Yule thoughts

A few thoughts as we approach Yule, and the darkness begins to lift:

• Interfaith marriage = celebrating both Yule and Festivus.
• The DaVinci Code is great for non-church-goers this time of year.
• The Mists of Avalon is also great for said reason.
• Mistletoe isn't necessary for passion in your marriage (but I still wish I had some).
• Mistletoe sap was once believed to be the semen of the gods.
• Some Christians actually hate Christmas because of its close ties with Yule and Saturnalia.
• A secular Christian, such as myself, can easily adapt this holiday to its more pagan roots (Xmas Tree, mistletoe, wreaths, yule logs, eggnog, etc.).

Happy Yule, and blessed be.

Dream Sequence #5

My husband and I ventured out to our local star-gazing field, along with dozens of others who chose to sacrifice sleep on this magical night. We all heard that tonight was the best night to view falling stars, and that we'd wait a long time for another perfect viewing night like this. We stood anxiously, my husband wrapping his arm around my waist. I smiled up at him, soaking in the pleasure of the moment.

Suddenly, I was distracted, as I saw movement in the sky. But instead of the beautiful falling stars I was hoping for, I saw strange orange lines forming.

"Do you see that? Look, there are more!" I kept looking over at my husband to see if he was seeing what I was. A woman a few feet away was saying the same things to her husband. Apparently, they were not seeing this.

We all had been looking up at the night sky, admiring the abundance of stars in the black velvet night. Suddenly, the little orange lines started connecting some of the stars, and then connecting groups of stars. Was this a trick? How could this be happening? I didn't understand if the lines were showing us some message, or if they were making constellations.

The lines formed faster and faster, and my husband finally began to see them as well. Just as he noticed what was happening, flashes of the same orange light started dropping toward the ground rapidly. I knew in my gut that whatever was happening, horror and destruction would surely accompany it. I grabbed my husband's hand and ran back into my parents' house, turning off lights instantly as I entered.

"Mom, get down on the ground. Where's the baby? She needs to be on the ground." We were all hiding on the floor of the kitchen, beneath the window. We hoped they couldn't see us, whoever was making all the noise outside.

I looked up at my husband, realizing that all his sci-fi dreams had come true; aliens had finally visited us. But the shrieks of terror outside our window were not those of welcoming hosts. The aliens had begun killing everyone on that field, perhaps everyone that saw the orange lines connecting the stars. They were witnesses. Would I be able to remember all the intricate lines I saw? Would I even live to try? Perhaps if we live through this, I can describe what I saw to some scientist. But who would believe me?

b.b.

The Yule Log Menorah

I was recently reading about Yule in a book called The Provenance Press's Guide to the Wiccan Year by Judy Ann Nock. Ms. Nock suggested that one spiritual practice for the Yule season is to bring a yule log into your home, cut eight holes in the top, and place candles in the holes. She wrote that one should let the candles burn all the way down.

Sound familiar? It's a menorah!

I did a quick search on yule logs online, only to find that most earth-based practices suggest using three candles instead of eight. So I'm not sure why Ms. Nock prefers eight candles, but it made me think that there should be such a thing as a yule log menorah. Why not? Hanukkah is a festival to celebrate bringing light into a dark world (as well as some supposed miracle that happened to the Maccabees), and Yule is a pagan festival to also celebrate/encourage the return of light during our darkest time of the year.

So maybe someday I'll make my own yule log menorah and market it to secular and/or earthy Jews.


Blessed be.