Magickal Yuletide: The Original Wiccan Winter Festival

The Original Season of Yuletide Explained

Long before Christmas became a commercial holiday, it was known as Yule—the celebration of midwinter, the Winter Solstice, and the rebirth of light and the Goddess (Nature). In the darkest days of the year, ancient peoples honoured the turning of the Wheel, gathering in warmth and gratitude as the Sun began its slow return back to fuel earth.

At its heart, this season was never about consumption or excess. It has nothing to do with killing baby pigs and putting their dead flesh in their own blankets of tortured skin. It has nothing to do with stuffing dead turkey birds murdered ruthlessly or eating and gifting dairy products made of milk of of stolen babies. It was originally about nature, light, renewal, and love for all life.

The Living Evergreen: A Tree to Honour, Not to Cut

The Fir tree, evergreen even in the harshest winter, symbolizes eternal life of earth or nature, endurance, and the promise of renewal. People once decorated living outdoor trees, offering them: Solar and star symbols and lights, ribbons, herbs, fruits, misteltoes, holly, and pinecones, handmade charms and presents to share love with. These were gifts to nature, not taken from it.

Cutting down trees, abandoning them after use, and treating them as disposable is the opposite of the original meaning. The tree was, and still remains, a living guardian of the winter nights.

Sacred Plants: Mistletoe and the Magic of Midwinter

Herbs like mistletoe were revered not only for protection and healing but also for their symbolism of life that thrives even in darkness. Such plants reminded ancient peoples that nature has its own wisdom and that winter is a time of quiet power, not death.

These traditions were expressions of partnership with the Earth, not dominion over it.

25 December: The Solstice, Saturnalia, and the Old Sun

The date later known as “Christmas Day” was originally the culmination of Saturnalia and the veneration of Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun. It marked the returning strength of the Sun after the longest night.

Santa Claus and Saturn: The Old Sun / Old God

Before Santa was reinvented as a jolly gift-giver in red, he reflected the Old Sun—the Old God of Saturnalia.
He was the Ancient Winter King, the spirit of the dying year who:

Delivered final gifts of wisdom

Blessed people magically (the most magical time of the year)

And then stepped aside to make way for the new Sun of the coming year

This figure symbolises release, completion and the gentle passing of the old cycle with new magical gifts brewing inside the cauldron of our soul and soil.

The Goddess and Earth: December as Her Rebirth

Later patriarchal traditions centred winter festivals around a male god or sun deity and the modern deity of the scriptural religions who claim that nature was created in six days by a male deity or an individual person from outside of nature who forbids use of magical powers in us. Who demands sacrifice and obedience to commandments that are not always healthy and allowed the use and dominion of non human animals with humans made more ‘special’ as the ‘image and likeness’ of himself.

We can now clearly see that the older understanding of nature as the creator of all beings is more balanced—and in many traditions, deeply feminine and reminds us of our own inner power or energy. After all Energy creates Reality, not a deity or individual from outside. And we all have Magickal Powers inside of us. We are all animals.

The Earth Herself is the Goddess

In winter, she descends into stillness, appearing barren or asleep.
But beneath the frost, she carries the potential for new life.

December can be seen as the birth of the Goddess:

The Old Crone of Samhain, now dying and experiencing rebirth

The deep womb of the Earth carrying the spark of new life, and

Nature preparing to reawaken

By spring or Ostara, the Goddess emerges as the Maiden, young, green, and flourishing. This interpretation shows that the season is not inherently male at all. It is Earth-centric, nature-centric, and deeply inclusive. The cycle is simple and eternal (The Wheel of The Year):

Dec – Yule/ Mid-winter Solstice – the old Goddess of earth or nature rests, regenerates, dreams new life, reborn as new alongside the dying and reborn sun god in the shortest day and longest night of the year

Feb – Imbolc/ Start of Spring – The Goddess is the baby Brigid, helped by the solar god of growing light and potential of seed germination

March – Ostara/ Spring Equinox – the Goddess is a green Maiden, fertile, and youthful in the equinox of the sun when day and night are equivalent

May – Beltane/ Start of Summer – The Maiden is wed with the powerful Sun as the days are brighter and longer

June – Litha/ Mid-summer Solstice – the Goddess flourishes, bearing flowers with the strongest sun or the longest day of the year

Aug – Lammas/ Start of Autumn – the Mother bears the first harvest fruits as the days get shorter

Sep – Mabon/ Autumnal Equinox – The Mother bears the second harvest of grains as autumn takes over

Nov – Samhain/ End of Summer and Autumn—she becomes the Crone, releasing the final harvest of pumpkins and ready to retire in winter’s start

It is the story of nature itself—not a masculine lineage, but the living body of the planet with the Eight Sabbats of the Wheel of the Year.

Easter / Ostara: A Festival of Life, Not Harm

Just as Yule celebrates rebirth in the womb of winter, Easter (originally Ostara) celebrates the explosion of life at the Spring Equinox.

It was always about: Newborn animals, Eggs as symbols of creation, Flowers opening, Rebirth and fertility. This season honoured life, not death.
It was never intended to be a time for harming lambs, consuming eggs from exploited animals, dairy chocolates, or celebrating violence against the young. To truly honour Ostara, just as Yule (real Easter and Christmas) is to protect and nurture life, not take it or steal it.

So, now do you realize how the ‘Matrix’ or false religious propaganda was created to replicate original reality and promote consumerism in place of nature. They created focus on stories of mythical deities and personalities as divine men, in order to reduce a direct connection with nature. In this way they promote exploitative industries of killing lambs, stealing milk from mother animals, and stealing eggs and newborns to ruin the planet and take away empathy by making humans. This is all done to make humans feel superior, entitled and ‘allowed’ to exploit other animals, by a deity who is imagined to be someone of our likeness or image, and a person instead of nature?

Hemispheres: Celebrating the Festival the Land Is Actually Living

In the Northern Hemisphere, December is Yule; June is Litha.
But in the Southern Hemisphere, these are reversed as the seasons are inverse with the opposite spoke of the Wheel of The Year in action, instead of midwinter, there is midsummer and vice versa, for all eight sabbats.

This alone reveals the truth:

These festivals were never meant to be rigid dates.
They are instructions from nature.

To celebrate Yule in December in Australia or South Africa makes no spiritual sense—because the land itself is singing a different song. True celebration is always in dialogue with the Earth beneath our feet.

Reclaiming the Real Tradition: Love for Nature and All Beings

When we peel away modern layers of consumerism, exploitation of nature and animals, mass slaughter, artificial customs, patriarchal overlays, commercial storytelling

…we rediscover the oldest truth of all festivals:

They are invitations to honour the Earth.

To protect life, not destroy it.

To live in partnership with the natural world.

The real traditions teach us to:

Decorate living trees, not cut ones

Offer gifts to nature, not take lives from it

Love animals instead of using or eating them

Celebrate the return of light with gratitude, not excess

Recognise that the Goddess of Nature (manifested as the Earth for us) is the true mother of all life, born from her womb, and growing to maturity before taking rebirth alongside the Solar god. Thereby seeing nature as divine in itself. It is not an alien or outside ‘God’ who is a creator of nature. Nature is energy/ Shakti goddess, born of the Self, along with her own Inner Light or Consciousness/ god or Shiva (her own awareness), and we are the ones who are part of her and conscious beings who can look after and respect nature.

These celebrations are not about religion or dogma; they are about remembering who we are:

Children of the Earth.
Keepers of life.
Protectors of the seasons.

A Planet-Healing Path Forward

When we reclaim the wisdom of Yule, Solstice, Saturnalia, and Ostara, we step back into harmony with the living planet. The festivals become what they were always meant to be:

Seasonal celebrations of the sacred duty of humanity towards loving and protecting nature, our mother.

Reminders that the Earth is sacred, and so is every being upon it, nourished by the light of the Sun who protects her and us.

To celebrate in alignment with the land is to return to compassion.
To honour the Goddess is to honour life itself.
To cherish the seasons is to heal the Earth with light and love. And the Earth, when loved, answers back.

May you rediscover your soul’s powers and be reborn in consciousness.

Blessed Be and have a most spiritually magickal celebration!!