Yule Ritual   

Invocation of the Elements

I stand facing the East.  I feel a cool breeze against my skin and my hair lightly blows away from my face.  The sky is a rosy pink as the sun peeks over the mountain off in the distance.  It is crisp and I feel totally alive at this new dawn. Spirits of Air, I welcome to our Circle!  I ask that you guard this sacred space, keeping us clear of any negative energy. Simply blow away anything that will restrict the loving flow of energy created here. Lift up our hearts with the breath of song.  Blessed Be. I stand facing South.  From deep within me I feel my passion rising.  My heart skips, feeling a bright flame of love. I pull from the Spirit of Fire, the energy of change and renewal and am blessed by my newly found strength and courage.  Spirit of Fire, I welcome you to our Circle!  As you have manifested in me, I ask that you also fill this space so that all within are stirred with your bright flames and that our hearts be joyful in our rites.

Blessed Be.

I stand facing the West.  As I think of water, I am transported to the top of a boulder and I sit facing the sea.  I see waves crashing on the rocks below me and feel my Mother’s blessing as Her the mist of her waters sprays upon my face.  The sea takes my pain and I am at once caught in her eternal ebb and flow.  I feel myself drawn to the center of my soul, deep within, and find a new sense of self, prepared to release, ready to be alive, springing from the primal waters of birth.  Spirit of Water, I welcome you to our Circle! I ask that as I guide you into this sacred space, that all within be refreshed and renewed.  Wash clean our spirits and take us to a feeling place.  Open our hearts to the spirit of birth.  Blessed Be.

I stand facing North.  Before me I see a great mountain, the Earth rising up to greet the sky.  Her mighty and glorious trees rooted in her soil, their branches also reaching for the sun to be nourished and replenished.  I feel myself rooted in Her ground, strengthened and supported, fully connected and anchored.  From the Old Ones gathered here, I find wisdom, clarity of purpose, and fortitude.   This I bring to our Sacred Space.  Spirit of Earth, I welcome you to this Circle!  Grant to us this night, the Wisdom of our Ancestors.  Gift us with courage, a new sense of resolve, and a clear purpose and we turn the wheel once more.  Blessed Be.

I move to the Center of our Circle.  Let us all, in our own spaces, begin a Ma chant.  First starting with the hum deep in our bellies and moving into our faces, humming so that we can feel a tingle in our nose and cheeks.  As we are filled with this, then drop your jaw and let out that primal sound Maaaaaaaaa  to welcome our Mother. Goddess of Death, Dark Mother, fill us with your essence.  Bless us, your children.  Honor us with your Wisdom and the knowledge that within death is life.

Goddess of Birth, Mother of Life, touch us now.  Be with us as you begin your labor that once again your sun child will be born.  Fill each of us with your love as you move among us. Body of Ritual We will now bring you a story.  As you read this story, I ask that you find each of the characters within yourself.  Find the Old Mother.  Find the Young Mother.  Find what is old and failing and no longer life sustaining for you, which needs to be transformed.  Then seek within for the new life waiting to burst forth.  The new ideas, the new creativity, so much newness, so ready to be released. Yule is a time of contrasts, birth follows death, spring follows winter.

The light is waning on the longest night of the year to be reborn of the Goddess, new and waxing the morning after. The Goddess of Birth now steps out from the North.  She is pregnant.  She walks to the center and is met by the Goddess of Death, entering from the West.

Young Mother: Greetings Old Mother.

Old Mother: My Daughter, my time is done and my energy is spent.  I grow cold now.  There is nothing left for me to give the world.

Young Mother: We have shared so much together through this turning of the wheel.  At Imbolc, the promise of Spring was in the world.

Old Mother: My love grew, beginning to warm the world.

Young Mother: At Eostre, you were young.  You flirted and played as you pushed back the night and became its equal.

Old Mother: At Spring I wrapped myself in flowers and sweet spells.

Young Mother: At Beltane you blossomed into fullness.  Your warmth blessed the world with growth and renewal.

Old Mother: My love fertilized the world, ensuring the coming harvest.

Young Mother: Midsummer found you blazing with passion.  Your power shown forth and you pushed back the night with your radiance.

Old Mother: My love was at its height and the glory of all creation shown forth.

Young Mother: Lammas found you in adulthood, enjoying the first harvest.

Old Mother: I brought forth the first fruits of my love that life would continue.

Young Mother: At Mabon you began to grow old, your fire began to fade and night once again balanced day.

Old Mother: My vitality, I gave willingly for the bounty of the harvest.

Young Mother: I watched in sorrow at Samhain, knowing that you were dying.

Yet there was joy in the knowledge that I carried the seed of rebirth within me.

Old Mother: I readied myself for death feeling darkness overshadow, leading me toward eternal night.

Old Mother: "You see before you the true Mother Goddess, I am the Mother who has the power to give life And the Mother who brings Death.

As with all things of nature,

Destruction is necessary to life's balance.

Throughout all of time,

I have created and destroyed.

I eliminate the old and useless,

And those who have finished their role in life.

I have, at the same time,

Presided over the perpetual renewal of life

By means of love and regeneration.

I give you the blessing of life,

Followed by inevitable death.

And through death - rebirth.

Young Mother: Old Mother, your time has run and you approach the end, Faithfully you have loved our land. Come, and I will open the secret path between the Rowan trees That you may pass into the Land of Dreams.  I've placed three white stones across the stream That you may cross into the night. You'll not be forgotten, Mother, now your time is here. For in your death will come a birth A Light to warm our land."

Old Mother: Daughter, I love life now as much as I did in Spring, but my time is finished and without death there can be no rebirth.  I go now gently into that Good Night, anticipating with joy, the coming Season of Your New Light. The Wheel of the Year has turned once more and the Light of the Goddess is reborn.  Now is the time to call forth the old in your life – that which lies useless to you – all that needs to be released, transformed.  There is new life waiting.  It is up to you to make room for it – to clear out the old. Now is the time to let go of any old emotions, feelings, any vestiges of debris that clutters your life or impedes your becoming. 

Please pick up your pen and paper and write down those things that now need to be burned away – those things that need to die so that new life may blossom in your heart.  When you have these things written, take the paper and burn it in your cauldron.  Use the fire of transformation, now, to burn away the old.  

Sing with me as the fire burns……

"Take the old and burn it.

Burn and watch it go

Fire starts within our hearts

And gives us room to grow."

(The young Sun Child, standing in the East, dances into Circle with her flowers.  She turns, faces her Mother and she stands with arms outstretched. Mother of Birth crosses to Her.)

Sun Child:  Mother, I am reborn!

(Young Sun Child kneels before her Mother and says,)

Sun Child: I ask your blessing, Oh, Mother of Life. Young Mother: As is this new young Sun, we too, are transformed. We are this new Sun Child.  Let us all ask Her blessing upon us.

Please repeat after me……..

I ask your blessing, Oh, Mother of Life.

I ask your blessing, Oh, Mother of Life.

I ask your blessing, Oh, Mother of Life. The Feast  

I hold out my Chalice.   Gracious Goddess of abundance, bless this water and

infuse it with your love.  In the name of the Mother Goddess and her new Child of Light, we bless this chalice.  Please drink that you may never thirst. The Closing Mother of the World, we give thanks that you have lovingly guided us once more through the turning of the Wheel and for your gift of the new Light, born to us once more.  Blessed Be! Child of Light, we welcome your birth and celebrate the newness of Life.  We give thanks for your coming and ask that your Light ever guide our days.

Blessed Be!

Spirit of Earth, we bid you farewell and merry part to merry meet again. As you move through the gate in the North. We give thanks for your presence and ask that you leave with us the peaceful stillness of winter.

Spirit of Water, we bid you farewell and merry part to merry meet again.  As you move through the gate in the West, we give thanks for your presence and ask that you leave with us a reminder to rest and reflect through the winter that we welcome the Spring with joyful hearts.

Spirit of Fire, we bid you farewell and merry part to merry meet again.  As you pass through the gate in the South, we give thanks for your presence and ask that you fill our souls with the warmth of the reborn sun that its light may grow within us as the Wheel turns.

Spirit of Air, we bid you farewell and merry part to merry meet again.  As you pass through the gate in the East, we give thanks for your presence and ask that you leave with us the assurance that warm spring winds will blow again.

May the Circle be open but unbroken.  May the love of the Goddess be ever in your hearts and may the Child Light in your hearts ever light your way.  

Merry meet and merry part to merry meet again.