What is a Yule Log?
The Yule log is more than just a festive decoration – it's key to powerful symbolic rituals rooted in the Celtic Wheel of the Year. As this Winter Solstice approaches, I’m sharing a fun and simple ritual that can offer a meaningful way to reflect on your past and prepare for the coming year.
If you’d like to join me for this unique Yule / Winter Solstice Circle on Friday 20th December (9.15pm Irish time), RSVP for the link – if you’re not already a Full Moon or Super Moon member of the Sole to Soul Circle, you can upgrade from €8 per month (or even less if you opt for the annual subscription option). And you’ll get your bonus Half Moon, Full Moon and Super Moon content tomorrow.
The Significance of Yule
At its core, Yule is about hope and light during the darkest time of the year. It represents the promise of brighter, warmer days ahead – a concept that has comforted humans throughout history. The Winter Solstice marks the point when days begin to lengthen, symbolising renewal and potential.
While I hope you’ll join me live on Friday, you can create your own Yule Log ritual too
This week’s podcast episode goes into more detail:
You can listen here on Substack or via your favourite podcasting platform or watch on YouTube
The beauty of this Yule log ritual is its simplicity:
* Use a physical log if you have a fireplace
* Alternatively, use a piece of paper and a pen
* Reflect on the whole of this past year, 2024, and the rest of your life if older stuff comes up for healing
* Write down whatever you want to release
* Reflect on the year ahead, too – 2025! There’ll be more on your Vibe for 2025 next week but for now, jot down what you want to invite in
* Once you’ve journalled and jotted your notes, use a fresh piece of paper or an actual Yule Log and write what you’re ready to release, imagining the energies of release moving from you into the log or paper then write or draw symbols (depending on the size of your Yule Log) to represent each element you’re releasing on the log
* Repeat for what you’re welcoming
* On or around Yule / Winter Solstice, BURN it (safely) and continue to reflect, release and welcome as you watch the flames take your intentions
* Give yourself some more time and space to journal around how this whole process felt
The process of letting go and welcoming in
The ritual is about:
* Identifying things you want to release
* Acknowledging both small and significant experiences
* Preparing to welcome new possibilities
* Remembering that you get to choose your focus and priorities
Personal reflection
You might want to consider writing about 2024’s
* Self-doubt
* Challenges faced
* Personal growth
* Emotional burdens
* Your hopes for the future
Why this matters
Releasing allows us to:
* Clear mental and emotional space
* Create room for new opportunities
* Practice self-reflection
* Connect with an ancient tradition of hope
Final thoughts
Whether you're dealing with trivial concerns or profound life challenges, this Yule Log ritual offers a symbolic way to process your experiences. It's a personal journey of surrender, trust and renewal.
If you’d like to access the full transcript for this and future episodes, you can become a free subscriber (Half Moon member) of the Sole to Soul Circle and they’ll go straight to your inbox with each new post.
Wishing you the coolest of Yules!
le grá,
TRANSCRIPT
We need hope. We need to know that we have control over certain things that we can control and that lighter times are ahead, warmer times are ahead, brighter times are ahead.
Hi, I'm Eve Menezes Cunningham and welcome to the Feel Better Every Day Podcast Season 2. I am so excited to be sharing new trauma informed and ADHD friendly ideas for you to help you take better care of yourself. That highest, wisest, truest, wildest, most joyful, brilliant and miraculous part of yourself, as well as the basic self-care which we all know can be so challenging at times.
I really appreciate you tuning in. If you want a deeper dive, you'll be getting bonus content each week. If you sign up as a free or paid subscriber to the Sole to Soul Circle, you can do that for free or from as little as €8.00 a month.
And you can also find more ideas in the book, 365 Ways to Feel Better Self-care Ideas for Embodied Wellbeing.
I've been listening to your feedback and have made some changes. So new episodes will be out on Tuesdays and then for free subscribers and paid subscribers of the Sole to Soul Circle. And you can find out more at evemc.substack.com
You'll get your bonus content on Wednesdays and I am really hoping that you're going to
enjoy this episode today for you'll. And there's an invitation to join a special Winter Solstice / Yule Circle, where we work with our own Yule Logs on Friday evening. So that's Friday the 20th of December, 9.15pm, Irish time 2004.
If you're listening to this later or in another year, you can still follow the instructions and do your own Yule Log ritual. I hope you enjoy the episodes and thanks again for listening.
When you think of Yule Logs, you're likely to think of the delicious chocolatey treats, and since being vegan I haven't indulged in those, but I used to really enjoy them every year and growing up.
But there’s MORE to Yule Logs that that. For the last few decades that I've been working with the Celtic Wheel of the Year. For many years, I would just use pen and paper and burn it with a candle.
But since I moved to Ireland and got my own fireplace, I've been working with actual Yule Logs each year, and I wanted to introduce my Yule Log for this year, and to encourage you to do the same if that appeals.
I talk about Yule a bit in 365 Ways to Feel Better, Self-care Ideas for Embodied Wellbeing, and for Full Moon and Super Moon members of the Sole to Soul Circle, I'm going to be holding a special Winter Solstice / Yule Circle where we do some meditation and burn our Yule Logs in Circle (from wherever you are in the world)
I'm sending this out early so that you can prepare, whether you're hearing this on the podcast or seeing it on YouTube or through the Sole to Soul Circle newsletter, or if you are a member.
For members, I want to go into a deeper dive, as I'm doing each week, to really help you connect with what you're doing, and I realise that I haven't even said what I'm doing, what you're doing!
So Yule, like Christmas, like so many of the festivals at this time of year, they're all about light in darkness, they're all about hope, they're all about... I mean, times were really hard, I've had the heating on for ages today, but when you think about so much of human history, there was no such thing as central heating.
And we need hope, we need to know that we have control over certain things that we can control, and that lighter times are ahead, warmer times are ahead, brighter times are ahead.
So using a Yule Log, or if you don't have an open fireplace or stove, using any piece of paper and pen, and reflecting on 2024, thinking about the year so far, your life so far maybe. Just using this wonderful time of year where we know that the days are going to start getting longer again from the 22nd of December, and release, release, release, release, release, release.
The more we can let go of, the more we can open up to all that is good in the world. So it's as simple as taking a pen, and I'm going to start mine now, even though it's not Yule, but just for the purposes of this video, the first thing that popped into my head is self-doubt. I mean, obviously some is a good thing, and I'll never be free of it, but I'm much better when I'm proactively moving towards things rather than talking myself out of things.
So that's my first little entry on my 2024 Yule Log, and what I'll be doing over the coming weeks is adding to it (I recorded this weeks ago), adding to all the things I want to burn away, release, let go of, and also some of the things I want to welcome in 2025 and beyond.
It's a way of trusting, surrendering, letting go. It's a fun thing to do with your family, if you have a family who's interested. Mine humoured me for a little while, but I'm sharing it with y’all now.
Let me know how you get on, and let me know what you're so ready to say goodbye to from 2024.
I'm welcoming HARVEST as we move into 2025, and in next week's episode, you'll be hearing more about how you might do that, how you might choose a focus for your year. Your vibe for 2025.
Some people call it a word of the year, and there are all sorts of ways of working with it, and I'm not going to go into that right now, but that's coming next week. But for now, let me know what you're ready to let go of, how you feel at the idea of seeing. You can let the most trivial things go, you can let big things go.
Grief, loss, heartbreak, illness.
Obviously, it's symbolic, but you are taking some time to reflect, taking some time to think about some of the lessons, some of the blessings, what you're ready to release and what you’re ready to welcome.
So I hope this is helpful, and please like, comment, share, subscribe, follow all the things wherever you're watching or listening to this, and I hope you have the coolest of Yules!
Thank you for listening to the Feel Better Every Day Podcast. I would love to hear what you're adding to your Yule Log for the year. And I really hope that I will see you on Friday evening next week. We're going to be looking at your vibe for 2025. I really hope that you have a good Winter Solstice.
And if you haven't already subscribed for the bonus content you can subscribe via selfcarecoaching.net or evemc.substack.com or find out more through thefeelbettereverydaypodcast.com / thefeelbettereverydaypodcast.ie
And this episode, like all of them, is produced by me, your host Eve Menezes Cunningham and I look forward to sharing more with you next week.
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