Some Dieties Connected to Yuletide

Dieties and Yuletide

The approximately 12 day festival and/or sabbat, Yule, is a time to celebrate winter and the rebirth of the sun, but it is also a time when some mourn the ing of the Old God, who at this time of year now resides in the Underworld until the Summer Solstice, where he is reborn anew as the Lord of the Waning Sun.

But let's rewind for a moment for context- During Samhain, it is said that the Goddess followed the God into the Underworld, causing the world to undergo its winter slumber(this seems to draw slight parallels to the Legend of Kore/Persephone’s Kidnapping in the Greek Pantheon’s Mythos). The parallels end there however, because as Yule draws near, the Goddess is with child, and gives birth to the Oak King, God of the Waxing Sun, who takes over the rule of the world. The Oak king and Holly King, as the Old god is sometimes called, are both prominent figures in the Wheel of the year, brothers and rivals who take turns at ruling with the waxing and waning of the sun. The Oak King, takes over at Winter Solstice, when the sun waxes and days start to grow longer, while the Holly King’s rule begin at Summer Solstice, when days start growing shorter with the waning of the sun.

Other traditions believe that it is not at the Summer or Winter Solstice that control is regained by the corrisponding king, but a the autumnal and spring Equinox. This causes the legend to change to assume that the Holly King is at ‘full power’ come Yuletide and the Winter Solstice, and vice versa with the Oak King come the Summer Solstice.

The Old King has many names and portrayal, with names not limited to; the Holly King, Cernunnos, Odin, and Harlequin, and is portrayed as things such as a king in “ermine-trimmed” robes, a majestic, jolly older man, and even as a jester, which is how he obtained another moniker- the King of Fools. He is often shown with animal attributes such as antlers or horns, and is known to be the Lord of Death, of the Spirit World, and of magick. He is also known as a God of the forest, of animals and also of the hunt.

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Aphrodite

Aphrodite, more specifically Aphrodite Ourania or Aphrodite Ouranious, has held many names in conjunction with her counterpart Aphrodite Pandemos, these names include Astarte, Venus, Philommeidḗs, Cypris, Cythereia, and Eleemon, among others.

Associated with spiritual love, the most agreed apoun orgigin of Ourania is the story of how Aphrodite rose from the sea foam that formed when Cronus castrated Uranus and tossed his genitals into the sea, and through this story of one of the Aphrodites' asserts Ourania as the oldest of the two. Another origin myth tells of how she fell from the Heavens in a giant egg into the Euphrates and was pushed ashore by fish to be taken care of by doves until she emerged. In this origin she is known as Astarte, her Syrian counterpart, rather than Aphrodite, and it is found that Astarte also has connections with doves.

Ouranious is associated with Yuletide due to the ancient meaning of the dove (see the 'Twelve Days of Christmas' line "Two turtle doves", which could be a subtle nod to one of the Aphrodite Ourania Origins)

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Tyche

Originally Tyche was an Italian diety, and she is regarded as the bearer of prosperity and increase, and as such resembles a fertility diety. Associated with the bounty of the soil and the 'fruitfulness' of women, Tysche is depicted with a cornucopia as the giver of abundance and standing on or near a ball to indicate the uncertainty of fortune.

As an alternative title, Fortuna is an Oracular goddess who holds sway in the Wheel of Fortune. The name(Fortuna) is thought to have derived from the Etruscan Goddess Voltumna, whose name 'encomes ideas of turning and alternating seasons.

Today, Tyche is still widely celebrated, even appearing regularly in tarot decks on card 10 of the Major Arcana- the Wheel of Fortune.

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Gaia/Gaea

As the personification of the earth, Gaia is a primordial deity who was known in at least Greek mythology to have been the second being to emerge in the myth of the creation of the universe. She is said to be the source 'from which arose the vapours producing divine insipration' and is regarded as oracular devinity, especially with the Oracle of Delphi 'in her possession first.

Gaea is the thought of as the 'all-producing and all-nourishing mother', presiding over marriage, oath-giving, plants, young children, and is also described as the giver of dreams.

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Freyr

Freyr, also known as Yngvi, is the ruler of peace, fertility, rain, and sunshine in the Norse pantheon. He sometimes appears as the guardian of the sacred wheatfield. In the Eddic Poem _, or the Lay of Skirnir, he is tited sun-god, and in the tale it spins of the wooing of the giant-maiden Gerd, who belonged to the otherworld, symbolized the domination of the death and life cycle.

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Holle

Mother Holle is a diety so old that she holds roots in Paleolithic times, and the apple tree and baking of bread in the fairytales most recognize her from link her to the Neolithic times.

Her realms originally included death and regeneration, thus associating Holle with Winter and the color white. Despite being a goddess of death, Holle was seen as benevolent and generous, rather than seen as evil, or feared.

In the more known tales of Mother Holle, she lived at the bottom of a well, associating her with water, and curiously, causing her realm to expand to include birth giving by interpreting the well and water as a metaphor for a birth canal. The entailment of birth also brings of the matter of life, which is also encomed by the apple featured in her tales, which (not so) secretly has a pentagram that further proves her connection to it.

Additionally, Holle is written to have shown great ion and joy in spinning and weaving- so much so that she gained the monikers of Life Weaver and the Spinner of Destiny and Fate.

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Ishtar

Ishtar is an ancient Babylonian Goddess of love and war. She can be connected to several different pantheons -as per the usual borrowing in cultures- such as the Syrian, Hebrew, and Sumerian pantheons as Astarte, Ashtoreth, and Innana consecutively.

As a dualistic diety with a hand in both love and war, Ishtar is worshipped as both a female and male, the male counterpart being Ashtar. Due to this, she can be interperated to represent the balance between the positive and negative forces of life.

Ishtar 'reflects upoun the evening and morning aspects of the world' as the morning star, God of hunting and war, Dilbah, and the evening star, Goddess of love as Zib.

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Cernunnos

Cernunnos is a 'dualistic god of twofold aspects: bright and dark, night and day, Summer and Winter, and other variations of that. As such, he is depicted as a twofaced diety with the two sides of the Oak King and the Holly King.

Sometimes, he is also split into the three aspects that reflect that of the triple goddess; the youth (warrior), the father, and the sage.

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Other dieties associated with Yuletide include Attis, Apollo, Isis, Dionysis, Lugh, Ra, and the Greenman, among others.

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Links and Legends

Oak and Holly King Legend

Yule Sabbat

Aphrodite

Yule Magickal Correspondences

The Goddess and the Dove ]

Aphrodite Urania ]

Tyche

Mother Holle – The Germanic Goddess of Death and Renewal, Weaver of Fate and Fortune

Ishtar

Freyr

Picture links

Aphrodite statue Image

Cernunnos Image

Ishtar Image

Holle Image

Freyr Image

Gaea Image

Tyche Image