Helping to plan Yule for my local #pagan group. I am new to this kind of thing. Anybody got a good source for Yule celebrations? Rituals?
@jasod Yule is FILLED with all kinds of rites and rituals you could celebrate with! May I ask what path you study? I may be able to boost you for others that share the same path.
Hi, @jasod
Dunno if you've noticed yet, but there is a small subculture of #CoSoPagans here. Click that tag (the common one we use, as opposed to just #pagans), you should see some posts from some who ascribe to Paganism. And I think @PaganMother got a list recently.
As for rituals, I like to rethinnk them each time, consider the cycle, what meaning it could have for us, what nature teaches me in this time, & where the celebrations may have come from. Then I try writing meaningful words/acts.
@FernLovebond @jasod Yep! #CoSoPagans is basically anyone not in a specific domination of Christianity really. Even got a few Buddhists among us. ^^
Mm, Buddhism comes in a lot of forms, and in the West/Global North it's become deeply secularized. I still use Buddhist practices for my meditation, & live largely by the layperson's vows.
IDK how much I'd include "non-Christian" of w/e kind within Pagan: there's all the Judaic faiths, the Islamic variants, then Hinduism & its offspring (Buddhism, Jainism, Hare Krishna, et al), Zoroastrians, Baha'i, Scientology, & similar nonsense. [Neo]Pagan for me is far more specific.
@FernLovebond
Just for fun, I looked up the etymology of the word Pagan and it just means "of the countryside" or "rural" as does heathen (lit. of the heath lands).
Never knew that till just now!
So in my imagination that means in a religious sense that it's the way of the rural people. I like that. 😁
Especially when you consider how many old rural traditions have been retained in European (and especially British) Christianity.
@stueytheround @FernLovebond @jasod It really is one of the more fascinating examples of how the languages we use shift over the years too. ^^
@Mauve_matelot @PaganMother @stueytheround @jasod
To get back to the OP's question (sorry), I often begin my interest in a celebration by looking at Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule
Ppl often balk at this, but the truth is Wikipedia has been repeatedly studied by academics who find that–on the whole–Wikipedia is as reliable as a trusted Encyclopedia. It's a very useful source because it stresses sources, which means readers can validate the origins of the data for its merit.
Start there.
@Mauve_matelot @PaganMother @stueytheround @jasod
Additionally, consider If your group is predominantly of Germanic, Scandinavian, or some other ethnic origin, and if that matters. I've found most ppl in the neopagan community are a mix of syncretic & total-bullshit, so if you don't know, just try to be syncretic, as this often pleases participants just fine.
A theme of family is generally the primary focus of winter celebrations, & it was often when we are stuck w/ them the longest.
@Mauve_matelot @PaganMother @stueytheround @jasod
Lastly, I always like to include a perspective of the planetary astronomy of the time, a reminder of how small & precious our little ball is, how essential that fine balance is that gives us our seasons, our hours of light, our cycles of crops & water, because of where we are along the 584 million miles of our journey around that star we call sun.
A guided meditation on our place in that vastness is very good in the opening of these holidays.
@PaganMother @stueytheround @FernLovebond
@jasod when I saw this thread, I thought of Wassailing as a possible ritual starting point.
However I am off to work so will see where this thread goes by the time I am home again