15 Witchy Practices for Your Yule Sabbat

15 witchy practices for your Yule sabbat: Craft a magickal Yule (Winter Solstice) that you will love! But first, what exactly is a sabbat?

The word ‘sabbat’ sounds so macabre, doesn’t it? In truth, sabbats can be as mystical and macabre as any witch or ritualist wants them to be. However, for the Eclectic Witch, and as taught here at The Magickal Path, they really aren’t macabre at all. In fact, sabbats can be the most natural, healing, and fun part of our witchcraft practice!

That is because witches live in harmony with the rhythms of Nature, and mark time through the solar cycles that change the seasons. These specific solar events and the midpoints between them are what we refer to as ‘the sabbats’. They mark the seasonal changes in our calendar year, dictating our actions and how we live during these time periods. The Sabbats are a meaningful way for us to connect with both the cycles of the seasons and the cycles of our lives. Pictured below is the Witch’s Sabbat Year in the northern hemisphere. In the religion Wicca, it is called The Wheel of the Year.

Specifically, the Eclectic Witch’s sabbat practice acknowledges

• reverence for the Natural world
• the cycle of life: birth, death, regeneration
• the marking of time through seasonal change
• our personal seasons and cycles as experienced through our successes, challenges, forward movement, times of rest and restoration, and healing
• gratitude for Nature’s continued bounty and what we have personally harvested in our lives
• working with the energy and Divine power the Sabbat day holds

Technically, each Sabbat holds its own particular energy due to where the Earth is in proximity to the Sun. This is especially true for solstices (summer, winter) and equinoxes (spring, autumn), which are astronomical events and days of great cosmic power.

What is the Yule Sabbat?

Yule is the official first day of winter in the northern hemisphere. It is the shortest day of the year, and the longest night.

In the southern hemisphere, it isn’t Yule and the first day of winter, but is Midsummer (the Summer Solstice), the first day of summer and the longest day of the year.

At Yule we acknowledge the return of light. The days of autumn have reached their darkest, but come the next day, the sun begins to shine a bit longer. True—we are still in the dark half of the year, however, daylight hours will incrementally increase until the Sun reaches its zenith once again at the next solstice (Midsummer/the Summer Solstice), when the cycle then repeats itself.

Despite the ‘busy-ness’ and stress that the non-pagan holiday season imposes in the northern hemisphere, the true essence of Yule is joy and deep stillness.

The Yule Sabbat is a joyful day to celebrate the return of the Sun with fun and merriment! It is a time to be grateful for the abundance that we often take for granted.

The season itself, however, is a time for quietude and turning inward. It is a time to ‘burrow in’ for the winter, to reflect, and to heal. It is the fallow season when the Earth is resting, and so should we.

The Sun is our beacon of hope in the dark decay of winter, and the force which gave our ancestors hope. They knew that with the Sun’s return, life would once again flourish. 

Beginning with Yule, winter’s inherent feminine energy will gradually give way to the Sun’s masculine energy, however, there is an entire season that we must experience before we begin to notice this shift. Feminine energy rules the night, emotions, the subconscious, intuition, and the cycle of life and death. It is these energies that make winter and Yule perfect times for shadow work, connecting with source and our psychic selves, deep introspection and emotional healing.

This Sabbat is a perfect time to come back into alignment with the darkness of the void—that place where all things are created and must return to die. Yule is a chance for us to experience the cycle of life on a spiritual and energetic level, casting off what no longer serves us, allowing it to die away, and celebrating the rebirth of the new.

Yule is both the celebration of light in the world around us, but is also the acknowledgement of our inner stillness and darkness. The energy of Yule is quite polar, not only in the contrast between the length of night and day, but in its corresponding attributes as well; it is the embodiment of merriment, communal gatherings and joy, but also deep healing, meditation and inner work. You may feel celebratory and festive while at the same time yearn to go within, experience stillness, and plan your winter healing work.

The 15 Witchy Practices to Have the Best Yule Sabbat Ever!

Personally, I love Yule. I love the dark days and hunkering down at home. I love how my house looks when I decorate it for the season, and for this Sabbat. Pinecones adorn every surface and the scent of cinnamon, orange and pine permeate my space. Twinkle lights and evergreens are strung everywhere and bright red poinsettias add cheer against the dim backdrop of the long nighttime hours. I love the witchy projects, traditions and magick of this season, and mostly, I just love its energy.

I bring light into my environment in these different ways to symbolize the Sun’s return. Yule isn’t about driving out the darkness–it’s about finding hope while in it, as the wheel turns from winter to spring.

The ’15 Witchy Practices’ is a list of traditions, celebrations and magickal practices that are reflective of the Yule Sabbat and of the season. You’ll want to do magick and rituals on the day of Yule itself, however, you may do the remaining activities at any time throughout the month of December. Choose any of the practices that most appeal to you to create your very own bespoke Yule sabbat.

The most important thing to remember when doing any of these 15 witchy practices for your Yule sabbat, is to approach them in a lighthearted manner and have fun with them. Don’t get hung up on perfectionism or worry about spells not working because the energies of worry and stress are total magick killers! Just enjoy the sabbat you create. The joy you feel while doing your sabbat practices is a big part of what Yule is all about!

1. Decorate Your Altar (or create one for the first time!)

Use any objects that reflect the season. Adorn it with things like pinecones; a mini potted evergreen tree; evergreen roping; green, red and gold candles; a small poinsettia; holly; statues or other imagery of the Sun or Yule/Sun deities; stag antlers; cinnamon sticks… you get the idea. The nice thing about having such a naturalistic altar is that no one will know what it really is if you’re still in the ‘broom closet’!     

2. Create Yule Blessing Witch Balls

Hang on your Yule tree as pictured below, or hang in a window. I keep mine hanging near my altar all year round.   

3. Do a Winter Home Cleansing

Smudge the house to remove stale, negative energy using botanicals ruled by the Sun. Rosemary is a perfect botanical to use because it is ruled by the Sun, is totally sustainable, and is a perfect purifier! Tip: Wrap dental floss around a few fresh sprigs of rosemary purchased from the grocery store, and hang to dry for a couple of weeks to make skinny-mini smudge sticks that burn well (fat smudge sticks never stay lit).

4. Decorate a Yule Tree

Be sure to include lots of lights to represent the light of the Sun! About cutting down a living tree for your Yule tree…why kill it? Use an artificial tree year after year like I do (pictured below). Or, if you need a real tree, buy a potted tree or one with a root ball. Water it and keep it indoors until you can plant it outdoors, either on your own property, a friend’s property, or in the wild. Note: Caring for the well being of all living things, and avoiding killing anything unnecessarily, is true witchery.

5. Make Wreaths

Use foraged evergreens stems, pinecones and holly berries, and hang them in your home.

6. Kitchen Witchery

Bake using cinnamon, ginger, clove—all those aromatic, wintery spices that also embody magickal properties. Use fruit like oranges, raisins and lots of nuts in your baking. Oats and almond flour are great replacements for wheat, and coconut sugar beats refined white sugar hands-down. Enchant your culinary creations with good fortune and healing energy.

7. Decorate With the Hues of the Season

Reds, green, gold, white—anything that sparkles and twinkles are mainstays, however, blues, silver and white also work.

8. Incorporate the Energy of the Season Into Your Altar Work Practice

Meditate at dawn and sunset. Focus on the energy of transition and transmutation and listen for hits of intuition and Divine messages. Honor the cycle of life, death and rebirth.

9. Give Gifts

The earliest known gifts of Yule were food offerings made to the gods to gain their favor and be granted a fruitful growing season the following spring. We continue this tradition when we make our offerings at our altars. Note that we do not view offerings in the spirit of bribery, but as an energetic exchange and gesture of appreciation, because we know that in order to create an ever-flowing link of reciprocity between us and the Universe, we must give in order to receive. And of course, exchanging gifts with those we love can be a truly joyful experience!

10. The Yule Log!

Likely the most well-known tradition that has withstood the test of time is the Yule log. The log was burned in the home’s hearth to represent the Sun’s energy and light returning once more. Around the fire families found community; they told stories, counted their blessings and hoped for good things in the coming year. Prior to lighting the Yule log, the home was cleaned and blessed to banish negative energy. If you have a fireplace or an outdoor fire pit, perhaps take a hike into your local woods and see if you can find a piece of wood that would make a perfect Yule log for your fireplace and your Yule ritual. Reclaim the sacred ash from your Yule log and make black protection salt with it.

11. Host a Yuletide Celebration

It does not have to be on Yule itself. You may want to reserve that day for yourself and your witchy work. I love to host Yule and invite not only my witchy friends over, but my other spiritually minded friends as well. Together we enjoy a holiday feast, a Kris-Kringle gift exchange, have a ‘circle talk’ (we talk about things we want to release and things we’d like renewed) and then do some candle or snow magick relating to rebirth and renewal (yes, I keep a container of snow from the previous year’s first snowfall in my freezer). We really enjoy each other and the spirit of the season. You can host a dinner party type of Yule as pictured below, or create a more unique type of gathering like I do. 

12. Plan your ‘winter work’

Your winter work is the inner work that you would like to focus on over the winter months. Take some time to journal about your fears, weaknesses and challenges in life. What shadows are creating negative patterns in your life? What negative emotions are keeping your vibration lowered? How have these things held you back and how can you bring them into the light to be transformed and rebirthed?

13. Make your own Yule and winter evergreen smudge sticks

Go for a hike and harvest your own evergreen stems. Ask permission first, then take them with gratitude and leave a water offering. If you can find them, greens from felled branches are best because that means you aren’t cutting healthy growth from a tree. Partially dried evergreens you happen upon while on your winter ramble are fine to work with, too.

14. Perform a Yule Ritual

The core reason for every sabbat is gratitude to the Sun. Of all the 15 witchy practices to incorporate into your Yule sabbat, this one is the most important.

With each passing season we are blessed with a new sun-infused bounty in which to harvest, enjoy, and that sustains us. Pay homage to that great ball of fire in the heavens and be grateful for all it provides because the Sun is the reason for life on Earth. Place a representation of the Sun upon your altar. Feel your gratitude for the light, warmth and life-giving rays the Sun gifts us. Then leave an offering that either energetically corresponds with the Sun, or just give something you love or enjoy. It’s all about the intention and what’s in your heart, not what you give. On my Yule altar in the photo below is an offering of eggnog—not so much because it corresponds with Sun energy, but because I love it.

15. Cast a Magick spell

A spell that is perfectly aligned with the energies of the Yule sabbat is a fire spell for transmutation and regeneration. Through the Element of Fire, you are releasing what is not serving your highest good, thus opening the energetic pathways for things that will serve you best to manifest. Pictured below is my fire spell burning safely in my cauldron.

Love These 15 Witchy Yule Sabbat Practices But Not Sure Where to Start or How to Do Them?

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The energies of each sabbat are particularly powerful because they are driven by the Sun.
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About Fiona

Fiona Duncan is the Creatrix of The Magickal Path School of Witchcraft, Conscious Spirituality & Personal Transformation. She holds a Master of Art in Teaching, a Master of Science in Education, and is New York State certified in both Art and Special Education to teach grades K-12. She is a retired NY State public school teacher and college Graphic Design Instructor & Department Chair. Her professional strengths are Student Relations, Teaching, and Curriculum Development.

In her spiritual and magickal life, Fiona is a seasoned Practical Magician, Reiki Master and is a practicing Eclectic Witch of 30+ years. She is not the type to be drawn to witchy ‘woo’, but rather, she practices and teaches Magick and Witchcraft as an empowering spiritual path that is both ‘Art’ and ‘Science’ in equal measure.

Fiona’s favorite thing in the world is teaching and coaching new and intermediate Witches in her WAY OF THE WITCH: Witchcraft 101 A Comprehensive ‘Year and a Day’ Course & Coaching Program in the Spiritual, Magickal and Esoteric Practices of Eclectic Witchcraft, available in monthly 1-1 coaching, independent study with personal email support, and self-paced formats.