Yule oil

Yule was the first of the eight Sabbat oils made by Natural Magick Shop. It has Frankincense, Gold and Myrrh, evergreen trees, and holiday spices. Enjoy as a ritual anointing oil, or in concentrated form for aromatherapy diffusers. If you like, I can label this oil as Christmas oil or Winter Solstice oil, just for the asking. Many Pagans celebrate this occasion as the birth of the Divine Child, also known as the New Year Baby and Baby Jesus. This might be why we use this holiday to honor children by giving them presents. What I think might also be happening with this holiday, from a sociological point of year, is a ritualized re-distribution of wealth. During the cold winter months, back in simpler times it would become clearer who has plenty and who faces hunger as the shelves get bare. (The traditional lump of coal for bad children might be a needed source of heat for a poor family.) So it makes sense for adults to give gifts, and we still play out this in our own families and in charity. If you are a starving college student, you give your uncle a hand-woven potholder or such, and he cuts you a check for a C-note or two. For Pagans, it is difficult to separate the Winter Solstice, which marks the beginning of the solar year, with New Year’s Eve, which marks the beginning of the calendar year. Perhaps the minor separation is just because of the Julian calendar not working so good all the time. anybody needing charity, it can be a humiliating thing to receive directly from wealthy people. So perhaps the “invention” of Father Christmas a.k.a. Santa Claus makes this more graceful for both parties. The gifts were delivered at night, through the chimney, by Santa, and nobody need know who was giving and who was getting charity. Other traditional pagan motifs involve tree worship of some sort. What else would you call the decoration of the Christmas tree? There is also the burning of the Yule log, which according to some, should burn all night long as sympathetic magick to bring about the return of the Sun. According to others, the Yule log was supposed to be a whole tree that burned all YEAR long. The burning of the Yule log, among other things, is to mark the change of the year-king from the Holly King, who rules from the Summer Solstice to the Winter Solstice, over to his brother/rival/alter ego, the Oak King. So if we sacrifice an evergreen tree, it represents the peak and fall of the power of the Holly King. We burn the oaken Yule log to give energy to the new Oak King, who rules until he is sacrificed on Midsummer’s Day. So you would select an oak tree to cut down and divide up among the villagers, to keep until it is burned at Yule. Pagan traditions love to make sense of the seasonal cycles and provide continuity among the holidays. Then, a few days after New Year’s you have the Annunciation, which in European countries is the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas. In Italy, there is the tradition of La Befana, a faery-witch-crone-goddess who gives candy and gifts to good children and a lump of coal to bad ones. Now they make a black hard candy that looks like coal, and all the kids get it, because they have all been at least a little bad! Again, different name, but the same idea of anonymous giving by a proxy deity, and the honoring of children. However you choose to celebrate the Solstice, I hope it brings joy, friends, family, and prosperity to you. The great thin about being Pagan is that we can celebrate all the holidays for this time of year! So Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Yule, Kwanzaa Blessings, Serene Solstice, and Merry Christmas, y’all!"