Lapis Philosophorum

Today is the shortest day of the year. From now on the light will slowly become stronger by each day.

Yule – Winter Solstice: – Dec 21st This card shows us how best to connect to the Light within and without – it symbolizes the Birth of the Sun.

I drew The Queen of Pentacles. She is sitting on her throne with a drum and a bone.  She is connected to the ground and the earth, nature and fertility in the shape of the white Hare or Rabbit behind her. It is still winter, both spring is on it way, as the snowdrops are telling us.

This card is about being grounded to the hearth and to the earth, and being connected to presence and process, to be drawn to sensual pleasures as food or flowers. Now – for me to connect with light is simply to be earthbound and pragmatic. To be patiently waiting for light to return.

So – what is this Yule-tide about, anyway?

In Danish it has been suggested that there may be a connection between the word Jul and Hjul (Wheel) as in the wheel of the year. Another word Guili signified a period of  midwinter celebrations from late December to the first days of January, determined by a lunar calendar.

Yule was a midwinter festival celebrated by Germanic and Nordic people as a celebrating of  the return of light at the winter solstice, but was later absorbed by Christianity. A yule log was lit at the hearth of the house, and the celebrations lasted as long as it was still burning or glowing.

It has also been suggested that it was a blót or a drinking festival in honor of the german and norse gods Thor and/or Odin, and scholars have linked the celebrations to the myth or legend of the Wild Hunt.

Yule was celebrated for a fertile and peaceful season and consisted of a fertility sacrifice, which is inherent in the concept of blót which means a sacremental meal or feast, with sacrifices of food or animals.

So, what are we celebrating? The return of the light and the sun, fertility, prosperity, the hope of peace and the happy expectations of a new Beginning. One circle has come full – a new circle is starting all over. So it is definitively a period of passage from dark to light, and thereby it signifies something holy or sacred – also for us modern pagans/heathens.

With these words I’ll start my Sacred Days of Yule Spread.

Yule – Winter Solstice: – Dec 21st. This card shows us how best to connect to the Light within and without – it symbolizes the Birth of the Sun.

The World
The end of one cyclus – the start of a new. I think that this is about accepting the flow of time, light, and energy, of beginnings and endings of events and epoques. Actually this woman is embraced by light – it is a question of letting it in, letting it shine from within and without.

Actually there is a lot to learn here. In fact it is hard to allow oneself to be enlighted – to allow ones own light to shine freely, and others as well.

The DruidCraft Princess of Wands - with a pink tulip

“This card points to the inner blocks and resistance that is holding us back from following our dreams.”

Funny – this is card 11 of the Wands, following Hermit IX and 10 of Wands.

I do not use reversals – so to me the up right card always indicates the full spectrum of possible meanings. Here – I think – what is blocking me is to want too much, to wish to do and to initiate too much, and then to be confused and indecesive by all life’s possibilities – resulting in too many beginnings – but too few things being completed.

Maybe this Princess is also pointing to a fear of actually achieving my full potential. “It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us” as Nelson Mandela has said.

“This card shows us how best to connect to the Light within and without – it symbolizes the Birth of the Sun”.

Ten of Wands.

There is things I have to let go, before I can fully appreciate the Light.

But somehow it has also to do with the end of this cyclus (the shortest day in the year) – and the beginning of something new.
I have to let the burden of the old year off of my shoulders to start a new.
According to the book the tens are connected with the Fool and his mistletoe, The Magician and the Wheel and its “cyclical turning of the wheel of life”.

Funny – in the Tarot Wisdom book by Rachel Pollack the Hermit also symbolizes time, the year getting old in December and limping toward rebrth in January – followed by the Wheel.

As if the cards themselves are pointing to the cyclic nature of the spread and the magic of this time of year for me. As they are saying – be aware of the turning of the wheel and let things go – to let the Light shine.

“This card reminds us to look for a particular message in our dreams tonight. The ancients believed that our dreams on this night foretold some of the important events in the coming year”.

The DruidCraft Hermit

Hermit – The Hermit is himself a reminder of the importance of looking  inwards and turn to the Realm of Dreams and the Otherworld. He is followed by a woolf – that is he is in contact with his instincts and animal spirit. I guess this card is reminding me to look for signs of my journey and inner guidance in my dreams.

I could ask my dreams: What inner light shall I search by?