Issue 12. Winter Solstice/Yule, altars for the Sun, and honey magic
Everything sparkling, everything shining
In this issue you will find:
Thoughts on Winter Solstice/Yule and how my holiday altar shaped up this year
Infused Herbal Honey for medicine and Sun thanks
Honey SPELL JARS for magic
A poem for today
Cozy finds from this week!
Hi.
The Wheel of the Year keeps turning, everybody. We arrive at the winter solstice bedraggled, disparate, desperate for rest. What a year, am I right? What a ride we are on. I am grateful for the winter Sun on our faces.
The winter solstice occurs in the Northern Hemisphere today, December 21, and is the exact moment Earth’s axis reaches it’s maximum tilt away from the Sun, resulting in the least amount of direct sunlight for that hemisphere. It means the shortest day and the longest night of the year. When we begin our tilt back toward the Sun, daylight hours begin to increase. When we reach Summer Solstice on June 21, this moment is reversed and we start all over. Can you think of anything more romantic than this dance we do with our Sun? It’s tough to imagine. As humans on this tilting planet, we have celebrated the return of the Sun forever, back through time.
In Kindling the Celtic Spirit, Mara Freeman explains, “Rituals for welcoming back the sun date from the dawn of civilization, as communities came together to celebrate life with feasting, music, dance, drama, and above all, light and fire.” In modern times we think of Christmas as a single day or a one or two day event, but many cultures through time have celebrated this time of year over at least 12 days, and sometimes more. The Romans had Saturnalia, Syrian cultures celebrated the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun on December 25, Scandinavians celebrated Yule.
Celtic celebrations were likely a mix of Scandi and Norse traditions, the origins are unclear, but what we do know is that in the fourth century C.E., the Church of Rome overlaid the Celtic, pagan festivals with Christian traditions. The birth of the Sun became the birth of the Son. (So precious! Ok guys, lol?!) Many of the old traditions lived on however, as folks undoubtedly knew the deep importance of rituals needed to banish the dark and welcome back the light, regardless of what the establishment demanded.
In the mix of celebrations and rituals was a decorated Yule log, burnt on the hearth on top of a piece of last year’s wood, which was used to kindle the new one. Around the Yule log fire, our way back ancestors celebrated with music, eating and drinking, storytelling with family and friends. A piece of the Yule log was kept for the next year, when the ritual would repeat.
On a grander scale, ancient Celts likely observed the birth of the new Winter Sun at the five-thousand year-old earth chamber Newgrange, in what is now County Heath, Ireland. An ancient burial mound and likely place of religious ceremony, the entrance is perfectly aligned with the Winter Solstice sunrise. Freeman writes “On the first morning of the year’s turning toward the light, sunbeams shoot down the narrow passageway into the heart of the chamber.” The Sun arrives. The cycle dances on.
The Irish government is kind enough to livestream this magic for us. You can watch the morning light beams live here.
This year I could not get to Newgrange (if only), but I made my own offering in the form of a Winter Solstice/Yule altar. I gathered my elements, made my Minty Holiday Tea, and got to work:
Included in my altar: oranges and candles, little Suns peppermint chocolate candies for my sister lebkuchen for the old Germans gin for the maternal grandparents oats for the Scottish, and paternal grandparents black tea and milk for the Irish stones, the bones of the Earth, and a little Yule log animals, pig and deer, a tiny bone antler incense smoke from garden sage and rosemary water for the parched cards: the Sun, spruce (Winter), the snake and fern (starting over), the moth and eucalyptus (an ending)
As of this writing the exact moment of our tilt back toward the Sun has already happened (the internet tells me it was around 10am EST today) but it is not too late to celebrate. These moments on the Wheel of the Year are flexible, magical, ephemeral. Our observance does not need to be exact. Our reverence can ripple through the ether before and after these moments, out into space and time.
Herbal Medicine and Kitchen Table Notes
What medicine is more in sweet relationship to the Sun than honey? Golden, shining, sparkling in its fat jars and jugs, I think we sometimes take for granted this humble food that is deeply medicinal and made even moreso by the addition of nourishing plants and herbs.
In Herbal Homestead, Brittany Wood Nickerson explains that raw, unprocessed honey (honey not heated above 110 degrees F— the following information may not apply to processed honey), contains nutrient-dense and nourishing pollens: bee pollen contains 22 amino acids and multiple vitamins, minerals, and fatty acids, as well as enzymes and co-enzymes that make honey an aid for digestion and also an anti-oxidant. Bacteria does not grow inside honey itself and it is therefore shelf-stable at room temperature.
Honey stimulates the movement of lymphatic fluid: it encourages the transportation of immune cells and so is good immune system support. Honey is also soothing and healing to mucous membranes, making it helpful for healing inflammation of anywhere along the gastrointestinal tract (including a sore throat!).
Adding herbs that aid in immune system health, gut health, or nervous system support to make a herbal infused honey only multiplies these benefits. We talked about infusing honey when we sat with garlic as well. This recipe is adapted from Christine Buckley’s Plant Magic: Herbalism in Real Life.
Herbal Infused Honey
2 cups local, raw honey
about 1 cup dried herb of choice
Method: Warm the honey until it is a pourable consistency: set a saucepan of water over low heat until it is about 100 degrees F, turn off the heat, and set the glass jar of honey into the warm water for 10 minutes or so, or until it is pourable. Roughly chop or rub the herbs between your fingers so the parts are small, and add them to a glass quart jar. Pour the warm honey into the jar — it should cover the herbs completely so that when you tip the jar everything swims around with enough room. Remove any air bubbles with a chopstick. Cap and label. Flip the jar upside down every few days to make sure all of the herbs are really getting soaked with honey.
The infused honey is ready in two to four weeks! If you want to separate the herbs from the honey, warm the honey again like you did at the beginning and pour the honey through a strainer to remove the plant matter. Enjoy a spoonful straight or in a cup of tea.
Ideas for honey infusions: Infuse any of these by themselves, or make your own combinations: lemon balm, sage, thyme, rosemary, mints, bee balm, licorice, ginger, yarrow, vanilla bean, pine, jasmine, orange peel, fennel, rose, lavender, cardamom, anise, turmeric, pepper.
Bonus honey magic!
Make a honey spell jar. Write down on a piece of paper what you want to call sweetness to, or offer sweetness to. Put this piece of paper in a jar. Cover it with honey and herbs of your liking. I would place this on my altar for a few days or however long feels right. Talk to it, encourage the magic to work out in the world. When you feel the spell is complete, compost the honey and burn the paper. (Safely!)
A Poem for Today
Sunrise
By Mary Oliver
You can
die for it --
an idea,
or the world. People
have done so,
brilliantly,
letting
their small bodies be bound
to the stake,
creating
an unforgettable
fury of light. But
this morning,
climbing the familiar hills
in the familiar
fabric of dawn, I thought
of China,
and India
and Europe, and I thought
how the sun
blazes
for everyone just
so joyfully
as it rises
under the lashes
of my own eyes, and I thought
I am so many!
What is my name?
What is the name
of the deep breath I would take
over and over
for all of us? Call it
whatever you want, it is
happiness, it is another one
of the ways to enter
fire. Cozy Corner
It’s here, it’s “what kind of planner can I get for 2026 that will change my life completely so I will finally get my shit together” time!! I have had the Chani Astro planner for a few years and really like it. Gotta keep up with what those planets are up to.
I love looking at the favorite tools of artists and writers who draw. Inspired, I snagged a set of Tombow pens this weekend to mess around with.
I really, really want to see Hamnet. I was so moved by the novel; the trailer for the movie looks absolutely beautiful.
Picked this novel up and started this week; really enjoying it so far. Late to this party but I always am!
Up Next
Through the Hedge! Thoughts and recs that swirl around this week!
Sources
Buckley, Christine. Plant Magic: Herbalism in Real Life. Roost Books, 2020.
Freeman, Mara. Kindling the Celtic Spirit: Ancient Traditions to Illumine Your Life Throughout the Seasons. Harper One, 2001.
Oliver, Mary. Dream Work. Grove Press, 1986.
Wood Nickerson, Brittany. The Herbal Homestead Journal: Inspiration, Guidance, & Recipes to Build Your Herbal Homestead. Self-published, 2015.
See you next week! xo, Robin
Gorgeous piece on the solstice and herbal honey. That detail about raw honey stimulating lymphatic movement is something I hadnt seen spelled out clearly before, makes sense why it works so well during cold season. Started infusing local honey with ginger and thyme last winter after a similar realization, and the differnce compared to storebought cough syrup was night and day. The spell jar idea at the end is a nice touch too, grounding the medicinal aspect with intention.