Paganistan: Notes from the Secret Commonwealth
In Which One Midwest Man-in-Black Confers, Converses & Otherwise Hob-Nobs with his Fellow Hob-Men (& -Women) Concerning the Sundry Ways of the Famed but Ill-Starred Tribe of Witches.
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.
Photo: Wren Swart
Comments
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Tuesday, 22 January 2019
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.
Even as I pack away, sweep up, and de-tangle (bloody strings of lights, @#$%!), there's also that inner sense of relief to be moving on.
Every witch is her own opposite. -
Monday, 21 January 2019I keep an 18" section of the thickest part of my Yule tree trunk for use as a Yule log the following year. https://atheopaganism.wordpress.com/2017/12/06/the-yule-log-a-winter-solstice-ritual/
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Tuesday, 22 January 2019
I was thinking a while back about how, in these mostly hearthless days, the Yule tree has stepped in the Yule log's ecological niche as the holiday's central icon; also about how one keeps fragments of this year's Log in order to kindle next year's from them.
So you've bagged two rabbits with one arrow. Good shooting, Mark! -
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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 say goodbye. But you cant keep it past its time.
It's my favorite holiday tradition.