Yule's Night

The longest night has come, and yet there is light in the sky. This is the time of the greatest dark, the inkiest depths, and in the long-ago past when ancestors would feel the stark possibility of never seeing spring again. We must raise our inner light and spark the lamps in honour of the child of the sun who will be born again at this time.

It was hard for her to stir herself that night, for she wrote by the fireside with her Book of Shadows. But the wild ones longed for her to witness the night, and their call sang to her soul. She left the Yule log burning merrily, and she remembered that this was the time to recharge her energy by allowing the night to be her guide. And as a reward, she was shown the secret places of the wild ones.

She looked all about her, and once or twice she thought she saw Bone Mother walking the land, but her presence was faint, like an echo. She felt the new sun rising, and within its light, she sensed the presence of the great old god Lugh. All that has fallen will rise again. Birth shall come, the colder times will leave, and life will spring forth, hungry for the sun. But for now, she leaves her footsteps in the snow, while at home, the fire burns bright, ready for her to return. And, to her home, she will return once she has completed her task and summoned the child of the sun.

Midwinter solstice. Times of difficulty and introversion. The hope of a spring that will soon come. A glimmer of optimism shimmers on the horizon.

A sense that winter will never end. A fear that there is only the cold, the darkness, and an endless stillness. Struggling to let hope, light, and optimism stir within.