Today marks the Winter Solstice, or Yule as the pagans call it. The longest night of the year, and just tuning into any news channel, it certainly seems so from a political and social point of view. I woke up at 7 am in the morning because my phone’s battery died and the affirmations, I was listening to in order to reprogram my mind to maintain a more positive outlook, had stopped. The morning looked exceedingly grey, with a thick coating of clouds ominously looming over the district in Bucharest under which I live. I say ‘under’ because lately everything has been feeling somehow above me, on top of me, gently crushing me into a haunting sense of submission. And I’m not in the habit of submitting. As I opened my eyes, slightly irritated that my dream had to end, there was just silence in the room, accompanied by my breathing and the sounds of my upstairs neighbours heavy, intermittent and always difficult-to-predict knocking. To counter-act the sense of dread I was feeling, I got up to recharge my phone, I pressed play on my laptop so it could unleash some soft, jazz music and moved around and woke my trio of cats who gradually made a little barrage of cuddly fur around my ankles. Making some coffee then opening up this blank page I felt like I should write something empowering and useful about the energy of the Winter Solstice. Needless to add, but I was struggling in this task. I feel like I owe it to my crew, my online community to inspire them to feel better, and yet I myself feel low on energy and uninspired to celebrate anything. My body seems to be in shutdown mode for a few weeks now and it just wants to sleep and disappear into dreams. The fact that I wake up to a reality in which everything seems unstable, dark and hopeless doesn’t help.

Against this lethargy, I try to resuscitate my body with long walks, warm and bitter cups of coffee, sweet homemade jam and affirmations, and I have some success in this endeavour, although in some moments the heaviness which I perceive in my environment is so palpable that it just overwhelms any efforts to combat it with hope and light-heartedness; like a juggernaut of despair and darkness, the Zeitgeist haunts me and moves steadily without any persuasion to do otherwise. I normally enjoy my solitude as I find a lot of space to create and time to listen to my inner voice, but the heaviness surrounding my heart is blocking me from being creative at present. So the silence and solitude in which I find myself feels hard to endure, rather than nourishing and calming, like it used to feel. I keep thinking whom to ask for help, what powerful force can I align with, in order to generate more light and to find purpose and hope? Whom do I turn to when my inner light is barely a candle-light fire, and needs some spiritual…gasoline, in order to burn brighter? I figure that if people usually have disappointed me with their lack of courage and consistency in my life, then what exists in the world beyond the veil, may be the answer I am searching. During trying time, we may ask the gods for help with lighting up our inner fire; and our ancestors will most likely, respond to us in a positive way if we turn to them for help.

The deities associated with Yule are commonly known as light-bringers and Earth-nurturers, such as the Japanese, Amaterasu – Goddess of the Sun & Heaven or the Greek Demetra – Goddess of the Harvest & Seasons or the Nordic Baldur – God of Light, Beauty and Purity. But seeing as the Sun is tethering in between the constellations of Sagittarius and Capricorn around the time of Yule, and as these are Fire and Earth astrological signs, other heavy and rather darker deities are also invited to the holiday table, deities such as Hades – the Greek Lord of Death and the Underworld or Papa Legba – the Voodoo Gatekeeper of the Spirit World or Hel – the Norse Goddess of Death and the Frozen Underworld. Perhaps the most interesting Goddess is Persephone (also known as Cora to the ancient Romans), as she represents a mediator between ground and underground. In December she is presumed to nestle under the Earth, joining her husband Hades in their wintery nest, as her mother Demeter has frozen the ground and blocked the growth of vegetation until her daughter safely returns to her from her dark, romantic journey. It is only with intense prayer and adequate rituals that one may awaken Persephone from her sepulchral slumber and one must do with care, as when you awaken the Goddess of the Underworld you also bring with her the cobwebs and dark mysteries of the world she currently inhabits. If, however the task is achieved, she is one of the most powerful ally you can summon to help you manifest spell-work in December, the type of spell-work that may help you balance your mental health.

This is because around Yule, it is assumed that a powerful energetic portal opens up and in this way, any spells, affirmations, intensions, sigils and magic artefacts can be more easily manifested and charged with magic; especially, if you dedicate any of these magic-infusing rituals to a specific deity. In her book, The Goddess in the Shadow, Allycia Rye describes how by using flower petals, dark chocolate, 4 green candles, pomegranate seeds and sweet-smelling salts for a herb bath, you can devise a simple ritual to invoke Persephone, the mediator between earth and under-earth around Yule-tide:

Persephone’s ritual should be done during the full moon (…) To begin this ritual, you must make an offering to Persephone asking her for her wise counsel. Once the moon has risen, find a path of garden. It’s best if it has flowers with blossoms or vegetables, but any path of growing things can do. Take your offering of the dark chocolate and the pomegranate seeds with you. Sit among the growing plants. Feel their joy. Envision Persephone coming back to Earth from the Underworld. Feel the happiness of that welcome from the world around you. Place the offerings among the plants. Meditate on the reason why you think Persephone’s guidance could be so important to you. Meditate on each issue separately. And then with humility, ask Persephone to guide you through her wisdom. Sit for some time longer, clearing your mind into calmness. Once you’ve finished your mediation, go in and run a warm bath. Put the Epsom salts, herbs and flower petals in the water. Light the green candles, put one at each corner of the bathtub. Turn on nature music. Now step into the bath and relax completely, body, mind and soul. Let the healing powers of the herbal bath attend to your wounds inside and out. In the days and weeks following, watch for repeated images or sightings of bats or butterflies, or any of Persephone’s other symbols (…) In the night, before going to sleep you might say a version of this: Beloved Goddess Persephone, the night has come, the moon is risen, the sun is asleep, and it is time for rest. I humbly ask you to protect me. Keep me safe and surrounded by love, until the sun returns.”

If going around your neighbourhood in search of available gardens isn’t really your cup of tea on cold December days, you may want to try these low-effort recipes that soothe the stomach lining and may help you mark the Winter solstice with a special memory. In A Tea Witch’s Grimoire: Magickal Recipes for your Tea Time, S. M. Harlow offers the following concoction:

To bond with the Spirit of Light, here is a wishful tea ritual. Set the space with a sparkling white altar cloth with three blue and three white candles. Use a purified glass bowl to hold your herbs and a teakettle for the water. If you truly wish to follow the old ways, it is said that the first full moon after Yule is considered to be the most powerful moon of the whole year. If you wish, you may do this ritual then. Blend: 1 teaspoon black tea; 2 tablespoon dried apricot bits; 2 tablespoons dried figs, 1 dash nutmeg, 1 stick cinnamon, 1 vanilla bean. As you blend each herb within your cleansed bowl, imbue the mix with your energy and intentions. Bring the cinnamon stick and whole vanilla bean together and visually bind them towards yourself with a long white string to create a wishing wand. Light the white and the blue candles and place them surrounding your bowl to empower the blend. Add a tablespoon of the blend to an infuser (or double the amount for a pot of tea) and surround the pot with clear quartz or emeralds. Heat your water to 205 degrees. Cover the tea with water and hold your hands over the brew. Focus your intent on what you wish for the season, filled with harmony and abundance. Brew for 5 to 6 minutes. Leave the wishing wand within your vessel. Add milk and sweeten with honey if you wish and use the want to stir clockwise to activate the spell. Just before serving, recite this blessing: As the winter cold rushes in, and we are put to rest, may our dreams find their reality, and our wishes blessed. The Sun shall bring them into the light, to await our warm awakening, and there we shall find our wishes calling.

And in terms of cooking something delicious and memorable, in Festive: Recipes for Advent, authors Julia Stix and Eva Fischer recommend the following dish to warm up the longest and potentially coldest night of the year:

Ingredients: 60 g stale bread, 2 eggs, salt, pepper, 250 ml milk, 1 small onion, 170 g butter, some parsley, 800 g mushrooms, 2 shallots, 200 ml cream, 50 g grated parmesan, olive oil.

Mushroom Ragout with Bread dumplings – Finely dice the bread roll. Transfer to a bowl. Whisk the eggs and salt to taste with the milk. Pour the mixture over the bread. Finely chop the onion. Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat and sweat the onion until softened. Add the onion to the bread mixture and combine well. Leave to rest for 1 hour. Shape the mixture into a thick sausage and wrap tightly in a wet cloth napkin or clean tea towel. Tie the roll securely with twine. Bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil, add the wrapped roll and simmer gently for 40 minutes. For the mushroom ragout, carefully clean the mushrooms. Cut any small mushrooms in half and slice any larger ones. Peel and finely dice the shallots. Heat the oil in a frying pan. Add the shallots and sweat until translucent. Add the mushrooms and fry over high heat, stirring continuously, until beginning to soften. Reduce the heat to low. Pour in the cream and simmer, uncovered for 10 minutes. Add the parmesan just before the end of the cooking time. Season with salt and pepper. Rinse the parsley, pat dry and finely chop the leaves. Stir into the ragout. remove the dumpling roll from the saucepan and drain well. Unwrap and cut the roll unto thick slices. Drizzle with the melted butter, sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve with the mushroom ragout.

And finally, if you require the presence of a specific animal spirit during these dark days to give you courage and help you feel protected, then call upon the Wolf Spirit. Described by Cecilia Lattari in her book Herbana Witch as “solitary yet part of the pack, the wolf knows how to be both a leader and a follower, but his spirit always remains intact. In fairy tales, he often embodies mystery, the unknown or the sacred. Because he is linked to initiation, the wolf presides over winter, which is an initiation for us to spring into rebirth”. It could be that the current low mood in which I find myself is just a marker of the seasonal affective disorder induced by winter time and the low light in the environment. Perhaps invoking a deity, taking a herb bath, cooking a comforting meal, matching with a spirit animal and brewing tea with a magical touch may help soothe a tired soul, but nothing truly lights a fire inside like contact with another human being. The sad reality and the reason for my present sorrow is the fact that it has been so painful to connect with other people in the past year, as most people are tired, irritated, angry and desperate. It is also notoriously difficult to make friends or trust other people, the older you grow. Exchanging energy with others this year felt like a game of passing on the pain, from my heart to yours. This is why, it often felt easier to retreat from the social world and rest within solitude; to not bother and to remain somewhat calm in a storm of unpredictability and chance. Within this storm, I found that pets offered the most reliable presence and this is why my pet family was among some of the few things that grew this year.

I think that perhaps, in spite of the challenges of being alive during such chaotic times of deep social unrest, it may still be worth being here for each other and finding the light within our selves, that inner spark that helps switch other people on to the reality that they too harbour a fire within, a fire that will need tending to and a bit of discipline to stoke into a flaming warmth. Only if we continue to do these little things for each other, if we continue to remind each other of the fire within, will be able to make the best of the surrounding darkness. And this responsibility will become even greater as Saturn and Neptune will slowly move next year from a Water sign (Pisces) into the first sign of the zodiac, the protector of the primordial fire, Aries. Inevitable there will be limits to our inner fire but also a cessation of conflict and aggression across the world. Knowing this, why not become a little, local Prometheus and steal fire from your sources of inspiration, from prayers to the gods? The once this is accomplished give this fire back, place it where it belongs: into the heart of people. So that we may find the energy and drive to be confident enough to implement a creative, rich and sensory world, one in which we will enjoy waking up into.

With universal love,

Lexi