Wordless Wednesday

Happy Holidays!

Happy Yule!

Hello all and Happy Yule! The winter has come, and through the long, cold nights and short, snowy days we know that the Sun has been born again in the sky and grows stronger and brighter each day until the spring.  As I have said in other posts, I am very much looking forward to Yule this year. For a lot of reasons it has great meaning to myself and my family this year. My daughter, Jiji, is now 5, and at an age where she wants to participate in more and learn about out festival traditions. This is the first year I feel like she really understands why we bake shortbread cookies with chocolate kisses in them to represent the light overcoming the dark. Or that we decorate our house and tree with lights and burn candles to represent the warmth and light of the Sun returning from the dark. We did most of our Yule traditions yesterday, since H.H. is out in the truck today.  We made the cookies, taking time to talk about the egg being a sign of fertility for the spring, and how the egg hold the dark and light in it's yolk and whites, and about the wheat of the fields in the flour. We also made Peanut Butter and Jillys just for Jillian! I guess we will need to come up with a special cookie for Mojo in the next few years...Some of these cookies get saved back for Santa Claus on Christmas, since we celebrate both. My mother and sisters are Christian, but very awesome and accepting of our faith and we want the kids to grow up with those traditions as well. We also made the first of a new tradition of making a Yule candle lantern with the kids. The old tin can with a nail hole design, that will be on our altar, then get moved to the outdoor altar (in a bowl of water for safety!) at bedtime. So tonight, when the sun goes down for it's longest sleep of the year, we will call H.H., sing songs and light candles, tell stories about the Goddess giving birth to the new God, and pray the darkness gives birth to our dreams as we sleep on Solstice night. My family wishes the same for you.

Brightest Blessings, Hippie Witch, Hippie Hubs,Lala, Jiji, and Mojo,

Lazy Sunday

Good Morning!

Here is your Lazy Sunday list for this week. Happy Yule and Merry Christmas.

Torchaven my family has made a site for our Circle.

WitchVox I'm sure most of you know this one, but if not check it out

ReligiousTolerance.org has a great article about the different and shared beliefs for the Winter Solstice holidays

Please feel free to link up to the blog hop MckLinky below on Sundays, no matter your blog topic. Just a fun and easy way to get some traffic around the blogoshere!

Whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year, may your god bless you and yours.

H.W.

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Yule, Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanza....Happy Holidays!

Yearning for Yule

Once more, Yule is just around the corner.  I cannot recall a year when I looked so forward to the Yule festival. I am in dire need need of a reminder that things must sometimes be consumed in Darkness before the Light can be renewed.  I am thankful for the gentle reminder that the Mother, who will soon give birth to the light of a new year, gives only gifts to her children. Although I may not like how it was wrapped or delivered it was a gift none the less.  The world shifts, the wheel turns, and if I am not who or what I wish to be, now is the time to make it so.  The birth of the Old God as the Sun reminds me that each day is a gift and a blessing.  Each day is the chance to shuck off the past and create a new today and a new future.  Things in our lives, even beloved and cherished things, must die so that something greater can be reborn.  This year as the Light faded and the nights grew longer I came through my own dark night, and I now know with all my heart that the dawn is coming to light my life as I light the candles on the Yule altar with my family.  We are overwhelmed with blessings, and in their counting they make the dark spots of the past year a tiny price to pay for those blessings. Always remember, dreams are born in the dark.

H.W.