Witchy Ways To Navigate This Holiday Season

(Regardless of what you celebrate, it’s highly likely that you’ll be meeting with or engaging in some sort of holiday sometime during the year, so you might find this helpful. Reconnecting with family and friends can be a joy, but can also be draining for people who are easily overwhelmed by other people’s energies). THESE IDEAS ARE CUSTOMIZABLE BUT ARE INFLUENCED BY MY PERSONAL BELIEFS.

🌲Enchant your perfume or cologne with a specific intention. (Example: Ward off uncomfortable conversation, ward off nerves, energize your social battery).

🌲When choosing what to wear, include a necklace, jewelry item, or accessories (such as a tie) that you consider protective of your energy. For me, I wear a pentacle bracelet, but for you it might be something different. You can even ask spirits or deities you work with to charge it overnight on the night before with protection.

🌲I like to draw the rune Wunjo or the rune Gebo on every present I gift with invisible ink or just trace it with my finger, so it brings joy to the person receiving it! You could draw a symbol that represents joy in a similar fashion!

🌲Knot magic is an easy way to incorporate love into the gift exchanging. Tie your presents you’re giving with decorative ribbons and charge each one with love or chant over it this short chant “With love I tie thee, may all be merry!”

🌲If you’re making a special drink (hot-chocolate, mulled wine, etc) be mindful of the energy you put into it while stirring it. You can invite or banish (you’ve probably heard that stirring clockwise is inviting energy and stirring counterclockwise is banishing). But you can also stir simple sigils of calm and peace into it!

🌲If you’re into using crystals, I recommend these crystals for navigating the holiday season:

-Strawberry quartz (for enjoyment and extra enthusiasm)

-Smoky Quartz (for gentle protection and comfort)

-Howlite (for calming during chaos and being present)

-Opal (both non precious and precious, for inspiring generosity and equal exchange of energy)

Yuletide blessing cards by artist Briar!

To send your pagan and non-pagan friends alike! Let us all be proudly pagan and share our celebrations!

Gleðilig Jól! From today, January 6th, through the 8th we are in the period of the full moon of Jólmánuðr (Yule Month) on the Old Norse lunisolar calendar, the period during which the main Yule celebrations would take place before they were moved into December.

These dates of course would shift every year relative to the Julian and later Gregorian calendar since a lunar year is not quite 365 days, but in general this occurred during the full moon following the first new moon after the winter solstice as months began on new moons. Because this year it is so close to the solstice, an extra month will be added in the coming summer to keep the calendar from continually moving backward, meaning that next year's lunar Jól dates will be a fair bit later than this one relative to our Gregorian calendar.

For more information on this and similar lunisolar calendars, check out:

"Jul, disting och förkyrklig tidräkning" by Andreas Nordberg

"The Lunisolar Calendar of the Germanic Peoples" by Andreas Zautner

"The Nordic Animist Year" by Rune Hjarnø Rasmussen

I made some Jól tea!

one for me, one for Loki.

it is kind of hard being a heathen on the southern hemisphere since things like celebrating Jól do not make a lot of sense when the seasons and nature just works differently around you. i was almost jealous looking at people's appreciation for snow, winter, honouring Skaði for coming back. but i still am very grateful for the land that i grew up in, for the Vættir that live in my surroundings, for nature manifesting itself differently around me.

so, i gathered some herbs typical to the Yule / winter season and made iced tea. tomorrow, if i have the energy, i probably will take a walk to a park or maybe a hill to thank Sól and the Vanir for the gift of summer.

adapting my practice to my reality is constant, hard work, but it is rewarding and a beautiful process.

honestly this turned out so good, if anyone wants the recipe just let me know.

Jól

2023.01.03

He’d quietly slip out of bed, naked as the day he was born, just to make use of the chamber pot downstairs and rekindle the fire; the small cabin would be warm by the time she’d wake up. As the sky was still dark and full of stars, the viera climbed back the flight of stairs and returned to his spot under the covers. He might be used to the cold but warmth was always welcomed. Wrapping his arms around the sleeping form of his beloved, he couldn’t help but smile when she nudged closer, burying her face against his chest. He kissed the top of her head as he let a hand wander, following the curve of her hip and climbing up her back, fingers burying into that cascade of curly red hair. He was at peace and, while sleep was beckoning, his mind decided now was a good time to reflect on the past. It was that time of the year after all.

Obviously, the first thought on Fakhri’s mind was about himself and the woman in his arms - of everything he had shared with her about his past, the children he had sired, the ones he had adopted… and their shared decision to ditch the contraceptive and try to conceive a child. He was no scientist or scholar and thus had no inkling on the probability of a child born of a Miqo’te and a Viera. Maybe it was impossible, he never met one even in his long life, but they’d still try, regardless. Because the idea of raising their child together filled them both with joy and a deep, soothing kind of warmth. He would also be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy their moment of intimacy. He never had any desire for the women he had to sleep with; it was his duty to his tribe and nothing more. Good thing physical stimulation was enough because his head and his heart certainly had never been in it. He’d never imagine that, some centuries later, he’d meet a special lady who’d change all that. His girl, his love. 

Even with eyes closed, he knew her by heart. That wild mane of red hair that he brushed so often, her visage with the square jaw that was often deemed unattractive on a woman, her freckles, so many freckles, one could even say too many, that small bust and wide hips that didn’t fall into the standards of female beauty… heck, she was so beautiful. So damn beautiful. He could lose himself in the amber of her eyes, and how he loved the deep dimples on her cheeks when she smiled. He felt the soft caress of a stray tail on his leg and he smiled in turn; ya, he loved her tail too, and those cute, soft ears. He let his mind wander with images of her, basking in his adoration for that woman, remembering their shared moments - the lazy ones in comforting silence, the animated discussions over a good meal, the dancing in the middle of their small apartment, and their moment of intimacy with their breath mingling and their bodies seeking one another.

Well, that was a good image for his mind to focus on but, if he wanted to avoid waking her up with his hard-on, he had best force that image out. Ah! Yes… Jól. They called it Starlight in Eorzea and while their festivities were far more… colorful, they were still enjoyable. However, the traditions of his people were dear to him and, if he had the means - some years had been rougher than others - he’d honor those traditions. On their last visit to the cabin, he had set aside a rather large log and had brought in a bag all the rest - pine cones, dried berries, a cutting of mistletoe and pine needles, and some jute rope. Maybe he’d go gather a branch of birch for them to be blessed with fertility…  He also had brought plenty of candles and would go cut a small pine tree to bring inside, and maybe Seda would enjoy making a wreath with him. She had already decorated the place with evergreen for his nameday on the previous moon and thus doubted she’d mind renewing the dried branches for fresh ones.

His mind was still musing on everything he’d have to do once the sun rose when Seda stirred and mumbled, only to settle even closer against him. Alright, alright, time to sleep a few bells more it seemed. Even Arak had climbed on top of him and subsequently disappeared, finding a spot in between the two bodies to seek warmth. Letting his mind drift, Fakhri found sleep waiting for him and he welcomed it with a smile on his lips.

We realize it's a bit too much to get familiar with all local customs, but this one is something everyone should take up really.

It's second yule. After our 13 days of yule we hold a second yule. The first is the same as any capitalist christmas except for the trolls and the child stealing giant cat.

Second yule is about taking down anything holiday related except the lights. The lights stay up as long as your neighbor's, and yes this becomes a game of virtue chicken. The most virtuous is the person who lasts almost the longest. It's a bit complicated and there was a nobel prize winner in economics that formulized the phenomenon.

It's your civic duty to light up the winter darkness

The first person to take them down hates yule, hates society, is not redeemable.

The last person to take them down is the laziest, tackiest and careless person alive

So instead of explaining that our society ir comprised of spiteful individuals we just say "they look so good, don't you think?" while we try to hide the tears in our eyes.

Would recommend.

Many Merry blessings of Jól & Yule to everyone celebrating, have an abundance of light and Joy WINTER SOLSTICE and a beautiful Season of light and change ✨

May the Horned God, May the Oak King, May the Holly King pour out all their virtues in a sweet shower of blessings over you 🗝️❄️🎄📯

Happy Blessed Solstice 🌞

Xxo. Elo 🌹

This was always one of my favourite Christmas songs as a kid

The Holly and the Mistletoe: Ancient Roots of Christmas Symbols | Ancient Origins

The Holly and the Mistletoe: Ancient Roots of Christmas Symbols | Ancient Origins

https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-general/ancient-roots-christmas-customs-001162

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Today I honor the Vanir! And on this fourth night of Yule, I will offer my songs to Freyja. 🎶🎄❤️

Hey if anyone else is celebrating Yule, please feel free to be excited and/or drunk in my inbox.

I've tried to share my joy with every one of my friends and have been met with unilateral despondency.

Anyway, have a blessed Yule, y'all! I hope the gods shine upon you these next twelve days. Feast, fornicate, and fucking enjoy yourselves.

I love you all!

Happy winter solstice!

In modern times, many people who celebrate Yule begin doing so today, and though it appears that this was not the case during the Early Medieval period it still served an important function and may well have had some lesser celebrations and observances around it.

The Old Norse calendar system was lunisolar, meaning that it reckoned time using both lunar and solar cycles. While the months went from new moon to new moon, and later full moon to full moon on the Old Icelandic calendar, the solstices were used to keep everything in check. Since there are not quite 365 days in the 12 lunar month period that was used, it creates a cycle where the months could continuously move backwards relative to the seasons. The Islamic calendar, for instance, does this, which is why Ramadan can occur in the summer as well as the winter.

With the Old Norse calendar there was an incentive to keep the seasons and months more tightly bound, largely due to the single and in many places short harvest period. In this case, how close the new moon which began Jólmánuðr (Yule Month) was to the winter solstice would determine if an extra month would be added during the following summer. If this new moon occurred within 11 days of the solstice, the extra month would be added after the summer solstice. In this way, the winter solstice was the anchor of the entire year.

This year, Jólmánuðr begins a mere two days after the winter solstice, and as a result this coming summer will see an extra month added by the lunisolar reckoning!

For more information on this, check out Andreas Nordberg's "Jul, disting och förkyrklig tideräkning" and Rune Hjarnø Rasmussen's "The Nordic Animist Year".

Jól

Par-delà la rivière glacée de l’hiver, le soleil se couche pour la toute dernière fois Les yeux perdus, neurones fondus, et il fait froid Pourtant alors que l’année se meurt, je perçois un espoir Celui de me blottir contre les amies et de pointer la lumière ce soir Les saisons partent, les couleurs changent, mais elles reviendront Cycliques, c’est une évolution qui me réchauffe, et j’y veux notre maison Quand les tristes mots ont marché jusqu’au solstice pour s’abandonner J’en fais le deuil et célèbre son retour parmi nous dès demain Le monde n’a pas encore touché à sa fin, il me semble, même s’il a neigé La nostalgie et l’avenir enlacés, tendrement, je prends vos mains C’est le décès de tout ce et tous ceux qui nous ont quitté Et la renaissance d’une flamme passionnelle pour vivre sereins Cyclique, les vies prises dont je porte la mémoire et celles que je défendrai Les saisons viennent, les couleurs changent, et je sais qu’elles repartiraient Si je les laissais faire, dans le noir comme la lumière, parce que c’est bien bon Parce que l’année meurt et vit, et je continue de voir grandir l’espoir que, nous aussi, grandissions Les yeux sur vous et la nature, sur vous dans la nature, unis comme se doit Par-delà la rivière glacée de l’hiver, le soleil se lève pour la toute première fois

"Egyik nap úgy érzem gyógyulok, a másik nap pedig ugyanúgy összetörve érzem magam.

Olyan ez,mint egy körforgás, aminek soha nem lesz vége."

Nem félek a haláltól. Attól félek, hogy így fogom leélni az életem.

Jól are upon us! The festival of lights! Holiday spirit abound!

Be careful to buy people you know new socks and be mindful of closing doors and windows.