Today, the Northern Hemisphere marks the Winter Solstice, also known as Yule, but more often celebrated as its belated bastardization: Christmas. The ancients established it as a festival designed to welcome the newborn sun god. Today's primitives insist that it is actually about the birth of Jesus. Then there are the more secular, but nonetheless mindless traditions of spending too much money on obligatory gifts, sending out inane greeting cards, and putting up hideous Walmart "decorations."
I'm not a scrooge. I always celebrate the 25th of December with loved ones. It's a chance to catch up, feast, relax, and exchange a few meaningful gifts. I take advantage of that mainstream holiday for my personal enjoyment, but avoid the pressures and excesses that often make it such a stressful time for the herd.
The Winter Solstice, while also a time for merrymaking, is an ideal time for ritual as well. During this, the longest night of the year, Earth's pendulum swings back: the sun gradually restores its dominance as the days grow longer once again.
Winter Solstice symbolism revolves around fire, the element most fully embodied in our sun. The metaphorical implications of this holiday are similar to those of the waxing moon; it is a time of beginnings and growth — the first movement toward Spring, and thus toward Walpurgisnacht. Relevant symbols and metaphors can serve to augment the energies of celebrants, enhancing everything from magical workings to the sheer joy of profound awareness.
While all of this is relevant to the holiday, the Church of Satan's website offers more concise insight and inspiration in this statement: "The True Meaning of Yule."
Monday, December 21, 2009
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Question: If the winter solstice (December 25)
ReplyDeletewas actually Satans Holiday why did christian
people lie and say it's christ birthday?
No disrespect intended but people are bigger
liars than the devil himself has been made
out to be.
Please (if you kindly would explain this )
I am searching for truth off both sides of
the fence to find the true center of it and
I'm fed up with half baked belligerent's
who have no idea of what they are speaking
of.
I know your people are everywhere, so I know
you'll either find my email and answer the
question, not answer at all or hopefully be
king enough to answer.
First of all, I am very glad that you're looking for the truth between opposing views. Satanists call that a "third side perspective," rejecting dualism for the less simplistic, more nuanced reality beyond dichotomies.
ReplyDeleteWhen Christians first sought to convert the masses, they were often met with resistance. Many people continued to worship their old gods, practice magic, and celebrate their old holidays. To make conversion easier, Christians built their holiday calendar around the seasons, just like their pagan rivals, but replaced Nature with Jesus. The result is a fairly transparent disguise in which the "newborn" sun is the baby Jesus of Christmas and the "rebirth" of the earth during spring is the resurrected Jesus of Easter.
Many Christians reject not only Halloween, but also these other pre-Christian holidays, which they acknowledge as Satanic.
I should also point out that contemporary pagans, such as Wiccans, also celebrate these holidays for their original reasons. However, they usually complain when these Christians call their solstice celebrations "Satanic." Unlike them, we accept and embrace that "accusation." Satanism embraces pre-Christian holidays as celebrations of Nature, but without the crypto-Christian philosophies of pagans that only claim to be in harmony with it.
I hope that answers your question fully.