Unveiling The Magic Of Celtic Yule

0:03 Welcome, Well, go well do Para Truth Truth. What's up everybody, and welcome to Paratruth Reborn. My name is Eric and I'm Justin and you love this episode we're about to do. No, that was horrible.

0:47 Why do you do that? Because you'll get a kick out of it. Oh gosh, I came back on the wrong day. Oh well, if you didn't get those sins or hear or read the title of this episode that we are talking about the Yule. Now, the Yule is one of those ancient festivals where myth, nature and human longing intertwine so beautifully that it still feels enchanted even today in the modern world. So let's chat a little bit about the magic behind Mule.

1:29 And that's just something that you know, justin. You and I have been studying the Yule for quite a long time now, ever since really starting these shows, and I see these shows is obviously we've had so many versions of this particular show throughout years, but it's one of our favorite conversations and topics in general, I think, especially obviously around this time the year. Yeah. Well, and you know, I was looking at all of this stuff and I'm like, gosh, Christmas has intertwined so much of these not beliefs, but practices that come with you. I was like, I was dumbfounded because there's a lot more to it than I actually realized that's that's been put into Christmas. And I was just talking to a friend about it and he's like, how do you guys know so much about Christmas. I'm like, I've been researching it for a long.

2:33 Time, studying Christmas. But yeah, and so I love doing this because it has a tie to Christmas, of course. And it was interesting in our poll how many people responded, and it was majority people want to learn about the Mule gods and deities. So we'll have to do an episode, separate episode on that. Yeah, just more focused on them. Yeah, yeah, I mean the Mule. I mean it goes pretty deep and stems.

3:14 Into you know, old world culture. You know, there's a lot of myths and legends that are kind of stored up in it as well, even more so than the modern belief system of Christmas and idea of Christmas. And I don't think Christmas. Today is it quite what it was a thousand years ago, just as then it wasn't quite as it was three thousand years prior. Today is very commercialized, right, So it's all about Santa Claus. It's all about red. And green and Christmas decorations and selling Christmas gifts and wrapping paper and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. All kind of just very surface level when you really consider, you know, how much history actually exists. Right for christ and of course, you know, you have the Christian holiday obviously, and you have a number of other different branches in religions that kind of celebrate Christmas in different ways.

4:10 But the Mule is obviously ancient. It's kind of where all originated. And we still see a lot of the mule now even in modern times that a lot of people don't recognize it as part of Yule festivals. They annoyingly participate in some of those festivities just because it's part of the it's part of the whole game nowadays. Yeah. Well, and I mean so many holidays can be said where it's been overly commercialized. We've talked about Valentine's being that way too. Oh, almost every time I see Valentine, I want to gag. I don't know, I don't like it. I don't know why. I never have when you were little, like getting the little Valentines from everybody.

4:56 Well, I mean except for when every once in a while they would miss me and I'd be the only kid in class without a sucker because they ran out. So maybe there's some hidden trauma in there somewhere. I talk about therapist about it anyway, So let's kind of go through. The yu'll hear for a bit. We can, we can chat on it. But the first thing that we're gonna kind of touch on is the fact that it's a celebration of the reborn sun. Now, long before basically electric lights, there was like this or and before the content of like to midnight, you know, because the Mule extends basically twelve days and goes into the new year, of course to it, but the Yule honored the winter solstice, which is the longest night of the year. Now to ancient Norse, Germaic dramatic and its Celtic people's, this wasn't just an astronomical event.

5:56 It was actually a cosmic moment when the sun was basically reborn. It was rising from its weakest point to regain strength, and so the Mule heralded hope light returning after darkness. And we know we've talked about so many times over the years, and even during the summers, we've talked about this. How you know, I consider winter the dark times, right, That's what I always call it. The dark times is because the sun doesn't at least in most of the world, it doesn't stay up very long. Night basically rules this time of year. And so the nice thing about the winter solstice is that it's this this switch, the switches turned down, where every day after the winter Solstice, the sun stays awake a little longer and longer and longer, and the light basically starts to conquer the darkness, takes it back over.

6:47 And so we see this celebration in the Mule quite often, and it's one of the main events when it celebrated the Mule. Yeah, and you know, the sun going down at five pm really sucks. I'm sure the ancient peoples felt the same way. They didn't have the calendar and clocks that we do now, so it was it was probably even weirder to them because it was and this goes to a lot of different things. They used to blame the gods for a lot of this stuff. So as I was looking at a lot of this, it was it was fascinating to me that you'll has this kind of death and rebirth that we think of for winter, and a lot of people we've talked to over the years from different pagan cultures and religions, it's one of those that is very significant. And when I was kind of researching the gods because of where the pole went, it actually goes even into Chinese and Asian culture as well.

8:17 Oh yeah, it extends quite further than I ever thought. You know, it's interesting the type of things that you learn when you actually take the time to study things. Yeah, I should have. I should have, you know, realized that back when I was in school, but it had an easier time. You're you're just now real hey, you know, better late than never, right. Well, something that I found fascinating is that it's mentioned about fire as life magic. You know, bombfires, candles, earth flames. These were not only source of warmth in the cold, they symbolize protection from winter spirits, the endurance of life and hard times, the rising power of the sun.

9:12 You know. The most famous of this is the Yule log was sometimes burned over twelve days, which is kind of where we get the twelve days of Christmas is from Mule and the Yule Log, each spark a blessing, each Ember, a wish. Something that I found that I wanted to include in this is the Yule Log rituals. The tradition is a large log traditionally oak, placed in the hearth and burned for twelve days, like we mentioned, from Christmas through the twelfth Night. The ashes were said to have protective and fertilizing properties, which I know. Ash has fertilizing properties, but it can also kill the so too if you don't do it properly. Modern practice, a smaller log can be decorated with herbs like cinnamon, pine or orange and carved with intentions or wishes before being lit.

10:17 The act of watching it burn symbolizes the hopes for the new season coming true. You know, uh, you know. Intentions and wishes are kind of those things that we have talked about a little bit. Well, we haven't gone to in depth in it, but we did do a couple of shows and we've talked to a number of friends of ours on this subject matter. These intentions and wishes are one of those things that there there there we can't scientifically prove them right. But we all have intentions. We all go about our life with intention of something right, but in this case, we're talking about intentions of the upcoming year.

10:58 What good you want to happen? Hopefully good. Hopefully you're not intending something bad because you know, shame on you. But uh huh, the same with wishes. You know, wishes there can probably also be translated to prayer in some ways. So wishes and prayers again is very similar to intention. And in fact, even in scripture when we're told that when we pray, we should belied that we received what we were requesting from God already. So you're intending and believing in something that doesn't actually exist yet. Uh. And whether or not that's intention, whether or not that's wish, you know, it's up to each individual person and their particular definition of it. But I always find those things very interesting, especially when it comes.

11:42 To carving that into wood. And we've talked about intention in the past, about like writing an intention on a sheet of paper and burning it and letting the ash flow away into wherever it goes, you know, in the in the sky or grass. And that's yet another version of this much smaller, more controlled verting, because you're not burning an entire log, but you're bringing this chiece of paper. And I like to tell people because. There are certain individuals who are like, oh, you can't do that switchcraft right, and especially from the Christian culture, which understandably so I get it, but also from people who aren't found by any sort of religion, people who just don't simply understand. And a lot of this you have to realize is just symbolic too. It's like cutting the thread. When I meditate and I want to release something from myself, I will symbolically cut that thing away or you know, whether it's with a fake pa you know, a pair of scissors, or like an imaginary pair of scissors.

12:37 There's nothing wrong with imagining, letting go of something, or putting it out into the world if you will. It's very important to use our imagination. Whether you're doing an intentionism sort, or you're wishing or you're praying, it's important that your imagination. You know where it's hard, and yeah, I guess what it's not there, But I can go on, you know, I you know, I can just keep on rambling, rambling, man over here, that should be my theme song at this point. But another thing about the Yule log and just also bonfires fires in general. You know, we have this idea of protection from winter spirits, and and during Halloween we light a fire as well, bonfire to ward off evil spirits or dark spirits.

13:29 Right, so here we. See another connection with fire and fires often use within various cultures as a warning against dark entities or spirits or you know, trickster spirits. You know how exactly that that that's the case. We don't know. Obviously, we don't have any scientific evidence as to why a spirit might be afraid of fire other than one possibility, maybe it's representative of a hell fire, right, so we you know, at least in the Christian culture, there is a belief that any and all evil spirits will eventually and are already bound to Hell. They may not exist the rightest moment, but one day the will, and so anything that represents the hell fire, the thing's going to you know, keep them heated and burning and suffering. They want to refrain from. But it's also a very strong element in general with the nature. Right, it burns and it destroys, but at the same time it creates life.

14:24 So This is something that is very capable of creating harm, causing harm, but it's also capable of bringing forth beauty. And I think that's another thing is symbolic about fire, and it's it's not very controlled, easily controlled substance side substances, but elements is not easily controlled element. Either. You know, you can watch and you can put water in a cup and it'll sit there on your table and it won't move. Right, you can take a thing of dirt and put it on your table and it won't move. Air well, you know, you can't see air, so I don't know if it's moving or not, but it might be. I mean moving.

15:06 You see, you can see you can see the wind moving right. But fire, you know, you light a candle and you'll see it trying its hardest at times to jump away from the candle. It flickers, it flops, it jumps around. It does not want to be contained, no matter how much you know or how small it is. And I think that's something that's really just symbolically kind of scary. It's something you want to refrain from. Get too close to the fire. You might get burned. Right, That's my pretty typical saying so I think in many senses, there is both the physical element of fire that is protective, but there's also the symbolic aspect of it in terms of its power and automate kind of authority when it's released.

15:53 Oh. In many cultures though, too, they talk about the dark being afraid of the light. Yes, they could be talking about dark entities or something else altogether, but kind of the same thing. They're not necessarily that they'll be burned, but for whatever reason, afraid of the light. I mean, maybe light burns dark entities. I don't know who knows. I mean, you know one thing that is like a literal factor, and you can test this out yourself, right, it's. You get you use a light. It could be any light, right, whether it's the sun or a flashlight. You know, you point at object in the crates of shadow, right as you try to move the light around to catch the shadow, that shadow always runs from it.

16:40 It refuses to be caught in the light. And that's something that you know, it has always been like in my mind, in my heart, I think about this a lot, is that the shadows always run from the light. There is no shadow that can exist within the light. You know, it's cast it by the light. It's there, but it refused to be touched by it. And I just found that really really interesting. I remember, way way back, probably thirteen fourteen years ago, it was pitch black in my basement. For an example, is telling an old friend of mine about she's going through some tough times, and I was telling her about how she doesn't have to be afraid of the darkness because light is always going to overcome the darkness, right, And so all I did was light a little, tiny lighter. It was little anybody flame, and the entire basement lit up.

17:33 Right. Such a little flame can create so much light in an extremely dark place. And that's where we also use light to surround ourselves. When we're trying to deal with dark things or we're going through a difficult time in life, we surround ourselves with light because light is that powerful. It's a protector. It pushes away the shadows, and it allows guidance. I mean, you walk in darkness, you stumble and you fall. It's just that simple. A light and light. You don't do that unless you're just clumsy. But I mean I am me too, so. That might just contradict everything. I just said, so light doesn't help me. A couple other practices to go over though.

18:23 You mentioned bonfires, So build a bonfire in a safe outdoor space to celebrate the longest night and the sun's return. If you're like my family, you could go streaking on New Year's Eves. Good Times offerings. Throw spices, wine, bread, or other offerings onto the fire as a gift to the sun to encourage its return and bring luck and prosperity. Might be where we get the leaving cookies for Santa Claus Good practice. Colored flames. I found this fascinating for a more advanced ritual, sprinkle specific chemicals onto the fire to create colored flames.

19:11 Not not the colored flames part that I was found fascinating, just the fact that you can use that as part of the ritual. Yeah, it's curious though because there hasn't been there. There wasn't much research or discussion on exactly what the colored flames are for other than they're pretty. Right well, and we've talked about how different colors coincide with different things you're trying to wish for or manifest, So that's more than likely probably what it goes along with. No, I mean that very well. Could be. It could be that simple. And of course now nowadays they have chemicals that are readily available specifically to change the fire various colors. And newspaper also, I don't know if you guys know, it doesn't happen often, and I don't even know if we have newspaper around that much these days actually, because I don't see them very often.

20:12 It's more it might be more here compared to other places. But I mean, Shelley's got an abundance of newspaper because her mom gets the newspaper still, and our ninety two year old neighbor gets it as well. Yeah, well, if you've ever burned the newspaper, you've probably seen that in an occasion, the ink creates a beautiful green flame, and so that was one old way that we would always try to change the color of flames. But nowadays they actually have chemical little packets specifically for your bondflyers or your fireplaces that you just throw in there, and they work decently. Okay, you know, they're not super super super prominent, but you can catch these little tiny colored the flames blue pinks, reds, greens and yellows and whatnot.

21:01 You know, so it's pretty cool. You know, they're in. They're cheap, They're super cheap. The next thing we want to kind of talk about is the Wild Hunt and holiday spirits, and this will go a little bit into the gods as well, So we won't go too deep into that on this episode, but they kind of die in here as well. As I said. Earlier in the show, Mule is steeped in mythic lore and one of the most vivid, of course, is the Wild Hunt. And we've talked about the Wild Hunt. I think we have an episode, I don't think fully on the Wild Hunt, but we have an episode on a number of different uh myths and lore and the Mule that include Wild Hunt. But the Wild Hunt is basically a spectral a spectral procession led by Odin or other deities depending on the region. On Mule Nights, when the dale, when the veil between worlds is thinned. Now, quick little connection here, we have then veil on units Jeez, Mule Knights, but we also have a then veil back in soloyn all right, so we're seeing two times a year that we have the bill between world's end. Now, during this time, a number of things happen a ancestors were honored, b spirits roamed at the earth more freely, and c offerings are made to ensure protection and luck. This is the

22:32 older echo, of course, behind today's magical winter nights. And again this is very similar to what happens there in Halloween as well, at least in the old old days, right right, Some of us still kind of celebrate it in a similar way, but for the most part they're pretty well connected here, which also actually kind of makes sense because we fall, we come into winter when the veil is thinned, and we leave winter with the veil being thinned, so you kind of go full circle before walking into spring. Now, there's a number of other entities or gods, even if you will, that are celebrated during this time, or at least are prominent with a mule.

23:23 One is Odin, as we'd already noticed. And if anyone doesn't know who Odin is, he is a Norse all father who leads acurse the wild hunt and for it, and then Frey and then the Norse god of fertility in peace. They all kind of work, not simultaneous or together, but they have crossed paths time and time. Again, there's also the Holly King, which represents the winter aspect of the year, while deities like Saturn Saturnellius I think, God of agriculture, and the Germanic goddess Holda, which are also associated with winter celebration as well. Then of course we have some various other entities that are less God and a little more or godlike, I should say, a little more monstrous. And of course that is our friendly neighborhood crampis.

24:19 We all need a crampus around some of us do, right. It's probably sitting in the old chair during Christmas Eve dinner, mumbling about the things that the kids are watching on TV. But then also one of my personal favorites, and we've talked about this also a lot, and that is I believe that I believe. His name or her name. I think it's a heat but I could be wrong, is Joe Lacator, basically the Mule Cat and the Christmas Cat, which is one of my favorite stories for Christmas of all time, just in terms of legends and lore, because this is a giant cat who basically searches around for little kids to devour who haven't received or bought themselves brand new clothes.

25:09 For the year to come. It's kind of wild to think about, right, but it's a I've done some research on the yule cat over the years, and even more even some just a couple of days ago, because again we're talking about this particular episode of They Well mule Cat time. Let's cool. Yeah, I've been let's see about the old cat. But you know, the ull cat was one of those legends that was born to help push or motivate kids to work hard to make a a savings, you know, a an allowance so that they can save up and buy them some new clothes. Sometimes he's clothing, his clothes would be gifted to them, but for the most part, it was an idea that these kids would buy the clothes themselves.

25:53 And if they didn't, that means they didn't get the time to work, which means they weren't good kids, and therefore they'd be devoured by the mule cat. Yeah, if you got a cat, you probably know what it's like to be biting a scratched by them. I probably don't want to be eaten by a jack one. We're not talking about like lions and tigers. It's like this seems like he proposedly four times the size of those at least. Now if I remember right, the Yule cat is tied to the Old Lads, Yes, yep, and uh what was the what was the giantess? Was it a pet of uh uh augres gorilla?

26:35 Grila? Okay, I don't know how how that. I can't remember how you pronounce it, but yeah, she was an augress gorilla and her sons. Were the Euel Lads, so the cat belonged to her. Uh. And yeah, there's a happy little family who has some interesting stories in their old children, their lower Yeah. Yeah, I've always loved those episodes, just especially when we first did them, went over all of those creatures or entities whatever, because I had never heard of a lot of them that we went over. Trying to think of any of the others. I know, there's Frau Perkta, which had no ties to the Yule Lads or anything like that.

27:40 But yeah, we'll have to go over some of this in the Christmas episode. Maybe go over the old gods and deities more on our Christmas episode as well. Now, you can't have Muele or Christmas without the Evergreen, and there is a tie to Evergreen magic that goes along with Yule, which again where we get the Christmas tree, the Yule lug, Holly ivy pine, missletoe. All of those are evergreens, and we're revered as symbols of resilience and vitality.

28:24 They represent an eternal life, natural arth, I'm sorry, Nature's promised to return and protection against misfortune. We take it for a second, so I can go let my dog in. Yeah, go for animals, you know, so he's a protection against the misfortunes. This is one of those things that constantly I would say condent, but it's one of those things that are still very prominent today in modern times. Right. So, Holly ivy pine, missletoe. We use all of these on a regular basis around Christmas, and most people really don't even realize their origin story. They just think, oh, this is something that's you know, belongs to Christmas time.

29:10 It looks pretty, it works, right, The various evergreens that we collected that we put up and put our decorations on, these are things that really is remnant of ancient charm, and a lot of people just don't realize that, which I think is kind of crazy, you know, because you know, there's nothing wrong with not realizing or not knowing that belongs to an ancient practice, but there's something so much more nostalgic about it and much deeper when you realize, like, wow, thousands of years ago this was this item was used, and we're putting up these Christmas trees because of this reason. It just kind of stuck. And even though the meaning has changed over the years, right nowadays, putting up of Christmas tree very much just about Christmas and celebrating friends and family and having a joyful time. Right at least in terms of the modern commercialized version. Some put up a Christmas tree and representation of Christ's death on the cross, you know, they said, you know, the scriptures say that he was now to a tree, so you put up the Christmas tree for the same reason. But even before that, these trees were used, and these evergrids are used for a number of different reaces, and some of them is right, I can span right now, that's simple.

30:29 Right. So the first is basically bringing branches and wreaths inside decorating homes of pine for holly and ivy is actually a tradition that directly honors the magic of evergreens. Probably never really thought of evergreens being magical, but this kind of goes and ties into the idea that there are tree spirits and elementals that work along with these trees and you can kind of derive magic from them. There is, of course, also the you've talked about a which is a large log again burned during twelve days of Yule, which was seen as a source of protection, good fortune, and light during the longest of nights. Then of course there's decorating the evergreen tree. Now this is the thing we all want to hear about, because this is what we still do today. Well, here's its origin story. Maybe when you're decorating a tree, or if you're looking at it right now, you probably un like me, you've had your tree up already. You're probably looking at it at this very moment. So now you did to learn why, right, So, in ancient times, trees were decorated with offerings like fruits, nuts, and food to entice the spirits, which later evolved into modern tree decorations that represent things like prosperity, protection, and the returning sun.

31:49 So all those things that you. Have on your tree right now are just a transformation of what once was into what currently is. But in many ways it's still the right because some of us have ornaments of pictures a friend's family, We have little art things that maybe your kids did or maybe that you did when you were a kid, right, And these are all things that kind of the decorations that kind of like show this prosperity of life, right, the richness of life and the things that you've enjoyed and the people in your life that you celebrate. Then we have candles and lights now, placing lights on trees and around the home represented the sun's light again, boarding off darkness and bringing hope.

32:42 Light is very powerful. It's been used for pretty much ever when it comes to uh, pushing by the darkness. And then of course we have specific plants such as the famous muscle toe, which was and still is used in traditions like kissing under it, linking it to fristility and love. And so holly was believed to protect against completely just through me because I didn't read this until it is now. It protects against lightning strikes. I don't know what that has to do with, you know, kissing or fertility and love. But then again, maybe they had a lot of lightning storms in winter. I mean, I will say there is something special about a lightning storm and the dead of winter, especially when it's snowing, because the lightning is usually green in the winter, at least here in Ohio it is. If you haven't seen green lightning, it's pretty dope.

33:36 I don't know if I ever have or haven't one day. You all we're missen out. I don't think you are, but it's it's cool, it's interesting. It's definitely different. I mean, I've seen it flash different colors, but I don't know, I mean maybe green. Maybe I just wasn't paying that much attention either, But. Yeah, so the evergreen magic. Pretty fascinating stuff. And again stuff that we we celebrate Christmas with today that you would never even think about because you're not really taught the mule side anymore. It's just Christmas or if you're Jewish, Hanukkah and you know all that stuff do. But the fascinating thing that I loved, just because we do this to this day, is feasting as a sacred ritual. And we've done this by we, I mean Eric and I.

34:46 Our family has always gotten together for Christmas or Thanksgiving to feast on Christmas, and it was always a huge spread. In a season of scarcity, people gathered to share feast and strengthen community bonds. Uh. Food and drink were blessings exchanged, not just consumed. Yule feasts reaffirmed gratitude for what survived the year, hope for the year to come. The importance of kinship, the sacred hospitality is the ancestor of today's holiday dinners.

35:30 Yeah, I mean it's this goes even back to the last dinner, the last supper with the disciples in Christ. Right, food was it just you know, unlike you and I who probably sit in front of our TVs eating like I literally just ate a bowl not long ago, a bowl of chili mac basically two quinifiest servings and then half a bag of downuts in front of my TV. Okay, I got my high metabolism, all right, But that is not what this is. This is not that is not feasting as a rich shake or ritual. That is just that's gorgeing gluttony. That's that's it. Because you weren't trading it with anybody, but you.

36:16 Are sharing no no being he was interested as it uh uh nopem. But no, but yeah, like obviously the sake of ritual. I think I think that's a word that is maybe a little too I don't know what what I'm thinking about it. I think it's a little too much here, you know, because because it's the idea is really just sitting down and celebrating the holidays with friends and family and people close to you, sharing food, doing a pot luck, having a meal and converseme having fun. Right, it's the importance, like you said at Kinship, and the hope for the year to come. You hope that you have your family still there, the fun on Christmas and your friends than Christmas, And of course there's gratitude. I mean, how many of us get to Christmas and think like, man, I can't believe this already a bit of year since last Christmas, And we think about that year and yes, there has been a lot of hard times for most of us, but there's also been plenty of good in there somewhere, no matter.

37:16 How great or small. So we do look back. On the year and think, oh, this happened, and that happened. This is pretty cool, while also remembering and realizing, yues, this also happened, and that was very hurtful, but you can also hopefully take this opportunity this Christmas to see the growth that you've made since those difficult times and what as soon as in your life, that's the best way to continue this whole idea of the sacred ritual. I'd think, yeah, for sure. And you know, I think that's what you was kind of really about, is counting your blessings, not the tortuous parts of the year, just your blessings. And I mean Christmas should be that way, but we really get caught up in, as you've already mentioned, the commercialism of it, all right. The funny thing about that is we we just had Black Friday literally a couple of days ago, and Shelley and I were talking about, you know, sales and this and that. I'm like, I will never, ever, ever, at least on Thanksgiving night, take part in a Black Friday sale ever Again. I've done it three times in my life, and every time it's like people are almost murdering each other to get these deals.

38:48 Some people literally do murder each other for them. All yeah, razy, Yeah, that's wild. You want me to take this next one? Yeah? All right? So the next one is the twelve Nights of mystery and magic. All right, that sounds all kind of cool. I guess it's the multi day Uile period here. So this is also twelve nights and again this is where we get the whole idea of the twelve Days Christmas. But during this time it was seen as a time outside ordinary time, a hinge in the year, when magic was more potent, dreams more prophetic, and rituals more meaningful.

39:34 It was basically a pause, a breath, in a cosmic reset. Now I could try to dive into this little deeper, but to be honest with you, that right there is the gist of it when it comes to the twelve Nights of Mystery and Magic. And so instead what I want to do is kind of help either help us all understand what exactly this was, or how we can continue this kind of practice even today. There is the opportunity, and it doesn't have to be any given particular week, right, it could be any twelve day period, ideally in a row, where you take the time to sit, to pause, to breathe, to consider choices that you've made and how those choices have ely been bad, and what choices you can make to fix or to you know, increase whatever good things that happen. Right, But it's also a time where you can meditate. You can stay meditate into twelve days of meditation, twelve days of prayer, twelve days of fasting, twelve days of just simply sitting and being.

40:44 Right. We're so focused on what's the next Christmas movie? Let's watch the next thing on a Hallmark channel? Right? Yeah, I know some of y'all watching those Homemark VIDs. I'm not one of them, but I wouldn't not yet might force me. I've worked one Hallmark. Movies Christmas Hallmark movies. But know I was gonna say, I you have to watch them, but I have watched blunty. I mean you know me. I love the scary uh Christmas movies outside of of course a Christmas story and Elf. We've gotten onto Elf over the past several years. But yeah, I I would rather gouge my eyes out than watch the Hallmark movie. Oh you're so sad. No, I just want to pause, free and taken a cosmic reset.

41:51 So when it comes to doing this, everything, when it comes to meditating, comes to pausing and breathing. When it was a praying during it if. You want to do your own little twelve day thing, right, your own little Yule period, well the day Yule period, mind you, this often happens often like twelve nights, so this isn't literally a full day, and in modern time, that doesn't even have to be a full night. Right. You can do an hour, you can do forty five minutes, thirty minutes, fifteen by whatever you want, whatever is good for you. You can take the time to sit down, turn off the TV, turn on your Christmas lights in your home, light some candles, and just take the little bit of time to yourself to relax, right, to rest, to breathe, to release all the tension that is on us during the holiday seasons. Because I don't know about you guys, but there are a lot of gifts I'm thinking about and I'm like, well, how's this gonna.

42:45 Hurt my wallet? That is like a literal problem for a lot of people. But it's not always about the gifts. It's not always about how much money we can spend on somebody. It's about taking the time to remember basic cliche, but the reason for the season. It's the truth, though. I mean, it's a good time to remember that you're alive and that we are here together working through it. And there's a lot to be to really honor I think in this time, you know, and it's not just Jesus, and it's not just your friends and family. It's the things about yourself that we maybe don't always consistently think about.

43:28 You know, We're pulling so many directions. Throughout life that I think a lot of us give up on certain things about ourselves. And I'm very much one of those people. I tend to forget to take care of myself first while I'm you know, stumbling over a number of different anxiety thoughts or intrusive thoughts and whatnot. So it's important if you guys don't do this, I think you should. I think it'd be very helpful. And if you do, have a little tall night mystery and magic time to yourself. Oh that sounded really really kind of dirty, erase that you raise what. I just said, can't it's out in the either hand, that was so bad. Like I said, interesse of thoughts.

44:10 I've got a lot of intessive thoughts of. Point made. Anyway, if you guys do decide to have like a little multiday Yule period, you should let us know either what you're doing when you're doing it, and maybe we can even do a little thing together as like a little group. I think they'd be kind of cool if we can all have like, I don't know, fifteen minute period in which we all meditate on ourselves and just on life, right, and then we can chat about it. I think it'd be a lot of fun. Yeah, And whether it's just getting getting into a chat or like we've got the Facebook group now and just do a small live session and do that that that'd be kind of cool. A. So we got this comment that says, if you can find it someone us shaving cream or something for snow in a Hallmark Christmas movie. I believe it all right. So what is the heart of youle At its core, Yule is about light returning after darkness, community warming against winter, nature's quiet power, reverence for ancestors and unseen forces, which can be said about a lot

45:41 of different practices, the resilience of life. It's a celebration that whispers, even in the deepest dark, light is preparing to rise again. And that is probably the most powerful phrase I've ever heard, because all of us get into these deep dark parts of our lives, and many of us end up losing our lives because of that, because they can't see the light. So one thing that I really will really want to press this year on our holiday episodes is if you are depressed during this time of year, know that there is a place to reach out.

46:37 I believe the suicide hotline is nine to eighty eight. You can reach out to us here at Paratruth if you have something going through your head or you need uplifting, we will absolutely talk to you. Just make sure that you're reaching out and not letting those inner demons win. Right, And I'll add to that, if you are going through a dark time, you know this this phrase is it like, it's just it's very powerful, right, I want to say it again. Even in the deepest dark, light is preparing to rise again. But there is something else.

47:17 There's always a whisper of light, even in the darkest of night. Right, you look up and you see the stars, there's light chatting. You look up, you see the moon. It's reflection of that sun that is soon to rise again. So even when you're going through a dark time, take the opportunity to seek out those little lights that do exist in your life, because I guarantee that there, but the darkness is overpowering it. It's trying to keep it at bay, subside it, push it away from you. Don't allow it. You're going through a dark time. Look for those little lights that are whispering saying, hey, I'm here, and it's only a matter of time before you as it's again.

47:58 Right, So, really, I don't know thoughts justin what are you thinking? Man? Like, how do you I mean, we. Studied this a lot over the years, the Mule, and I mean, honestly, this is one of those topics that never gets old to me. I always enjoy going back into it and greeting some of these, especially some of the legends and the Lord, which I know we're going to get into later this month as well. But what do you think stands out the most to you in terms of the celebration of Mule, Just the celebration that although that we are in a dark time of the year, I should say dark time of the year, not in dark times. I mean we're in dark times, dude, I mean at least in America. But just like Mule, the light will come and bring life and vitality back, and eventually the same will come to the current situation.

49:10 But that I've always loved that expression or mentality that you don't have to get down. It's just a part that's the cycle of life, really, And just seeing a lot of the practices that we celebrate today, which I already knew, of course. But. Just to see it in black and white and to understand that a lot of this came from times well before christ and Christmas and the celebration that we do today.

50:04 Your final thoughts. I think it's just very interesting how much of the mule is kind of a repetition of saloyn in a way. There's a lot of cross links between the two. And I think it's really cool that we begin this season with a thin veil and we ended the season on a thin veil. It's like it separates winter. It makes winter its own special and unique season because of that, because we have spring, summer, and fall three seasons together, and then all of a sudden, there's winter separated by the thinning of a veil.

50:50 And I just find that really intriguing. Now. Winter is definitely one of those times a year where I always tend to positive reflect I love. I have a love hate. Relationship with winter, to be honest, I hate being out in the winter, right in the cold, freezing whatever. But when I'm inside, I have a cup of coffee, I'm reading a book and it's snowing outside. Like, there is very little things that I find more desirable and pleasant than that. Like it's just relaxing, it's it just helps to release some of the stress. And it's a reminder that in the quietest times, and I do think winter is one of the quietest, is the quietest season, like both literal and figurative in the sense that a lot of the animals they're hibernating or they've gone south right, But also the snow it literally is.

51:41 A uh what do you tholl? It like a the snow like mute sound. I can't think of the name of there's a name for it. Oh, I have no idea. It's the same thing you put up well, it's the same thing that like you would put up for for absorb sounded, oh, natural sound observer. And so when you. Step outside in snow, everything is extra silent, every little honk of the horns and every car that does buy all the birds. They don't echo like they nomber they would. It just gets zeut right, pulled right into the snow, and there's something so peaceful about it. And I find that so intriguing, and how the Yule kind of celebrate these separate things.

52:26 It's again the moment to rest and reflect and to really consider this idea of a cosmic reset. It's like, okay, at the end of the winter, once Christmas rolls through, once New Year's rolls, thu boom, we're onto a new year. It starts all over the reset, right, And I think it's important to take winter mule and use that to your advantage. You can call it in yours resolution. I don't necessarily like to use that word because I think resolutions are given up really quick. But you can definitely make some changes and look forward to some pretty cool times in the year to come, right. But yeah, I think that's just the most interesting thing about the your It's just a celebration.

53:16 Is something that's so honestly, Winter, in. My opinion, is one of the most poetic seasons of all, Like in and of itself, it's a poet but the way everything moves away the season changes, the way we see death in life at the same time is pretty wild. That's pretty deep bro feeling. Indeed, tonight, I don't know, you know. I just speak what comes in my mind. And sometimes it's good. Times it's really bad. Yes that's true. I mean same. But I hope you guys have enjoyed this episode. We hope that you will like Share of Subscribe no matter where you listen, make sure you check out next week where we will be having on Patty Nagree to talk about our book, Dollcraft. I thought it was rather appropriate to have that on scene as we are getting close to the Christmas season where everybody's going to be getting dolls.

54:23 But until next week, where you'll find us same time, the same channel. My name is Justin. And I'm Eric. He's