Winter Solstice Or Yule Cozy Chat

Jenny has been a witch for almost 3 decades, here in this cozy chat, she explains how anyone can tune into the energy of the Winter Solstice as part of the Witch's Wheel of the Year. Yule is one of eight sabbats celebrated by witches throughout the year. Learn about the energy of the season, how to decorate your altar, and receive some journaling questions to reflect upon for the season.

Transcript

Welcome to this cozy chat about the winter solstice,

Also known as Yule.

I'm Jenny Siebel.

I have been a practicing witch for almost three decades and in this chat we are going to focus on Yule or winter solstice and a little bit about the background,

A little bit about the energy,

And then a little bit about how to celebrate.

So anybody can celebrate the winter solstice.

You don't have to be a witch.

You can just be witchy or just open to tuning in to the season of winter.

And so I would like you to allow yourself to be cozy.

If you want to pour yourself a warm drink or wrap yourself in a blanket and just close your eyes and listen.

So the winter solstice is the longest night of the year and so as we get closer and closer to the solstice you'll notice it gets darker sooner and you may wake up for your day in the dark and the darkness is really coming in and really beckoning or calling for rest,

Right?

We have this want to do less,

To clear our calendars,

To maybe say no a little more than we normally would.

We want to be home more.

We want to be wrapped in blankets and cozy and be in beds and be by fires.

We would like warm drinks and candles and that's really the invitation of winter,

Right?

Winter is a time of reflection.

It's a time of rest and quiet and we know this because we watch what happens to Mother Earth.

A lot of the trees lose their leaves to conserve energy.

You see animals scurrying about and getting ready for either a hibernation or stockpiling to survive the cold nights.

And so winter is really about that.

It's about a time to let ourselves be.

It's a much more feminine time,

The feminine being like the time of rest and reception and darkness and quiet,

Right?

It's that dark quiet energy and so as we get closer and closer to Yule or winter solstice,

You may find yourself almost like waning in energy and also may be feeling reflective.

It's very common to feel reflective not only because we get towards the end of the calendar year but the darkness invites it.

Darkness invites reflection and the quiet outside and being home more and being with your thoughts more.

It invites this,

You know,

Quiet reflection and we also may feel cold or invited to fix things,

Right?

We're suddenly home more in the house and we're looking at little things we let go,

A squeaky door or a couple marks on the wall we need to paint over and we may feel like we want to mend and we want to fix and that could be actual things or it could be ourselves,

Right?

We may feel a call to meditate more,

To practice journaling or gratitude journaling.

We feel like mending and maybe even mending relationships with other people.

It's just this call to do those things and another thing it may call to mind is thinking of your own inner child,

Right?

Going back to a holiday or winter times as a child or when you felt innocent and so you may feel a call to play more,

You know,

We are inside more so we want to maybe make really great playlists or take up a craft or a hobby,

Start doing model airplanes again like we did as a kid or try watercoloring or adult coloring books and that's good.

We want to invite that sense of play.

We're outside less and,

You know,

Doing less adventuring and traveling for the most part for most people and so what do we want to do when we come inside?

We can read,

We can do puzzles,

But we can also create art,

We can do crafts and if you're trying to think,

You know,

What can I do to fill my own cup in my spare time?

Think back to what you enjoyed as a child and how can you do something similar now?

And so that's winter,

Right?

Winter's coming in but for witches the winter solstice is the call to the return to light.

It's the longest day of the year or longest night of the year,

But after that the light begins to return.

It starts to get brighter and brighter and brighter and so we as witches are trying to call back that light and so if you do an altar or decoration or ritual,

You want to put candles,

You want to put symbols of fire and the sunshine.

A really wonderful easy symbol is dried citrus.

It's a beautiful representation of the sun and the light.

We often will light candles and let them go all night on the winter solstice,

But we want to do it safely and so I think it's great to do battery-operated and have those going and bringing in the lights or just using your Christmas lights if you already have them up and having those just be on all night to welcome back the sunshine and welcome back the light.

If you work with plants and flowers,

You can bring in evergreens to remind yourself that we are all really eternal.

Our souls are eternal and that we will cycle back to the light again and we want to bring in maybe other brighter colors to bring us joy and the traditional,

You know,

Christmas colors of red and green in witchcraft,

They are the traditional colors of the divine feminine and the divine masculine or the goddess and God or the lady and Lord.

So the divine masculine is associated with red.

That's God color,

That's God energy and then the divine feminine is represented by green and that's the goddess energy and what goes with the red is the fire and the animal world,

The animals like that are out and about at this time.

You can see stags with their big,

You know,

Antlers and things like that and then the green represents the earth,

The mother earth,

The verdant lush earth,

Right,

That is also sleeping for the most part and then some great things,

Some great senses to bring in,

Scents to alive in your own senses.

You could do beautiful simmer pots,

Which is a pot of water low on the stove with citrus and cinnamon and clove and any other smells you associate with this time.

Rosemary,

You can put pieces of evergreen and you know things that we talk about doing spells or rituals.

For winter is a great time to do shadow work,

To go within,

To take that deep dive and reflect.

It's also a great time for inner child healing,

For relationship mending as mentioned before and for setting boundaries,

Right,

To really review what went on in the previous year and how you would like things to go differently in the next year.

And so when we talk about winter solstice,

Yule,

It's really a lot of what we know or associate with Christmas,

Right,

We have the evergreen trees and the mistletoe and the holly,

We have the lights,

We have all of those things can really help you tune into the magic of the season.

And I'd like to leave you with a few little journal questions to help you reflect and go through the winter solstice night and time period.

And these can be done as journals or you can use Oracle or tarot cards if you prefer.

But a great question is what lessons did you learn from this year?

And this isn't a time to be harsh or rude or mean to yourself.

This is a time to commend yourself for lessons learned,

Right?

This is a time of reflection in a positive way.

Another question,

Where do you need more rest in your life?

This is the time of year,

Fall started it where we want to start resting,

Right Mother Earth is resting.

So we take our cue from her and the animals if they're resting,

We should be building in more rest.

Where do you need more boundaries?

Right?

Where do you need to let go of some things or say no?

Where's your energy leaking?

Where are you giving too much energy?

All those questions.

What needs mending?

So we talked about that this could be literal or metaphorical,

Right?

This could be a pair of pants that need a patch,

It could be a relationship where you haven't really been the best active listener,

You haven't really been giving that person your real attention.

And lastly,

In what relationships can you practice deep listening more?

Though Earth is so quiet at this time.

I mean,

Really,

If you've ever been outside during a snowfall,

It is so quiet.

And so we really are taking our cues from the Mother Earth.

And we are asked to be quiet and listen more.

Listen to our inner guidance,

Our intuition,

Listen to our loved ones,

Listen to the world around us and really inviting in this tuning in of quiet reflection.

And so where can you practice deep listening more and it could be with yourself.

So I hope you have a beautiful solstice.

I hope you are able to invite in the quiet and reflection,

But also hold the light to know that the light does return,

That spring will come once again.

And in the meantime,

You're resting and you're readying yourself for those busier times in the future.

Blessed Be.