Not my own photo! Provided by Unsplash through Squarespace.
The time of one of my favorite Sabbats is almost upon us! Yule and the December holiday season make me so grateful for snow, coffee, and my loved ones. While I love all of the Sabbats, Yule season is particularly meaningful to me especially when I incorporate what people of all faiths celebrate throughout the holiday season.
Secular Christmas is about gift giving and time with loved ones.
Christmas proper is about the birth of a savior.
Hannukkah is a celebration of light as well as miracles.
Yule is, for some people, a celebration of light returning. For others it's about taking stock of what your harvests for the year looked like.
It stands to reason then that as we think about light and saviors and gifts and miracles this month, we should also be thinking about what we harvest regularly, how we use those resources, and what we're doing to ensure our continued success. Some simple spiritual things you can do over the next few weeks to focus on ALL of the themes I touched on and usher in your best holiday season yet include:
Meditation on what each of the aforementioned subjects means to you.
A focused meditation on light can bring you more brightness than you ever imagined.
A meditation zeroing in on gifts can tune you in to your law of attraction and boost your ability to manifest.
Deep breathing and prayer to any saviors you believe in can comfort you as you things get wet, dark, and cold.
Finally, really working through what your harvests looked like for the year can rededicate you to your work and enable you thrive in the new year.
Decorating your sacred space (home, altar, car dashboard) with cross cultural winter symbols like snow, pine cones, and cranberries which all bring their own reminders and messages for the season.
Snow represents cleansing or coming to peace with darkness, though for me personally it represents fun and cool air.
Pine cones correlate to pine trees which can represent longevity and the joy in solitude. Some believe they represent our hopes and fears for the new year too. Wishing spells where you roll up tiny scrolls with your wishes scrawled on them and place them in between the cone sheaths are common this time of year.
Cranberries can correspond with our love lives and help us amplify the good and loving vibes of the holiday season.
Cranberry and peppermint teas will inspire you spiritually through the holiday season. (Peppermint works for almost any magick you’re trying to weave and can soothe our tummies if we overindulge on holiday food.)
For those who are more metaphysically or witch inclined, a great gift to make for a friend or yourself is a prosperity ornament focused on sustainability.
Take an empty glass ball ornament, and fill it with things that will represent and inspire sustenance. A friend gave me one a couple of years ago full of green ribbon, cinnamon, basil, and pine cone pieces. I made one with dried orange peel, pine leaves, and fake snow for a friend last year. Anything that is meaningful and represents ongoing prosperity energy to BOTH of you will work.
Make your gift giving personal and significant this season. One year I asked everyone I knew to give me their favorite book from the past year. It was one of my favorite Christmases because I got to really peer into people’s hearts and brains + I got my reading queue packed for the following year! Don’t worry about spending a ton of money this year. Find one thing, however small, that you are sure your loved ones will love. Then find something that represents your hopes and dreams for them for 2019. Gift them both or whichever one you like best. Two small, meaningful gifts can be the hit of the season. I’ve seen it happen over and over again!
Find a little known tradition that really appeals to you and incorporate that into your season with a loved one. My roommate and I celebrate this every year and it has brought us so much peace the night before a big day.
It’s not exactly hip to get excited when you start hearing All I Want for Christmas Is You in every department store for the season, but I do. I have found so many ways to make the Yule season cheerful and joyous starting with this: I absolutely opt out of the traditions that stress me out. I don’t overspend. I don’t run myself ragged. I don’t let the holiday season absorb my common sense.
I DO work closely with my gods, let myself get inspired, and take the extra opportunity to show my loved ones how much I love them.
As always, feel free to leave your favorite traditions or spiritual proceedings in the comments. In the meantime,
Blessed be y’all!
