Of Christians and Pagans: Yule Tide, Not Christmas.

After breaking the Christan shackles of my youth, I gorged myself on the spiritual feast that was forbidden in my brainwashed youth. They took advantage of a naive and sensitive child to program with their narrow-minded views. When someone wakes up from that kind of delusional reality, it tends to cause some anger and resentment. It's baggage that I'm still sorting out. 

So, I strongly protest making children adopt a spiritual belief system that they are too young yet to understand. I feel that way with any belief system -- including Buddhism and Paganism, which are my two shared belief systems. But, I've rudely drawn us off course from the core of what I wished to share with you good people.

So, it's Yule!! Otherwise known as Winter Solstice, but I call it Yule being of Scandinavian heritage. Like so much of Pagan spirituality, it was forcibly assimilated into the Christian celebrations of Christmas. Typical of Christianity, they stole a lot from the Pagans (the tree and Santa Claus to name a few of the big ones). Yeah, you heard that right. Did you honestly buy that story that Santa Claus was a Christian "Saint?" Uh, no.

Again, typical of Christians, they replaced the Pagan Odin with one of the their Saints, Saint Nicholas or Sinterklaas. The character and mythology of Sinterklaass was a major influence for the development of Saint Nicholas. Santa is an old man with a long, white, beard? Odin, was an old man with a long, white, beard. Santa Claus wears a cloak? Odin wore a cloak, too. Santa Claus flies through the sky with his 8 reindeer. Oden, flies through the sky on a horse with 8 legs. Santa delivers gifts through the chimney to the children. Children in the some Pagan regions would leave their boots (Christmas stockings) by the chimney filled with sugar or carrots to feed Odin's horse. Then came the "Christmas" tradition of hanging the stocking by the chimney hoping for gifts from Santa. Along with the "Christmas" tradition of leaving cookies for Santa and his reindeer. Santa Claus is said to mysteriously know whether you're been bad or good. Odin, the supreme god of Norse Pagan mythology had this same magical ability.

As for the tree, in Pagan times, evergreen trees and plants were brought into homes during Winter Solstice (Yule). They helped remind them that some life (evergreens) continues to live, even in the dark of winter, and that spring's life will soon arrive!! Yule was unceremoniously changed to Christmas and some bullshit about the star being the star the shepherds saw when Jesus was born. Yeah, well, that may be their story but originally it represented the stars in the universe, along with the candles attached to the tree. The star on top of the tree was originally a pentagram representing the five seasons with spirit being the fifth element. I wanted to write this all out so you know where I am coming from when I saw I made a star for our tree!! The star I made is the star in this post's picture at the top!!

I collected the twigs from one of my favorite nature areas here in the Colorado mountains. As I chose them carefully, I thanked Mother Earth for her bounty. When I came home, I glued the pentagram together and wrapped it in raffia twine. Thus, our Yule Tree is complete!! To combine it with my Buddhist tradition of celebrating Buddha's enlightenment under the Pipal tree on December 8th, a Buddha statue sits under the tree, at the base. May you all have a very find holiday season whether that be Yule, Christmas, Hanukkah or Bodhi Day!!

~The Green Man Has Spoken~

I'm Reclaiming the Pagan Wreath from Christians.

One thing I do to help remind me that life will return despite the freezing depths of winter is by bringing a wreath into the house. It is a nice splash of green life amidst all the lifeless snow and the scent of pine is so relaxing and invigorating. I choose wreaths in part because Christmas trees have become synonymous with Christianity. And while wreaths are still used by Christians they seem less polluted by Christian tradition. I want to reclaim the wreath for Pagans. I know that part of these Christian Christmas traditions were stolen from the Pagans to assimilate Pagans into Christianity but that makes me wonder even more about the supposed "peaceful message" of Christianity. They sure don't like it when someone mocks their traditions but it's o.k. to maintain the Christian mockery of Pagan, yule-tide celebrations by stealing our symbols and supplanting the Pagan meanings behind them with Christian ones?

No, I'm done with sharing. So I'm reclaiming the wreath, the "Christmas tree" and all the other Pagan traditions that Christians enjoy but probably have no idea of their origin. Imagine the outrage they'd feel if we took the cross and said it was now a symbol of Pagan resistance to Christianity as carried out by the Romans. They'd be furious and rightly so but they don't give a shit about stealing someone else's traditions. You'd think they'd want to purge those elements from their supposed, "pure" religion like some have tried to do recently with Halloween celebrations, which stem from the fall, Pagan celebration of Samhain. What these Christians don't realize is that they'd not have much left to celebrate the season except the cross and the manger. They love to have it both ways -- They don't want anyone to call this holiday season anything but Christmas but they'll keep using Pagan oriented traditions? Then again, since when did many (not all but many) Christians worry about double standards?

Plus the circle represents the cycle of life, death and rebirth -- rebirth being a the key to emotional survival in the winter months. The empty hole in the center of a wreath reminds me of all that is yet to be known such as the great mysteries of our existence. It is also a symbol of our homes (the center space in the wreath) being surrounded and protected from the elements by nature such as big pine trees that withstand and blowing winter winds. I have considered ordering a wreath made specifically for Pagans but we'll probably just get one at the grocery store because of a tight budget. We, like a lot of people don't have a lot of money to spend this time of year.

~Be well~