Merry meet Everyone ,

The Solstice competition for December and early January for a copy of Scott Cunningham's Wicca for the Solitary Practitioner. has been won by Tigergnome.

A huge well done to them.

Didn't win? No worries, there's a new competition for Jan/Feb.

Brightest Blessings,

Pino

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The mouse, he has no house.......

This is also my first time entering a Magicka School Contest!

I have generally celebrated the holiday with my family on Christmas. Its a wonderful time to get together with my family whom I do not see often, and I really enjoy seeing the smiles on the children's faces as they open their presents.

Because my family are strictly Catholic I do not get to celebrate with them on the Solstice, (although I did invite them to my house on the 22nd this year). But since Christmas carries many Pagan themes, I find enjoyment in those things, and subtly share my knowledge with those around me. I find love in their celebration, so it does not bother me to partake in the standard Christmas dinner and gift giving.

Anyways, as for the Solstice.

I am pretty much alone in my beliefs right now. I have been reading about Wicca for 10 years now. I have carried it as a way of life, but have recently committed Wicca as my religion.

To celebrate the Solstice this year, I have invited all my family and friends on the 22nd to come over and partake in a Winter Solstice Potluck Dinner. I made a cute invitation for it with a picture of a winter landscape in the background. It's not very elaborate since it is my first time making an invitation, but I am very happy with it.

I wanted to make something healthy, so I am, for the first time, making Minestrone soup from scratch. I am very excited about it. On the 16th, me and 2 other freinds are getting together to make cookies for our friends and for the potluck. We are all going to pick a different cookie to make. I am also going to make fruit smoothies. The smoothies are part of my symbolization and reminder of the summer days that we all look forward to return.

As for decorations. We have a "Charlie Brown" style evergreen tree on our coffee table. No ornaments. Just white lights. I will most likely make a Yule Log as a center piece for the dinner table.

The people I am inviting are all different. I have Jewish friends, Christian Friends, Atheists, Buddhist and what I believe to be closet Wiccans. I find it a very beautiful thing that we can all co-exist together, and gather in the name of celebration, friendship, family and love.

For entertainment purposes, I was planning on showing movies, although that will not be the focal point of the gathering. I have turntables and invited my friends to come and play music.

There will be eating, drinking and dancing.

I have made my own "holiday" cards. Made of 2 sheets of construction paper, winter themed stickers, and white yarn. I am also passing out pieces of mistletoe to everyone with a card included stating the folk lore of the mistletoe and a picture of a kiss mark on it.

My friends are very open people. I am very blessed.

On my own, I will be performing my first official Yule ritual, which is taken from the book Yule, A Celebration of Light & Warmth by Dorothy Morrison. I would like to do this on the 9th which is the New Moon.

I will also begin making candles to hand out as presents to my closest Christian, Jewish, and Buddhist family and freinds. And as the wax melts they will discover a charm inside for which they can make their own necklaces out of. I was also considering making Yule incense in little red bags as gifts, including the charcoal.

I am still in my planning phase, so I'm sure more celebration ides will pop up. And I will be celebrating the Solstice all week! I am an excellent hostess. Always bringing people togehter to maintain freindships and create new ones!

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"At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet." ~ Plato

What a wonderful idea!! I love it! Where did you find it? I wanna play it too!

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"At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet." ~ Plato

I figured I would give this comepetition a go!

I am still very new to Wicca, and do not know much about the Soltices and how to properly celebrate them. Most likely I will light my candles on my altar and do what I call 'sharing the meal' with the God and Goddess by cooking up a nice meal and placing it on my altar. And then pouring a glass of wine. Then offer up the meal and drink and eat and drink the meal before the God and Goddess, hopefully with thier blessings!

You can now see why such a book would be of such large help to me, LOL!

Namarie and Blessed Be,
Theophano

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That which does not kill me makes me stronger!

It'll be Litha for me, being in the Southern Hemisphere. On the day of the solstice, I will probably spend some time thinking about some of the strongest points ive had in life (Especially spiritually) over the last year, and focus on that, and then also think about what needs to wane - just as the suns intensity will wane from the point after the solstice. I shall meditate on all of this, and, perhaps (because i cant actually see the point in just getting a permit for myself) visualise the energies of a litha bonfire and see it balancing things for me both the 'yin/positive/light' and 'yang/dark/negative' (think: negative/positive like the ends of a battery, not actually literally 'good' and 'bad'.)

Here is the meditation which i tried out, written by myself:

For Litha I wrote a special Bonfire meditation, and found it to work quite well. Written directly from my Book of Shadows, try if you like.

Bonfire Meditation
Find a comfortable place, and sit/lye comfortably. Breathe in for seven, hold four, breathe out for seven. Repeat this for a few minutes. As you enter your meditative state, focus on blackness, and then out of this darkness see yourself somewhere by a river.
Suddenly an intense bonfire springs up. It brings warmth and, become part of this bonfire - reflect on what it is - your progression on this path, understand ofcourse that this is not a path of glory to be taken - of it is, let it wane now. There is bounty - feel that bounty vitalise you and bring a sense of continued growth to come. Let those things which hinder wane into the ashes of the bonfire and use the sacred water of the river to suddenly blot the fire out. See those unwanted things running down the stream, visualising the intent that someone needs them, and they're going where they're wanted. Come to normal consciousness, record your feelings and impressions.

------

I hope it isn't too confusing, it was ofcourse written by me - for me, and so may only make proper sense to me. Hope it helps some of you in some way, if you likeit.


Blessed Be!

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Ponder on this.

Konnichi Wa to All:

I already have such a Book called "Wicca For Life" by Raymond Buckland, so I dont have to enter this Contest.

Gambatte to all others who decided to enter.

I have recently gotten involved with a Group called the Vanoouver Reclaiming. I got hold of that Organizations Information when I went to see a Paganistic Fold Group called Chalice and Blade back in about early October or so.

I will be going to their Winter Solstice Ritual that will be held on December 23rd at the Kitsilano Neighbourhood House. I have to be there by 6:30pm and the Ritual will start at 7:00pm. There organization has a Website at:
www.vancouverreclaiming.org
The information on the Ritual is on their Message Board.

I am also going to be doing my regular Winter Solstice Volunteer Gig of making Hot Chocolate for the Preformance Works Venue of the Winter Solstice Secret Lanterns Procession in the False Creek Area of Vancouver.

For further information, click on:
www.secretlantern.org

So Good Luck to whoever does Win this Fine Book. And remember to keep Yule as Festive as you can!!!

KNR - 3X3

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Mankind may have Evolved
Enough Intelligence to Split the Atom
But the Average Ordinary Human
Has the Same Average Ordinary Amount of Wisdom
To Choose Right from Wrong
As the Average Ordinary Baboon

Merry Meet Everyone,

This is the first time that I am entering a contest for the Magicka School and I am still learning how to get around. I am not sure what you really want to hear, but this is what I have to say. I am somewhat new to Wicca. I know some about it and it has been a long time since I have practiced it. But I am back because I feel that it is helping me to be me. I don’t feel lost when I practice Wicca, like my childhood religion did. So what I am really trying to say is that Yule is new to me and I have no one it celebrate it. I mean I have family but they don’t understand the path I have chosen. The only one who understood me was my little sister. But I lost her due to an auto accident in February. My wife really doesn’t understand me now. Without my sister I feel much alone. So I really don’t know what to do. I haven’t celebrated anything since she has passed way. But, I want do to something for her. I want to make her something from my heart but I am having a hard time trying to figure that out. I do know that whatever I do I will do it for her.

Blessed Be.

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Vishnu Aegir Dagon

"Death is the dark backing a mirror needs if we are to see anything."

Be Well
&
Blessed Be

Well, what I will be doing this solstace is spending yule with my Fiance and his family. It's my first experience celebrating yule, so I am really excited to do so. This is also My first Celebration with his family, so it's very important to me. I really hope that I get this book because it will start my wiccan library, and it will give me an opportunity to read more on wicca.

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Love and Light,
Samantha
Stillwater OK

This is my first Yule as a Pagan. I spent last weekend at a Yule Ball. I will be spending most of my time with family. I will also be trying to learn more about Solstice and rituals that go along with it.

Tonight will be my first Yule celebration and because I am so excited about it I thought that I would share it for this months competition.

It is going to be for just me and my family. First tonight I am going to prepare a special dinner and The children and I are going to make Solistice cookies...which are just sugar cookies in the shape of suns and moons. The dinner I think is going to be some type of roast and winter vegtables. Then once the dinner and the cookies are done. We are going to put the finishing touches on our yule tree and I will tell stories of why we decorate trees at Yule.

Then I am going to fix the hot chocolate and the lights will go out for story time. I am going to tell the story of the holly and oak king. I am also going to tell a childrens story that I am writing myself about the coming back of the sun and explaining the wheel of the year to my children. It is a very simple story about the death and rebirth of the Sun God. How He gives himself to the earth in the fall to make the crops ready for harvest and then dies and is reborn on the Winter Solistice.

My Kids have been so bombarded with Christmas stuff and christian stuff I wanted to give them a different perspective on what this time of year means. Also during story time we will eat our cookies and drink our hot chocolate...leaving some to take outside to give as a gift to the God upon his return to the world.

After that we are going to light red and green and white candles and make talk about what we want to see happen for the coming year. Making wishes on the candles.

After that the children are going to open one present a piece and off to bed.

I will then have a small ritual for myself in which I thank the Goddess for the birth of the sun and wait for the suns return to the world. I am also planning on doing some magick for blessing for the coming year for myself and my family that the coming year is as magickal as this year has been.

It's going to be low key and just for myself and my family but we are going to start some new traditions this year and I want them to be special!!

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The world was not given to us by our parents, but loaned to us by our children.

Truth is in the Eye of the beholder.

The Solstice days always have a very peaceful aspect and always evoke my desire for introspection. It usually is a period in which I experience nature in a more profound way, experiencing the cold outside and the warmth and spicy atmosphere I create inside. During this period of the year I always make my own Yule trees, my gluhwine and I write letters.

I usually start off by going to the sea. I love having a walk all alone on the beach in the winter. Vast areas of sand, few people, the wind which is very cold, the sand which is swept up and bites you in the face, the lovely sound of the waves… it is like a homecoming and a deep meditational state at the same time. After my walk along the water line, I usually go up the dunes to sit down, overlook the area and feel linked to nature. I say thanks and fill some baskets with sand.
Next in line is a visit to the woods to experience the muddy or frozen soil, the music in the leaves, the typical smell. I usually collect branches that have fallen from the trees and take them home. This is the basis of my proper Yule trees. I start off by taking the last of the tangerines and cutting them in especially small slices. I put them on the oven plate and let them dry in the oven. While a very distinct and once-in-a-year typical smell is perfuming the air, I fill my wooden baskets with the sand and start putting the branches of the trees. On the sand I always put some holy and some pine. The tops of my branches are bound together by a golden ribbon. I put the dried tangerine slices, some clove, cinnamon and vanilla sticks and some small Christmas tree lights in the tree. The result is always a very special spicy smell around my trees, which are put in different places in my apartment.

I usually also make my own, spicy gluhwein, which I especially like when I nestle myself comfortably in my couch or after meditation or ritual work for Yule.

I also take some time to start writing letters to my friends and family. In these letters I review the past year, the good and the bad things that happened in my relationship with each of them and I thank them for their presence in my life. And I also look into the next year, into the things I would like to do with them, my wishes for them etc. I take the time for writing, think about what to write, my actions and theirs,… and I decorate them afterwards. I have come to find that these letters are much more valuable to me than writing a lot of impersonal Christmas cards in a mechanical way to people I haven’t seen for ages. It feels like a psychological goodbye to the period that has passed by and a welcoming of the new one. And they are much more appreciated by the receivers : I notice that they always form a source of heartily, honest and constructive conversation afterwards. And I value this much more than ‘commercial presents under the Christmas tree’.

The solstice days for me really mean a period of retrospection, introspection and preparing for a new start with new energy. They represent the turning of a page in my life and my relationships.

Merry yule everyone!
For my first Yule as a Wiccan and not having proclaimed myself as such. I decided to have a Solistice party instead of a "Christmas" party.
I invited all my friends . My husband and I decked the halls with holly and candles and my beautiful tree filled with stars and birds. We had food and drink of all kinds. Through the evening I told stories of the old myths and legends of the Yule log , mistletoe and the Holly King and the Ivy King.
All had a good time and maybe learned just a little.
Happy return of the light!

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Love and laughter,
Ouroboros

Hope you all had a great yule.

For my Yule celebration we did a yule rite. There were 6 of us and one of our ladies wrote a beautiful rite. Knowing the lord and lady were there to celebrate with us made it a very special evening and I got to do the circle and take it down with my newly aquired broom. Yule was also the same night we officially formed our coven so it will always remain that extra special sabbat in my heart because now I always get to share my joy of celebrating the sabbats with my closest sisters (friends).

So that was my nite in a nutshell.

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www.myspace.com/mysticivory

www.the-covenstead.com

This was my very first Yule. I am still private about my faith, so being 13, I couldn't do anything elaborate and fancy. I had to improvise, and at first I was upset. My family was having a party on Yule where the family priest would be there. No, not a pagan priest, a catholic priest. Everyone except for me is Catholic, and no one knows...yet. How exactly I was going to make this Yule special was beyond me...

A day before Yule, my dad asked me to gather firewood in the forest for the party. I didn't mind, because I love walking in the woods, listening to all of the bird calls and watching the flashes of blue in the trees that were blue birds. I gathered the wood and put it in the wheelbarrow after admireing and conversing with the oak and mulberry trees. Not talking, ofcourse, just sharing energies.

As I was walking to the wheelbarrow to put another set of branches in, I tripped over a log. It was small for a log, but perfect for a fire. The idea struck me suddenly...this could be the Yule Log! I added the twigs to the pile of firewood, but held the Yule log in my hand. I held it out to the sun and let the prescence of the God flow into it. The sun was out and its warmth spread through the log to me. After that I set the log down, excited for the next day to come!

That night, I planned my Yule ritual. I would take charge of lighting the fire, and I'd do it ceremoniusly. I also wrote out a poem to go along with the ritual. After lighting the fire, I would meditate on the God. And all of this would be discreet and look like I would be just relaxing out by the fire.

The next day dawned, so I set up the fire, at first consisting of small twigs and branches with newspaper at the bottom. All of my family was inside partying, so I was alone for the moment. Here is the content of my ritual:

"Though the day grows shorter,
Though the snow falls mercilessly,
Though the icy winds prick at my skin,
I do not sorrow.

For I know that life is in a constant cycle of renewal,
And though the light may not be visible,
It is never lost."

Striking a match, I light the wood. As the fire grows higher, I say:

"Great Goddes of the Earth and Bright God of the Sun,
I light this fire in your honor.
You, Mother Goddess,
Who has given life to death, joy to sorrow.
You, Father God,
Who lights the world in the bright yellow glow of your smile."

I stare into the fire, which symbolizes the birth of the God, and put the Yule log into the flames. I hear the fire crackle and breathe in the somehow comforting smell of burning wood. With that, I chant:

"The wheel ever-turning, the flames ever-burning."

I walk around the fire three times and feel its energy. After that, I sit and meditate on what Yule means to me.

Fire energy makes me feel full of energy and usually joyous. I have a deep pleasant burning in my solar plexus when I take in this element. I really do feel the spark of life within me, which connects me to all things.

Yule reminds me that hope is never completely lost, even if it is gone for a moment. Everything is in a constant cycle of renewal and rebirth. The God's rebirth symbolizes this. Although winter may be depressing for some, I love it! The darkness is beautiful, and the bare trees gives a new perspective to nature. I think that part of being Wiccan is to enjoy each season as much as possible instead of focusing on what you don't like about it. We should not lose our spirit of nature in the coming cold months ahead.

"God of the Sun and Wind,
I celebrate your return.
May you shine your light brightly upon the earth and the Goddess.
Renew us with your bright flame.
I welcome your rebirth into the world!"

After staring into the flickering beauty of the fire, I go into the spellwork of my ritual.

My grandfather has very bad cancer in his lymph nodes and is having two surgeries and radiation everyday. I did a healing ritual for him.

"God, I ask that you burn the cancer away, if that is for the highest good.
As this Yule log burns, so must the illness."

I build up happy and healing emotions of my grandfather being perfectly healthy again and send them out into the universe. I also sprinkle a little bit of cinnamon into the fire, for cinnamon has healing properties.

This healing part of the ritual has been very successful, so far. Even though it has only been about two weeks, my grandfather's scars are mostly faded. His doctor said it is miraculous at how fast he is healing. And he can still play golf, despite his strenous therapy. It is amazing!

After that I kept the fire going all day until 10 at night. I learned that rituals didn't have to be fancy or anything of the sort. It was deeply symbolic and meaningful to me, even if it was a simple fire. But I ended up loving the simplicity and beauty of nature.

I have so much gratitude for you both, God and Goddess! Thank you so much for the healing miracle that has happened in my family!

Blessed Be!

Namaste.

Scott

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(Avatar and Sig tag are courtesy of Sila Saberwolf)
Let the sun shine in!
Feel free to pm me anytime!

Our Yule was simple

I made my own yule log and made up a thank you to the Goddess spell.

We made it a full ritual as well. I made some drink to represent the wine which it was really cherry juice .

I had sections for each one of my children to say.

I spoke for both mine and my husbands part since he is away in Iroq still and not here to spend the yule with us.

I had also asked before hand from each one of the kids what they are thankful for and included it in the rituals spell.

Afterwards we began to sign chants and just have a merry yule. I had cast circle around the whole house so the whole day was under the Goddess's protection.

Before lunch I made a gingerbread house full of dreams and wishes from each child and myself. They of course all want Daddy home with us and safe oh and they all wanted world peace.

Then after a small feast I desided to add something different this year and we popped pop corn and strung it. With each handfull ( I thought piece would be too much) we blessed someone we knew with happiness in the coming year. They had small handfuls so there were alot of well wishes to go around. The last handful in the bowl we all saved to wish the world a bit of happiness.

Before going to bed I asked each child to tell me something they each liked that happened that day. They had their favorites and the pop corn seemed to be a great hit.

I wrote in my BOS all that we had done and made sure to include their favorite things. It is a memory that I have to live with me forever. Now if DH can come home then our world will be complete.

After they had gone to bed tired from playing with all their toys, I laid out goodies and gifts for the Faeries and said a small blessing for them. Then took down circle and took my tired behind to bed.

I have had fun reading all of your yule celebrations and enjoyed them all.

Hope you all have a blessed New Year
Blessed Be
Lady Eagle

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I am a Pagan.
The earth is my Mother and the sky is my Father.
The sun and moon are my Grandparents, and the stars my ancestors.
I am part of this large family of Nature, not the master of it.