Witches Haven

YULE

Another new year is waiting to greet us. That is what Yule is, you know - the New Year. Samhain is not the Pagan New Year - Yule holds that honour.

We are celebrating the Solstice, the return of the sun and renewal. This is a time of hope and good cheer, a time to lay out a blueprint to help us create something new, something on which we can build in our lives.

This Yule, this beginning will be difficult for many. The recession has hit and hit hard. There's a lesson to be learned here though; too many of us misplaced our priorities. "Stuff" and the ability to buy "Stuff" became our goal. The loss of much of this "Stuff" or the inability to purchase said "Stuff" will be impossible for a lot of people. We can use this to build a new start, a new way of looking at life or we can focus on the negative and spend 2010 in the dark.

This new year can be an opportunity for us to re-discover the importance of family and friends, of sharing time together in simple pleasures. Learn the skills of self-reliance our ancestors lived by, not so very long ago. The materialism following World War II is unprecidented. The plastic era had begun, the time of disposable everything; conspicuous consumption reigned supreme.

Then our planet began to fight back. Our economy reinforced the message we were being handed. Change is mandatory, not optional.

Look at what we have created in the past 50 some odd years - everything is throw away - from every day products like toothpaste tubes, shampoo and microwaves to the very heart of our society, family, children and marriage. Something not working the way it should? Simply throw it away and get a new one. Who has time to waste fixing the old when the new one is sitting there, just waiting to be picked up.

Why not create a blueprint for 2010 that includes being more responsible as a human being, as a wife, husband, mother, father and/or friend? Stop, listen to what is going on around you and work from there.

Have your ethics, your values taken a hit? Have you, perhaps, lowered your own standards of behaviour or expected behaviour in the face of peer pressure? That little voice that resides inside your brain matter, has it been silenced or muzzled lest someone think your aren't all that and a bag of chips?

The Mantra from the sixties, "If It Feels Good, Do It" has proven to be wrong. What feels good, is not necessarily good for us. In fact, it is damn near killing everything around us.

Start small, learn to re-use items, recycle them. Pay attention to your community's recycling program and abide by it. If you can walk, bike or take a bus somewhere as opposed to jumping in your car? Do it. Examine your home, see if there isn't someway that you can use the energy more efficiently.

Look at what you are buying as foodstuff - pre-cooked and over packaged. Fire off an e-mail, voicing your concern regarding too much packaging to manufacturers. Takes less time to do that than it does to open the darn stuff.

Cooking from scratch can take less time and less energy that firing up the oven, tossing in some pre-cooked, preservative ridden horror of a meal. Steam your vegetables - takes less time, greatly increases the taste and texture of the veggies. Fresh fruit instead of Sara Lee. Actual fresh meat from a reliable butcher instead of frozen, styrofoamed meat like substances.

But most important, vow and promise to take more time with family and friends. Open the lines of communication, learn how to talk to each other. Learn how to listen, not only to what is being said but maybe what is not being said. Turn off the television, the movie, the WII and talk. Play a game of cards or some board game, socialize with actual human beings - in the same room, and not at the other end of a keyboard.

Bring the basics back into your life, home, health and hearth. Uncomplicate yourself. Uncomplicate your life and re-assess your goals, your values and re-discover what your true journey is, in this life. The lessons are being shown to you but are you seeing them? Are you really listening?

Celebrate this new year by re-discovering yourself and the beauty that's been hiding away.


Blessed and Happy Yule to all. Allow me to share a little of what we have used in the past to guide us in the face of a new year, with new challenges.

May 2010 bring you all you need and less of what you want.

Dark Lillith

The Asatru have Nine Virtues to which they must adhere and this year should see us all abiding by the Virtues of our brothers. We all, all of us gathered here for Solstice, have the Norse blood coursing through our veins. Be it through Ireland, Wales or Scotland, the heritage of the Norse blood call is strong and should never be ignored.

We have a duty in this coming year to abide by the Norse song in our veins. The Nine Virtues represent all that we need to bind around us in the coming year.

Courage - Bravery or boldness, the ability to stand and fight in the face of any threat.

Truth - Honesty and the ability to standby what is true.

HonourReputation, renown. Your personal worth as well as that of your family's.

Fidelity - Troth or loyalty to those around you be that family, friends, or fellowship.

Discipline – Self-control, the ability to be in command of oneself, at all times, in all circumstances.

Hospitality - The ability to make a guest feel welcome.

Industriousness - The ability to work hard in maintaining one's self and family.

Self Reliance -ability to rely on one's self without the aid of others.

Perseverance - Steadfastness or the refusal to give up even when things are rough.

All of these virtues will see us through; they will allow us to walk in dignity, with pride while those around us fall. We are Warriors. We are the Truth.

Now is the time to request of the Goddess and the God to walk with us during the coming year. To aid us to live according to these virtues. To understand what it means to have courage, to act in truth, always with honour and fidelity. Live with discipline and extend our hand in hospitality. As with our ancestors, ask that our Deities give us the strength and determination to remain industrious and self-reliant. To have the perseverance to see these 9 virtues through to their end. In promising to adhere to these virtues, we honour our Gods and our Goddess. We embody the Morrighan and the God, Cernunnos. We do not have the right to dishonour them by being less than these virtues demand of us.

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