Yule - 21st / 22nd December (Ritual)

Preparation:
My cauldron is placed in the middle of the altar and it's filled with acorns, pinecones and some pine needles, and since my cauldron is big enought I like to add in a with candle (in a candle holder, for security reasons). Since, it's almost impossible to get some Mistletoe and Holy around here, I'll have to use this ones. The stones I'll be using are: Sunstone, Amber, Carnelian and Garnet.
My altar will be dressed in red and green, so the Goddess candle will be green and the God candle, red. I'll probly use a with cloth for the altar itself.

Ritual:
Casting the Circle
Invocation of the God/dess;
Callin' of the Elements;
Cakes and Wine, consacrated;

Personally, I like to work within the circle, either if it's a clay statue of the God, or just a poem.
For this ocasion I find "growing" spells and wishes to be the best, we have the turning of the year and the sun is comming back, the nights are becoming shorter, so this is a good time to work magick if you're lookin' for a change, strenght, a job or a new life.
I like to lit my altar candles in silence and work at the candle light. I leave the candle on the cauldron to burn after midnight, inviting the God to join me and to remind myself that the sun is returning.

Release the circle.
Offerings are now placed at the offering bowl, both to the elements and the Gods.

Yule - 21st / 22nd December

Well, since I'll decided to do some posts on sabbats, lets start with the upcoming one: Yule.

Yule is the pagan "christmas", even if it's older than the it's christian friend. It marks the death and rebirth of the Sun-God, - it also marks the vanquishing of the holly king, God of the waning Year, by the Oak king, God of the Waxing year. - The Goddess, is at her Death-In-Life aspect, it is time for her to give birth to the Child of Promise, the Son-lover, that will bring warmth to her Kingdom.




I like to cook for others so this is a good excuse for me to do it.
Since, the Goddess ir pregnant of the God and his birth will bring back the sun and longer days, I like to cook some spicy food and drink a good cup of warm wine with spices.
The sun reminds me of the heat and the energy, so what better than spices to make me feel full of evergy?



Well, let's start with the wine with spices, I like to buy a good red wine for this but therefore, you'll be altering it, so it's up to you if you feel like speanding some money on that bottle of wine.

You'll need:
1 cloth (don't expect to be using it after this tho)
1 Bottle of wine;
1 cup of water;
1 cup of your favorite sugar (or Honey)

(The spices are at your taste there is no specific mesure)
1 Stick of cinnamon
1 Table Spoon of Star Anisse
1 pinch of Nutmeg
1 pinch of Black Pepper

(Optional:)
1 - choped red apple
1 - sliced Orange (or lemon)

First, I like to cook the spices alittle bit in a little pan, not to much, just until they start popin'.
I'm used in doin' this in a clay pot but a steel one should be fine, so let the wine and the water warmth for a little before adding the spices and when you add them, let them cook with the wine for about 10minutes, before adding the sugar (or honey). Mix this all up, until the sugar (or honey) is completly dissolved.
At this time, I like to add the fresh fruits but if you're not adding them, just skip this part.
Let it cool for a few minutes before serving.

This is served warm and be careful and remember that this is still a pretty strong alchoolic brew, because of the mixture of wine and sugar (this doesn't happen with honey, or at least, is not that strong) so don't drink until you drop, be responsable.



Chicken soup for Yule:
1 chicken breast
1 table spoon of garlic pure (or 3 cloves of mached garlic)
1 choped onion
1 shoped tomatoe
1 sliced carrot
2 chicken soup cubes
1 cup of rinsed rice
2 table spoons of olive oil
Fresh Coriander at taste

In a pot, warm your olive oil and add in the garlic pure (or cloves) and let them cook until they are golden brown, once it's ready, add the chicken and it fry for for a little.
It's time to add the onion, the tomatoe, the fresh Coriander and the chicken soup cubes and let it simmer until the mixture become a little thicker. Now add the carrot and the rice, covering all the above ingredients with boiling water, let it cook until all the ingridients are soft and juicy. Serve it still warm.

The Sabbats

Sabbats are seasonal festivals which mark key points in the natural year, because paganism is a Nature-Oriented Religion and Craft, witches celebrate and get in tune with the natural aspects of the seasons, either their agricultural, pastoral, botanical, solar, lunar, wildlife, planetary, psychic, the tides and cycles. Bealtaine, Lughnasadh, Samhain and Imbolg are the "greater Sabbats", sometimes called "Fire Festivals", and the Equinoxes and Solstices are the "Lesser Sabbats", not because they are less important in any way, but because they mark the turning of the seasons.


Dates are not the same for South hemisphere and North hemisphere, so I'll add the dates for both hemispheres:

Samhain(Halloween, All Hallows Eve)
SH: 1st May
NH- 31st October

Yule (Winter Solstice)
SH:21st/22nd June
NH:21st/22nd December

Imbolg (Candlemas, Imbolc)
SH: 1st August
NH: 2nd February

Ostara (Spring Equinox)
SH: 20th September
NH: 20st/21st March

Beltane (Bealtaine, May Eve)
SH: 31st October
NH: 1st May

Litha (Midsummer, Summer Solstice)
SH: 21st December
NH: 20st/21st July

Lughnasadh (Lammas)
SH: 2nd February
NH: 1st August

Mabon (Autumn Equinox)
SH: 20th March
NH: 20st/21st September




*
SH - South Hemisphere
NH - North Hemisphere
*

Note that dates for Equinoxes or Solstices may vary, while Greater Sabbats tend to involve both the "eve" and the following "day".

Yule - Simple recipes

Okay, everyone as promised:

My yule cake:

(You can also add come fruits or nuts, if you like it.)
1 Cup of honey
1 Cup of butter
1 Cup of sugar
5 eggs
2 Cups of your favorite flour
3 table spoons of iogurt
1 pintch of Basil
1 tea spoon of baking powder
2 shoped (horizontaly) apples

Preheat oven to 350 deg, before stating the cake, because that will only take a few minutes. You'll need two bowls for this.

In one of the bowls, mix the dry ingredients (flour, the baking powder, the basil and the sugar). The wet ingridients (honey, butter, iogurt and eggs) are to be beaten' up really smooth before adding to the dry ingridients bowl.
Mix them until the mixture start to form some bubbles (that means you'll goin' to have a pretty fluffly cake).

Grease the cake pan, you'll be working with, with butter, sprinkling it with sugar and some cinnamon powder, after that cover the botton of the pan with the shoped apples. Pour the cake mixture on top of the apples and let it cook for about 20-30minutes, if possible, check the cake every 10min, using a tooth pick (once it goes out clean, your cake is done!)



Yule cheap and yummy oil:
5 Table spoons of sweet almond oil
3 Anisse stars
5 Cloves
1 Cinnamon stick
1 sunstone (optional)

Personally, I like to add some Pepper, because it always makes me feel energetic like the sun.

Warm the oil in a pan but not to much, you don't wan't it to boil or burn, adding the Anisse stars, Cloves and Cinnamon Stick. Once the ingridients are all infused, set it aside and let it cool.

I like to add the Sunstone, you can add any stone you want, at this point and let it infuse the oil. I tend to keep this in a jar and let it be outside during the yule's day mourning and use it during the ritual at night.



Love,
M.