PaganSquare


PaganSquare is a community blog space where Pagans can discuss topics relevant to the life and spiritual practice of all Pagans.

  • Home
    Home This is where you can find all the blog posts throughout the site.
  • Tags
    Tags Displays a list of tags that have been used in the blog.
  • Bloggers
    Bloggers Search for your favorite blogger from this site.
  • Login
    Login Login form
Subscribe to this list via RSS Blog posts tagged in Yule tree

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
Eternal Return

Well, that's that. The tree is down now, stripped of its lights and glittering regalia.

(Tannenbaumschmuck, they call the ornaments in German: “fir tree jewelry.” Like a high priestess, the Yule tree wears a bejeweled nudity.)

Naked, it leans against the back wall in the alley, awaiting pick-up.

Soon, it will be chipped and turned into compost, from which some day, perhaps, new trees will grow.

Yule is over. The king is dead.

Long live the king.

Last modified on
Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    I was thinking a while back about how, in these mostly hearthless days, the Yule tree has stepped in the Yule log's ecological nic
  • Mark Green
    Mark Green says #
    I keep an 18" section of the thickest part of my Yule tree trunk for use as a Yule log the following year. https://atheopaganism.w
  • Murphy Pizza
    Murphy Pizza says #
    My tree every year has to be real. Even if its tiny, it has to be real. It has to live a d it has to die. And I always am sad to s
  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    It's witch's work to turn the Wheel. The Yule tree is an act of magic. Putting it up is an act of magic, taking it down the same.

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
Tree with Suns

Check out this early 5th-century gilded silver pendant from West Gotland in Sweden.

If Stockholm University's Anders Andrén is right, this is an image of the ancestral universe.

According to Andrén, what at first looks like an abstract design—known to art historians as a pelta (“shield”) or mushroom-shaped design—is actually the World Tree (Andrén 140).

(Andrén does not say why it is that, if so, the World Tree's branching volutes should end in animal [=serpent?] heads, although the design has parallels in other contemporary art from Gotland [Andrén 141]. My own eisigesis [= ”reading in”] would be that here we see the Tree of Life resolving into animal life.)

At the top, we see the long-rayed zenith Sun, flanked by the short-rayed Suns of Sunrise and Sunset.

Last modified on
Recent comment in this post - Show all comments
  • Tyger
    Tyger says #
    What a beautiful way of looking at the world!

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
Dark Stranger

There's a Dark Stranger standing in the living room.

He who, yesterday, stood between Earth and Heaven, now stands between ceiling and floor.

The son of the forest now comes indoors.

His fragrance fills the house.

Soon we will bestow him with lights, and all the royal heirlooms of the feast: every one a prayer.

But for now he stands in shadow, and naked beauty.

Last modified on

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
Birth-Tree

Your baby will come soon.

So you need to find a birth-tree.

You can't give birth in camp, because blood draws predators and you'd be putting everyone at risk.

It's winter, so you want an evergreen, one with enough branches to offer good protection from the weather, but not so many that predators can approach unseen.

You'll need a stout trunk to brace against; also lots of absorbent duff to sop up the blood, and a spot to bury the blood-soaked strew. Unburied blood draws danger.

The right tree will also provide dead wood, and you'll need that. Fire warms and protects.

A hemlock on a south-facing slope would be good. That way you'll get the best of what Sun there is.

Last modified on
Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    I'm drawing here on Elizabeth Marshall Thomas' experiences among the Ju/wassi of the Kalahari in the 1950s, some of the very last
  • Thesseli
    Thesseli says #
    Because nothing says women and children are important to the survival of the tribe than making a woman give birth in the middle of

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
Tree Full of Suns

“Nice tree,” said my neighbor, dropping off (bless her) a plate of cookies.

“Not very Christmas-y, though,” she added.

Well, no. It's a Yule tree.

That's why it's filled with Suns.

And fruits, and vegetables: all the abundance of the year gone by, and the growing season to come.

Every ornament's a prayer.

There it stands in the south, just where it always stands. Same place, same lights, same ornaments, giving the odd sense that somehow it's the same tree, back again from the forest for its annual month-long visit.

In a sense, I suppose, it is the same tree. The Tree is dead: long live the Tree.

Last modified on

Posted by on in Paths Blogs
Yule - Re-Enchanting Everyday Life

Many years ago, I read "The Re-Enchantment Of Everyday Life" by Thomas Moore. It's one of my favourite non-fiction books ever. I kept a well-thumbed and dog-eared copy of the book within arm's length for many years, until I gave the book away to someone who I thought might love it too. The premise of the book speaks to the notion that as we've become more mechanized, more technologically dependent, we've lost something important, something slow, something about touch and smell and connection to the inherent magic that is ever present in the world. Much of how I see and practice magic has its roots in this book. 

Here's an excerpt that rings especially true for me:

...
Last modified on
Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Gwion Raven
    Gwion Raven says #
    Hello Lizann - Thank you so much for continually following my blog
  • Lizann Bassham
    Lizann Bassham says #
    blessings in the re-enchantment

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
Is the Yule Tree an Ancient Pagan Custom?

Short answer: No.

In his magisterial Stations of the Sun, Ron Hutton explains that in many places the ancestors were wont to deck their holidays with whatever greenery and flowers were then in season (34): at Midsummer, with broadleafs, at Midwinter, with evergreens.

But there's no evidence at all in antiquity for decorated trees per se at Midwinter. The modern Yule tree, rather, has its roots in Renaissance Germany: ironically, the period of the Great Persecution.

So it's really a Christian custom.

The operative question here is: does it matter?

Last modified on
Recent comment in this post - Show all comments
  • Anthony Gresham
    Anthony Gresham says #
    I've come across two stories about the origin of the Christmas tree. The 1st one is that the ancient Germans had a sacred Oak tre

Additional information