The wheel of the year: Yule, leaning into winter and deep rest.

Note: I am writing this blog post during a time where it feels wrong to talk about anything but what is happening to Palestinians, rest right now could feel like a concept riddled with guilt for some of us. But rest is resistance. And I would recommend the book Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey to go deeper into this. The fight to free Palestine and end genocide & occupation EVERYWHERE is a long one so taking the time to pause and fill ourselves back up builds our capacity to stay resilient and hopeful.

I am currently all cosy on my sofa, under a soft blanket and I have candles burning and a grounding dinner in the oven. Winter is here and I am so deeply exhausted. It’s taken me nearly a week to find the motivation to start writing this. We have also just had the dark/new moon and entered a mercury retrograde.

Everything is screaming at me to pause.

And that is exactly what we are meant to do during the Winter. We are meant to be tired right now and we are meant to be resting but alas we live in capitalism so this is a big struggle for most of us. I personally feel like I am trapped in a vice of needing to stop but then feeling panicky that I am not doing enough.

This is the very reason I have wanted to learn the wheel of the year and try to lean into cyclical living. Where I can do my best to opt out of constant growth and action and take the Winter to well you know… Winter. And Yule is upon us and that’s what I wanted to talk to you about today. It’s also known as the Winter Solstice and happens on the 21st December, it marks the darkest day and the turning point from the days getting shorter to the light starting to come back.

I have never been a fan of Christmas. I love the festiveness of this time of year but Christmas itself and what it has become in modern capitalist times just feels false and totally out of sync with the idea of Wintering and deep rest. All this consumer frenzy to buy presents and exhaust ourselves at parties. It just seems so far from what we actually want and need.

So I am doing my best to lean into deep rest this Winter. I have very little work booked in, apart from a busy patch between Christmas and New Year but then I have plans to hibernate as much as possible until March. I am of course in the position of having my own business which is doing well and that allows me to make this choice. It’s still uncomfortable though, saying no to work.

I wonder how much more healthier we would all be if we leant more into the natural cycles of the seasons. But also how much more joy we could experience because we aren’t trying to resist nature.

So I guess my gift to you today is some rituals for rest and I also want to share a little about the Cailleach who is a Celtic Deity I am fascinated by but we will start with some rituals.

A good starting point is to acknowledge what Winter is, personally it’s a favourite season of mine but I understand for a lot of people it can be challenging for mental health. However, is that because we are conditioned to believe that we need to be on the go all the time? Everything in nature literally dies for a few months while we seem to think that we can escape that. We need to accept that this is where we pause and it’s ok to feel low and tired during this time.

It’s our bodies way of communicating with us that we need to rest, the idea that we somehow escape the laws of nature is so incredibly harmful to all of us. We are never in any fixed state, we have our times of Spring when we are beginning to grow again, Summer where life is fruitful and then Autumn where we harvest what we need for our downtime.

Now is the downtime and Winter becomes so much easier to navigate when we lean into that.

This is the time for evenings by candlelight, I myself have fully nested down. Everyday has become a routine. Wake up, coffee and read a book, gentle embodied yoga, eat, do the work I need to then maybe a walk or a sea swim before being home with candles and warm nourishing food. And I love it.

I still have some social stuff on but it doesn’t involve drinking or partying. Just wholesome things like seeing the horses, walks in nature, slow dinners with friends and Sunday writing group. I have completely romanticised my Winter to help support me as I know I will get low. This is completely natural and also an important part of being human, that period of feeling low in Winter is a great opportunity to pause and reflect. It won’t last forever and there is a lot of wisdom during these times that can help us when we are ready to take action again in the Spring. I would massively recommend reading Katherine May’s Wintering and then followed by Enchantment, both are beautiful wise books.

It’s crucial that we pause, that we just let ourselves be, let our bodies recover and I never fail to find inspiration in the pause, during the deep rest. My ego thinks otherwise though, because it’s been conditioned to believe that we should be on the go all the time.

Food is also an important part of this for me. I batch cook stews, ragu, chilli and soups. Grounding, nourishing food that’s easy to freeze and makes life simpler when I am feeling low and tired. I also fully indulge in cinnamon buns and dark chocolate plus all my favourite herbal teas. Fresh lemon & ginger is also incredibly comforting and good for you.

As mentioned I still get my body moving, sea swimming is an important part of my life throughout the year and winter is no different. This morning I swam at sunrise and it was magical, gentle walks and yoga make up the rest of my movement. This keeps my body happy and maintains my connection to nature and self, it also helps me sleep properly.

Another practise I am going to be leaning on over the next few weeks is some deep reflection of the past 12months. I am not one for New Years resolutions, but I am all about my constant evolution and winter is the perfect time to dive deep into reflection work and get yourself aligned for what action you want to take come the Spring. Most people fail at their resolutions because they go hard in January, a time where we are supposed to be resting and then they can’t maintain their unrealistic expectations. I have learned this year that I need a good couple of months to cook my big ideas and then the lighter days and warmer weather can support me in implementing them.

That doesn’t mean I do nothing, it just means I am not making any big or sudden changes that I do not have capacity for during this time unless I really need to.

Some journaling prompts for reflection could be…

• How have you felt this year?

• What has felt easy and what has felt more challenging?

• What things/patterns/behaviours would you like to let go of?

• What have you really loved engaging with this year?

• Make a list of all of the moments you felt joy.

• What would you like to welcome more of into the following 12 months?

This is also a wonderful time for diving into creativity. Being creative is also a part of resting. I love to go for walks with a film camera and really slow down and immerse myself in my body and environment. To capture the small beautiful elements of winter, maybe getting up early for a sunrise or borrowing a friends dog. I also have plans to write a lot more this winter, to use this quiet time to offload my mind. I also started using watercolours this year so plan on leaning into that some more. The point is that making time for creativity without an agenda is an act of rest and it will fill you back up.

So I promised I would share a little about the Cailleach. The Cailleach is a goddess from Irish & Scottish mythology who is a protector of the land. She signals the beginning of Winter, striking her staff to the ground to bring about the cold and the frost. Her and Brigid (Goddess of Spring) represent the eternal cycle of life, death and rebirth. An important reminder that Winter always comes but so does the Spring.

The Cailleach is often depicted as an old haggard woman but she is actually a shapeshifter who can transform into animals, representing her deep connection to the natural world. The creation of mountains and valleys can be accredited to her and powers of wisdom and creation.

You can honour the Cailleach by creating a Winter altar or adding to your current altar.

Crystals like Amethyst & Moonstone work well with the Cailleach. Herbs such as Heather and Mugwort are also associated with her. A weathered rock and imagery of wolves are also great things to add. I feel like the death card in the Tarot also has connections with the Cailleach as that card represents the cycles of life and death, of letting go of what no longer serves us and the act of transformation.

How have you transformed this year? What would you like to transform next year?

I hope you have enjoy this reflection on Winter and Yule. I hope you stay cosy and find your way to rest deeply.