Sacred days of Yule: A Seasonal Ritual

[Joan Marie]

We are fast approaching the longest night of the year (in the Northern Hemisphere) and it is time to prepare for our annual Tarot Ritual.

If you have participated in this before then you you know this is a 12-day guided reading designed to help us connect to the seasonal change and to bring a spiritual close to the old year and prepare us for the new one.

I find each of these "4-Corners-of the Year" readings very powerful and filled with insight, but I am especially partial to this one.

It's very easy to participate. Just choose a deck to use and then we all meet here on the 20th of December and begin.

• We each open a thread for our readings.

• Copy and paste the 12 festivals (see below) into your thread.

• Then each day for 12 days, read about the festival for that day and draw a card.

• Then post in your thread about what that card had to say to you.

It can sometimes be a little tricky to stay with this during the busy holiday time. You may choose to pull all 12 cards at once, or maybe some other way. Do whatever works for you. However you approach this, I can almost guarantee you will experience a profound connection to the season, something so important for us especially these days. This is a beautiful way to explore the Tarot and doing it together makes it all the more special and profound.

If you want to know more about the history of this reading - here you'll find the story. This spread was created by Linda J. Paul.

This ritual was brought to us by Nemia and I thank her for sharing it with us. It is becoming a very important touchstone for us here.

If you would like to join in, just reply here, and share which deck you will use. I haven't decided for myself yet which one, but we'd all love to hear your choices.



Here is the Sacred Days of Yule spread:



Sacred Days of Yule

This spread will help you to learn to apply the tarot to enjoy and enrich your passage through the twelve festive days from December 20th to 31st. The meaning of each card in the spread reflects the energy of the festivity associated with each of the twelve days.

1. Mother Night of Dreams: - Dec 20th
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.

2. 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.

3. The Time of Beth: - Dec 22nd
This card points to the inner blocks and resistance that is holding us back from following our dreams.

4. Hopi Time of Renewal - Dec 23rd
This card indicates the best way for us to seek purification and renewal, and to build tolerance for others.

5. Feast of Mothers, Christmas Eve: - Dec 24th
This card shows how we can connect with the spirits of our ancestors for communion and to ask for wisdom and guidance. It is also a time for Christians to reflect on the birth of Christ.

6. Festival of Life, Christmas: - Dec 25th
This card shows us how to connect directly with Spirit.

7. Yuletide, Kwanzaa: - Dec 26th
This card shows us how to express nurturance, to attend to our families and to express the protective energy within us towards others.

8. Birth of Freyja: - Dec 27th
This card points to issues of love, luck, artistic and creative expression and female wisdom.

9. Feast of Alcyone: - Dec 28th
This card gives us a personal inner message - one that speaks directly to our heart and spirit.

10. Day of Nymphs - Dec 29th
This card encourages us to connect to our playful side, our inner child and how best to cultivate this aspect of ourselves.

11. Day of Rest: - Dec 30th
This card shows us how to walk our path in a relaxed and confident way....with the ability to deal with stressful situations in a philosophical, detached way.

12. New Year's Eve, Hogmanay - Dec 31st
This card shows us how to release the old and let in the new. This relates to both our external lives and our inner being.

[Diana]

I'll join in with great pleasure. I have neatly managed to avoid any end of year festivities this year (huge sigh of relief) so have plenty of time to do this.

I'll be using a TdM - Kris Hadar's Véritable Tarot de Marseille.

[archimedes]

This sounds beautiful, I'll participate. I'm not sure which deck. Maybe my Touchstone, as its rich golden feel is rather festive.

[Joan Marie]

Just 10 days until the Sacred days of Yule readings start.

Choose your deck and come join us!

I'm leaning towards the Tinker's Damn Deck. The rich colours remind me of the holiday season and the strong imagery is so good for the kind of messaging needed.

[archimedes]

bumping the thread. I hope some others will join in. This is a lovely spread. I'm not sure how I feel about the first one... I have some pretty weird dreams, and generally see them as my brain just doing a bit of a garbage dump! Hopefully I'll have nicer dreams that night...

[Diana]

bumping the thread. I hope some others will join in. This is a lovely spread. I'm not sure how I feel about the first one... I have some pretty weird dreams, and generally see them as my brain just doing a bit of a garbage dump! Hopefully I'll have nicer dreams that night...

I've had a recurring nightmare for many years. So frightening that I wake up in tears sometimes even sobbing and it takes me hours for the feeling of dread and despair to vanish. I had it again last night, after many months of quiet - I thought maybe it had gone forever and I'm even more upset because it has returned. I woke up with tears already streaming down my face - they must have started before I woke.

I think I may use another deck than a TdM though for these readings. Something less stark and sort of gentler. I only have one other deck of this kind. It's the Crystals tarot : http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/crystal-tarots/. It doesn't have the 8 and 11 in the right place, but I won't bother about this, just use it as is.

[Joan Marie]

Thank you for bumping the thread archimedes! I've been meaning to and to promote it more, and I will. I've been so preoccupied.

Good luck with your dreams! There might be some interesting nugget amongst the brain dump!

I used to have a recurring dream. It was really wrenching. For years I had it. The setting would change a little, but basically it was always the same and left me with the same awful feeling.

Then one time, after having it, I realised what it was, what the real root of it was. It was something that was actually too late to fix, so I could only deal with it within myself. But I faced it, the situation, how I had left something. And I haven't had the dream since. That was years ago.

I'm thinking of changing decks too. I used my little animal deck this morning. It's sweet and weirdly powerful.
But I may stay with the Tinker's Damn. It does have the rich colours and elaborate nature of the holiday season.

Good luck getting past the 8/11 thing Diana! I know you can do it!

I am really looking forward to this!

[Joan Marie]

Well here are, on the eve of the beginning of the sacred Days of Yule readings.

If you are participating in this, you can copy and paste the 12 days from the original post in this thread into your own personal topic in this location.

That way you will have your own space to keep your readings.

You can do it any way you like. Some people like to add to the same post each day creating one long post starting from Day 1 to day 12.

I prefer to "reply" each day to my original thread. That way people can comment on my entries. It enhances the shared experience I think.

But please do whatever you like.

I really look forward to this. I will pay special attention to my dreams tonight. Day 1 is this:

1. Mother Night of Dreams: - Dec 20th
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.

I hope you will join in. It's a really nice way to end the year in a reflective and powerful way.

[Aoife]

hoping to slip in under the wire...
To be honest I was bit unsure about some of the positions in the spread, and I'm still not entirely sure what they mean, but I'll just wing it.
The Solstice in the UK is on the 22nd this year, so I'll be a day late.
I'm using the Hudes Tarot.

[archimedes]

hoping to slip in under the wire...
To be honest I was bit unsure about some of the positions in the spread, and I'm still not entirely sure what they mean, but I'll just wing it.
The Solstice in the UK is on the 22nd this year, so I'll be a day late.
I'm using the Hudes Tarot.

I figure with those ones, just use it intuitively as a starting point.

[Diana]

hoping to slip in under the wire...
To be honest I was bit unsure about some of the positions in the spread, and I'm still not entirely sure what they mean, but I'll just wing it.
The Solstice in the UK is on the 22nd this year, so I'll be a day late.
I'm using the Hudes Tarot.

Hadn't heard the Hudes being mentioned for donkey's years! A trip down memory lane.

Yes wing it. Like a bird

For some reason I didn't grasp at all I seemed to have understood that the actual Solstice came earlier this year. Is this possible???

[Joan Marie]

For some reason I didn't grasp at all I seemed to have understood that the actual Solstice came earlier this year. Is this possible???

I just looked and this year's Solstice is Saturday, December 21, at 23:19 EST, Dec 22 04:19 GMT, 05:19 CET

So it's kind of straddling the weekend.

[Aoife]

Hadn't heard the Hudes being mentioned for donkey's years! A trip down memory lane.

Yes I think it was published nearly 20 years ago.
If I recall right, Diana you didn't object too strongly to this RWS-inspired deck?
I don't possess many decks - never caught the collecting bug. But when I was looking for a suitable deck - given that I don't really understand some of the spread positions - its uncluttered, gentle styling felt right. I trimmed the [fussy] edges off years ago.

[Diana]

Yes I think it was published nearly 20 years ago.
If I recall right, Diana you didn't object too strongly to this RWS-inspired deck?

I have some vague recollection of this. And looking at it again, I also for some reason find it rather pleasing.

Now, I have a question for Joan Marie. Why is the third day called the "Day of Beth"? I can't find any pointers on google.

[Joan Marie]

Now, I have a question for Joan Marie. Why is the third day called the "Day of Beth"? I can't find any pointers on google.

I think it's "Time of Beth" not "day"

Well that sent me googling. And what a wonderful rabbit hole I found. I think I will be spending part of my day there.

I can't give the full answer here because I don't know it yet, BUT, I think (am pretty sure now) it has something to with Hanukkah.
Beth is the 2nd letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and the first letter of the Bible.

The word means "House of". Hence, Beth-El is House of God, Bethlehem is House of Bread, etc...

I will try and elaborate more fully when I learn something. But I'm sure there is someone out there who could tell us.

Here is a really good link I found to start with if you would like to join me in the rabbit hole:
https://gnosticteachings.org/courses/al ... -beth.html

I'm so glad you asked this question. There is so much to know.

[Aoife]

This is also quite useful -
https://mysticalbreath.com/kabbalah-beth-tarot/