Celebrating Yule: A Midwinter Festival
There are many ways to celebrate Yule. Although the Yule celebrations of pre-Christian history lend themselves primarily to modern Heathen observations, the holiday itself has evolved into many different midwinter traditions. These rituals and traditions are observed by witches and Pagans of all traditions and backgrounds, and the many variations of Yule ritual reflect this.
In your own Yule celebrations, it is important to observe in whatever way makes you feel comfortable. Yule can be observed as a ritual of sacrifice, but it can also be a festival of light. It can be a celebration of your gods of wisdom, hunting, or the hearth. It can be secular, without any religious connection. It can be a celebration of ancestors, family, and togetherness. It can even be a simple festival of gift-giving and goodness. You can observe it for twelve days, for three days or one day; it can be observed on the 21st of December, on the solstice-proper, or alongside other winter holidays so that you can observe in the company of your friends and family who do not celebrate Yule.
Your practice is yours; and so are the rituals within it. There is no right or true way. Do what feels good to you.
A Yule Ritual of Sacrifice
One of the many themes of historical Germanic Yule observances was sacrifice and celebration of the gods. Of course, while there are many members of the magical community who follow Germanic traditions with regards to either their magical practice or their faith (or both), there are many, many practitioners of magic who do not honor Germanic gods in their work. And many who do not worship any gods at all.
For this reason, I have written the following sacrifice ritual without any mention of gods, spirits, or exactly what your sacrifice should be made to. That is up to you. Take some time before your ritual to consider exactly what kind of sacrifice you want to make and to what. You might make the sacrifice of giving up a particular kind of food for a certain amount of time, covering or cutting your hair, or trading in your evening television time for meditation. Your sacrifice might also be a sacrifice of your time, effort, energy, or money; you might donate money or items to charity, put your time into learning a new language or ancestral skill, or dedicate a part of your yard as a votive garden.
When settling on what you want to sacrifice, you’ll want to consider the focus of your ritual—the spirit or entity you are honoring, the part of yourself you are celebrating, or the aspect of your life you are uplifting. You may have a particular god or set of gods that you work with or worship regularly. You may make sacrifices to ancestors, land or house spirits, spirit guides, or other spiritual entities. You might consider making sacrifices to folkloric or cultural figures like Santa Claus (and his many interpretations), Krampus, Old Man Winter, or other spirit figures.
Although the idea of making a ritual sacrifice usually brings to mind offerings made to gods and spirits, your sacrifice doesn’t have to be made to a deity, spirit, or external force. You can make your sacrifice to yourself, to your self-improvement, or to your community. A sacrifice can be made for your family, for charity, or for a project you are working on. You can make a sacrifice to your home, to a book your writing, or even to your magical practice. It is entirely up to you.
Set up your ritual space anywhere you would like, in whatever way you normally do. If you normally Cast a Circle or perform invocations prior to your ritual workings, do so in whatever way you are comfortable. You should also bring with you an offering of some kind. It can be something traditional for you, such as wine, tobacco, or bread. It can also be something as simple as water. This will be a representation of the personal sacrifice you are making (something you are giving up or taking on as an offering).
When you are comfortably set up, take a few moments to center yourself and focus your mind on your ritual. Fix your thoughts firmly on the sacrifice you are giving and what you are making a sacrifice to/for.
Light some candles or incense, if you like. If you are making an offering to an entity (and you have not already performed an invocation), invoke the deity or spirit you are making an offering to. You can perform a simple invocation, such as: "I call on you, [the spirit's name], [list three attributes, titles, or kennings you associate with this spirit or deity]. I invite and welcome you to this space to watch over this midwinter rite and receive my gifts of sacrifice."
If you are making a sacrifice to yourself, a community, a project, or other non-entity, you do not need an invocation. Instead, you can focus your ritual verbally by saying something like: "I come to this space to honor [name of thing], [list three attributes, traits, or other titles]. I honor this with celebration, ritual, and sacrifice."
Place your offering in the ritual space. Bless it, saying: "I bless this [offering] as a physical symbol of my offering of sacrifice. As I lift it up in this space, I also lift up [the sacrifice you are making]. I do this to [goal of the sacrifice]." The goal for every sacrifice will vary. You could make a sacrifice in honor of something. Or you could make one to draw prosperity and blessing to a project. Just change the words for the ritual accordingly.
Finish your ritual in whatever way you normally wrap up. And dispose of your offerings as usual.
This ritual can be easily modified to be performed in a group setting by going around the group and allowing each person present to announce or reflect on their sacrifice while partaking of a small bite or sip of the offering.
A Yule Offering Rite
Making offerings is one of many central themes associated with historical Yule rituals—and the close proximity of the Spirit Realm to the Realm of the living during the cold winter months makes Yule a perfect time to honor its inhabitants with offerings and gifts. One of my favorite ways to observe Yule is by giving “gifts” at each of my separate altars or workspaces, just as one might give gifts to all their loved ones at this time of you.
These “gift” offerings, also known as votive offerings are offerings which are made voluntarily, that are not required by seasonal religious customs or spiritual tradition. They can include almost any kind of offering; but my favorite types of offerings to give at Yule are altar furnishings (for example: altar cloths, bowls, and statues) and trinkets (like bells, small toys, and little curiosities). You can also give items that you have found, made, or cooked/brewed/baked. You can even go the seasonal route and gift things such as small bottles of honey, cookies, hot chocolate, cider, or wassail.
It’s a good idea to begin by making a list of any gods, spirits, guides, parts of yourself, or other entities you want to give offerings to. Collect or make your offerings and decide where you want to perform your offering rite. If, like me, you have multiple altars and perform work in multiple places associated with different spirits, you can either perform the ritual once in a single space and deliver the offerings to their physical location later or you can repeat the rite at each altar or space you use.
Open your ritual as you normally do. If you are making offerings to external entities, you can invoke all of them at the beginning of the ritual by saying: “[List of entities], I call on you, welcome you, and invoke you to this space. I ask you to watch over my rite of offering and accept my humble gifts.” If you are making your offerings to aspects of yourself or other internal forces, simply focus on connecting to that energy within yourself.
Put the offerings on the altar, saying: “In the spirit of gift-giving, in the spirit of good will, in the spirit of warmth, I offer you this [type of offering] as a token of my [description of sentiment or relationship]. I offer this gift of my own will, without asking anything in return.”
Repeat the previous step for each gift, for each spirit, entity or force you are giving to.
When you are finished, wrap your ritual up as normal. Leave any non-food offerings on the altar or in another place associated with the specific entity. Dispose of any food offerings in the way you normally do.
Disclaimer: Each of the Crowsbone writers and guest bloggers has their own magical background, beliefs, traditions and practices. These post represent the opinions, research and beliefs of the individual writers. We do not believe that they represent beliefs and rules associated with all magical practice or witchcraft; nor do they represent the beliefs and opinions of all of the Crowsbone community.