"Summer-in-Winter"

The upwending of the Sun with the start of Yule marks a new turning of the Sun-wheel as the new year is born, for Yule Day is New Year's Day.

And the tide from the Yule-turning unto NearSun Day (Perihelion: Jan 4, 2014; 6:59 AM EST) is called Summer-in-Winter, for the Sun ever-rising in the sky pulls GreneSun up from its winter-home in the evergreen Otherworld and it blazes as "Light-at-Night, when the Otherworld of the Deep and This-world meld; and for this while, the Menning shines forth within everything like a lovely many-hued Seeing, like a sky-broad Cloud-land lit from within, borne on a luft of glad rynisch music.  And this is what makes the Yule-tide such a gladsome time of Hope for the Tocume.

wend= to turn.
Tide= a space of time.
Perihelion= when the Earth is closest to the Sun.
rynisch= mystical, ineffable.
Tocume= the future, the 'time to come'. Ger. Zukunft.

The Deeper Meaning of the Yule-tide

Winter Solstice (Sunwend) represents a turning of fortune, when the lowering of the noon Sun in the sky and the lengthening of night-time at the expense of Day both come to a stop and then reverse; though even so, a long Winter still lies ahead.  And like this turning of the tide of the Year-wheel, the ever mightier Searuvel, wreaking Dilgoth, begins to lose the allegiance of Mankind, its grip on the collective mind and culture falters, and humanity starts to awake from the Dark Spell-- though much has been inflicted that cannot be undone, and a long and terrible tide yet lies before us.  But there is still a light of Hope, for the sacred Biosphere, and for Man, in this tide-turning, this Cherrenge come upon the Earth.

Searuvel= the Evil Machine.
Dilgoth= the Extinction Event.
Cherrenge= the great conversion to ecological mind.

Jolly Yule!

Yule Eve this year is Friday, December 20.  Yule Day arrives Saturday the 21st at 12:04 AM EST, so that in time-zones further west it would arrive on the 20th.  And in successive years the calendar day on which Yule arrives varies.  So there's something too fussy about observing the yearly turn-about from the Sun-at-noon lower in the sky each day with the day-length growing shorter, to the opposite.  For the ancients this change-over to the better, promising the inevitable arrival of Spring even though it was now the depth of cruel Winter with much more, and maybe worse, to come, was a cause for celebration ("Fear not, it won't last forever. Rejoice!").  So a feast-day was held, after frank acknowledgement of one's wretched entrapment in fell Winter's grip, which called for strength of heart to endure the Long Cold yet ahead.  That having been said, to buck everyone up a raid was mounted on the winter stores, even though they must last well into Spring to keep off starvation, to mount a defiant jolly Yule-feast to celebrate, help on, the waxing of the Sun, the coming triumph of Day and Light and Warmth, with time-honored offerings made to the Lord Ing, patron God of Good Things, and also to the elvish wights who assist him, to acknowledge their care and aid by sharing with them the bounties of the feast.

The Norse celebrated Yule for the twelve days after Yule Eve, which unbeknownst to them would then last about til Perihelion, when the Earth is closest to the Sun in its orbiting; so, another solar festival.  The Anglo-Saxons called the months bracketing Yule "Early Yule" and "Later Yule"; in sum, the "Yule-tide".  And so maybe Yule should be celebrated with a jolly, hopeful state of mind not tied down to calendar dates, though it is good to have that drama at the precise time of change-over from the decline of the Sun to its rise again, like a Midwinter sun-rise at Stonehenge.  It's nice to have traditions to observe, but since the Yule-tide is now dominated by the Christian holiday and its elaborate Christmas culture, maybe each of us should celebrate the original pagan nature-festival as suits us best, drawing on what we know of the Yule observances of the Northern folk, and whatever of what for a Deep Ecologist seems fitting from the generally horrid commercial and religious campaign surrounding Christmas that dominates the season.  As for the "deeper" meaning of Yule, more later.

By the way, the famous etymologist Walter M. Skeat linked "Yule" (Old English "geola", Norse "jol") with "jolly" (from Norse to Norman-French?) and with "yowl", all connoting festivity.  So, at four minutes after midnight (or whatever), be out there with your pack yowling "Jolly Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuule!".

The Wild God Remade

Unpredictable, scary-wondrous, mysterious, awesome-- the Wild God Pan, of whom it was said two thousand years ago,"The great god Pan is dead!"-- vast Pan, God of Nature, now reborn after two thousand years.  He is back, "the Once and Future God", the Self of Psyche and Nature where the two meet, recalled, revived, by the Peril of All Life on Earth, transformed by the Idea of Ecology, remade with intelligent purpose to drive him-- the Drygand!

Cunning-Kings

When the Twayne gave the Lodestone in to the Alwight's head, it bore the natures of the both of them-- of Wildiar the cunning-man, and of Bilwit the sacred king.  And when the Alwight had become thus Drygand, he gave the Lodestone also in to each of them, it bearing his nature, as the Cunning-King, of All Lifekind.  And so each one was himself and both and Drygand.

And then from the Twayne was born Hal Twayneson, bearing both their new natures as his own, and as such, Hal the Erf, Cunning-King, and Bairnaborn of the Drygand.

Cunning-man= magic-worker. OIce kunnigr= versed in magical art. OIce kunnandi= knowledge, accomplishment. OEng cunnung= knowledge.
King= 'son of the tribe' (All Lifekind). Erf= inheritor. OEng erfa/OIce arfi= heir.
Bairnaborn= grandchild. Scot bairn= child. OIce barnaborn(o-umlaut)= grandchildren. modIce barnabarn= grandchild.