The 1st Day of Yuletide

Mother’s Night and Frigg
Birthing the Light-Nativity
Thew: Evenhead
Mugwort/Cronewort, the dreamer’s herb

Mother’s Night leads off the 12 Days of Yuletide by deeply honoring our Ancestral Mothers, the Disir. The Disir are the Ancestral Mothers and other female spirits who oversee family, clan, and tribe.

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These are the bearers of our Mitochondrial DNA, the Clan Mothers, the women who came before, and, I hope, the healthy, aware, supportive, attentive Ancestresses of both our lineages and of our lineages of Spirit.

In traditional Heathenism, Frigg is honored on this night as she is known as the Norse Mother Goddess. Frigg is the mother of Balder, Hodor, and Hermid, and is the wife to Odin. She has her own home and hall named Fensalir (home on the marshlands). Her name, Frigg, means ‘Beloved’.

Frigg is a weaver, a Volva (a practitioner of Seder, Norse magic), and she is a known shapeshifter who carries the feathers of a falcon and becomes that falcon when she changes form.

The Venerable Bede wrote, "And the very night that is sacrosanct to us, these people call modranect, that is, the mothers' night, a name bestowed, I suspect, on account of the ceremonies which they performed while watching this night through."

In tracking my lineage I’ve found that I am a descendant of Frigg and Odin, given that historical sources are accurate, that they were real people, and all of the other vagaries of tracing a lineage back for two thousand years. On Mother’s Night I honor Frigg as not only an Ancestral Spirit of the Norse pantheon, but as an actual Grandmother of my lineage.

I also am a woman from the American South and everything I do is filtered through the lens of the World I live in. Basically this means that there will be some good old Hedgewitch flavor to anything I do and that intuition, and whatever arises in the moment are also play in.

In this light, I will do ceremony on Mother’s Night, and the ceremony will arise from what lies within my heart and belly as I connect the Heart/Womb through breath and breath my love and gratitude out through the ether, through the generations, through the blood and bone of my body, in honor of the women whose bodies made mine possible and whose souls hold me upright on the best and worst of day.

Mugwort, also known as Cronewort is the herb and essence for my working on this night. This is the Cailleach of the green ally world. Perfect for a night of honoring our Grandmothers.

Mugwort grows wild all over the US South. I’m sure she grows wild in many places, but this is the land that I am indigenous to. This is the land of the people who were called the Chesapeake or the Chesopeian, and I honor them always in ceremony, in my daily thoughts and prayers, as the Ancestors of Place.

Birthing the Light, The Nativity

The Nativity is a symbol of the Christian holiday, Christmas, however celebrations at the Winter Solstice all center around Birthing the Light. The Light as Sun. The Light as Son. The 3D effect of longer days, more light, and the metaphor of Light Returning to our dark souls.

Our bodies in their innate knowing still align with this seasonal shift, both going within for the darkening days and carrying the knowledge that lengthening days do not yet signal a return to the world of Light and Warmth. We are meant to rest in now. Imbolc is still weeks away. The Equinox even more distant. This is the time of year to take your ease and enjoy the Earth Mother’s blessing of nestle and nourish, storying telling, handwork, and quiet.

Right now I see so many friends listening to this inner guidance and who are logging off of Social Media to be present with family, friends, self, and season. How beautiful is that? I, too, always find myself less present in the digital world at this time of year.

The sun may be birthed back into growing days, we, however, are still in the gestational phase. Both in the womb and pregnant with what we will bring into form in the coming year.

Give yourself some time and space to reach into this opening.

Thew: Evenhead

Equality. The recognition that those of the opposite sex are equal. (I am adding a note here that my personal practice of Spirituality includes a great depth of Shadow Work focusing on anti-racism and white allyship and this definition of Evenhead is conspicuously missing any part of that. I copied directly from the linked webpage but from here on out I will be including my own definitions for these Thews and that will include plain equality for ALL.)

Mugwort

Mugwort is green on top with a silver underbelly and has many useful applications, including that of Moxa, which is used by acupuncturists everywhere. Mugwort is known as the Dreamer’s Herb and many who seek to have deep dreams and to remember them drink a strong infusion of Mugwort before bedtime—but give yourself an hour or so because you don’t want to drink too much right before bed and then have to interrupt your dreams to use the toilet!
Mugwort flower essence and the smoke, used either on the body as Moxa, or to bless the space where you will be dreaming, are great additions to the infusion.

Remember to call in your healthy Grandmothers to bring messages to you in the dreamworld.