A Poet's Carols: Songs for Yule

As a Yule gift to readers of American Witch, here is my personal collection of pagan-friendly carols. Some are traditional and unchanged. Some are the very best neopagan adaptations I could find by others— signed or anonymous—sometimes as stand-alone songs, and sometimes as second verses of the originals.  Some I have altered myself, keeping as many words of the original as possible, so they are familiar but can be sung with full gusto by those who want to encompass female as well as male-centered spirituality.  Except for the virtuoso "13 days of Solstice," which I couldn't resist including, I have tried all these out on my ever-skeptical daughter and they have passed her muster; we'll be singing them this afternoon with a group of friends and neighbors, and I may make a few adjustments after then as well.  In the spirit of the collective folk tradition in which all these songs partake to one degree or another, I offer them to you here.  You should be able to paste these into a document in this order, and they will make a little carolling booklet with 1 or 2 songs per 5" x 8" page. A copy shop can run it up for you. Happy Yule!

Summer Swirls

Sometimes my care as a writer gets the best of me as a blogger. I have various posts in the works--one on "Solstice Weddings," since the way I celebrated the Solstice this year was by celebrating a couple of amazing unions.  One on my new Tarot deck (Druidcraft).  One on the amazingness of the garden.  One on Esbats.  And this one--the one that I'm not revising, so it is the one that will be posted.  This one is just to say that it's the height of the summer and I am in a swirl of happy projects before heading to a writing retreat.  Like my garden, I am bursting over.  The fertility and fecundity of life has often overwhelmed me, but this week I am just revelling in it.  I've discovered if I sit back and just let it run, it does!   Happy summer, everyone.  Enjoy!

A Poet's Solstice

Welcome, American Witch! This blog was born at Yule 2009, as I mused about reading "The Night Before Christmas"