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Yuletide, Saturnalia and Closing Out 2025
Hello everyone, I hope you’re all enjoying your holiday season, and that it continues to go well for you. For many, this time of year is difficult for a multitude of reasons, including myself. While I won’t get into why, I do want to offer some closing thoughts for those who have had a less-than-spectacular 2025. For many, 2025 is the final shedding of the skin (it is the year of the Snake, after all), and that skin shedding process can be painful. Loss, death, change, and even dramatic life altering events are likely to have happened. Whatever 2025 brought you, I wish you resolution, peace, and joy as the…
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The Modern Merlin’s Corner-December 2024: Saturnalia, Yule and Winter Celebrations
IO Saturnalia! I hope my readers are having a joyful and blessed Saturnalia and start of the holiday season. Before getting into the subject of this month’s column, I want to take a moment to address some changes coming in 2025 to this column. Rest assured, I will still be contributing this column to our publication, but I will be re-defining it in some ways, excluding certain subject areas, as they will be touched on by other columns I will be writing, and add in other subject areas into this one. This column will still remain fairly eclectic, but I will be expanding it to include more on the subjects…
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GoodGod!
Meet the Gods: Saturn Merry meet. In case you don’t have enough holiday activities in December, you can add the 17th to your calendar and observe Saturnalia, one of the most popular ancient Roman festivals. It occurred around the time of Yule. Though originally a one-day event that ignored the distinction between masters and slaves, the activities came to fill an entire week, making for much merry-making and lechery. Saturn was the son of Caelus, Father Sky, and Terra, Mother Earth. (In Greek mythology they were Cronus, Uranus, and Gaia, respectively.) To prevent a prophecy from coming true – that a son would dethrone him –…
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Yule Correspondences
Lesser Sabbat – Winter Solstice Begins Wednesday, December 21, 2022 and ends on Sunday, January 1, 2023 Other Names: Jul (“wheel”, Old Norse), Saturnalia (Rome ~December 17 & 18), Yuletide (Teutonic), Midwinter, Fionn’s Day, Alban huan, Christmas (Christian~December 25), Xmas, Festival of Sol, Solar/Secular/Pagan New Year Animals/Mythical beings: yule goat (nordic), reindeer stag, squirrels, yule cat, Sacred White Buffalo, Kallikantzaroi-ugly chaos monsters(greek), trolls, phoenix, yule elf, jule gnome, squirrels, wren/robin Gemstones: cat’s eye, ruby, diamond, garnet, bloodstone Incense/Oils: bayberry, cedar, ginger, cinnamon, pine, rosemary, frankincense, myrrh, nutmeg, wintergreen, saffron Colors: gold, silver, red, green, white Tools,Symbols, & Decorations: bayberry candles, evergreens, holly, mistletoe, poinsettia,mistletoe, lights, gifts, Yule log,…
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Celebrating the Old Ways in New Times
Celebrating the Old Ways in New Times for December 2019 (Photo by Osman Rana on Unsplash) Bright Blessings! The Winter Holidays are upon us, and it seems there are as many different celebrations as there are different kinds of people circle in our Pagan Communities. No matter what you celebrate, though, it is undeniable that Christmas somehow influences you at this time of year. Whether you are like me and get sick to death of it all very quickly, and decry the fact it lasts so long, or you are somebody who enjoys it all, it is very much a part of our culture. One thing that strikes me is…
