\nPost-Yule<\/strong><\/p>\nMeditation. I think post-holiday is the best time to do meditation. You\u2019ve already experienced the holiday and can properly reflect on it. Just envision yourself walking into a snowy wooded area. Make it a long walk, deeper and deeper into the woods. When you finally get to the center you are in a clearing. A deer approaches you and give you a message. Leave a (mental) gift and walk back. Obviously the meditation would take a lot longer than it did for me to write those basic ideas down. Stretch it out.<\/p>\n
Yule Log.<\/strong> Make sure you keep the last little bit of your yule log (or last bit of candles from fake yule log) for next year.<\/p>\nAll right that\u2019s it for this month, I hope you\u2019ve found something helpful. As always, if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please email me at callista83@cogeco.ca. I always welcome comments here to of course; it\u2019s great to know my article is being read. Happy Yule!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Greetings. Hope everyone\u2019s November is going well. This month I\u2019d like to focus on the upcoming Yule season, which I\u2019m sure you are all excited about. This month\u2019s article will be a bit short since this season is so busy, I\u2019m sure you don\u2019t have time to read a long article. What are your plans for Yule? Do you have set traditions that you do every year? Do you do a ritual? Have you just not gotten around to celebrating yet? If you\u2019re anything like me, the Yule season is so busy you don\u2019t do nearly as much as you\u2019d like to, to celebrate. Don\u2019t feel that you have to do any or all of the ideas here. Do what works best for your family. I\u2019m just going to provide some ideas. Pre-Yule Read Yule Books. I will never stop suggesting that people read. I think it\u2019s important and what better way to explain Yule to your kids than to read them books. There aren\u2019t many books available that were written for a Pagan child but there are books on the Winter Solstice that are appropriate. Here are a few: The Winter Solstice by Ellen Jackson The Shortest Day: Celebrating the Winter Solstice by Wendy Pfeffer \u00a0 The Return of the Light: Twelve Tales from Around the World by Carolyn McVickar Edwards Use an Advent Calendar. Okay so it won\u2019t exactly be an advent calendar as Advent means the coming of Christ but it will be a countdown calendar. It doesn\u2019t have to be like a calendar either. What we like to do is cut strips of paper the width of a ruler out of green and red paper. We write down on each one, one thing we\u2019d like to do in December such as read a holiday book, go for a winter walk, bake cookies, listen to holiday music etc\u2026. Then we make a chain out of them, and hang it up. Each day we take apart one chain and do what it says. It\u2019s a fun way to countdown. Decorate. This is an easy one. Most Christmas decorations will work for Yule and if you don\u2019t like the selection, you can always make something. Decorate a wreath with fake berries, holly and red and green balls and ribbon. Yule Ritual. Ritual is not for everyone but if it\u2019s for you, do a simple Yule ritual. It doesn\u2019t have to be extravagant. Put up a circle, have light a yule log (if you don\u2019t have a fireplace, you can drill holes in a small log and insert candles to burn) and do a meditiation. If you are including your child(ren) omit the meditation and sing some Yule carols. (http:\/\/willow.creative-interweb.com\/library\/songbook\/carols\/) Dinner. You can either make it a small dinner for immediate family or hold a dinner party, whatever is within your ability. It doesn\u2019t have to be a turkey dinner. (http:\/\/www.unc.edu\/~reddeer\/recipe\/rec_yule.html) Post-Yule Meditation. I think post-holiday is the best time to do meditation. You\u2019ve already experienced the holiday and can properly reflect on it. Just envision yourself walking into a snowy wooded area. Make it a long walk, deeper and deeper into the woods. When you finally get to the center you are in a clearing. A deer approaches you and give you a message. Leave a (mental) gift and walk back. Obviously the meditation would take a lot longer than it did for me to write those basic ideas down. Stretch it out. Yule Log. Make sure you keep the last little bit of your yule log (or last bit of candles from fake yule log) for next year. All right that\u2019s it for this month, I hope you\u2019ve found something helpful. As always, if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please email me at callista83@cogeco.ca. I always welcome comments here to of course; it\u2019s great to know my article is being read. Happy Yule!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}