Yule and the Dark

This is a time of growing darkness both in the world of Nature and in those of us in the mundane world. The message of the Yuletide, that period from the Winter Solstice to the Twelfth day following that date, as reconned on the calendar that is in common use, marks the shortest days of the year. Many of us dislike the darkness and the accompaning cold weather. Even some of those feel that this is a time that is not happy for them, a different sort of darkness.
One can not appreciate the Light without knowing the Dark, and just as a truly whole person can not be whole without recognizing that they have both a masculine and feminine side to them, so we all have our darkside as well as the light. The unfortunate thing about this is that we suppress this darker side of ourselves just as we might not to reveal that the gender opposite of our body is also present in us. But yuou need to embrass the darkness within you as much as you need to embrass the light in you. Now by this I am not saying that you necessarily need to act in acordance with you more dark impulses, but am saying that you should recognize that within you that aspect is there.
All sorts of things can creep out of our dark sides. Memories of things that you wished had not happened, or did, or even feel guilty about thinking. You are no alone in this. It would not be human for you not to have some of these. What is difficult is that at this time of year we often feel these things more freqently and/or more intensely. This time of year we are expected to be Merry, to participate with family, friends, and groups and be up and happy. But many of us have unpleasant memories mixed up with the pleasant ones and therefore sometimes feel not quite "with it" in other people's view. These are just one aspect of that internal darkness that is within you, that the darkness (shortness of daylight) can bring out, and it may not be as obvious as all that to us. "It's just the Season..." I've heard. Well, what do you say to yourself about that? Well, and I don't mean you need to say it out loud, you have a right to feel that way. By doing that you are recognizing that this is where you really are at and can learn from that. Once you know where that darkness is in you then the light of the season can come through.
Do you know what the real reason that all the lights are decorating the world at this time? The reason is found in sympathetic magic, when something is done on a smaller scale to promote something on a larger scale, and here the sympathetic magic is in the use of light to act as a stimulus to bring back the days of greater light that we all enjoy more fully. Humans, no matter is you work the third shift are creatures that love the day, have an instinctive fear of the dark. That is in the genes. Our eyes see much to weekly in the dark and because so we fear what we can not see. To our ancestors, this was a good thing, as there are predators that can see much better in the dark than we can and we can fall prey to them. We also fear the unknown for that reason, and often that "unknown" maybe something or someone that is different that we are. By accepting this Dark we can live with it as a fact of life.
We are surrounded and have made our world filled with light through our own ability to creat. We fill our lives with light, to keep out that dark, that unknown, or that known that we would rather not see. So we have become removed from the world of Nature and the cycles of the seasons, but it is still a part of us.
So as the Yuletide comes do not be afraid of that darkness, because you know that with the turning of the tide the light both within and outside in the world will return. The dark is part of the world we live in, so is the light.