Yule Ritual-Full-Winter Solstice

{The Winter Solstice}

Ritual Preparation

Gather the necessary tools
Select two candles for your alter, one in a shade of red, the other a shade of green.
Select four additional candles for the elemental quarters. You can maintain the color scheme if you wish, or select a color that represents the energy of that quarter. For instance, you might chose a light shade of blue to represent the Water essence of the West quarter and a fiery red to represent the Fire essence of the South quarter. Or find a set of white or off white candles to complete the Yule time ritual colors.
Choose your favorite ceremonial broom. You can often find a straw ornamental broom at local craft shows/stores.
Choose your favorite serving trays or dishes. You can find some inexpensive brass or silver serving trays and goblets at a variety of gift stores.
Set aside your ceremonial cakes (apple muffins are a perfect example) and wine on the serving trays. A special decanter to hold the wine. If you don't partake of wine, use your favorite grape juice or apple cider.
Select a bell, you might want to add a decorative ribbon or wrap a vine of silk poinsettia leaves and flowers around the handle to coincide with the colors of the festival.
Choose a gift for honoring the God/Goddess on this harvest day. One of our favorite methods of gift giving on this Fire festival is to burn a few incense. We select a few stalks of the herbs we collected from the Lughnasadh harvest, like sage and cedar.
A decorative pillow or rug to lie or sit on for your meditation.

Prepare ritual space
Clean the area, not just energy wise but dust and vacuum your space. If your space is outside, you might clean any fallen branches, weeds or even clear any animal indications that may have been deposited in the area. The most important part is to clear and cleanse the space.

Prepare body
It's just as important to prepare yourself as it is your space. On the day of your ceremony take a shower or bubble bath. Make sure your ritual cloths (whether a robe or just jeans and a t-shirt) are clean. Take time to have a meditation to align your energies, prepare your energies for the spiritual work ahead and open your chakra centers.

Open Circle
Finding the compass points, directing the ritual and speaking the blessings is usually performed by a High Priest or Priestess within a coven. If you are a solitary witch, then YOU are the High Priest or Priestess. For our example we will simply refer to the director of ceremonies as the Priest.

The Priest should find compass North, where the ritual will begin with calling in the quarters starting with the North. Set your circle according to the directions. If you are conducting the ceremony alone, you might chose to use a rope of natural fibers to outline your ceremonial circle. If you're performing the ceremony in a coven, mark the location of the quarters so everyone will know where to stand when the circle is drawn. The Priest should guide everyone through the steps for setting up a Door Between the Worlds by raising the vibration of the group and/or area.

Close your eyes and imagine a divine white light emerging from the solar plexus of each person and then raising up toward a center point over the circle. Many call this establishing a "cone of power". Imagine this light spinning clockwise rising your energies and awareness. If your a solitary witch, you will imagine the light beginning at your solar plexus and then moving out to fully encompass your ritual space. Each Quarter Master will then be directed to call the Watchtowers or Elemental Quarters it's usually the choice of the Priest, but each person should call upon the same force. Some witches call Angels, Spirit Guides, or just the elements. It's up to you or your coven. Just as which direction to start with is up the individuals. Many witches begin with the North, where others begin with the east.

Your prayer to summon the directions can be stated in a variety of ways. From old English to a modern statement. Here's an example:


Facing North the 1st QuarterMaster states:
"To the Holly King and the Oak Lord, the Watchtowers of the North and the elements of Earth, we call upon your wisdom, summon your energy and love to witness this celebration of renewal, blessings of Yule and union of spirit."


Light the Northern candle and ring the bell once.


If you are a solitary, turn to the East, or if in a coven the 2nd QuarterMaster faces East and states:
"To the Maiden Goddess of purity and virtue, the Watchtowers of the East and the elements of Air, we call upon your wisdom and summon your energy for clear communications to spirit, divine knowledge and understanding."


Light the Eastern candle and ring the bell once.


Turn to the South and state:
"To the Mother Goddess of nurturing and compassion, the Watchtowers of the South and the elements of Fire, we call upon your wisdom and summon your energy for purification of mind/body/spirit and the coming new year. We ask for your divine protection over all things that we bring forth for rebirth."


Light the Southern candle and ring the bell once.


Turn to the West and state:
"To the Crone Goddess of wisdom and knowledge, the Watchtowers of the West and the elements of Water, we call upon your energy and summon your presence for knowledge and understanding of old lessons and deeds now past."


Light the Western candle and ring the bell once.


Invocation to Spirit
The Priest should guide everyone through the steps to:

Call your personal Spirit Guide and solicit their assistance during the ritual. Your personal guide can assist you to maintain focus and concentration during the ritual as well as, aid in your tasks within the circle.

You might call upon them like this:
"(State your guides' name), I call upon your guidance and love to assist me during this spiritual celebration. To help me maintain my focus, energy and alignment for divine purpose and work."


Light a candle for your guide and ring the bell twice.


Call your deity and solicit their assistance aligning yourself with the deity. In most covens the High Priest/Priestess will summon the deity. In other covens each person will call upon their chosen deity and align their energies (this is the method we prefer most. It empowers each individual instead of setting one person above the rest). Which ever you prefer light a candle for each deity you summon upon the alter and ring the bell three times for each deity called.

"I believe in the spiritual existence of myself as a perfect image of (deitys' name). In this reflection that is my physical embodiment, I align myself and my faith in the supreme guidance of my soul with the ancient powers and wisdom of (state the deitys' name once more)."


State Your Purpose
The Priest should state the intent of the gathering. For a Sabbat you'll state your purpose of honoring, as well as, the God and Goddess of the season. You'll continue by blessing the cakes and wine for the ceremony. For Yule you might say something like:
"I/we have come to honor the new birth of the Holly King, the passing gifts of wisdom acquired from lessons of the old year that were guided by the Oak King. We welcome and honor the Maiden as she prepares to be the Mother of the new sun, bringing in the new light of the world and great wisdom of the Crown goddess."


Honor The God/Goddess
The Priest should preside over the steps to honor and dedicate the items for the festival.

Perform manual and visionary tasks by pulling in images of the Holly and Oak Kings. You should state your honor and gratitude as well, something like this:
"To the Oak King we offer our thanks and gratitude for this year now past; we give homage and thanks for the light you provided during our year of lessons and learning. We wish you a pleasant journey on your road to spirit.
To the Holly King we give homage to your birth and rising of your spiritual light. We honor your coming gifts and thank you for bringing new light onto our path."


Light the candle you choose to represent the Yule festival and ring the bell seven times.


Dedicate offerings.
Whether you're conducting a ritual of honor or for work, you should present an offering that is commiserate with the event. We like to make an offering of energy through a fragrant bouquet. We light the smudge stick we prepared and allow the sage and cedar to blaze for a few moments. We say part of our prayer, then blow out the flames and allow the incense to continue to smolder. Then we complete the prayer and place the incense in a special holder, we like to use a brass bowl shaped in the fashion of a miniature cauldron.

For the Triple Goddess, you might select some seed you harvested during Lughnasadh and set aside for this festival. The seed will represent all the virtues of the Triple Goddess, from virginity for the Maiden, to growth and abundance for the Mother and finally the harvest for the Crone. {We try to allow at least 2-3 of our plants go to seed before the harvest just for this purpose.}

For the prayer itself, we say something like this:

Hold the smudge stick in your left hand and light it with the right. Then hold up the burning stick to the Holly King with both hands.

"We offer this gift as a symbol of our love and thanks to the Oak King; We honor the Lord and his rays of light that brought forth our lessons and moments of learning for the year now past."


Lower the smudge and blow out the flames, allow the stick to smolder. Raise the next smudge stick as before and light it. Hold it high and state:

"We share the fragrance of this offering with the Holly King and welcome his birth into the world."


Lower the smudge and blow out the flames, set the stick in the bowl and retrieve a bowl of seed, holding it up to the Triple Goddess:

"We give thanks for the purity of mind and spirit of the Maiden, we honor the Mother who brings new life to us through the birth of the new sun and Holly King, and we give homage to the Crone who provides us with the wisdom to see the past lessons and bring growth into the new year."


Replace the seeds on the alter and ring the bell nine times.


For Honoring
Partake of cakes and wine that you have set upon a platter.
(Some covens like to serve the cakes upon small dishes, while others prefer to hold the cakes in their hand. Which ever you chose, the cakes should start on a platter for the dedication. The wine starts in a special decanter and is poured into ceremonial goblets. Once again different covens have different rituals. Some provide individual cups, much like silver shot glasses, while others insist each witch bring their own goblet.)

To dedicate your cakes and wine, you might say something like:
Hold the plate of cakes up using both hands and say:

"On this night of Yule we come to honor the Kings of time and light. We offer these cakes made of apple and wheat {or whatever} and this wine made of grape {again whatever wine you've chosen} as our gifts to Gods."


Ring the festival bell three times, then walk up to each person in the circle and allow them to take a cake from the tray with the right hand. Make sure there's one or two cakes left for the two Kings. When everyone has received a cake, each individual should hold it in both hands and raise it up to the Gods; then say:

"With the partaking of this cake I take into my body the essence of Yule, the passing of the Oak King and the rebirth of the Holly King. I align my spirit and soul with the physical well being of my body and mind."


Each person eats their cake.


With your right hand grasp the neck of the decanter. With your left hand hold your chalice and pour the wine. When everyone has their share of wine, each person raises their goblet to both the Gods and the Triple Goddess; say something like this:

"We ask the Oak King and Crone Goddess to help us let go of our past deeds, mistakes, negative thoughts and actions. We ask the Holly King, the Maiden and the Mother to accept this wine as our offering of honor and pledge for positive thought and action for the birth of this new year."


Each person drinks half their wine, then holds the goblet up again.

"With the partaking of this wine I take into my body the essence of the birth of spirit and sun, I align my soul with the balance and rejoining of our spiritual family."

Some people like to pour the remaining wine from the goblets into a large cauldron. As a symbolistic gesture that we are all one and all part of the divine. Some covens go a step farther and light the wine allowing it evaporate into the ethers through the flames. And others add to the ceremony and pour the wine onto the ground, making a circle and pentagram with the liquid.

The cakes are then crumbled carefully over the pentagram to nurture the earth in honor of the two Kings.

Meditation
The Priest should guide everyone through a brief meditation. No matter what your ceremony is for, we believe you should add a moment of meditation to the event. In this altered state a witch can contact the God/Goddess and engage them in a private ritual.

You might ask for clarity of vision or better understanding of the messages they provided you through the lessons past. In a coven setting, you may want to preform a guided meditation in which you could say something like this:

"As we honor the divine, our spirits and souls within this festival of birth we forgive ourselves for past indiscretions, negative thoughts and deeds. We ask our guides and divine forces to assist us in understanding the lessons that crossed our path, so that we might learn and move forward on our chosen path. We ask for help to letting go of the past, the angers, the hurt and the guilt that have and are now holding us back from moving forward on our journey. We ask that our steps carry us forward, into forgiveness of ourselves, those we caused harm to and to those who caused harm to us. We give thanks for this time of rebirth; for the guidance and understanding that have been brought to us through these divine lessons. We pledge our mind, body and action to living in the new light and in the presence of positive growth and spirit."

Conclude your meditation by closing your chakra centers.

Thank the Deities and Spirits
The Priest should guide everyone through a statement of thanks.
This is one of the more important steps to any ritual. You spent a good deal of time asking for their assistance, calling the quarters, your personal spirit guide and the deities, so be polite and spend time thanking them as well. Here's a simple example:

Stand facing the alter, hold your hands together as if you are praying, only open the top slightly at the thumbs as if you're making a bowl with your hands. Then state:

"I, (state your magik name), thank the God, Goddess, Divine Spirits and the WatchTowers of the Four Corners for watching over this ceremony of Yule. By the light and love of All that Is, we honor the blessings we have received on this day. Many blessings to each and all as we walk along the path of enlighentment forever."

Close the Circle
The Priest should guide everyone through a process of closing the circle.
Mentally and verbally close the circle. You don't want to leave the gateway between worlds open for several reasons. You could be inviting forces you don't necessarily want around you. You can also be maintaining a state of heightened perception. While this is great for ceremonies and ritual work, it isn't necessarily good for daily activities. If you find yourself saying "I feel out of it today", then you need to close your senses and get grounded. This is another reason for closing the circle.


Imagine the "cone of power" you established at the beginning of the ritual, slowly coming down and dissipating back within the solar plexus of each person. Move to the center of the circle, holding a ceremonial sword or knife. Starting in the North, turn counter-clockwise and state:

"We give thanks to the God and Goddess once more. We honor each other in this state of divine experiences. And we close this circle that binds us to spirit, and can never be broken."


Snuff out the candles (don't blow them out). (Some people like to leave the two ritual candles burning during the night until they burn out by themselves. Then, if they last, you use these two on the next day of the festival as you continue our honor of Yule.)


We prepare a special fall meal and invite family or friends to join us. These two candles are placed as the center-piece of the table. If the original candles have extinguished before the meal, we will light another candle from the flame of the original; allowing all candles to burn as long as they can.

Physically close the circle by exiting over the broom. Pick up the broom and sweep away any energy that may have been left over.

Clean your working area and prepare your offerings, gifts and candles for burial. If there are any cakes left over from the ritual, set them outside for the animals and spirit folk. Pour out any left over wine on the ground. Once again some people like to pour out the drink in the shape of a pentacle. Wash all dishes and clean all tools.

Ritual Is Concluded
Finally, some people like to share their experiences during the ritual. Some even carry the festival on and hold a party to share in some of the fruits, vegetables and breads they labored over. For the solitary, now is a good time to record the events and make notes about what you felt, what you did and didn't do that you might like to do next time.