SECTION I - HOLIDAY LORE
The Child of Promise - Ahneke Greystone
Yule - Baboo Kyra Finch
Yule Holiday Recipes
The Child of Promise
By Ahneke Greystone
"I who have died am alive today,
and this is the Sun's birthday.
The tide has turned!
The light will come again!
In a new dawn, in a new day,
The Sun is rising!"
The question posted most to Auntie Ahn this month has been that of relating to our pagan roots at a time when it seems public celebration is focused on other religions. Especially for our younger friends and those new to the path, we can feel lost in a holiday which is not "ours." Our friends and family are often celebrating Christmas or Hanukkah. We are surrounded everywhere, from our workplaces to our shopping centers to the very decorations on our city streets, with the symbols of a Christian world. It is unavoidable. At times we feel disconnected from the celebration, and the result can be depression and alienation.
And yet it is the time in our spiritual cycle when the focus should be on community. On connection and celebration of humanity and our special bonds ... bonds which cross all faith and culture. It is a time to note what we have in common with the worldwide celebrations of the season. To focus, not on differences, but on similarities. On common ground. The spirit of this season is very much a celebration of humanity. It is life affirming. It is hopeful, joyful and grateful.
It is a time to cherish the best of what we are and to see those qualities reflected in the people around us. It is a time to respect differences and honor connection. To step outside of our own worldview and experience another viewpoints. It is a time of open-mindedness. A time for learning.
To reflect on our experiences from the past year and decided what to take with us to the new year and what to leave behind.
Values at this time of year cross all culture and religion. The love of family and the celebration of ethnic heritage. The feeling of reflection on the year past and hope for the year forward. The shared feeling of anticipation of the days of feasting and celebration. When we place Grandmother's angel or Father's star on our holiday tree, it does not matter that they celebrated the birth of Christ and we do not. For the moment is an instance of holy communion with those who have come before. The hearts of our loved ones. We remember the holidays of our childhood, think of relatives who have passed, snapshots of the good times that are part of our seasonal heritage. We honor them and we welcome their memory
The births of Horus, Helios, Baal, Attis, Adonis, Balder, Frey, Dionysus, Mithras and Jesus are all celebrated at or near the Solstice. All have in common concepts of rebirth and eternal life. It is the acknowledgement deep without our souls of the time of the soft death and the gentle awakening. The Sun does not burst forth the morning of the Solstice in a dramatic lengthening of the day's light. Rather, it gently appears slightly earlier each dawn. Hope made real. We have faith that it arrives a moment earlier each day. We believe it will be so. Our faith is reflected in the lengthening days, and our confidence in the coming year's bounty. The essence of this belief is celebrated by all at this time of year. It is a shared feeling of reverence and thanksgiving.
The God's return is also the appearance of the Divine Child of Promise. It is the invocation of the child within. Younger Self. Who is trusting and full of wonder. Whether He is seen in the arms of Mary, embracing the Great Goddess or in the tender youth of Dawn. All of us have the capacity to be in touch with the Child we were; the Child we still are.
Decorate your holiday tree with pagan symbols and with the religious icons of your early days and of your family. Don't be afraid to celebrate the duality of spirituality ... for the faces of the Goddess are hundredfold.
"... and She births the Spirit within us, bringing light and hope to us all."
Yule tidings and blessings of the season to all. May you be surrounded with love, hope and faith. I wish you peace.
Ahneke Greystone
who is AuntieAhn@aol.com
YULE
By Baboo Kyra Finch
Yule is a holiday that we prepare for throughout the year. Whenever we make crafts, cookies, or find special goodies out in the woods, put them away in the Yule chest for use as tree decorations. Then, for a couple of weeks before solstice, we drag out all the loot and sort into "made it to Yule" and "didn't make it to Yule" piles. "Didn't make it to Yule" consists of cookies the mice got into, pressed flowers that have become
pressed flour, and unidentifiable bits of something from a summer camping trip. The whole experience creates a wonderful nostalgia. Everything that did survive gets a string, and brightened up with paint and glitter.
Baking projects go into high gear. We make stained glass cookies, dough bears and birds, and cut cookies. I collect cookie cutters so we have some wonderful shapes. Another good source of shapes is a children's coloring book, and stencils from the hardware store. You can find pictures of ivy, acorns, holly and oak leaves to use as cut out patterns.
Stained glass cookies are really easy to make. Make up your usual cut out sugar cookie dough. Get hard candies in various colors and crush them.
Using two cookie cutters, cut out a large shape and cut out a smaller shape in the center. Put them on your cookie sheet, and fill the cut out shape with a generous amount of crushed hard candy. Bake as usual. The hard candy will melt into a sugar sheet of translucent color. I use a large and small gingerbread women cutter, and the candy cut out becomes the Yule child inside the Mother Goddess. These also make terrific gifts.
I make a huge batch of royal icing and all the food colors. Use the icing like oil paints or acrylics, and mix the colors. Use a small artist's spatula or fingers to apply the icing, mixing and blending colors as you go. These cookies are for hanging, not eating, because you don't know where all those little fingers have been. Each cookie is an original work of art. Put them away for next Yule (although the mice usually eat them before then). That, of course, means you do it all again.
Celebrate this holiday when the sun comes up very early in the morning. Kids will make sure that no one oversleeps!
We get the Yule tree and decorate it the night before, so when everyone comes down in the morning, it lights up the living room. We put the
presents out the night before.
If possible, try to have the ritual before the kids attack the gifts -- but keep it short! Hold hands, call the quadrants, and if possible, Cast the Circle with the Tree in the middle. Have a child take the role of the baby Sun. A girl is the Goddess
Lucina, Apollo a boy, or whatever deities are appropriate for your family. The other family members make an arch with their arms, and she/he walks through the symbolic birth canal. Greet the young deity with shouts of WELCOME BACK. Everyone hugs, trashes
presents and eats breakfast.
We don't dismiss the Circle, because we usually have an open house the rest of the day, with friends and family coming and leaving. The entire day is part of the ritual,
with feasting and singing and good feelings. When everyone is properly over-stimulated and crashing off the sugar highs to the point of tears, it's time to dismiss everything very quickly and put cranky people to bed. (I fall into this category.)
CELEBRATE THE DARK BY STARTING A GARDEN
Gardens
Start a garden:
Save bottoms of cardboard egg cartons. When you have two or three, set
them in a baking dish with about an inch of sand on the bottom. Wedge them in nice
and tight but don't lose their shape. Fill with good potting soil and place in a sunny window. Get a variety of lettuce, parsley, basil, and other leafy green plant seeds. put three or four seeds in each cup and sprinkle with water to moisten. Cover with a piece of plastic and leave alone until you see the first two leaves. You can take the plastic off, but be sure to keep the plants moist but not soggy. In about 4 to 6 weeks, you will have large enough plants to clip leaves off of to use on a
daily(ish) basis.
When you want to transplant them, do so, cardboard cup and all, into larger pots, three or four plants per pot. If you are using clay pots, be sure to soak them in water first because clay absorbs LOTS of water. Use good potting soil with lots of organic matter. When safe from frosts, let them get used to being outside. If it's very hot or cold or windy, put them outside for a little while each day for the first few days. Actually, even if you don't harden them, the only things that will really kill them is to let them dry out or freeze.
For a potted garden, the main elements are space, grouping and sun. Also, you need a good nursery that will get you the plants you want! Usually we want things no-one else does, like comfrey and patchouli.
For a medicinal pot you will need a big container, preferably about 2 feet across. A barrel is good. You can get a big wooden box and line it with trash bags, or use several smaller pots grouped together.
My Favorite Garden Medicinals:
Aloe vera: burns and scrapes.
Comfrey: anti-inflammatory, analgesic, swelling reducer, heals bruises, breaks, sprains, bumps and bites.
Plantain: insect and spider bites. This is the only thing that stops the necrosis with
brown recluse spider bites. Use it in conjunction with "modern" medicine. They compliment each other.
Rosemary: Anti-infective, analgesic, antibacterial, anti-fungal.
Sage: Speeds up the healing process, anti-infective.
Yarrow: Anti-infective, analgesic, blood coagulator. There are others.
Goddess is pretty redundant with Her herbs.
Comfrey and plantain have large leaves that form a wide rosette close to the ground. You need a wide planting place for them. You can cram them all together in a smaller pot. They all need sun and regular watering (not kept soaked, though).
Potted Magick
Plant together:
For prosperity: Plant together in one pot, marigolds, moneywort, pennyroyal.
For love: parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme.
For protection: rue (don't keep rue near other plants or plant it in the same container, except for roses); rosemary; fennel, patchouli.
Maiden energy: Parsley, the artemesias.
Mother: Rosemary, thyme.
Crone energy: Sage.
Lord: Tarragon, mint, yarrow, pansies, heart's ease.
Really great pasta: oregano or marjoram, basil, rosemary, a tomato and a bell pepper.
Gardening Tips
All the plants like sun. They don't need it for 8 hours, but for at least a few hours a day.
I always expect to lose about 25% of everything I plant. It doesn't always happen, but when I expect it to, it doesn't feel as bad when it does.
As an herbalist and gardener, the concept of using the signs for gardening fascinates me. I think that the ancients assigned constellations assigned to certain elements because when the moon is in a particular place in the sky, its gravity and magnetism effects the behavior of energies on earth. This leans them toward certain
accomplishments. This year I'm working in my herb garden from two almanacs, and checking out the results.
One experiment is to see what I feel like doing before I check the almanac. I check to determine if my intuitive desire matches the moon sign. It does most of the time.
My moods can skew the results. That is, if I'm angry, I like to pull
weeds, prune and dig; if I'm feeling serene, I like to pot things, seed new plants and take cuttings. If I'm feeling adventurous, I like to wild craft, harvest and shop. Most of the time, though, all of this coincides.
As a simple rule of thumb, do your buying and planting when the moon is in a water or earth sign. Fertilize and harvest in a fire sign if you're going to dry the herbs, and air if you're going to use them fresh. Or just clip them whenever you need them. Water in water signs, weed in fire signs. Plant leafy and/or viney above ground stuff during first two phases of the moon, rootstock, third and fourth phase.
The plants I've listed are pretty easy to grow and can take a good dose of neglect. Be stingy with the fertilizer.
Don't buy containers retail. It's against our religion. Instead, go back, once again, to garage sales, swap meets, junk stores, etc. If you have friends who are into ceramics, hit them up for pots. Line baskets with chicken wire and moss. These may have a limited life span, but they look great. I rub garden soil on the outside and weird things spring to life. I actually had mushrooms growing on the sides of a basket planter.
Soak clay and wood containers well before using them If you add some raw yogurt or sour milk to the water you soak them with, it will give the plants a boost. They absorb a lot of moisture and will dry out your seedlings. Water them more frequently than glazed ceramic pots but don't keep the plants soggy.
Instead of bothering with a compost pile, I just bury my vegetable refuse through the yard. I rotate the locations. By the time I get back to site #1, the orange rinds and
banana skins are now rich soil crawling with earth worms.
Everything I read about compost says to keep left over bones and fat out of the compost pile. It is true that this can draw wild animals, ants and flies. On the other
hand, if buried nice and deep, it does create a very rich soil. I also bury all hair clippings, mouse cage refuse, sea food remains including shells, and pretty much anything that would normally go back into the earth if left to the natural state of things.
Before throwing them away, I also fill all milk and juice containers with water and pour this into my potted plants. My soil is alkaline and welcomes the diluted acid water.
A healthy garden should be full of life. You should have birds, lizards, frogs, tons of bugs and earthworms. Don't worry about aphids, snails and cut worms. If you leave things alone, the predators will take care of all your problems. Healthy plants can withstand the onslaught long enough for Mother Nature to balance the ecology of the garden.
If you really feel the need to "do something" about the plant eaters, buy snails that eat snails, lady bugs and wash your plants down with a
combination of soap (not detergent) and cayenne pepper.
Do not, I repeat, do not, buy praying mantises (manti?). I did that one year and the only insect left alive in the garden was one very large and very tame female mantis.
Other good garden projects for kids are turnips, radishes, carrots and
beets. Tomatoes and zucchini are really easy to grow, but need some space and lots of sun.
You will find out what does well where by experimenting.
Put a tiny grain of nothing in the ground, and get food! That is what I
call real magick!
Yule Holiday Recipes
Magical Molasses Cookies
2/3 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
2 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
Mix together butter and sugar in a large bowl. Add the molasses and the egg and stir until creamy. Sift together flour, baking soda, and pumpkin pie spice in a seperate bowl. Add to molasses mixture a little at a time while stirring. Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Roll the dough balls in some sugar on a plate. Bake 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Cool 1 minute, sprinkle more sugar on top. Then cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container. Makes 3 doz. cookies.
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*Herb coated Cornish Hens*
4 Cornish Hens
(coating) 2 oz(60g) wholewheat flour
1tsp ground dried thyme
1tsp ground dried rosemary
1tsp marjoram
1 lemon
freshly ground blk pepper
(stuffing) 2tsp dried thyme
2tsp dried marjoram
1 egg beaten
2 oz (60g) butter
Heat the oven to 400F or 200C.
Put flour into a bowl. Add ground herbs, and the grated rind of the lemon and season with blk pepper. Truss up the hens, putting 1/2 tsp of each dried herb from the (stuffing section) plus a slice of lemon in each one. Brush them with the beaten egg and coat with about 3/4 of the flour.(or just enough to cover them lightly) put in baking tin, and baste with butter, baste often and cook for appx 30 minutes baste again then turn and cook for appx 15 more min's.
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YULE INCENSE: (Magical Herbalism by Cunningham) Burn during all Winter rites and also to purify the home from November 1 to March 21: Pine, Juniper, Cedar
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YULE INCENSE 2: (Making Magickal Incenses by Keith Morgan) Yule is the Sabbat that is celebrated on or around the 21st of December, with dates differing from year to year, as being when the sun enters the sign of Capricorn, to mark the Winter Solstice.
5 parts pine resin, 4 parts mistletoe, 3 parts spruce resin, 5 ml musk oil per 8 oz. of dry mixture
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YULE INCENCE: loose only (Wylundt's Book of Incense) 1 1/2 part sandalwood, 1/2 part
benzoin, 1/2 part frankincense, 1/4 part myrrh, bayberry oil
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YULE INCENSE 3:(Incense, Oils and Brews by Cunningham) 2 parts frankincense, 2 parts pine needles or resin, 1 part cedar, 1 part juniper berries
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YULE INCENSE 4: 3 parts frankincense, 1/2 part mistletoe, 1 part juniper berries, few drops juniper oil, few drops orange oil
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YULE INCENSE 5: 1 part cypress, 1 part oak bark, 1 part juniper berries
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YULE INCENSE 6: 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1 tsp. cloves, 1 tsp. allspice, 1 tsp. nutmeg, 1
tsp.pine, 1 tsp. cedar, 1 tsp. frankincense, 1 tsp. myrrh, few drops mulberry oil
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YULE OIL: 2 drops cinnamon oil, 2 drops clove oil, 2 drops frankincense oil, 2 drops myrrh oil, 1 drop mandarin oil, 1 drop pine oil
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YULE OIL 2: 1 dram pine oil, 1 dram balsam fir oil, 5 drams almond oil, 1 cinnamon stick, handful of cloves, 1 drop musk oil, apple wood pieces; Warm over low heat
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YULE OIL 3: One 6-8" branch fresh-cut spruce, One 6-8" branch fresh-cut short needle pine, One 6-8" branch fresh-cut cedar, 2
tb. frankincense resin, ground, 1 tb. bayberry oil;
Cut branches into 1 inch pieces, put into a jar. Add remaining ingredients and cover with base oil and steep.
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YULE OIL 4: 1 dram pine oil, 1 dram cinnamon oil, 1 dram olive oil, 1 tsp. ginger root, broken into small pieces, 3 tsp. sea salt
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TWELVE HERB YULE SACHET: (Incense, Oils and Brews by Cunningham) 7 parts juniper, 4 parts cinnamon, 4 parts allspice, 4 parts ginger, 4 parts caraway, 2 parts nutmeg, 2 parts rosemary, 2 parts lemon peel, 2 parts orange peel, 1 part clove, 1 part bay, 2 pinches orris root; Tie up in green or red cloth and give as gifts on Yule.
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YULE POTPOURRI:(Gerena Dunwich) 1 cup oakmoss, 2 cups dried mistletoe, 1 cup dried pointsetta flowers, 1 cup dried bayberries, 1/2 cup rosemary, 1/2 cop holly leaves and berries, 3 crushed pinecones, 20 drops musk oil, 25 drops pine oil
