Yule Log: Soulful Holiday Rituals
By: Sarah Isabel Moe
Tags: Solstice, Christmas, Ritual, Winter, Yule

In every corner of the globe, during wintertime there is a holiday. A holy day (or many days) cultivating and celebrating the light during the coldest, darkest nights. And WOW, when we are open to facing the darkness and transmuting it into light, winter is quite a wild ride in these times! From the scorched Earth in California’s burnt zones, to the millions of lives (1.7 million as of today)lost to COVID this year, to the hundreds of thousands of local businesses closed and jobs lost, to the stress and anxiety in the collective field due to oppressive systemic racism- Holy Mother of God bless us every one! The patriarchal distortions of the before times (pre-covid) run by the industrial growth mindset are being shaken off.

One bye one people are waking up to what it is we truly long for in this life, and a light is sparked in the dark fertile womb of winter. What do we have to let go of in order to create the life of our dreams? What can we burn away from 2020 (past lives, old stories, baggage of any sort) to make space for the spark of new light, for our souls longing to realize?

This is the Yule log ritual for winter solstice.

It is so simple and profound. If you are reading this, I’m asking you to join our family in lighting a yule log this solstice. Simply collect evergreens, rosemary, holly, mistletoe, or any other herbs and plants that offer themselves to you on a nature walk. Bring the plants into your palms as you bring to mind, or say out loud, what you wish to burn away from this year. Blow your breath into the sprigs 3 times as you tie them onto an oak log (or other firewood you have) using yarn or string. Everyone in the family can decorate the log together, tying all the sprigs onto the oak log. Ask from your heart, PLEASE GREAT CREATOR OF ALL, upon the lighting of the yule log fire, hear our prayer for the greater good of all beings, may we release, exhale, and let go of all that no longer serves the divine love and true prosperity that exists within our hearts. AND SO IT IS!

Example of a Yule log

Light the yule log in a fire place and see (imagine) yourselves in the flame, with so much unconditional love and mercy as you burn away the shadows and release all your suffering (blame, shame, anger, grief, loss, judgement, jealousy, bitterness, fear, trauma). Hold silence for a bit as you watch the flames and feel the strength and love of the ancestors from the four directions joining your circle. Whence the spirit moves you, share a song, dance or story by the sacred fire, feeling joy and light fill the room as the darkness burns away. There is so much to burn away this year, indeed it seems an entire era is burning away. Let it. Hold vigil and pray sending love through your heart to that of Mother Earth (or feast as you wish) throughout the holy silent night (Sunday December 20, 2020) knowing that the rebirth of the sun, the light conception is happening at the spark of sunrise. With enough love pulsating around the globe, we can awaken a new age, creating a harmonic song for all beings on Earth.

Hallelujah! Heaven and Nature sing! On the Earth’s calendar, indeed the new year shall be conceived this winter solstice (December 21st) as the sun moves into Capricorn, AND, we are blessed with the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn becoming one, like the Star of Bethlehem later that morning.

Go out and greet the first rays of sunrise December 21, 2020 and receive the light codes of love! Offer your yule log ashes to the earth and rejoice that it is done, it is done, IT IS DONE!

When our psyches are in alignment with the Earth, the dream seeds of the new year (what you are dreaming for your year ahead) are formed in our hearts and planted in our wombs on Solstice. The energy in the Earth’s poles shift from descending to ascending, ever so gently as the light begins to grow again, while the plants send their energy down into the roots for winter, we too cozy into the hearths of our homes, not to start sprouting up and out until the next turn of the wheel (Imbolc — February 2). Our inner work from the past year is done, fully composted, and we turn to our ascension, by dreaming our dreams for the new year.

Yule is a time to dream, imagine and feel what is being born from your heart in the year to come.

Sit for a moment and take 3 deep belly breaths, then feel into your heart’s deepest desires. Feel into your future self and what she/he/they is calling forth. What does it feel like to be her? As you align with your divine truth that you are becoming, feeling it as here and now, send this frequency (dream seed) down into your womb and know the seed is planted for the year ahead. Give thanks and say SO MOTE IT BE!

Thank you for joining me in ritual for this holiest of holy nights.