The Pagan Symbols of Yule

Most of us are aware by now that modern traditions surrounding Christmas are rooted in the pagan holiday Yule. Both holidays are irreversibly intertwined, center around the Winter Solstice, and hold common themes of hope, joy, and love.

Yule is a Nordic & Germanic pre-Christian holiday that is still celebrated today. The pagan symbols of Yule center around the sacred plants like Evergreen trees, Holly trees, and Mistletoe. The Yule Goat and the Yule Log are other pagan symbols of Yule. These symbols connect us to the ancients and teach us the spirit of the season.

Let’s explore the lore and magic of Yuletide, shall we?

What Is Yule?

Our earliest records of Yule can be traced back to the ancient Norse tribes. It is centered around the Winter Solstice, and is a celebration of calling back the sun. Over time through trade & migration, the holiday of Yule spread to the Germanic & Celtic tribes and was later brought to the Pretani (British) islands along with Celtic culture.

There were various timeframes for celebrating Yule which varied by region and culture. Some Yule celebrations began in mid-November and lasted for 2 months, others held a 12 day celebration beginning on the solstice, in others a 3 day feast commencing on the Solstice was enjoyed. Over time as the Christian conquest spread throughout Europe, Yule was celebrated alongside Christ Mass (Christmas) and in many cultures Christmas replaced the pagan holiday of Yule. Yule is the heart hidden under the mantle of Christmas. In effect, we all still celebrate Yule every time we decorate an evergreen tree, make mulled wine, or gather with others to sing songs and exchange gifts.

The Darkest Day

As with all pagan holidays, the transitions of the earth’s cycles inspire the holidays. The Winter Solstice marks the darkest day of the year in the Northern and Southern hemispheres, and is celebrated around December 21st or June 21st respectively. The sun appears to stand still in the sky for three days prior to the solstice, and for three days after the solstice. In the Far North, the darkness would be all-consuming, lasting the entire day with only the barest glimmer of sunrise for a few hours. In some places, the sun never breaks the horizon this time of year.

Darkness is seen in many cultures as the origin of all life, and the ancient peoples of Europe are no exception. A new cycle begins in the darkness, and they had an intimate understanding of the role of death in life. The seed begins in the quiet of the soil, the child forms in the darkness of the womb. Many Nordic and Germanic people reckoned the beginning of the year to begin on this darkest day, and thus we understand the Winter Solstice to be a potent time of new beginnings.

The Sun returns

The return of the sun is reflected throughout countless mythos worldwide in human storytelling. Innana resides in the underworld for three days before her resurrection. Osiris, Horus, Tammuz, Mithras, and many more Middle Eastern & African deities have a death & re-birth story in their mythology. In Christian mythology, Jesus was said to have hung on the cross for three hours, then darkness fell midday for three more hours, and he died in the sixth hour and rose again three days later. Nordic, Germanic, and Celtic cultures did not have many dying-and-rising again motifs in their mythology, but this Middle-Eastern/Indian/African archetype migrated throughout the European continent with the Roman conquest.

Many of us in the modern-day experience the dark days of winter as a time of depression, grief, and weariness. I think it is reasonable to assume that the ancients also would have felt these normal human reactions to the disappearance of the sun. In Nordic and Germanic culture, Women would adorn themselves in white and crowns of candles on their head, lighting the way through the dark and invoking the sun to return. It was a time to enjoy home brews of ale & mead, and the tradition of wassailing (walking around drinking and throwing cider, beer, or ale on houses, livestock, and farming equipment as a blessing) was born. Yule was a time of intentional celebration, merry-making and calling in the light together in order to dispel the dark thoughts of the mind.

The Pagan Symbols of Yule

The beauty of paganism is that the magical objects, symbols, plants and animals were the cornerstones of everyday life. A sacred plant is one that is all around you, used at home by the common people. The sacred animals are the primary providers of life-giving meat, blood, bone, and skins for the tribe’s survival. The sacred is the constant companion, and nature is not something “out there” to visit, but something we are.

Evergreen trees

“Life continues on” whispers the evergreen. Leaning against the trunk of these trees gives strength. They provide potent medicine against winter ailments, loaded with anti-pathogenic volatile oils & resins. Evergreen tea is a survival food, and in the northern winter would have been one of the few sources of Vitamin C. The relationship with Evergreens in Nordic, Germanic, and Celtic culture is deep. If you have European ancestry, it is important to realize that we are a tree people, people of the forest.

Pagan rituals took place in a sacred grove, and each village would likely have one or more sacred trees thought to hold a mystical being or dedicated to honoring a certain deity. There are many olde traditions of hanging cloths and small objects from trees, and this tradition is the foundation for decorated evergreens gracing our homes today.

Most evergreen forests are one giant organism sprouting in the form of hundreds, even thousands of giants. They are wise, they are old, they are rooted, they are generous. Evergreen trees remind us of how small we are, and that though the world seems like a swirling rage of catastrophe, our collective and individual tragedies are but a moment in the life of an evergreen. We can find comfort in this, remembering that this, too, shall pass and joy will return.

The Yule Goat

Hailing from Scandinavia, the Yule Goat is one of the oldest symbols of Yule. Thor’s chariot was said to be pulled by goats named Tanngnjóstr (teeth grinder) and Tanngrisnir (teeth bearer). The Yule Goat is a rowdy, sometimes scary creature. Goats are an integral aspect of agriculture, being the primary means for mowing and fertilizing fields and providing essential milk in early Spring for Nordic people.

They are intelligent, strong-willed animals that require building trust before allowing themselves to be herded. I enjoyed a brief time as a goat-herder during my apprenticeship with Susun Weed, and the lesson of the goats is to find your voice and your will, for they would not follow a weak or tyrannical leader. Goats love to push boundaries and are utterly devoted to their freedom. It is no small wonder they were vilified later, as they hold space for the part of us that cannot be wholly tamed.

In Sweden the tradition of burning a giant Yule Goat made out of straw happens throughout the country. The effigy is built in the center of town, and rarely makes it to the solstice without some trickster lighting it up in secret. The Yule Goat in later Christmas tradition was an invisible spirit that ensured the holiday preparations were done correctly and often accompanied Santa Claus in his gift-giving duties. A common prank is to make a small yule goat out of reeds or straw and hide it in another family’s home. Once found, that family has to find some way to get rid of it by secretly ferreting it into another’s home. Yule Goats are common decorations, and represent the light-hearted mischievous spirit of the season.

The Yule Log

Pagan celebrations almost always centered around the hearth fire. At the Winter Solstice the hearth would be cleared out and re-lit, the ashes set aside to fertilize the fields in Spring time. The fire would be restarted with a decorated Yule log, and a charred piece of the previous year’s yule log would be placed in to be the first ember. Thus the thread of one year to the next was not broken.

Yule logs were thought to provide magical protection, and literally kept that family alive in the cold, dark winter. A large part of the magic of the Yule log was in the gathering of it in late Fall. The family would go into the forest and find the largest log they could possibly fit into their hearth. It would be cut down, and oftentimes was so big it would require several grown men to drag it back to the home and set it inside for drying. This trip would involve singing and usually some sort of fermented drink, filling the woods with merriment and laughter.

At Yuletime, the log would be abundantly decorated with ribbons, evergreens, holly, candles, and whatever else the family had on hand. Today not all of us have a hearth to drag our Yule log into, but we can still celebrate with a special log with holes drilled into it for candles and decorate it with care and attention, lighting the candles in the dark to capture the spirit of this age-old tradition.

The Holly Tree

This sight of a holly tree in wintertime is truly spectacular. Cloaked in shiny, dark green spiky leaves and bursting with bright red berries, it is no wonder this tree captured the attention of the ancients. As an evergreen, holly trees are guards of the otherworld, and are seen as protective against malevolent spirits and entities.

Holly trees were planted near homes as protection from lightning. Folkloric practices like this are often discounted as mere superstition, only to find out later that there was a verifiable reason for these generational beliefs of indigenous people worldwide. Modern science has found that the spikes of the holly leaves act as conductors for electricity and thus will attract lightning much as a metal rod will. Discounting folk wisdom is often a folly, as much as some would like us to believe otherwise!

Many communities had a taboo against cutting down a holly tree, however branches were liberally used to feed livestock and decorate homes. Holly trees were thought to have an affinity for control, and despite the taboo the trees would be coppiced and used for whips, chess pieces, tool handles, and boats. Farmers would use a line of holly trees as a line of sight when plowing, and the bright red berries have been used as Winter Solstice decorations for so long that they are now a universal symbol for both Yule and Christmas.

Mistletoe

Ah, the romance of mistletoe tied in red ribbon and hung in the doorway. The kissing tradition of mistletoe perfectly captures the innocent playfulness of Yuletide. Mistletoe is a sacred plant to the Celts and the Druids, and is another evergreen gracing the wintry forest of the temperate latitudes. In herbal medicine, Mistletoe is a potent medicinal that can be poisonous if used without an experienced practitioner. It has a long history steeped in magic and myth.

Norse legend recounts a myth in which the god Baldr was slain by a branch of mistletoe, and it goes like this:

Once upon a time, Baldur dreamed heavy dreams which seemed to forbode his death. Thereupon the gods held a council and resolved to make Baldur secure against every danger. So his mother, the goddess Frigg, took an oath from fire and water, iron and all metals, stones and earth, from trees, sicknesses and poisons, and from all four-footed beasts, birds and creeping things, that they would not hurt Baldur. When this was done Baldur was deemed invulnerable; so the gods amused themselves by setting him in their midst, while some shot at him, others hewed at him, and others threw stones at him. But whatever they did, nothing could hurt him; and at this they were all glad.”

“Only Loki, the mischief maker, was displeased, and he went in the guise of an old woman to Frigg, who told him that the weapons of the gods could not hurt Baldur, since she had made them all swear not to hurt him. Then Loki asked, ‘Have all things sworn to spare Baldur?’ She answered, ‘East of Valhalla grows a plant called mistletoe; it seemed to me too young to swear’. So Loki went and pulled the mistletoe and took it to the assembly of the gods. There he found the blind god Hother standing at the outside of the circle. Loki asked him, ‘Why do you not shoot at Baldur?’ Hother answered, ‘Because I do not see where he stands; besides I have no weapon.’ Then said Loki, ‘Do like the rest and show Baldur honour, as they all do. I will show you where he stands, and do you shoot at him with this twig.’ Hother took the mistletoe and threw it at Baldur, as Loki directed him. The mistletoe struck Baldur and pierced him through and through, and he fell down dead. For a while the gods stood speechless, then they lifted up their voices and wept bitterly.” {source}

The story has two endings, depending on who you ask. In one version Baldur is sent out to see upon his floating funeral pyre. In another, Frigg begs the gods to bring her son back to life, and they oblige. She rewards them with a kiss, and they all “made the mistletoe promise that it would never again do an uncharitable deed but would forever be consecrated to acts of happiness and usefulness”.

And so here we are, smooching under the mistletoe all these centuries later.

Yuletide Blessings

Yule is a time for celebration, star-gazing, and relaxation. We can gain comfort in finding the heart of our holidays, and understanding the symbols and origins of our human celebrations can help us transcend time and feel deeply connected.

I invite you to join me in calling in the light this Winter Solstice.

May your dark days bring forth your brightest self.
May the evergreens protect you and shelter you.
May your indomitable spirit remain strong, even in the harshest conditions.
May we embrace the stillness of the night and remember the hope of the ancient stars.

And so it is.