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Yule Log

The Hammer

[REDACTED]
Premium Member
My Altar center piece has been officially recommissioned as my Yule log for this upcoming Solstice. I will be gathering a new center piece today when I go get my Holiday tree.

Do you have any Solstice Traditions you carry?

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ValdresRose

Member
Yes, each year I write in my journal that, "Now the daylight time will start to get longer, jipppeeeee." That's not a very earth shaking tradition but tradition is tradition. This one is going to be very special since Saturn is going to be creeping behind Jupiter. But that's wrong, Jupiter is creeping in front of Saturn.

Right now, tonight Dec. 18th, I can see Saturn just left and a little ways above Jupiter. Very close together.
 

ValdresRose

Member
In fact, this year I'm going to start a new tradition: I'm going to light a candle, drink a glass of Black Currant wine and make a toast in honor of the Druids. May your celebration be the best ever.
 

Quintessence

Consults with Trees
Staff member
Premium Member
The Winter Solstice ritual I wrote up is one of the ones I haven't properly practiced. It is a hard one to set up is the problem. It is very hard to get away from all noise and light, short of going out of state to a cave somewhere that probably isn't open to the public or dangerous for me without any experience spelunking. Half-measures for total sensory deprivation are ok, but I hear tell it is nothing like going deep within the bowls of the pitch black earth or having a trusted associate bury you in the earth below with a breathing tube for air. It says something about modern society when finding places of deep dark and deep silence are so very difficult to find. Spaces where the you melts away and there is only the void. Deeper meditative states can get close to that, I suppose.

Some no-self, deep meditations will be good for me this year, I think. Traditions have changed so much as far as family goes, and it is still very painful and troubling to me. The more I refine my own traditions and let the past go, the less I will dread this time of year because of it reminding me of wonderful things I have lost in the present.

... which reminds me I need a few more ingredients for my traditional Winter Solstice dish. I didn't have one before, but I am taking one from my family traditions that we used to make and doing that for solstice. A little piece of that happy past to honor it and all. Maybe I'll do the cookies this year too. The cookies were special too. The best cookies with like two sticks of butter in them. Instead of trees, I may do the snowflake shape.
 

ValdresRose

Member
Some no-self, deep meditations will be good for me this year, I think. Traditions have changed so much as far as family goes, and it is still very painful and troubling to me. The more I refine my own traditions and let the past go, the less I will dread this time of year because of it reminding me of wonderful things I have lost in the present.

It is not my intent to suggest advice to you. I don't like advice from people and for that reason I do not intend to give. From me experience I'm quite sure that I would spend a lot more time with healing and set aside spirituality and religion for the time being. There are 4 aspects to healing; Our body, our emotions (heart), our mind, and our Spirt --- but the 4th one needs to be set aside for awhile.
 

ValdresRose

Member
In a very brief way, could someone mention how the Druid honors the sun at the time of the Solstice. I would expect, but I'll need to read more into this, that the greatest "sensation" comes at the mid-day moment, when the sun is highest in the sky.

I would pay my homage at high noon but I have no idea if that is the custom. When I draw out the first glass of home brew I make an offering to the Gods of brewing to make this a tasty draught. The rest I enjoy! Never underestimate the powers of the unknown Gods. In a Mexican bar in Nogales it confused me why the men drinking at the bar would pore out the first sip of beer, at first I thought it had something nasty on top and later my informed friend told me it was to honor Gods.
 
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