

And I feel that sting.

Sharp as the cold air scratching my throat,

when they preach ownership with confidence

of thieves who’ve forgotten they’ve stolen.

.

Wearing pinched magick and calling it divine truth.

.

Wrapping their ignorance in hymns,

never questioning why the tree glows,

why candles banish the longest night.

Why the season hums with an older pulse,

than their scriptures dare to admit.

.

It’s a bitterness,

it’s a sorrow

that sits like pine sap under my tongue.

Sticky, stubborn, impossible to wash away.

A grief that settles deep,

knowing the magick of this time

has been painted over with someone else's certainty,

until people flinch at the very word

Yule.

.

Yet, no matter how the story was altered,

the season remembers its own name.

Winter remembers.

The land remembers.

And Yule, steadfast and patient

still waits beneath the surface,

alive in every glimmer of frost,

every moonlit whisper,

every spark that refuses to fade.

.

So, I walk through winter

with Yule rising in my chest.

Feral, sacred, luminous

feeling the season answer me

like a wolf lifting its head to howl.

Like an ember glowing stubbornly

through the longest night.

.

The old ways breathe still.

In my breath.

In my magick.

In the frost beneath my feet.

.

And no rewriting of the season

will ever burn that out.

.

Happy Yule, God Jul, Blessed Solstice

December 21st - January 1st

~

Did You Know? All of the Following are Pagan/Norse in Origin before the Christian "Christmas"?

• Christmas Trees: Meaning “life during winter’s death,” they were decorated with offerings, natural ornaments, runes, and symbols of protection. They symbolised life, protection, and rebirth.

• Wreaths: Symbolize the Unbroken Cycle of Life, Death, and Rebirth. It represented the Wheel/Cycle of the Year.

• Holly: Symbolizes protection, winter sovereignty, and masculine energy.

• Ivy: Symbolizes endurance, devotion, life force, and feminine energy; often paired with Holly.

• Mistletoe: Symbolizes vitality, love, truce, peace, and fertility.

• Candles: Symbolize light, renewal, the spark of life, and the return of the sun. They were to help welcome Sunna and the return of the sun after the longest night of the year (the winter solstice/first day of winter).

• The 12 Days of Christmas: Was originally the 12 Day Yule Period when the veil thinned and the “Wild Hunt” roamed. It was a time of rest, ritual, and reverence that kept in mind liminal time and ancestral connections.

• Stars: More specifically, the North Star that helps to guide winter travelers. It also symbolized the Wheel of the Year, cosmic order, and cycles.

• Bells: They help to ward off winter spirits and cleanse spaces, calling in good energy while symbolizing protection, clearing, and celebration.

• Red & Green. Red symbolizes life force, blood, and protection. Green symbolizes everlasting life and renewal. Both come together to define life, magick, and endurance.

• Gift Giving: Coming from Saturnalia, a Roman Pagan Festival. It’s also tied to Norse traditions that show reciprocity, abundance, and honor.

• Feasting: Originally calling the community together and honoring the promise of returning light. It also celebrated the survival of winter and brought about unity and gratitude.

• Carolling/Wassailing: An act of singing to (apple) trees, blessing them for abundance in the coming year. It also helps to ward off spirits, offer blessings, provide protection, and foster community magick.