The Longest Night of Winter: Fire Ceremony for Yule

December is named for the Roman goddess Decima, one of the three fates. The word Yule comes from the Germanic jol, which means midwinter, which is celebrated on the shortest day of the year. The old tradition was to have a vigil all night at a bonfire to make sure the sun did indeed rise again. This primeval custom evolved to become a storytelling evening, and while it may well to be too cold to sit outside in snow and sleet, it is important for your community to congregate around a blazing hearth fire, feasting and talking deep into the night, to truly know each other, impart wisdom, and speak to hopes and dreams. Greet the new sun with stronger connections and a shared vision for the coming solar year. 

What you need:

• Candles in the following colors: red, yellow, green, blue, white, and black
• Herbs: tobacco, rosemary, lavender, cedar, sage, and rose petals
• Incense: copal, myrrh, frankincense, or any resin-based incense
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 chocolate bar per person
• Bells, rattles, drums, and other noisemakers
• A firepot, fireplace, or other safe place for an outdoor fire
• Paper for written intentions

The candle colors represent the six directions: north, south, east, west, up, and down (or sky and earth). They also represent the different peoples of the world.

Gather your friends together at dusk on the shortest day of the year and ask them to bring a colored candle (assign each of them a color), a noisemaker, and an open mind. Ask them also to write out what they want to purge from their life and bring the paper into the circle. The Solstice Fire Ceremony serves to bring positive new influences into our lives and to dispel what no longer serves for good. This “letting go” can be anything. For me, one year ago, it was cancer, and this year, it was too much clutter. For you, it could be an unhealthy relationship, a job that makes you miserable, or a cramped apartment.

Gather Round the Fire: A Community Needfire Ritual for Winter

Without fire, there would be no life. For this ritual, gather together members of your community to participate in honoring the life-giving power of flame.

Supplies:

• Altarspace
• Wood, matches, kindling, and a safe place for a fire
• Candles
• Cauldron or large pot
• Ice cubes, water
• Drums
• Fire tool or poker
• Apples, apple cider, or apple ice cream
• White ice cream
• Spoons and bowls
• Bowl with tarot cards in it

1. Place the bowl of tarot cards on the space designated as the altar.

2. Ask for a volunteer to be in charge of the fire and to be the leader of the ritual. The fire maker should then select three women to represent the Norns (a.k.a. the Three Fates). One of the fates will be in charge of “giving fire.” With a candle in the cauldron, she keeps the fire safe and gives it to the fire maker. Another fate reads out the future to ritual participants with a one-card tarot reading. The last fate gives life in the form of the ritual foods—the apples, hot cider, ice cream, and so on.

3. The participants should get as cold as possible before beginning the ritual—take off your coats and sweaters, and open all the windows and doors if you are inside. You need to feel the winter deep in your soul. The leader should pass around the ice cubes so the participants engage in a sensory way with freezing cold and the need for fire.

4. While the participants get good and chilly, the leader should start the fire. People who really want the totally authentic experience of firemaking can try to create fire from sparking with a fire drill, but the ritual could then take hours unless the fire maker is well practiced in the art of making fire.

5. The following is the chant to be spoken while the fire is being made. The ritual leader should pass out the drums and begin leading rhythmic sounds to underscore the chanting.

    Winter winds howl and wail.

    We feel the cold in our bones.

    This is an old familiar tale.

    The ice binds and surrounds us all.

    Fates above, please hear our call.

    Fire thaws the ice.

    Fire creates the water.

    The heat warms our bones.

    Fire and ice bind our lives.

    Now feel the fire!

6. Holding hands, everyone should dance slowly around the fire sunwise, feeling the life-giving warmth. Next, repeat the chant.

7. The fate of the future goes around the circle with the bowl of tarot cards and performs one-card readings for each individual. If time allows, she should also do a reading for the group with the full set of tarot cards about the future of the community.

8. Last, the fate who gives life serves the group celebratory food— the ice cream and other cold foods are a remembrance of the cold of the icy times, and the hot cider and other hot foods represent the life-giving heat of fire. The head of the ritual should lead everyone in a discussion of the importance of the ritual of the needfire and any other topic important to every participant and the community.

Rituals for the Road: Making Your Own Talismans, Amulets, Charms

Before you travel for work, study, and pleasure, it’s good to create charms and talismans of power. You can also craft your own ritual tools from what you gather in your travels. Nature will often provide you with tools: shells, bark, and stones. In addition, you may also meet new spiritual teachers as you make your way on the pilgrimage that is life. Pay attention and you will learn much and receive many gifts.

A Medicine Wheel shamanic group run by Brooke Tarrant taught a group of drumming novices, myself included, how to make rattles and drums from recycled leather and sheepskin. In fact, all the materials we used to decorate our rattles and drums were found objects: crystals, sand, tiny shells, and sticks from the forest floor. Last, we used “feather medicine” and decorated the rattles with rawhide and found feathers, each with personal totemic meaning. With a final drumming circle and fire ceremony, we blessed the drums and rattles and each other. During the ceremony, we used both the new and old rattles and drums in some immensely powerful energy cleaning and healing. Even physical aches and pains were alleviated with these new tools. Rituals for the road should also be recorded in your Book of Shadows: what you find, who you meet, and what you create. When the spirit moves you, you should be creative. You can construct a sand mandala or take photographs on the beach to preserve your inspiration. One lovely custom from long ago: Upon your return home, create shadowboxes, which are really like little shrines of the sacred objects from the road.

January 1—Mayan Fire Ceremony

What you need:

• Candles in the following colors: red, yellow, green, blue, white, and black
• Herbs: tobacco, rosemary, lavender, cedar, sage, and rose petals
• Incense: copal, myrrh, or any resin-based incense r 2 cups of sugar
  
• 1 chocolate bar per person
• Bells, rattles, drums, and other noisemakers
• A firepot, fireplace, or safe place for an outdoor fire, paper for your intention

The candle colors represent the six directions: north, south, east, west, up, and down (or sky and earth). They also represent the different people of the world.

Gather your friends together at dusk on New Year’s Day and ask them to bring a colored candle (assign them a color), a noisemaker, and an open mind. Ask them also to write out what they want to purge from their life and bring the paper into the circle. The Mayan Fire Ceremony serves to bring positive new influences into our lives and also to dispel what no longer serves for good. This “letting go” can be anything. For me, one year ago, it was cancer, and this year it was too much clutter. For you, it could be an unhealthy relationship, a job that makes you miserable, or a cramped apartment.

Here are the steps to the ritual:

1. Build a fire at 5:00 p.m. and have it burning brightly as your guests arrive. Place a big bowl of herbs, flower petals, and incense near the fire.

2. Create a circle around the fire and ask the eldest in the group to slowly draw a circle of sugar around the fire.

3. When the elder has moved back into place in the circle, each person should light his or her candles from the fire and place it in the sugar circle, creating a mandala.

4. Ask the youngest person to lead the group in this chant:My life is my own

   I must but choose to be better,
   
   Vital breath of life I breathe

   No more pain and strife!

   Wise ones, bring us health and life
   
   Bring us love and luck

   Bring us blessed peace

   On this our New Year’s Day.

   Into the fire, we toss the old

   Into the fire, we see our future

   On this, our New Year’s Day.

   Harm to none and health to all!

Everyone should rattle and drum away, making merry and rousing the good spirits. The spirits of the wise elders will join you.

After the drumming, start around the circle, beginning with the eldest. Allow people to speak about what they want to release from their life, and have them toss their “letting go” paper into the fire. Then the eldest person should lead the group in a prayer for collective hopes for the coming year, and anyone who wants to add something should also speak out wishes for positive change, for themselves and for the world.

Thank the wise elders and ancestors for their wisdom and spiritual aid by throwing some chocolate into the fire. Be sure to keep some for members of the circle to share and enjoy. The Mayans held the belief that a plentitude of offerings to the ancestors would bring more blessings. They also believed that fire ceremonies helped support the planet and all the nations of the word. Gifts to the fire signal to the elders that they can return through the door and to the other world, until you call upon them for help in the future.