Winifred Hodge Rose
(Anglo-Saxon Mothers’ Night is Solstice Eve, and is also the first night of Yuletide)
This ceremony is available as a 28-page booklet at this link: https://www.lulu.com/shop/winifred-rose/mothers-night-blot-and-yule-celebration/paperback/product-jrzzn2.html?q=Mothers-Night+Blot+and+Yule+Celebration&page=1&pageSize=4
(Note: I have just added a new poem to this Blot, to hail Sunna’s return. Ideally, it’s best to have as many people as possible reading the various poems and prayers here, which enhances the spirit and experience of the group!)
Opening
(Hallow the stead in whatever manner you usually use, but do not yet light altar-candles.)
Yuletide begins on this night: a time of wildness and stillness, of holiness and merriment, of strangeness and familiarity. Wild Goddesses and Gods ride the night winds and sweep over roads and fields, gathering spirits lost and left behind in Midgard. Valkyries course the skies, sprinkling the land with froth from their horses’ bits. Mother Holle shakes her feather-bed in the winter sky, and snow falls like feathers on the Earth. All bring fertility and change, challenge our fears and call up our courage. They remind us of the wild, untamed spaces of the Worlds, remind us that not all things are tamed or tamable by the hands of humankind. They remind us, too, that from the powers of the wild Worlds come renewal and rebirth. Listen now, to the mysteries they call out on the winter winds.
(A moment of silence and centering, then call out:)
Disir! Matrons! Mothers!
Asynjur and Vana-wives, loving and wise!
Seeresses, Wise women!
Audhumla Ur-Mother!
Deep within the Wells of Time and Wyrd,
Deep within the Womb of Worlds,
Your mysteries lie like growing babes,
Nourished in darkness and silence,
Growing toward the light.
(Light candles on the altar while saying:)
Dark Well of Space where Fate is laid,
Of Ice and Fire the Worlds are made;
From Fire and Ice the Worlds are spun,
From Mother-Night is born the Sun.
Sun’s rays shine forth from longest night,
The World-Tree turns from dark to bright.
From Heathen Yule, our hearts reborn,
With Troth renewed, we greet the Sun!
Hail and welcome Yule!
All: Hail and welcome Yule!
Poem to Welcome Sunna’s Return
1. O Sunna bright, your turning flame
Rolls down the hills where Gods once came.
They come again, their mighty names
Are beams of light from Sunna’s flames.
2. O Sunna clear, your radiant might
Has marked our deepest wisdom-sight.
Midwinter, midsummer, gladness and tears:
You turn the corners of all our years.
3. O Sunna shining, flame of our soul,
Enkindled, enlightened, we are made whole.
The Needfire’s smoke of summer does heal,
While Yule-log’s blessing brings us weal.
4. O Sunna golden, strength of the land,
We reach toward you with upraised hands.
Our light of life, our sigil of might,
Your power shines holy in Heathen sight! ~~
Hail to the turning of the Yule Sun!
Hail and welcome the Yule Sun-Wending!
All: Hail and welcome Sunna! Hail and welcome Yule!
A Poem to honor the Earth-Mother
Speaker 1:
Earth-Mother: / Your might and main / Are spent for our gain / From orchard and garth / From field and hearth / The signs of your grace.
Speaker 2:
Of you we are born / To you we return / In blood and bone / In tree and stone / You leave your trace.
Speaker 3:
Ground of the World / Your beauty unfurled / In meadow and glade / In sunlight and shade / We see your face.
Speaker 4:
Mother of All / Give heed to our call / For always we turn / Toward your fullness we yearn / Our holiest place.
All: Hail the Earth-Mother!
(All drink, if desired, and an offering is poured into the blessing bowl on the altar.)
Hailing the Ancient Mothers
Speaker 1:
Ancient matron lines unbroken,
Stretching out through time and tides of humankind,
Mothers of families and tribes,
Mothers of our spirit, mothers of our blood,
As you have nourished us throughout the years,
We give you honor and remembrance now
On this Night of the Mothers.
Speaker 2:
Norns visiting newborns,
Holda leading the Wild Host,
Valkyrja collecting our ghosts,
Holle offering haven:
From before life’s beginning to after life’s end,
Life lies in your arms,
Mothers all-giving, loving and wise.
All: Hail the Mothers!
(All raise horns and drink, if desired, and pour an offering into the blessing bowl.)
(Here you can include a song if you wish. Suggestions are provided at the end of the Blot.)
(Here is a meditation-reading, to include if you wish. You could have different people read each paragraph.)
Meditation: The Yule-Streaming
At the turnings of the year, the great Tides of Life and Death, Moon-drawn, wash across the quivering Worlds. The restless souls rush forth: a drumming deep within the Earth, curls and lashings of tumbled winds and waters, flowerings of flames, out from the Otherworlds into Midgard and from Midgard forth into Worlds beyond our knowledge. Each soul, each wight, living or dead, is a needle drawing a thread of power, stitching the Worlds together: needles of silver and of stone, of iron, antler, bone.
And now the great Spirit-Mothers of all beings come, each calling to her own: Mothers of clan and tribe and solitary folk, Mother Dog and Mother Wolf, Mothers of Whale and Wren, of Oak and Corn, Audhumla herself calling the souls of cattle and kine.
“Come home, come home, to kin and hearth, to den and nest, to moonlit meadow and rolling wave, to burrow and branch and starlit pool. Come gather might and main with us before returning to the fray.”
And so they come, wights and souls of Human-kind, and Beast-kind, and all kindreds of beings, following the Voice they know, each trailing strands that weave the Worlds together, warp and weft of hallowed power. The warp is threaded by the Dead and the weft by the Living, changing places in an endless rhythm of Being, humming across the Worlds.
God and Wight, Human and Beast, Tree and Herb: attuned to one another we pour the passion of our love and need for one another from cup to cup, from Well to Well, from life to life and need to need, and the Worlds thunder and quiver with this mighty flow.
Now at the turning Tide of Yule, awaken! Listen and remember what your souls already know. Open to the surges of memory and mystery that move through your being. Know your own attunement to the flows of power streaming across these ever-renewing, Yule-blessed Worlds.
Sumbel
(Proceed with Sumbel as you usually do it, passing the horn and speaking your calls and boasts. Customarily, the first round of boasts is to the Gods and Goddesses. The second is to ancestors, heroes, those we admire and are grateful toward. The third round is open, for any meaningful topic. When you are done, pour the remaining drink into the blessing bowl.)
Sharing the Blessing
Here we have spoken from our hearts, sharing what is meaningful to us with one another, the ancestors, landwights, and the Holy Ones. We have laid our thoughts and memories in Mimir’s Well of Memory and Inspiration, and ask the Holy Ones, the Ancestors, and the Spirits of the Land to bless the work of our hearts and minds placed within this Blessing Bowl.
(Sprinkle participants with an evergreen twig dipped in the blessing bowl. Fingers or other item may be used if a twig is unavailable. The altar, home, land, and any pets in attendance can also be sprinkled and blessed.)
Thanks-Giving
Wildness may roam outdoors, but inside we have warmth and friendship, and the blessings of home and kin. Our Holy Ones both great and small have come to share the merriment of Yuletide with us. Gods and Goddesses, ancestors, wights and spirits of land and home, all well-intentioned beings have been warmly welcomed here within these walls. May our Yuletide be gladdened by their presence, and our lives renewed by their blessings! Hail and thanks to the Mothers and the Holy Ones! Hail and thanks to Earth, Mother of All, for all you do, and all you are, and all you mean to us your children, blessed by your grace.
Closing
As the Wild Hunt flies and the wandering souls are gathered in,
As the Mothers spin, as we weave and re-weave tales of Time and Worlds from their sacred threads,
As the Holy Ones, Ancestors, and Spirits of the Land are honored,
As trees grow tall, as birds, fish, and animals roam,
As we live our everyday lives, mindful of the blessings around us,
Worlds are stitched together, the holy Kindreds of Beings are united, energies blend and flow, and our World is once again made whole.
Our Blot is now blessed and ended, as we go forth with frith and faith renewed.
Here is a link to some Yule songs, with Heathen words set to familiar tunes, which you can include in the Blot if you wish, or sing after the Blot is done.
