By Fire Well and Tree

 As what has become usual, my yuletide observances have been derailed by illness.  This time, it's a third dance with Covid.   In year's past I've done an 'omen for the year' by choosing a rune on each of the twelve days of Yule, starting with Solstice Eve, and ending twelve nights later.  You can see examples of prior years  2023 ,  2021 ,  2020 , ... starting as early as  2017 .  At least as far as what I archived here.  I'd have to dig into  my old Livejournal account  to see about earlier... I'm not sure where I got the idea for a rune pull a day. I do somewhat dimly remember recognizing the twelve days and then twelve months of a year is convenient coincidence, and combining that with the use of divination during liminal times, made it a good idea.  Sometimes I post it, and then don't go back to it. Other times I do, and I notice my interpretation changes, as is correct. I always say readings are a snapshot, what...

 <insert photo of Twelfth Night altar> While my liturgical year ended and began two months ago, the rest of the world* turned the page two days ago.  And so, the Twelfth Night of my Yule celebration conveniently coincides with New Year's Eve. As the five or ten of you who read along regularly know, I like to have a party that evening to celebrate.  It can be a bit much for this introvert, but I do it because I genuinely love hosting and making food and serving beverages to those that I care about.  Yuletide, and really all our holidays, began as group and family activities, and while I have done these things solo, it doesn't really put the cap on the season the same way.   Our whole Yuletide season prefaces with the Krampus walk on the first Sunday in December. One grove member has a Wassail party soon thereafter to really kick things off, and then I bookend it on the other side, and then usually Yule and Winter Solstice rites in between.  During...

  Special guest appearance by Taco towards the back  I am not 100 percent sure how I came to be so...YULE!!!  When I first became pagan, I felt like I was all about the Samhain, the spooky. And heck, yeah, I still love it.  But somehow Yule took hold and now I plan Yule Lad visit to my grove's kids, and Solstice eve vigils, and a Yule Along for the 12 days, and then Twelfth Night sumble.... Anyway, here we are again. The last two years there's been Yule-A-Long and Yule Lads, but that's it.  In 2020, we tried to have a Zoom Twelfth Night. I get that Zoom has been a godsend for many, and we certainly used similar technology (Blackboard Collaborate), but as much as they can help people with some anxieties, they do the exact opposite for mine. So in 2021 I didn't even bother, and was mostly too full of Seasonal Affective Disorder to even care. We didn't even decorate those two years.   BUT, this year is all... well, different. Not normal, but close. (I des...

(I started this on 1/2 and then the world went kerblooey again....)  Once again, I was happy to host a Twelfth Night Celebration and Sumbl at our house. Well, it was via Zoom.  And there were a LOT more oaths this year, so we'll see :) The toasts were moving, the boasts were worthy, and the oaths were  S.M.A.R.T.   Because of the pandemic, it was all on line. I really hope we can be all together next year. I don't know why I can never center these! Throughout the Twelve Nights, I took an omen each night for the coming year, each one a rune to describe the energies for a month. So on the first night it was January, second night February...you get the idea.  I used Taren Martin's Anglo-Saxon deck, so some of the names may be different that you may be used to (and some don't appear in the Elder Futhark systems).  My mind has been all a-jumble with all things pandemic and politics, and I don't see either of those ending any time soon. 2021 will be as challengin...

 I remembered to do this! And now I've remembered to share it! I used the Druid Oracle.  These are TWO sets of cards designed to work together.  The Druid Animal Oracle I am more familiar with. The Druid Plant Oracle complements it, and I'm less familiar with it. Normally, I take pictures, but as there are likely copywrite issues there, I will kindly request that you Internet search.  They also have a phone app, but I did use the physical cards.  I drew 9 cards from each deck.  There is one for each high day to reveal the energies (animal) and insights (plants) at play starting on that high day through to the next.  The ninth cards are sort of a keynote or theme of the whole year. (I do this type of thing often. Sometimes it's interesting to compare the Samhain card themes with the Yule Rune spread for the year, and then my own Tarot horoscope thread... but that's kind of crazy obsessive too, so I don't know if I can recommend it. So, with out further ...

Twelfth Night Altar We pulled a rune for each of the nights of Yule.  In my head, I was thinking that each rune would be for a month, BUT THEN, I realized two things: I was going to do it all again in June for Midsummer, a mere 6 months away rather than a whole year. My philosophy, based on nothing more than a hunch, is that long-term readings are only for about 6 months into the future. There's just too much other stuff out there that can impact the energies for me to feel comfortable going out any further than that. As with everything, others' mileages may vary. Therefore, each night was still a rune pull, but the pairs of runes will go through the first half the year. One last caveat, I also believe that all runes are in play at all times, but that at certain times, some move to the forefront. January:  Fehu - Ehwaz The new year starts off with extra fire and energy, and perhaps a little extra in our wallets, too. Fehu's abundance extends beyond the...