COTh Yule 2012 

Circle Cast / Quarters / Cent Inv / Witches Rune
Music: Winter by Elena Kats-Chernin
In the centre of the circle is a large bowl filled with ice cubes containing flowers. There are crystal shards sprinkled over the ice. Embedded into the ice are unlit tea lights. The bowl is covered with a white cloth.
HPS reads the meditation. At a point within the meditation she removes the cloth and lights the tea lights, so that when participants finish the meditation, they are looking at the sparkling bowl of flames amongst the ice. The bowl is surrounded by winter greenery, holly and pine and pine cones. Also strings of red berries.
Make yourselves comfortable.
Breathe in and out, in and out. In 2, 3, 4, out 2, 3, 4, hold 2, 3, 4, out 2, 3, 4 etc.
You find yourself sitting in the cold and the dark. You feel stone beneath you and a snow-kissed wind upon your face. It feels like you have been sitting in darkness for a whole night and your body tingles with a sense of anticipation. 
PAUSE
Your awareness is heightened by your long vigil and you feel the pulse of the stone beneath you, a slow rhythm as old as time.
As you sit in the dark you contemplate the unknown, the fear of named and nameless things whose presence is just a heartbeat away. You find your fears in the long night as you wait for the solstice dawn. 
PAUSE
You feel the adrenalin rush of fear within, tinged with excitement and the rising pulse of the blood within you. You use that rush of energy to help you acknowledge your fears, to understand their mystery, their hold on you. 
PAUSE
You call your fears out onto the wind as you anchor yourself deep into the cold stone. As your fears are named and carried into the last moments of the longest night, they are melted by the first light of the new dawn. For the dawn brings hope of an end to darkness’ reign as the seasons of the wheel turn.
You see a glimmer of light in the distance and you begin to notice details of your surroundings... as in the east the Sun is just beginning to rise. The stone, upon which you sit, is actually a large flat rock atop a high hill. A snow covered valley unfolds before you, still half in shadow. On the slopes of the hill you can see the tops of rocks just peaking out of the snow where the wind has scoured them bare, a thin layer of ice, shining in the pale rays of the rising sun. The valley below is a sea of snow and shadow, and rocky outcrops. 
You notice that the rock upon which you sit is encircled by tracks in the snow. The hoof marks of a large Stag. You can just see that the tracks wind their way around the rocks to follow a path down into the shadowed valley below. 
PAUSE
You stand up, stretch limbs cramped from a long night of stillness and slowly pick your way down the slope, following the tracks of the unseen stag. 
As you walk amongst the rocks and snow, more of the valley and slope is illuminated by the dawn’s light, shadows melt away and you feel hope filling your very being, as the sunlight warms your face.
As the last of the shadows are cast from the valley floor, you see a huge tree revealed in the circular flat plain amongst the rising hills. Sunlight glints from waxy dark green leaves and bright red berries. You make your way at last to the valley floor, stepping off the twisting path between the icy rocks. You follow the stag tracks to the great Holly tree. The thick branches and a great leafy cloak have prevented the snow from piling at its base.
Where the tips of the prickly leaves brush the snow in front of you, you see a rough bowl of white stone upon the ground. You move to touch the bowl with your hand and the point of a sharp leaf pricks your finger. A drop of blood, the colour of the berries, falls onto the white stone.
PAUSE
You feel movement in the land and the sun seems much brighter and warmer than before. 
PAUSE
You hear the rustling of the leaves and are aware of pulse within that matches the pulse of the tree before you.
The pulse of the tree is overwhelming, you feel the power of the moment driving you to your knees in the snow. As you look up into the branches you see a face formed by the snow-rimmed leaves, with bright red berries for eyes. You look upon the face and feel the power and the sadness. The weight of kingship when one reigns over the snow-blanketed land and a landscape that is beautiful and barren at the same time. Yet there is joy and hope within the power and the responsibility.
Listen closely to the whisper of the leaves.
LONG PAUSE
When you are ready, thank the Holly King for his wisdom. 
You feel movement beside you and the warm breath of a Stag upon your skin. The King Stag begins to move around the tree and you follow his tracks. Beyond the tree, hidden before by its spreading foliage of green and red, there is a small round pool surrounded by lichen covered rocks. The Stag moves to stand beside it, and bows his great antlers towards the frozen surface. 
You move forwards to stand beside the Stag and gaze into the ice.
There, trapped beneath the surface are flowers and leaves and dancing flames. You understand the mystery of the spring that will return when the ice is melted. You know how to take your leadership and sovereignty forward with the rising tides of the land. You will be ready when the time comes.
You feel an overwhelming sense of joy as you stand in the snow under the bright sun.
The Stag moves back to stand by the Holly tree as you start dance around the frozen pool. 
PAUSE
Small cracks begin to appear in the frozen pond, the flowers will not remain trapped forever.
You dance until you are exhausted and fall to sit upon the snow.
(AS THE MUSIC PLAYS, HPS LIGHTS THE CANDLES WITHIN THE BOWL)
When you are ready, open your eyes.
One at a time participants are given a candle and invited to go to the bowl where they light their candle and take a flower.
When all have lit their candles, the circle is opened and everyone goes to light candles around the house. Return to the temple for cakes and ale and to close the circle.
Feast