Today is the 3rd day of Yule! I hope everyone has been having a wonderful holiday season so far! This morning I greeted the sun with the sun salutation again. With each passing day, the sun grows stronger and stays in the sky for just a little longer. Greeting the sun with an easy and light yoga sequence is a great healthy way to celebrate this time of year and welcome in each new day.
I also finished off the last of my Yule log and spent some time talking to friends and family who live afar. Unfortunately, since I have recently moved, I have very few people that I know living in the city I now reside in. But that is ok because everyone I love is just a phone call away!
Today I also redid my altar. It was feeling a little unseasonable, so I decided to spruce it up a bit! There are an infinite number of ways to decorate your altar! The Winter season adds a few extra inspirational pieces that make a great addition. You can use ribbon, seasonal incense, fake snow, garlands, pieces of your Yule log, tiny Yule trees, extra candles in Winter colors, pine cones and pine branches, holly, ivy, mistletoe, dried fruits, spices such as cinnamon or star anise, poinsettias, reindeer statues, ornaments, strings of lights, crystals, and even skulls. You can find tons of the items either outside or in your local craft store. The pine came from my Yule tree when I was trimming it and the juniper that she is holding came from one of my hikes. She has a dream jar with my dreams for the new year written down and a jar of wishes courtesy a dandelion I found once. There is also a happiness jar I made a while back behind Hekate. I left Hekate an offering stone wishing her a happy winter solstice on the 21st. On the first day of Yule, I left an offering of a garlic bulb. I haven’t talked too much about my sea witchiness but as you can tell, I decorate with shells and a blue pedestal cloth in honor of the ocean. I will get more in depth with water witching and Hekate in a future post!
I did partake of some of the holiday sales and I found 2 new ornaments for my tree! I have been watching them on Amazon for a while and I found them both together for cheaper AND 70% off. I felt super lucky today!
And of course we lit the 3rd candle on my Yule wreath!
To finish off the night, I would like to tell you two of my favorite stories of the season. These both are especially appropriate for Christmas Eve: The Christmas Spider and The Legend of the Yule Cat:
The legend of the Christmas spider began long ago in Germany. A mother was cleaning up for Christmas. Spiders fled up the attic to escape the broom. On Christmas Eve, the spiders slowly came down for a peek. “Oh, what a beautiful tree!” In excitement, they scurried up and out along each branch. They were filled with happiness as they climbed amongst the glittering beauty. But alas! By the time they were done, the tree was shrouded in their dusty grey web. When Santa came with gifts for the children and saw the tree covered with spider webs, he smiled because he saw how happy the spiders were, but knew how heartbroken the mother would be if she saw it covered in dusty webs. So he turned the webs to strands of silver and the tree was even more beautiful than before. And that is the story of tinsel on trees and why every tree should have a Christmas spider in its branches.
The Yule Cat, or Jólakötturinn, is a huge and vicious cat who lurks about the snowy countryside during Christmas time (Yule) and eats people who have not received any new clothes to wear before Christmas Eve. Sheep husbandry occupied an important place in the farm life of Icelanders, after the autumn shearing of sheep, all members of the family worked hard to process wool. As a rule, the work was completed just in time for Christmas time, and those who worked hard received a new thing to wear (and to sell). To encourage children to work, parents scared them with stories of the Yule Cat.
I am happy to say that not only did I receive clothing for Yule, I received the most amazing pair of socks with a picture of my own cat’s grumpy face on them! Although his face doesn’t look as grumpy in the original picture, I guess it doesn’t translate well to knit-wear! Either way, I got socks and dodged the Yule Cat this year!
From our altar to yours, with love from the sea,
