Are you on holiday overload? Here’s a wrap up of some of my favorite holiday stories. The national yule log blazes no more Who knew we had a National Yule Log? For the last fifty years a gigantic bonfire has lit up the southern end of President’s Park during the Christmas season, but The Washington [...]
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Filed under: Christmas, Wheel of the Year, Yule
Though the temperature is well below freezing in this video, -18 degrees C., there’s really no way of knowing what season we’re seeing. There is no snow, so I think this may actually be a spring ceremony–but we can pretend it’s Yule. According to Wikipedia, the Mari El Republic is “located in the eastern part [...]
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Filed under: Friday Video, Ostara, Pagan Values, Wheel of the Year, Yule
Winter Solstice falls on December 22 this year. Bring back the sun! So here’s Jethro Tull with a rare animated promo for their “Ring Out The Solstice Bells” single. (1976)
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Filed under: Friday Video, Wheel of the Year, Yule
Forget the Grinch. Everybody this year seems to be talking Krampus. Apparently he is the Alpine–Swiss/Austrian–version of the Dutch Black Peter or Knecht Ruprecht (Ruprecht being a nickname for the Devil in Germany), who accompanied St Nicholas and left birch switches or lumps of coal for bad children. According to this weekend’s story on NPR [...]
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Filed under: Wheel of the Year, Yule
Good King Wenceslas looked out On the feast of Stephen When the snow lay round about Deep and crisp and even. Brightly shone the moon that night Though the frost was cruel When a poor man came in sight Gath’ring winter fuel. The feast of Stephen: that’s December 26th. Today… The Christmas season is almost [...]
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Filed under: Christians, Christmas, Wheel of the Year, Yule
Another Solstice, another Yule. It’s the shortest day and the longest night of the year. It’s a full moon with a lunar eclipse and with Mercury retrograde (appearing to move backwards through the zodiac). Yule is a time for setting aside the habits and situations we have outgrown, and for establishing new goals. The full [...]
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Filed under: Wheel of the Year, Yule
I got up this morning to watch on TV the 123rd Santa Claus Parade from cold, mostly abandoned downtown Peoria. I know I am getting old because every year the parade seems smaller and shabbier than the parades I remember as a kid. And yet, for the last ten years I’ve craved a Pagan float [...]
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Filed under: Christmas, Wheel of the Year, Wicca, Yule
Here it is, the longest night of what has been a long, increasingly dark year for most people. I bought myself a little garnet pinkie ring, and figured that was the extent of my Yule celebration this year. Until this weekend, I had not played any of my Christmas CD’s or DVD’s or gone hunting [...]
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Filed under: Blessing, Bookshelf, Wheel of the Year, Yule
CIPS got together in Germantown Hills to celebrate Yule Sunday night. It was bitterly cold and the streets and sidewalks were treacherous, but Pagans came from Peoria, Bartonville, Canton, Eureka, and all the way from Arthur! The Holly King and the Oak King fought their twice-annual dual to great acclaim. We feasted on goose and [...]
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Filed under: CIPS, Wheel of the Year, Yule
Brilliant British satirist, Terry Pratchett, creator of the skewed Discworld, announced this week that he has early onset of Alzheimer’s Disease. This is a blow to Pratchett fans. Terry is only 59 and should have decades of bestsellers ahead of him. Our science fiction/fantasy book club at the Peoria Public Library discussed Pratchett’s Hogfather on [...]