Wassail!

 

Blakulla Hall celebrated the Yule-tide this year with a ritual that has become traditional for the Gild in Southern California, the Mothernight Ritual originally published in the Gild’s internal journal Rune-Kevels (Vol IX No.3 [NS# 37]) some years ago.  As part of our ongoing exploration of the ways in which elements of Germanic folklore can be used to craft contemporary ritual forms, this ritual centers on the belief (common to many Germanic and kindred cultures), that the 12 nights of Yule are a time devoted to divination (still preserved in various customs involving divinatory objects hidden in the proverbial “Christmas Pudding,” auguries taken from the leaping of roasted chestnuts, and molybdomancy practiced by young girls in search of husbands).  Our rite is further based on the idea that the 12 nights correspond to the 12 months of the coming year, and that they form a microcosmic “picture” of the year yet to unfold.  Farmers, for example, will predict the weather for each of the coming months by observing the weather on each of the 12 nights of Yule.  So each year on the Mothernight, we cast the Runes for the coming year, choosing one for each month of the coming year, according to the Gild’s Grimnismal-based 12 month ritual cycle. 

 

It is worth noting that 2007 is a calendar year with 13 lunations, rather than 12.  There are, therefore, a number of possible ways of reckoning the relative dates of the various “Moons” in the calendar.  Runic Divination is a subtle art, and cannot be considered to be “mathematically exact” in the way that horary astrology  or similar arts are.  The forecast involves trends and tides that are linked to seasons, but not necessarily to exact dates.  I present three alternative ways of interpreting the tides of the yearly forecast (presented here as 12 moons, using English translations of their traditional Saxon names).  I leave it to the individual to determine which seems to be most accurate, which will have to be done by observation during the first few months of the year.  (Any feedback to this effect would be most welcome… please e-mail comments to blakulla@mindspring.com ).

 

· The most simple and straightforward is consider the 12 moons mentioned in the forecast as the corresponding Months of the year: Wolf-Moon=Janurary, so that the influence of the rune for this “moon” would be felt from Jan 1-Jan 31 a.s.f.   This is the simplest method, but perhaps the least “natural.”  This method is “assumed” in the text of the forecast for the convenience of the average reader, it is not necessarily the preferred method of reckoning.

 

· One can also consider the Lunar cycles an sich, from New Moon to New Moon.  Thus the Wolf Moon’s duration would be from Dec 20^th 2006 – Jan 18^th, 2007 (it’s full on Jan 3^rd).  This leaves the question of what to do with the “Blue” Moon… the extra lunation that occurs (this year) in May.  One might consider it an “extra dose” of the Three-Milk Moon’s influence, or else a “wild-card” Moon whose influence is “outside” the normal cycle of the year. 

 

· This year at least, one might also take into account the fact that the Moon which turned full on Jan 3^rd of this year was “born” (i.e. it was New) on Dec 20^th, which is the first of the 12 nights of Yule.  As the 12 nights are “time out of time” neither part of the old or the new year, one might reckon the Wolf-Moon as the first moon “born” in the New Year, thus the moon that is new on Jan 18^th  is the Wolf-Moon.  This shifts the cycle somewhat, but it allows the full moon which occurs at the end of May to stand as the Litha Moon and the Full Moon which occurs on June 30 to be the After-Litha Moon (thus flanking the festival of Litha on the Solstice)… this method has a peculiarly consistent internal logic, although it does “shift the forecast a month forward” as it were.

 

The forecast, with expanded interpretations and suggested practical workings for each month can be found here.  Please feel free to bookmark this page, and link to it as you wish.  It is forbidden to reprint the forecast in whole or in part, unless permission is formally granted in writing by the Master of the Hall.