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Will this Christmas hold the promise of light after dark? Today is Christmas Eve, a connection to some of the most ancient of all-known Northern European

shamanic traditions. Like people living in the north for millennia, we continue to embrace them

with regional, national, and religious tweaks. It occurs during the week of the shortest day

and longest night of the year

in the northern hemisphere when ancient holy men and women lit yule logs to push back the darkness

and implore the gods or nature to bring back the light of summer. As Henry Bourne wrote in 1725,

quote, For as both December and January were called Jewelie, or Yule, upon account of the

sun's returning and the increase of the days, so I am apt to believe the log has had the name

of Yule log from its being burnt as an emblem of the returning sun and the increase of its light and heat."

When Louise and I lived in Stadstainach, Germany, Herr Mueller led us of a mountainside deep in the

Franconian forest on Christmas Eve in 1968, where our community had covered a pine tree

with candles. We sang carols, and he read aloud several Bible verses.

He later told me that in ancient times the German shamans would set the tallest tree of fire

to reignite the sun and bring back longer days. This concern with the shortest day of the year

and being able to identify when the sun would begin to lengthen the days,

heralding the return of the growing season and food, probably accounts for the calendar stone arrangements found across every northern hemisphere continent. The most recent was found

under 40 feet of water in Lake Michigan and dates back 9,000 years. Many traditions that tie Christmas back to the earlier pagan European religions

co-opted still exist.

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