“Yule” (Midwinter Festival, Winter Solstice, Alban Arthuin) by Yvonne Owens and Jessica North O’Connell

(Excerpted from The Witches’ Wheel by Yvonne Owens and Jessica North O’Connell, Chapter 2. Image: Witch’s Wheel, Museum of Witchcraft, Boscastle, U.K.)

Jessica: Winter solstice marks the longest night of the year, the heart of winter. At this time, we welcome the return of the sun, a theme appearing in various myths which tell of the birth of a divine child, such as the Persian Mithras or the Christian Christ. (The Church, however, did not officially fix the date of Christmas until 273 CE, to align it with the birth of other solar gods.) It is a Teutonic contribution to the festivals of the year (along with Midsummer). The Old Norse word ‘jul’ or ‘iul’ means “wheel, “ reminiscent of the solar wheel. At this time the rule of the Holly King gives way to the Oak King’s reign. While there is a trend among Pagans to celebrate at the Solstice itself, many still combine this celebration with Christmas, adding to the general celebratory vibrations of the season.

All too often…the harmonious balance of the dark and light twins, of necessary waxing and waning, has been distorted into a concept of Good-versus-Evil. At Dewsbury in Yorkshire, for nearly seven centuries, church bells have tolled ‘the Devil’s Knell’ or ‘the Old Lad’s Passing’ for the last hour of Christmas Eve, warning the Prince of Evil that the Prince of Peace is coming to destroy him. Then, from midnight on, they peal out a welcome to the Birth. A worthy custom, on the face of it — but in fact it enshrines a sad degradation of the Holly King.[1]

Song for Solstice

Let the Wheel turn:

sun and moon

Let the Wheel turn:

night and day

Let the Wheel turn:

worlds in their courses

Let the Wheel turn:

the human Heart rejoices

Let the Wheel turn:

roll into tomorrows

Let the Wheel turn:

through hopes and through sorrows

Let the Wheel turn:

through death and through life

Rolling us closer

to our day’s end

turning and turning

we begin again

Welcome the sun

welcome the sun

welcome the sun

© Copyright, Jessica North-O’Connell, 2001

Yvonne: Yule was the ancient celebration of midwinter solstice, named for Nordic Iol, or Jul, for “wheel.” Taranis, Wotan and other gods were portrayed with their wheel and thunderbolt, ruling both seasonal time and weather. The midwinter revels featured the mythic Fool figure as the “Lord of Misrule,’ a correspondent for the “Mock King” of the Roman Saturnalia. Conventional roles are turned upside down in these revels. The peasantry, the poor, serfs and (in Imperial Rome) slaves are permitted to make requests for anything they may desire, and these requests must be fulfilled. This is the origin of “mumming,” of which both Christmas caroling and Hallow’s Eve ‘Trick or Treat’ customs are vestiges, where troups of peasants ask to have their bowls and bellies filled in return for a song or a benediction. Caroling and mumming were once done at all eight seasonal festivals, in honor of the age-old traditional, celebratory traditions of sharing of the harvest wealth.

This is a festival of fire and light in the darkness. It marks the longest night of the year, when the sun is at its nadir, from which moment it begins once again to increase the hours of daylight. Yule is considered the “rebirth of the sun,” and also “the Birth of the Son.” It is the birthday of King Arthur, and the Druidic tree calendar names the solstice “Alban Arthuan.” Arthur, as Sun King, is reborn from the longest night, under the auspices of Saturn, whom the Britons knew as Merlin, and who was a local form of Bran/Cronos, the Alder god of ancient Wales and Cornwall. “Brumalia” was celebrated during on the 25th of December (27th of Rowan) as the “Birthday of the Unconquered Sun” (Dies Natalis Invicti Solis). This is when, “the light is reborn within the womb of Darkness,” according to The Pagan Book of Days. December 25th marks the nativities of many light gods, including Saturn, Dionysus, Tammuz, Qutzalcoatl, Adonis, Attis, Frey, Herne, and Christ. According to pre-Christian legend, Mithras, the “Light in the Rock” (and his Vedic predecessor, Mitra) was born in a sacred cave with beasts of the field, three Magii in attendance and a heraldic star as heavenly portent.

The solstice also marked Roman festival of the Saturnalia, as well as the sacred day of Acca Larentis. This festival honoured the light Goddess, Laurentia, and also the Lares, household Goddesses of the hearth. Laurentia guards the life-energy, “light” or “soul” of the dead in the Underworld, and also the vital, if dormant, seed corn. The Yule Log is a more recent survival of this idea of life-energy conservatorship, and also of the role of the Vestal priestesses of Hestia, Heartha, Erhtha, or Vesta. The woman of the house, as resident Goddess, was traditionally the Keeper of the Hearth Fire, like Brigid’s Perpetual Torch or the Eternal Flame of the Fire Mysteries. This reflects woman’s former identification with the sun, as Solar Goddess, whose solar form of social organization was manifested in the centralized power and authority of “the hearth.” When this was later formalized into a temple function, rural families kept the tradition alive in the woman’s stewardship of the Yule Log. In Judaism, the ancient primacy of women’s role in domestic and seasonal ritual is reflected in the woman’s role in lighting the candles in the Menorah.

In Western Europe, up until this century, it was common for families to light the first fire after the winter solstice from the coals of the old fire, or from a log specially harvested for this purpose at the summer solstice, from the trees sacred to light Gods and Goddesses, Holly or Oak. In some areas of England, the Yule Log had to be taken from an Ash tree and was called “the Ashen Faggot.” In Scotland the Yule log was customarily Birch wood, selected the previous Candlemas (February 1st or 2nd, Brigid’s Day). The “Halcyon Days” are the two weeks spanning winter solstice (December 14th-December 28th). “Halcyon” is from Alcyone, the central, blue star of the Pleiadian cluster, symbolised as a kingfisher bird. Alcyone is known as “She who calms the storms,” and the Halcyon Days are when the “Halcyon Bird” is said to sit her eggs in a nest which floats upon the preternaturally calm seas of midwinter. The true significance of this image is the fact that the Pleiadian cluster “floats” at the midheaven (of the Cosmic “ocean”) over the period of the winter’s solstice. The Pleiades’ largest star, the blue Alcyone, nestles at their center like a bird amid her star-eggs in her galactic nest.

The Christmas Carol, “The Holly and the Ivy,’ betrays bawdy, Pagan customs — the male/female sexual dynamic and tree-magic fertility rituals of antiquity. It was traditional for the boy elected “Holly King” to chase the girl elected “Ivy Queen” around the village with a staff or wand of holly. In the mock chase, she would lead him a fool’s dance until such time as she was ready to be “caught.” Thereupon, she would turn and “catch” him by quickly dropping her wreath of Ivy over the top of his holly wand. The holly boy would then be said to have been “caught in the nest.” This was done to the general amusement and bawdy enjoyment of the entire village, then — on to the feast! In more recent times, these characters have been transmuted into “Holly Boy” and “Ivy Girl,” but are essentially the same figures. Yule is now the only time when Holly/Ivy magic is referred to, with wreaths and Holly bouquets — and, of course, the carol in its name. At one time, the dance of the male Holly and the female Ivy was observed at many other festivals around the Wheel, and especially during Lammas. “The Holly Bears a Berry” refers to the ancient idea that the male, solar Holly tree is renewed with the rebirth of the sun from its nadir at the Winter’s Solstice as the Divine Son, or “berry,” and reflects ancient ideas around the sacrificial role of the light God, and His death/rebirth as Underworld redeemer. Ivy is Gaelic, Gort, with male and female aspects, and the totem animals of boar and spider. This tree is the ruler of the Witches’ Wheel, the ever-turning web of time, and Spider, as Arachne, is probably the lost, thirteenth sign of the Zodiac. Transmuted into Virgo, She nevertheless retains Her Cosmic, Virgin-Mother character.

Holly, as otherworldly light, took over the rulership of mistletoe from the moon in Celtic lore, but the Japanese Aino still deem mistletoe a lunar plant and consider it most holy when growing upon a Willow, a tree strongly associated with lunar magic. White like the moon, with moonlike berries, the mistletoe was thought to be the life, or “soul,” of the Oak, and also its female counterpart. The Oak was the solar God, wrapped in the embrace of the lunar Goddess, in a tableau of Celtic tree Tantra, or Sacred Marriage. According to Frazier, “The rule in Sweden is that ‘mistletoe must be cut on Midsummer Eve when the sun and moon stand in the sign of their might.” The “sign of their might” is Gemini, roughly coinciding with Celtic Holly month (Tinne), whose esoteric form is that of the magical Androgynous Twins, symbolised in alchemical texts as sol and luna, or sun and moon conjunctio. The Oak and Mistletoe, so joined, were thought to be immortal, invulnerable to death by fire or axe blade.

Because Oak, Holly, Willow (or any other kind of wood) was traditionally thought to be invulnerable when unified in a symbiotic relationship with mistletoe, the mistletoe was carefully separated from any tree destined to contribute wood for the Yule log, in order that it would burn. Druids used to harvest “lunar” mistletoe from their solar Oak tree with a sickle made of gold, the precious solar metal, thus preserving its symbiotic magic. Mistletoe renders protection against ill luck, illness, ill will, and curses. It represents the lunar Goddesses gift of life, and the animating spirit, or “Shakti.” It is the quintessential love plant, which is why people kiss beneath sprigs of mistletoe hanging from the lintels, though perhaps (at least, consciously) unaware of the sexual significance of its ancient Tantric roots in lunar/solar tree magic.

Jessica: Winter Solstice is the time of year when the night is longest and the daylight shortest; the turning point, the return of the sun. Also known as Midwinter, Yule marks the heart of winter according to the ancient calendar of the British Isles’ Celts. The date of the Solstice varies from year to year because of the inaccuracy of our measurement of the solar year (365 1/4 days), but generally occurs between the 20th and the 23rd of December.

The winter season from Samhain up to the Solstice is a time of introspection, soul-searching and review, in preparation for the development of one’s plans for the future and this is most appropriate. Many of us experience this as a time of depression, a time of plumbing our own personal Underworld, the place of the buried treasures of the soul, as we wait for the return of the light. In the vernacular of our times, we refer to this syndrome as SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder, a condition visited upon many of us as a result of the shortened daylight hours affecting the production of melatonin, and also of the quality of the light which we do receive. But it is natural for us to contemplate our own mortality at this time when the earth around us seems, for the most part, dormant and unproductive. What is unnatural is the push to keep our own productivity level at our summer standard rather than allow ourselves the down time intrinsic to the season.

With the shortest day and longest night — the Winter Solstice — emergence begins anew and the northern hemisphere of the world has celebrated this occurrence since time out-of-mind with stories and rituals to commemorate the rebirth of the sun. Japan tells us of how Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess, enraged by the actions of her brother, withdrew into the Sky-Rock Cave, drawing its great door closed behind her, thus depriving the Land-of-Reed-Plains and the Land-of-High-Sky of her magnificent light, until the bawdy genius of the shaman Uzume coaxed the curious Amaterasu out once more. This time of her withdrawal became the first winter.

In Sweden, the Solstice heralds the rebirth of the Sun Goddess Lucina with a festival featuring little girls who serve cookies and drinks to celebrants. As participants in the sacred union between earth and the cosmos, the girls wear white wedding dresses and evergreen wreaths lit with candles. The Celts considered the Solstice to be the time of rebirth of the Oak King, who would reign during the summer months, and who would, in turn be defeated by his twin the Holly King, he who presided over season of winter. The Light of the sun waxes (or increases) after the Winter Solstice, portending the advent of summer, and wanes (or decreases) after the Summer Solstice (also called Midsummer), heralding the approach of winter.

The Solstice also signifies the birth of the Goddess’s Divine Child, the solar archetype; her golden son, he who is the darling of the world. The concept of the Divine, or Golden Child is also a metaphor for the sense of wholeness which humanity strives to achieve. The mythologies of many lands feature the Divine Child in a multitude of guises, traditionally said to have been born on the day we now call the 25th day of December: the Greeks called him Apollo, the Persians Mithras, the Egyptians Osiris, the Scandinavians Baldr or Frey, the Anatolians Attis. It is in keeping with this tradition that the Christian Church chose to fix the date of Jesus’ birth at this time also, he being another of the solar archetypes as “light of the world.” The 25th of December was also celebrated by the Romans as the Juvenalia, the Day of Children, and consisted of many of the customs which we observe today, such as the giving of gifts, kissing under the mistletoe and dressing up in one’s best clothes. On this same day, Semites celebrated Astarte, the creator/preserver/destroyer Goddess of the Middle East.

Now, the question is — why the 25th when this date is clearly out of range of the actual Solstice? Enter the calendar, or more specifically, the Roman calendar which, in striving to create a uniform system for keeping dates and time, proved to be quite inaccurate over the long run, causing various celebrations to move out of sync with the seasons. The calendar was further manipulated — resulting in the one we use today, established by Pope Gregorius in 1582. (He added 11 days to the previous Julian calendar.) Trust me on this: calendar-probing gets pretty complicated!

The month we know as December is a traditional time of partying, festivals and celebration. The Romans celebrated Lux Mundi, the “Light of the World,” epithet of the Goddess Liberteria (whom we know as the Statue of Liberty); also the Saturnalia, a week-long festivity, concurrent with the honoring of the Goddess of Plenty, Ops (from whose name we get the word “opulent”). Homage was also paid to the Goddess of Wisdom, Sapientia (also known as Sophia). The Greeks celebrated the feast of Alcyone, (the Halcyon Days) whose emblem is the kingfisher, and Athenian women enacted the Lenaea, the ritualistic death and rebirth of the god Dionysus. This month is also the celebration of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, the southern Mexican celebration of the Mayan Mother Goddess Ix Chel and the Feast of Tonantzin, also known as the Virgin of Guadeloupe or Black Madonna. The French celebrated Asinaria Festa, the Feast of Fools, and the Celtic Druid Alban Arthuan, signifying enlightenment as the light or sun is reborn from the womb of darkness. The Anglo-Saxons observed The Mother Night, a night of prophetic dreaming and the Teutons celebrated Yule.

The word Yule, (which came to be synonymous with Christmas for awhile until the Pagan population decided to reclaim it), has been variously translated as “wheel,” from “jul,” an Old Norse word, and “hweol” from old Saxon; an old Gothic name for the month is “juliess” which means “month of celebrations & partying” and the Dutch word “joel” or “jol” means “loud fun, rambunctious partying.” The tradition of burning the Yule log actually dates back to Persia, and was later practiced by the Indo-Europeans, then the Nordic and Germanic peoples. In Persian mythology, it is the god Ahriman, dark twin to the solar god Ahura Mazda, who gives his human creations the gift of fire in the form of a burning tree, a tree struck by lightning. The original Yule log was once, in fact, a whole tree. Later a huge log was used, ritually burned during the Yule season as a fertility offering. The ashes were saved as a talisman against lightning, and sometimes sprinkled on the fields during the planting season to promote a fruitful harvest. Pieces of the log itself were also kept to be burned during thunderstorms in order to protect the home from being struck by lightning, as well as to kindle the following year’s Yule log.

As the oak tree was known to draw lightning, it was the original “Yule Log” to the Celts, the Greeks and the Germanic peoples. Mistletoe, a parasitic plant that grows on the oak (as well as other trees), was hung in doorways to protect the home from lightning and fire. Mistletoe was also seen symbolically as the fruit of lightning, fire and sexual energy, hence kissing under the mistletoe was to share Frejya’s kiss, (Freya being a major Germanic love Goddess). The Nordic peoples revered the fir (or fire) tree and the ash. Our practice of placing lights on fir trees at Yule commemorates the “burning tree” rituals of our ancestors. Apple trees were also held in high regard; one in every orchard was serenaded and offered cider or wassail, a practice known as wassailing and which we continue today in the form of caroling.

No discussion of the season would be complete without that jolly old man, St. Nick. According to researcher Tony van Renterghem, Santa has his roots in the personages of the Nature gods Herne the Hunter, or Pan, and the Germanic shaman god Wotan (or Odin) who was also known as Nik. In his guise as storm giant, Wotan would ride his mythic white horse across the sky leading the souls of dead warriors on the Hunt. It was wise for people to stay inside, lest they see the Wild Hunt on a stormy night and be swept up in it, never to return (a theme also present in the Faerie myths of the Celts.) In early stories the winter spirit Saint Nick rode a white horse, like Wotan’s, across the sky. With the advent of Christianity into pagan areas, legends of some of the deities became intertwined with legends of “saints.” By absorbing attributes of the local deities and mythic heroes into the iconography of Christianity, the Roman Church was able to establish its own theology. Such was the case with Wotan and “Saint Nicholas”; the demonized Herne/Pan was turned into St. Nick’s Dark Helper, whose task it was to carry his bag and bully children into obedience. (He lives on today in the guise of Santa’s elven helpers.)

The Roman Catholic Saint Nicholas was a composite character from two separate areas — Myra in Asia Minor and Pinora. Patron of children, sailors, merchants, thieves and prostitutes and performer of charitable deeds, he was said, strangely enough, to ride across the skies upon a white horse. However, in 1970 the Vatican Council II formally stated that there was never any Roman Catholic bishop named Nicholas, nor did legends attributed to this “Nicholas” have any Christian origin! The much-evolved image of Santa which found its way to North America originated in Holland and was called Sinterklaas, whose practices incorporated attributes of many pagan deities (such as the Germanic Mother Holle, who brings gifts to obedient children and leaves lumps of coal in the stockings of those who are less than compliant. When Mother Holle shakes her feather pillows, it snows).

Dutch Sinterklaas is pictured as a white-haired and bearded old man dressed in a hat and cloak, carrying a staff or spear and riding upon a white horse, followed by Zwarte Piet, his Dark Helper. Children leave feed for the white horse, usually hay and carrots in their shoes or stockings, and a drink of gin for Sinterklaas himself. In exchange, Sinterklaas brings gifts to “good little girls and boys,” but those who have been naughty are tormented by Zwarte Piet. The Dark Helper chases them into his big bag and threatens to take them to Spain (from whence Sinterklaas is supposed to originate). However, Sinterklaas always saves the day and intervenes on the child’s behalf to save him or her from such a dreadful fate! Sinterklaas was imported to New Amsterdam (now New York) by seventeenth century Dutch settlers. The modern red-and-white-suited image of Santa Claus whom we see in the department stores, sidewalks, parades, etc., during the holiday season was actually an invention of the Coca Cola company in 1931 in its attempt to expand its market to include children. Red and white are the Coke colors; they just happen to be colors of the season (fire and snow) as well. This image was adopted by other advertisers and, by 1932, was spread world-wide.

In summation, the season encompassing Solstice has long been one of celebration by our forbears. Today we continue to participate in excessive behaviors, be they partying or overspending. While many decry the commercialism of the season, perhaps I can just say that our behavior reflects the flavour and circumstances of the times in which we live; it is then up to us to change that which we do not like and to replace those things with activities and rituals which are more meaningful to us. But celebrate we must — it is part of our human story and tradition as dwellers in the northern hemisphere. Celebrations feed the Soul and Yuletide helps us through the winter!

Yvonne: The sun moves into the sign of Capricorn at the Solstice. The relationship of Merlin (Saturn/Cronos or Father Time) and Arthur suggest the idea of the sun/son re-emerging under the tutelage of Saturn/Old Father Time. Around the end of Rowan month (27th day of Rowan) Christmas occurs, where we see familiar survivals of the youthful warrior god of the Roman legionaires: Mithras, the ‘fire in the rock,’ was born on the twenty-fifth of December, in a sacred cave, with animals, and three Magii in attendance. A heraldic star was his heavenly portent. Rowan corresponds to the magical attributes of telepathy, wisdom, intention, communication with the collective unconscious, travel on and communication with the astral plane, and Chiron (Sagittarius). The Gaelic name for Rowan is Luis, the letter is L, the Rune is Laguz, and the Ogham symbol is:

The Celtic lunar month of Alder starts a week after the solstice, endowing the Capricornian concerns of comfort, social order, clan well-being, and abundance. Family wealth is celebrated in Alder moon, in keeping with the character of this tree of ancestry and tradition. The Saturnian rulership of this time-frame is in keeping with both the bonds of traditional form and the mischievousness of holiday hijinks. The Saturnalia was celebrated for the two weeks spanning the winter solstice, in the advent of Capricorn. For the duration of Saturnalia, class roles were reversed and general, festive anarchy reigned. The roles of master and mistress, serf and slave, were switched and a mock-king chosen to preside over the revelry. Aspects of the mock-king survived into the traditions of “mumming” in the character of “The Lord of Misrule,” a “Divine-Fool” figure who governs a topsy-turvy world where everything is reversed. Frazier described it: “The customary restraints of law and morality are thrown aside, when the whole population give themselves up to extravagant mirth and jollility, and when the darker passions find a vent which would never be allowed them in the more staid and sober course of ordinary life.”

Saturn/Capricorn is the astrological ruler of “Law and Order,” rules and regulations, sober responsibility, bonds, obligations and burdens. Saturnian concerns are conventiality, strict conformity, social propriety and decorum. It is inevitable, therefore, that Capricorn contain its own anditote for such weighty concerns, in the form of mischievous deviltry and the humour which is the hidden aspect of Saturn. “The King of the Bean on Twelfth Night,” the mediaeval “Bishop of Fools,” the “Abbot of Unreason” and the Harlequin Jester are folkloric versions of Saturnian Capricorn. The earliest symbol for this sign was the horned sea-beast, a dragonish creature of the order of the Semitic Leviathan, (Phoenician Dagon, Babylonian Oannes, Greek Oceanus, Sumerian Tiamat, Egyptian Tuat) or the Scottish Loch Ness Monster. Later (Greek) systems of symbolization reconstructed the horned sea-beast into the half-goat, half-fish of the modern zodiac.

Jessica:

Holly is the winter dwelling place of the Dryads[i]

“The Holly and the Ivy, when they are both full grown,

Of all the trees that are in the wood, the Holly bears the crown.”

- Old English Carol

When Mother Holle shakes her quilt, it snows. It is she who receives the souls of the dead into the Underworld and sends newborns into the land of the living. She is “keeper of the knowledge of the hidden places.”[ii] Her sacred plant, the Holly, is both a shrub and a tree, featuring thick, spiny evergreen leaves, white flowers in the spring developing into bright red berries which remain through the winter.

Holly is associated with the qualities of defense and protection, loyalty to dependants and the vindication of rights. Frequently planted around the home so as to form a natural fence, she is said to protect from lightning and Witches (but we know better! We’re discussing planting Holly along the roadside of our property. And if you have ever had to make your way through a thicket of Holly, you will understand why she is known as a symbol of defense!) The wood of the Holly was prized in the manufacture of pallisades, battlements, spears and chariot shafts, being very hard, dense and evenly-weighted.

In the Celtic tradition, Holly is the name of the eighth month of the lunar year (May 16-June 12 of the latter Druid calendar). It is sacred to Lugh, Lord of Light, solar heroes such as Llew Llaw Gyffes, the “Long-armed Spearman,” or “Spearman with the Long Shaft,” (bringing to mind the lengthening days leading up to the Summer Solstice) and Tina, a Goidelic thunder-god. The Celts identified Holly with masculine virility and a defiant lifeforce capable of surviving even the devastation of winter. According to legend, the Holly King battles the Oak King, defeating him for dominion over the Winter half of the year, losing to the Oak King with the coming of the Summer. I have always thought it amusing that the months sit adjacent each other!

“Holly” means “holy,” and this sacred tree of the ancient pagan world was adopted into Christianity as a symbol of “sacrifice” (originally meaning “to make whole”), Medieval legend proclaiming that the first Holly sprang from the footsteps of the Christ. The use of Holly as a Yule decoration likely originated with the Roman Saturnalia, a week-long festival honoring Saturn (the Roman equivalent of Greek Chronos, “Father Time”). Since then we have continued to “deck the halls” during the Winter Solstice season.

I have found five plants of the genus Ilex, the most commonly known being “Ilex aquifolium,” also called Mountain Holly, English Holly or European Holly. As a tree she grows to a height of 30 feet; as a shrub up to 15. She has a smooth bark, green branches and shiny dark green leathery leaves. Medicinally the leaves have been used as an astringent, expectorant, diuretic and to treat fever, gout, urinary problems, rheumatism, arthritis and chronic bronchitis.The berries are somewhat toxic BUT DANGEROUS TO SMALL CHILDREN.

White Holly, also called American Holly, (Ilex opaca) is native to the Atlantic coast of North America. She features a smooth, greyish-brown bark and alternate, elliptical, spiny leaves which are dark green in color. Like her cousin aquifolium, she produces white flowers in May and June which develop into the characteristic winter-hardy red berry. Medicinally, she is a diuretic and purgative whose past uses were primarily for assisting the body in the elimination of waste products. Her berries are a mild poison BUT DANGEROUS TO SMALL CHILDREN.

Ilex vomitoria, commonly called Indian black drink, black drink plant, emetic Holly and yaupon Holly, is a small evergreen tree or shrub native to the southern United States. Her bark is whitish-grey, leaves are leathery and elliptic. She produces white flowers which the female develops into red berries. Ceremonially First Nations peoples used her leaves to make a strong brew after toasting them in a clay pot. The drink was used for various purposes, including Ritual purification which involved vomiting. Her medicinal actions are emetic and stimulant, her leaves producing a caffeinated tea if not brewed too strong (i.e., brewed as a regular tea). As with her cousins, her berries are mildly poisonous and DANGEROUS TO SMALL CHILDREN.

Winterberry, black-alder, brook alder, false alder, striped alder and feverbush are alternate names for Ilex verticillata, a deciduous shrub commonly found in swamps of eastern North America and England. Growing to between 6 and 8 feet in height, she features a bluish-grey bark and elliptical or ovate olive green leaves with a downy underside. White flowers blossom in May and June, developing into red berries which remain into the winter months. Medicinally her bark has been used as an astringent, bitter, tonic, to control fever and decocted as a wash for irritated skin. Her berries (POISONOUS IN SUFFICIENTLY LARGE QUANTITES) are cathartic and used to expel worms (mixed with cedar apple). Mixed with goldenseal, her bark has been used in the treatment of dyspepsia.

Ilex paraguariensis is more commonly known to some of us as yerba mate, mate, Paraguay tea or yerba. She is an evergreen shrub (or small tree) native to Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, with alternate, elliptic leaves featuring a blunt tip. She produces small white flowers and reddish berries which grow up to 1/4 inch in diameter. South Americans drink her tea in the same manner as North Americans drink coffee. Mate contains less caffeine than coffee and some teas, especially those from India. (Teas from China also contain less caffeine than Indian tea.)

Medinally she is used as a depurative, diuretic and stimulant and some have found her useful for headaches and migraines. She has also been known to benefit neuralgia and insomnia(!) and to relieve fatigue, stimulating mental and physical energy. It makes a delicious drink and nice alternative for those seeking to break the coffee habit.

I recently learned that an oil is also produced from the Holly tree. My friend Barb, a massage therapist, swears by it. She uses it in her practice because it absorbs well into the skin, is non-greasy, does not stain sheets and rarely do people exhibit any allergic reaction to it. I’ll be checking out Holly oil for my own aromatherapy practice soon.

Holly has always been a special companion to me, not the least of it, I suppose, because I was born in Holly month! Years ago, when I owned a metaphysical shop, a gentleman came in with a beautiful set of Runes, crafted entirely by hand from the wood of a Holly tree. They were wonderful to the touch and smelled slightly medicinal, this due to the residue of a fungus which favors the Holly tree, I was told. The gentleman said he would never make another set because he had found it far too challenging as the wood is so very hard. Needless to say, I bought them immediately and read with them on special occasions.

Within two years of the above incident, I received a phone call from one of my former customers (I had just closed my shop). He brought me, as a gift, a lovely wand made from a Holly branch, cut in a grove which he had happened across during a trip to England. With the wand was the story of acquisition, the tale of a holy Ritual told in a hallowed and reverent manner. I was honoured to receive such a gift!

Of course, no discussion of Holly would be complete without reference to Ivy, symbol of the sacred Self, the wandering soul and the ability thrive under the harshest of conditions. Since antiquity Holly and Ivy have been paired as a representation of the potency of life. To place an Ivy leaf under one’s pillow was said to cause one to dream of one’s true love, a metaphor for one’s inner Masculine or Feminine self. Holly and Ivy paired may also be seen as representative of the Masculine and Feminine Principles, e.g., the protection of the male towards the creative generation of the female (as in child-bearing), or the protective aspects which guard the labyrinthine voyage to the inner self, the journey of self-knowledge.

I have found two varieties of Ivy: one is English Ivy (Ginseng family), the other is Ground Ivy (Mint family). Therapeutically, English Ivy has been used as a poultice for cuts and skin eruptions. SHE IS TOXIC IF TAKEN IN LARGE QUANTITIES AND SO ARE HER BERRIES.

Ground Ivy was used for cough and lung disorders, flatulence and fever. Once doctors employed her as a remedy for “painter’s colic” (lead poisoning). She contains a large amount of Vitamin C and is reputed to cause hallucinations. She has been used to brew a very intoxicating ale and simultaneously was reputed to be a cure for drunkenness. The Maenads of Greek lore were said to chew Ivy leaves to induce erotic and poetry frenzy. Not the first plant which comes to my mind for its therapeutic value!

Please consult with a reputable herbalist before using either Holly or Ivy medicinally!

When we were planning our handfasting, my betrothed decided that we should crown each other after speaking our vows: Holly for him, Ivy for me. My youngest daughter was our “crown-bearer” rather than flower girl. It was wonderful — unique and so in keeping with our spiritual beliefs and ancestral (Celtic) traditions!

YULE MASSAGE OIL

For that Special Someone, here is a massage oil to share. Make sure you get a massage in return!

To 2 oz (30 ml) Holly oil (or any vegetable oil), add 2 drops Frankincense, 1 drop Myrrh, 4 drops cardamon and 3 drops ginger. This is roughly enough for two full-body massages. Add more Holly oil if needed.This is a warm, spicy blend which is good for sore muscles and supportive of the digestive process (so important during this season of over-indulgence!) Frankincense, also associated with the season, encourages deep breathing and meditation, supporting our connection to the Divine.

Decorate your massage area with a Holly and Ivy centrepiece and put a mounted red pillar candle in the middle. (Make certain the leaves clear the candle.)

Joy to you all this Splendid season! Party hardy!

Yvonne: The Old English, “St. Thomas’ Day,” was observed by the tradition of giving money and presents to the poor. The poor were also within their rights to ask for help at this time. This custom was known as “Thomasing and Mumping,” which could be linked to “mumming,” and also contains elements of Saturnalia. A custom of giving presents to children harkens back to the Saturnalia’s “Sigillaria,” or “Feast of Dolls,” when a fair was held and dolls and other toys, mostly made of clay, were given to children. The spirit of giving extended into more recent customs of double rations for horses and cattle at Christmas, and the Norweigan tradition of giving Yule ale to the cattle. In Italy and Spain, grain is scattered on Christmas Eve for the birds.

“Mumming,” meaning the burlesque masque and theatrical buffonery, occured at most, if not all, of the eight festivals of the wheel of the year. The central theme is of the death-rebirth of an Emperor/Fool, or mock-king figure. This is obviously symbolic of the energy sacrificed in every harvest, in terms of human labour and the fertility of the earth, which provides nurturance for the village or collective. “He who dies that we may live” is the sacrificial figure of the Greenman or vegetation god of crops or the Horned God of the Hunt, the forest and the wild. It is the image of the sacrificed corn, or stag, that gives its life to our continued survival, and is reverenced as a vital part of the “sacred round.” At Yule, elements of the more archaic “New Year” are present, that being Samhain or All Hallow’s Eve. The death/rebirth theme eccentuates that vulnerable time for the “ego” when persona “masks” are essential in order to preserve the integrity of the inner self. This is managed by the paradox of appearing in disguise to represent one’s “alter ego.” The veil between life and death is thin at a birthing, and mumming disguises and alleviates this awesome fragility.

Mumming has been defined as, “making diversions in disguise.” In Scotland, Mummers are called “Guisards,” and their offices are most prized at the solar New Year. In Ireland, mummers are an important element of May Day celebrations, and England employs their services at Christmas and Easter. In England, St. Thomas’ Day (the shortest day — Winter’s Solstice) was the proper time to begin carol singing and mumming. Carol singing probably grew out of the pre-Christian traditions of mumming door to door for gifts of food, drink or hospitality. The customary refrain was:

To shorten Winter’s sadness

See where the nymphs with gladness

Disguised all are coming

Right wantonly a-mumming

With a fa-la-la

Traditional songs for mummin/carolling include:

Christmas is a ‘coming and the goose is getting fat

Please put a penny in the old man’s hat

If you haven’t got a penny then a ha’penny will do

If you haven’t got a ha’penny then God bless you

or:

A hole in my stocking,

A hole in my shoe,

Please can you spare me

A copper or two

If you haven’t got a copper

A ha’penny will do

If you haven’t got a ha’penny

God Bless you

or, yet again:

The road is very dirty

My shoes are very clean,

I’ve got a little pocket

To put a penny in.

If you haven’t got a penny,

A ha’penny will do,

If you haven’t got a ha’penny,

A mince pie will do,

If you haven’t got a mince pie,

A drink of wine will do,

If you haven’t got a drink of wine,

God bless you.

These carols capture the spirit of “Thomasing and Mumping,” and of mumming traditions throughout Europeanized cultures. The license of the poor to ask for and receive hospitality, and for neighbours of all classes to participate, whether wealthy or poor, reflects roots in the sympathetic abundance magic of generous gift-giving and the role reversals of the Saturnalia. During mumming, it was customary for girls to dress as boys, and men as women, and then visit neighbours houses where they would sing, dance, and act the clown. The practice of “hodening” is performed in some parts of Kent and Yorkshire. A carnivalesque head of a horse is constructed with jaws that can be made to snap by a leverage mechanism and piece of string. This is mounted on a pole and carried around the town by a party of men and boys ringing handbells and singing songs, for which they are given “meat, drink, or money.” In Kent, these contributions are put through the horse’s mouth. The traditional verse was sung, as follows:

Three jolly hodening boys

Lately come to town

For apples or for money

We search the country roun’

In Wales, a horse skull, dressed with ribbons, was traditionally carried around by a man under a white sheet. The jaws are made to bite anyone they can catch, and only release their victim upon forfeiture of payment or gift. The horse skull is called “Mari Llwyd,” revealing roots of immense antiquity. The name means, roughly, “Underworld Light of the Sea,” and refers to an entire complex of archaic, European sea-horse Goddesses, including “Europa,” Herself, in one of Her aspects. Epona was a Celtic counterpart. Other forms include Horse-Headed Demeter (a later form of Rhea as Mother Sea), Modron (the Horse Mother of Mabon, the Divine Son), The Indo-Aryan “Mari” (the Ocean-Mother of the Messianic Saviour-Hero in the form of a white horse), and Rhiannon. The “Nacht Mare,” or “Night Mare” of German tribes, and the North English “Pooka” reflect the fairy forms of the ghostly horse head. A more recent, German version is Schimmel, meaning “Grey of Fusty One.” This figure is also represented by a horse’s head affixed to a pole, sometimes carried by a man on all fours, covered with a white cloth. Schimmel is also sometimes carried by three or four lads, one of whom is the rider, the “Schimmel Reiter.” These characters will sometimes be accompanied by a bear figure — a small boy dressed in straw and chained to a pole. This is a motif of great age for it is a direct reference to the totemic, bear ancestor of Paleolithic, Germanic tribes. Also in some parts of Germany, the head of a buck or a goat is used, called the “Klapperbuck.” This is a similar figure to the “Julesbuck” of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, who butts all the children he meets in wandering around town.

The twenty-third of December was the last day of Saturnalia, and was also the sacred day of “Acca Larentis,” in honour of the Goddess, Laurentia, and also to the Lares, the earth and fire, household, hearth Goddesses. Laurentia guards the light, or “souls,” of the dead, and also the vital, if dormant, seed-corn. The potential of the Sun’s return is that of light reborn from the death, conservatorship, and composting of the old.

Scandinavians observed the custom of the “Yule Boar.” This is a loaf baked in the shape of a boar, incorporating the last sheaf of corn (grain) from the previous summer’s harvest. The boar loaf remains on the feast table through Yule and is often kept until the following seed-sowing time. Then, part is mixed with the seed grain, part is given to the ploughman to eat, part is given to the plough horse or oxen to eat, all in expectation of a bountiful harvest. These customs mirror those to do with the Yule log, whereby ashes from the magical fire of the Yule log are mixed with grain or strewn over the fields during the twelve nights of Yule Festival, in order to promote crop growth. Sometimes the log is only partially burned and then kept to be replaced in the fire during thunder storms as a protection against lightening in that the phenomenon originated in the elemental spirit or godform that dwelt in the log. Vestiges of such origins survived in Normandy until the eighteenth century in the custom of drawing a figure of the god on the Log with chalk, before burning. This would have appeared to “release” the fire, or the fire God, who is ‘indwelling’ or ‘lives’ within the wood.

The Yule Log is sometimes burned partially and the remainder tied up with the last sheaf of the harvest, the magical energy of it being expected to imbue the corn or grain with its nourishing light. The new Log is often lit with a fragment of the previous year’s log, and any ashes or cinders that remain are a prophylactic against fire. Frazier believed this to be a survival of the ancient Celtic “Eternal Flame,” or perpetual torch like that maintained at the Temple (and, later the Abbey) of Brigid in Ireland, a counterpart of the Vestas or Lares. In some parts of France, the unburnt remains of the Log are used to make the wedge of the plough, the light-energy of which, when cutting into the earth, will cause the seeds to thrive. In some areas of England, the Yule Log had to be taken from an Ash tree and was called the Ashen Faggot. This reflected the Norse and Saxon reverence for Yggdrasil, the World Tree upon which Odin sacrificed his rational thinking process for Enlightenment. Elsewhere The Log was of Oak or Holly, and in Scotland it was commonly stripped Birch. Traditionally, the Log must have been selected the previous Candlemas.

In France the Log is the shape given the traditional Christmas cake, the “Buche de Noel,” and the actual Log is from a fruit tree. There can be no doubt that the Yule Log is a symbol of the fertilizing principle, whether it be the fertility of the Hearth Goddess or that of the Light, or Fire, God. The ignitor of Cerridwen’s fiery womb, her “cookpot” or cauldron is the phallic impregnator, Lugh. As the Yule Log, he is the light/fire energy in wood, crops and the generation of spring growth. It is the magical, quickening properties of the Log which are emphasized in every folk tradition of which it is still a part, as in the Serbo-Croatian traditional Log-lighting incantation, “Let the corn grow well and the beasts be healthy.” Young girls of the parish were encouraged to sit on the unlit Log to ensure their fertility in some areas of Europe and Britain. The origins of such practices are to be found in the very ancient European rites of the Winter’s Solstice, when an enormous, flaming log, cut from a sacred tree and representing the god, was carried out from a dark cave-mouth, and the Divine Sun (“Son”) declared reborn.

Hunting the wren is an enigmatic Yule custom, the origins of which are dim. The wren is associated with Holly and Gorse bushes, for it is here that she makes her nest. “Hunting the Wren” would once have been a form of fertility magic employing symbolic elements similar to “The Holly and the Ivy,” but which has been degraded in more recent, misogynistic times to an act of brutality against the wren. It was common for the wren to be killed at the consummation of the “hunt” in many areas, not so long ago. The body of the dead bird would then be hidden in a “wren-bush” of Holly or Gorse, dressed with ribbons and coloured papers, and carried about the town by a gang of boys, dressed as girls, or with blackened faces to prevent identification. They would beg with a hat or can, “Give us a penny to bury the wren,” and sing a song that goes as follows:

The wren, the wren, the king of all birds,

On Stephen’s day was caught in the furze

We chased her up, we chased her down

Till one of our little boys knocked her down

We drowned her in a barrel of beer

A Happy Christmas and a merry New Year.

Up with the kettles and down with the pan,

A penny or twopence to bury the wren.

“Hunting the Wren” is a form of mumming, and takes place early in the morning of St. Stephen’s Day, commonly known as Boxing Day. Another version of the begging song goes as follows:

The wren, the wren, the king of all birds

St. Stephen’s Day he was caught in the furze

Although he is little his family is great

I pray you good lady, give us a treat

My bird would speak if it had but a tongue

And a penny or two would do it no wrong

Sing Holly, sing Ivy, sing Ivy, sing Holly,

A drop just to drink would drown melancholy

And if you draw it of the best

I hope to heaven your soul may rest

But if you draw it of the small

It won’t agree with the boys at all.

You’ll notice a slightly threatening tone about the “Wren” songs. This may be due to the role of the wren in symbolising the outgoing monarch, or Oak King, and possibly supplies the meaning of the line, “His family is great.” Associated with the Oak tree, the wren was a totemic bird of the Druids. The word “Druid” comes from Aryanized Celts’ “Duir,” meaning “door,” and also the name for Oak. The Oak was considered the “door” of the year as it lay across the festival of Beltane, the mid-point of the lunar year which began at Samhain, or Hallow’s Eve. The wren is therefore associated by Druids with the Oak, and the dead wren in the holly-bush nest is symbolic of the death of the Oak King at the hands of the Holly King at Midsummer. Druids believed the Oak King ruled the first part of the year, and that the Holly King wrested the latter part of the year from him and ruled until Samhain. Witches believe that the “God” rules the first, or “dark” half, and that the Goddess rules the second, or “light” half.

The later, patriarchal customs of both druids and Christians seem to see the pre-eminence of one influence as depending on the death of the previous influence, so the summer’s solar-Oak-wren might be seen to be bested by the winter’s solar-Holly bush at Midwinter. In this scenario, the players have become male, and the game has become violent — no longer playfully sexual, as with the Holly King and Ivy Girl.

End Notes

1. Farrars, Eight Sabbats for Witches, p. 140

2. According to the Druid, the Priestly caste of the Celtic peoples, dryads or guardian tree spirits, took up residence in the Holly tree during the winter months. “Dryads” were originally tree priestesses whose Mystery teachings evolved into what later became Druidism.

3 . The Priestess of Holly,” The Witch’s Book of Days, Jean Kozocari, Yvonne Owens, Jessica North, Beach Holme Publishers, 1994, p. 119