Yule: Winter Solstice - Dec 21st/22nd
The origin of the word Yule, has several suggested origins from the Old English word, geõla, the Old Norse word jõl, a pagan festival
celebrated at the winter solstice, or the Anglo-Saxon word for the festival of the Winter Solstice, 'Iul' meaning 'wheel'. In old almanacs
Yule was represented by the symbol of a wheel, conveying the idea of the year turning like a wheel, The Great Wheel of the Zodiac,
The Wheel of Life. The spokes of the wheel, were the old festivals of the year, the solstices and equinoxes.
The winter solstice, the rebirth of the Sun, is an important turning point, as it marks the shortest day, when the hours of daylight are
at their least. It also the start of the increase in the hours of daylight, until the Summer Solstice, when darkness becomes ascendant
once more. Yule is deeply rooted in the cycle of the year, it is the seed time of year, the longest night and the shortest day, where the
Goddess once again becomes the Great Mother and gives birth to the new Sun King.
In a poetic sense it is on this the longest night of the winter, 'the dark night of our souls', that there springs the new spark of hope,
the Sacred Fire, the Light of the World, the Coel Coeth.