The Wiccan Winter Solstice

The wiccan winter solstice (from the Latin sol for sun and sistere to stand still) is one of the eight sabbats celebrated in wicca today. It occurs at the time in the northern hemisphere when the sun appears at its lowest in the sky and marks the end of one year and the beginning of the new.

From the moment of the wiccan winter solstice the sun is reborn and the wheel of the ritual year begins again. Of all of the evidence left us by our ancestors of their religious beliefs the best still to be seen are the neolithic monuments at Stonehenge in England and New Grange in Ireland. Both were clearly places where what we now call the wiccan winter solstice were observed, with their central elements exactly facing the midwinter sunset and sunrise respectively.

Throughout the world people of all races have seen this time of year as one of rebirth and a time for celebration and many of the traditions we now associate with the Christian festival of Christmas have their roots firmly in pagan northern Europe.

In Celtic tradition the wiccan winter solstice was one of the two climactic points of the ritual year in the battle for predominance between the Oak King and the Holly King, with the Holly King dominating during the time between the longest day in June, representing the time of growing and harvesting, and the Oak King dominating after the shortest day and representing a greater reliance on hunting. The Holly King dressed in red, was festooned with holly and was said to be drawn by eight stags whilst the Oak King was also known as the Green Man. Both were representations of the god Cernunnos.

When the new Christian religion was trying to convert the peoples of northern Europe it found the easiest way was to incorporate many of the old pagan ways into the new religion and many of the traditions of the wiccan winter solstice were amongst these. The old pagan name of yule is still interchangeable with Christmas, whilst the holly and the ivy are pagan symbols of fertility, representing male and female, which are still seen decorating homes.

We still have a tradition of a long midwinter break for rejoicing and celebration (the wicca sabbat is from the French sebatt meaning to revel) and we still hope to receive a visit from a man in red pulled by stags or reindeers. Of course it just would not be yuletide without a nice decorated tree brought in from the woods and maybe a seasonal yule log in the grate (actually a dedication to the Norse god Thor).

A common way for the modern coven to celebrate the wiccan winter solstice is for the circle representing the solar year to be decorated with holly, ivy and mistletoe, for the cauldron containing kindling to be placed to the south to represent the sun and the presiding priest to wear a horned helm in honor of Cernunnos.

In many ways the celebrations of the wiccan winter solstice and its offspring the Christian Christmas are the clearest and strongest link between the peoples of today and their ancestors.

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Winter Solstice Holiday Celebrations

As we come together this season to celebrate a time of joy over the return of light, life, and hope to the world, we are re-enacting a ritual winter solstice celebration that goes back over 12,000 years.

It is the the most ancient and important ritual in human culture and has been appropriated and incorporated into virtually all of our various world religions.

Because ancient cultures did not have the benefit of astronomy and modern science, the sun represented the celestial movement of the god's....a magical event of deep mystery.

The growing darkness that preceded the winter solstice each year was a fearful time of impending death and the freeing of evil spirits.

Because our ancestors were never certain that their sacrifices and ritual celebrations had pleased the god's enough to ensure that the sun would once again return to bring life and hope back to their world, it was a time of great anxiety.

Winter solstice was an important issue of life and death. It was the most important celebration of the year for ancient cultures. They knew that without the sun they could not survive. Without the sun they would die.

As a result, virtually every human culture in history has left evidence of having built celestial rock structures to observe and monitor the winter solstice and track the return of the sun.

These primitive observatories were unable to precisely mark the movements of the sun, so it was often several days after the actual solstice before they would be certain that the sun was indeed returning. As a result, many solstice celebrations were not held until three or four days after December 21.

As each of us celebrates this time of year in our own way, let us remember we are a global species. Regardless of what many religions would have us believe, no single religion has the "true" path to God. To assume that humans somehow "know" God is as ridiculous as assuming that a dog could somehow use a sniff test to "know" what it means to be human.

So Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah. Happy Holidays. Seasons Greetings. Happy Solstice. They all mean the promise of life and renewal. They all express our desire for light and hope. In a world struggling with conflict and suffering born of primitive black-and-white judgmental beliefs, may each of us become beacons of light, diversity, compassion, and tolerance.

Dick Rauscher is the founder of Stonyhill.com which is dedicated to exploring authentic spiritual growth and the intentional evolution of both human consciousness and individual self-awareness.

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Copyright 2010 Dick Rauscher

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Winter Solstice Is a Time for Introspection and Awakening Light

Winter Solstice comes at me always unexpected as the days shorten and the nights lengthen. Loneliness can overtake me in the darkness, leaving me feeling empty of energy, and I must remind myself to turn the loneliness into one of deep introspection and honor the sacredness of turning inward.

As I witness the daylight move so quickly away, I want to hold onto it, and I remind myself to remember that all life is a coming and going, with a few precious moments for each experience. As the participant in life's movement, I must stay present lest I miss the richness that presents itself in the moments of my life. I remind myself of the value in darkness as I let go of the need for more light. As the great bear in the West goes into her cave, I too am led into the cavern of my inner world.

It is within the inner world where I find both the richness and the horror that is my personal human experience that expresses itself out into the world. I come face-to-face with my beauty and my unkindness; with my success and with my faults and failures. It is where who I am and whom I want to be smack up against each other and I cannot hide the truth of my thoughts and actions from myself. It is here, in this inner world, that I am able to delve into myself and move beyond to the point of creation of that which I want to be and want to manifest within my personal world and for the greater world. It is here in my inner world that I meet my ancestors and the ancestors of all. It is here in this inner world where I soar through imagination into other worlds and gather together with beings of immense wisdom and knowledge that I then bring back to my world.

As I remember what awaits me in my inner world, I remind myself to allow the darkness to linger just a little longer in the morning and the daylight to leave at its appointed hour in the evening. As I let go and give myself over to the shortening of the days as we draw closer to Winter Solstice, a voice from my inner world gives me the gift of knowing that on the awakening of the day following Winter Solstice the light begins to lengthen as the days begin once again to grow longer.

©2010 Diana Rankin

Diana Rankin, is the author of The Happiness Book, 23 Days/A Celtic Journey, and The Found Child, which can be purchased at http://www.spiritualseekersnetwork.com. Diana is a gifted psychic medium, international speaker, and workshop and guided meditation leader. For a private reading by phone or in person, for information on workshop, seminars, or speaking to your group, or to order one of her books or CD meditations, please contact Diana at http://www.dianarankin.com.

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Yule Sabbat

Yule or the Winter Solstice is scientifically based on the standing still position of the Sun; this has been practiced for over 10,000 years by many cultures (especially Native Americans, Spanish and Mexican Indians) around the globe with ceremonies and festivals over 12 days). Yule is a kind of spiritual, psychic, and physiological renewal of mind, body, and soul involving the 4 elements (Earth or North, Air or East, Fire or South, and Water or West) and the 5th element being the Spirit Guide at the top of a right side up pentacle and pentagram (which are mathematically based on geometry). The winter solstice is unique among days of the year--the shortest day and the longest night. Darkness rules but only briefly; from now until the summer solstice, the nights will grow shorter and the days longer even in Alaska.

The Winter Solstice's turning point was carefully monitored in many ancient cultures. The stones in the circle at Stonehenge were aligned to ascertain the dates of midsummer and midwinter, as well as the positions of the moon throughout the year. Even older than Stonehenge is the tumulus at Newgrange in the Boyne River Valley in Ireland. It was built in approximately 4500 B.C.E. On the morning of the winter solstice, a shaft of sunlight enters the mound, travels down a stone corridor, and illuminates the spiral designs on the back wall of the cave.

Yule is one of four Lesser Pagan Sabbats (with the religious festivals or holidays being Ostara, Midsummer or Litha, and Mabon) within the symbolically and constantly turning wheel of the year. Yule has long been celebrated as the rebirth of the sun (the Sun God Ra/Re), of sunlight, and the continual existence of life itself. According to Celtic folklore, the Oak King and the Holly King represent the two sides of the Greenman or the Horned God (Cernunnos); the Oak King oversees the lighter part of the year (at Litha) while the Holly King oversees the darker part of the year at Yule.

In the northern hemisphere, Yule is generally celebrated on or around December 21st depending upon the day of arrival of the full moon prior to this Sabbat. Yule festivals, ceremonies, and rituals can consist of a simple solitary prayer all the way through an elaborate social and spiritual gathering of men, women, and children. Depending upon their spiritual path, some folks observe Yule for 1 day or from 3, 7, or up to 12 days.

Merry Yule & Winter Solstice

Dr. Sahure is a senior researcher with the Antiquus Research Group and the author of many noteworthy essays and articles about a variety of topics and subjects, including herbalism, ancient history and mythology, ancient Egyptian religion (Kemeticism), metaphysical sciences, ancient religions and theology, astrology, tarot, and divination systems.

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